Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Waxing Moon
Uranus Retrograde

Still in DC. But I’ve got a post up on The Scruffy Dog Review blog about Nano and Real Life, so go check it out.

I’m also a guest over on Penny Ehrenkranz’s blog, where I talk about organizing writing time.

Enjoy!

I am REALLY angry about the “new guidelines” saying we shouldn’t get mammograms until 50. Yet another way for insurance companies to deny women coverage, as if women’s health care isn’t shunted to the side enough. It’s bad enough that some companies consider being a woman a “pre-existing condition.” This is absolutely unacceptable.

Now, to yesterday — well, let’s just say I did far too much to write it all out tonight. I took well over 200 photos.

Here are some highlights:

Arlington National Cemetery — amazing, astonishing, heartbreaking. 29 funerals scheduled for yesterday. We witnessed 6, without intending so to do. Ideas for stories.

Washington Monument — wow, it’s really tall!

World War II Memorial — gorgeous architecture

Reflecting Pool — so many leaves in it that it couldn’t reflect.

Lincoln Monument — Abe looked tired and kind. Met a lovely woman from Australia.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial — as emotional as the first time I visited.

Women in Vietnam Memorial — I helped raise money and signatures for this, but had never seen it complete and in place. Very emotional.

Who knew there was a huge duck pond?

Meetings for confidential Job #3 — fascinating, rushed, made them ship the massive amounts of reports and paperwork so I don’t have to drag it around. I’d have had to purchase another suitcase.

The Smithsonian: National Museum of National HIstory. So much to see. I didn’t expect Julia Child’s kitchen to have so much STUFF. And I found so many inspirations for the steam punk novella . . .

The Smithsonian: The Museum of Natural History. A statue from Easter Island and a mortar and pestle so heavy I could barely lift it.

The Building of Arts and Industries — Fascinating Architecture

The Smithsonian: National Air and Space Museum. I could have lived here for a week. I mean, I got to climb into and poke around on the back-up model of Skylab. SKYLAB!!!!! And see Apollo capsules and what a Tomahawk missile looks like. I am of the generation where all that actually means something.

The White House: hey, Prez! Hope you’re having good talks in China. The house looks really nice.

A quick cocktail in a Very Upscale Hotel that’s just as big a meat market as desperate singles bar. No wonder a Madam was once based there.

Talked into another Happy Hour cocktail (long story, will wind up in fiction) at a more casual DuPont Circle hangout — not much different except the men and women are closer in age.

Fabulous dinner near DuPont Circle — great fish tacos.

I was so sore that I took a good, long soak in the tub.

Devon

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Thursday, July 30, 2009
Waxing Moon
Pluto Retrograde
Jupiter Retrograde
Uranus Retrograde
Rainy, hot, humid

Hop on over to the Scruffy Dog Review blog for my article, “Don’t Assume You Know My Contract” and leave a comment.

I’m so tired of everything being damp and clammy all the time. Ick!

After a day as good as Tuesday, of course, yesterday was filled with interruptions and frustrations. I had a heck of a time getting out the door to storage, and it wasn’t fun hauling the crap to storage. My wrist and I are not on speaking terms.

I swung by the site where I needed to get some paperwork signed and took care of that, had lunch with a friend, and installed myself at the Greenwich Library to get some work done.

I wound up finding some very interesting material and going off on a tangent, but that’s okay, because it will come in useful further down the road. It just means working some additional hours today and tomorrow to get everything done.

I looked up about halfway through the afternoon and saw the storm moved in, so I gathered my belongings and headed home. I tried to get some more work done, and managed to write two articles and get some editing work done before the storm was bad enough for me to shut down all the electronics (since surge protectors are basically useless).

I tried to read a mystery I picked up. It lost me in the first sentence. I felt I was being unfair, so I struggled along. Most of the writing is far too precious — the writer is in love with the sound of her own voice and wants to sound “literary”, but doesn’t have the skill level to pull it off. And, while she writes well about the conceit of the protag’s profession, the mystery part of the tale falls apart. The protag makes such stupid choices that, should she become the killer’s next victim, it wouldn’t bother me too much. This is the third book of a series. I won’t be going back to read the first two, and I won’t read the books that follow. These are hours of my life better spent reading GOOD writing.

Well, at least I learned valuable lessons about what NOT to do in this type of book!

I packed up some more stuff — this has to be stacked in a corner until the furniture swap happens, and I can put it away in the furniture coming in. The new couch shipped, and, after using Safari to push the site link (it spun and wouldn’t connect in Firefox) and discovered that it left California on Tuesday (huh?), so I don’t think I have to worry about it showing up until the original Monday – Wednesday time frame.

I had a good writing morning on the mystery short story. I’ll have to rearrange a bit of the dialogue for logistical reasons, but I think I can finish it this weekend and let it sit for a week or so while I write the second story, and then go back, edit this one, edit the other one, and get them in on deadline.

I’ve got to vacuum (here we go, Jupiter Retrograde influence). I’m going to write in a local coffee shop for awhile, then I have a lunch date, then I’ve got a site job in CT this afternoon.

It also looks like I’ll land a gig down in DC for a few days in November, which will be really cool! IF all the contract details work out.

Of course, if I go down, I will build in time to visit my Senators and Congressional Reps. Can’t let any opportunity slip by. My Congresswoman wants me to be part of a Telephone Town Hall on health care tonight — only I’ll still be onsite at the time it starts. I’ve sent her my cell phone and also some thoughts on it, in general.

Devon