One of those days …

Saturday. One of those days I can’t settle down. I’m up and down like a yo-yo, (she said, employing possibly the most trite cliche of the day, and aren’t “trite” and “cliche” redundant?) And now I’m editing as I write. No wonder nothing is getting done today. Except a few loads of laundry which is always my go-to when I’m restless at the keyboard or on the page.

WildWomen_cvr_fAnd then there is the bowlful of Chex Mix snacks I devoured while researching custom-made blank books on the Internet. (I want to create a special blank book for use with my new book, Wild Women, Wild Voices; one that readers/writers can use to keep their Journey Notes as they work through the Explorations in the book. Oh! I hope they love it.) I also tweeted, asking journal writers and writing practitioners which they prefer: lined or unlined; wire-bound or perfect bound for their blank books. (Which do you prefer?)

Also what attracted my attention today:

• I made a short video of the sweet little bird that’s been coming every morning to the wire outside my apartment and singing a complicated tune. I posted the video on Facebook asking my FB friends if they could translate the little bird’s message. Can you?

oscar_statue• Research on the Oscars. I’m going to the annual Oscars party at my friend Patty’s house tomorrow evening. I’ve only seen a couple of the nominated films so I thought the research, polling through the “experts,” might give me some edge in our $5 pool. But even if I’d seen all the films and studied all the categories, considered the odds, I’d never win against Bonnie. She’s taken the pool every year since we started the thing. Still, my competitive spirit won’t let me just give up the five bucks without at least some effort.

• A read-through (again) of the Introduction of my new book, wondering what to excerpt for the updated website (it’s coming soon… can’t wait to see how it’s going to look.) I’m still not sure what I’ll post, but I like these lines: We know many things: why spiders like dark places, why moths are drawn to the light; we know the urging of blossom to break open every spring. Given a clear night and a blanket spread on the summer grass, we can translate the midnight language of the stars. We understand the necessity of sex, the order of death, the beauty of mourning.

Winter blizzard snow outside the window of a warm room• Checked the weather in places where my friends and family are on this Saturday when it’s 68 degrees here in San Diego. Beacon, NY: 23 and snowing; Portland, OR: 53 but sunny; Oakland (daughter) 65 and some sun; Kansas City (grandson) 45 and cloudy; Columbia, MO (another grandson): 40 and cloudy.

It all started this morning as I paged through the beautiful book honoring my friend Drusilla Campbell that arrived in yesterday’s mail. It features all her blog posts from when she was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer; many, many photographs of her at an early age up through her last days; lovely photos with her family, more with her husband, Art. The book also holds dozens of Art’s poems about Dru. I miss her terribly. Maybe that was what set me to my flightiness today.

What do you go for when you can’t settle down to write or to work?

5 thoughts on “One of those days …

  1. I identify with your restlessness. We all have days like that. I also prefer lined paper….boundaries are important in life and in writing. When I get the way you were on Sat., I go for a walk with my dogs, a slow jog by myself, or pick up a book to read. I once read something that has helped me in life: “When the mind is tired, use the body and when the body is tired, use the mind.” Sometimes I get restless when I complete one activity and have to start another one. The transition times are hard for me because I’m not always sure about what to do next. Do I do what I feel is “necessary” to better organize my life, or do I do something that will just pass the time and doesn’st accomplish much of anything.

    • You’re suggestions for handling that restlessness that besets all of us are most helpful, Arlene. I really like the quote. I know that transition time, too. That in-between place. It’s one of the places I really get scattered. Wish I had a little dog to walk. Maybe someday. Meantime, I go to the dog park in my neighborhood and watch the dogs play.

  2. Interesting Saturday over here today and don’t post pictures of a snowy window. Yuck. We just got rid of it although we don’t get much in this part of Canada. It is spring now. 60.8 F (6 Celsius).

    First of all this morning I recalled for some reason a calendar my mother had on her wall a hundred years ago. There was a picture of a 40s woman with two bags of groceries. At her feet were her underwear. I recall my aunt saying that she would say the woman is in a bit of a fix. Hours later I saw outside a regular street wanderer sitting in the road at a corner blocking traffic as he tried to fix his bike. When he got up and tried to get across the road his pants were on the ground at his feet like shackles. The pants, not the feet.

    By the time I called the cops he was gone. Of course. So is the calendar lady.

    As per your question I use lined paper. Something has to hold wildness in line you know.

    Your bird video. Makes me mad to think about what happened two summers ago. There was a bird right outside my window chirping cheeping nonstop til my ears rang with the sound of music so I got out my camera. The instant I went outside it stopped. I did take a picture and got the side of the balcony or the floor or some stupid thing. No feathers. No music. Your bird message is to laugh at that silly summertime Canuck with the video camera.

    And when I absolutely cannot settle down I sit with a book. Or tell Notebook to keep me company. Or go for a racewalk. But now that the novel is going faster and I am having more fun I keep the computer on Sleep. And sometimes I do that too.

    Stupid bird anyway.

    • Thanks for your post, Linda and your response to all my ramblings and distractions. You and your camera shy little bird and your losing-their-pants characters. And thanks for the note about which you prefer. I’m setting up a chart with all the responses I get. A little market research. Glad you’re having so much fun with your novel. That’s the best part of writing.

      • I forgot to mention coils (I like to say Notebook has enough rings for both of us) as the stiff back just wants to close. Things which do that get the same treatment as that fancy work my familial uplines thought I should learn (not).

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