Summertime Feelings

April 11

After a couple of days of anxiety, stress, outright crankiness, and (at its worst) the sort of irrational black-buzz regularness-of-life-is-crushing-me misery that led to the writing of "Romanticore", I mellowed out on Thursday, and that evening I was practically joyous -- I had that wonderful summertime feeling, like I was moving into an age of sunlight and pleasures.

This is much better than the other, though it's equally irrational, of course.

I had to run an errand after work yesterday, and as a result, I got home earlier than usual, and washed dishes, and sang along with an old mixed tape I found, and made dinner for Heather. We watched Angel, and ate pasta and bread, and made love, and then spent an hour in bed singing to each other (well, mostly me singing, since Heather was in the sort of mood where she enjoyed that). It was the experiential equivalent of a hot caramel apple cider, of a club sammitch with avocado from Caffe la Piedmonte, of an iced vanilla latté (funny how all my immediate comparisons for absolute bliss are food-related... but it doesn't really surprise me. I love me some food). A very, very, very good night.

Today work was fine, because I was still in a good mood from yesterday, and because the tottering pile of work that threatened to crash down on my head earlier this week has been abated. Everyone at the office has been in a good mood, too, for the most part, cheerful and chatty, and that helps. I got a sandwich for lunch and sat in the park and watched ducks.

Writing wise, I did 1500 words on the novel on Tuesday, whoo! Some in the morning, then some more late at night, because of my mad dedication. On Wednesday and Thursday I was, ah, less dedicated. That is to say, I did nothing. But! This morning I did 1,000 words to finish the first draft of the collab Heather and I wrote for Mike's Intracities antho. Now it just needs a little tightening and polishing, and we can send it out, hurrah! I'm quite pleased with it. It presently lacks a title, but we'll come up with something...

I also figured out the music I should be writing the new novel to. The soundtrack of Rangergirl was almost entirely the Old 97s, but I was having a hard time finding music I could really get into while writing the Frog novel. I tried lots of different things, with little success, and then, a couple of days ago, I got it -- Cake! Fashion Nugget, Prolonging the Magic, hell, even Comfort Eagle. Of course, I don't own any Cake. My housemates always had the Cake. So, tomorrow, I shall go buy myself some Cake. I was fortunate, in that the old mixed tape I dug up had a couple of Cake songs -- "Satan is my Motor" and "Sheep Go to Heaven", whoo! Hearing those songs confirmed in my mind that, yes, Cake is the soundtrack for the Frog novel.

I have no idea why. It just feels right. When I hear Cake, even only in my memory, it makes me want to work on the Frog novel. It's best not to question these things.

This weekend we're going to a party in the city (which is, in an odd and very direct way, research for an upcoming major setting and scene in my novel -- but is also, you know, fun), and doing our taxes, and that's all, probably.

Words written since February 1, 2003: 30,800

Words written since last entry:
2,500

Buy Floodwater via PayPal! $5, includes shipping. Or send a check payable to Heather Shaw to the PO Box below.