Secret Vacation

My writing group is planning a retreat for this summer. We are going to spend one day away in the country, just writing and eating. I am thrilled with the idea. Secretly, I hope that the weather will be terrible. Unnaturally chilly and with heavy precipitation. The eight of us can pretend that we are Percy and Mary Shelley and Lord Byron, and we will each begin a masterpiece comparable to Frankenstein and Dracula.

I became so enamored with the idea of writing retreats that I decided I couldn't wait for the mid-summer date. I took a few days off work for a secret vacation that I fashioned into a personal writing retreat.

I wrote lots! I set aside daily idea-generating time and recorded many pages of story possibilities. I journalled quite a bit. I wrote some first-drafty kind of stuff. I outlined some scenes for the old Alex novel, brainstormed alternate endings for them, and reworked a few. I started an online fiction-writing course at UW and made a dent in the syllabus. I wrote lazily and had an excellent time. I have a tidy pile of papers covered in words that were not there before. It is better than alchemy. I made something out of nothing.

I did some other stuff too.
-Saw Star Trek. I liked it, even though I never watched the show much and tend to get mixed up between the original Star Trek and the Next Generation. I waited in vain for Jean-Luc and Wil Wheaton to arrive. But I liked the movie! I only have one minor complaint, and it is this. Women generally do not chat to their roommates while lounging around in their underwear. This scene seems to reoccur often in mannish kind of movies.

-Bought soy flour, which is much lower in carbs and higher in protein than wheat flour. I have experimented with it twice, substituting 30% of the wheat flour, in one batch of cookies and one batch of muffins. Both turned out beautifully and with no detectable difference in texture. I will continue testing the soy flour in a series of increasingly fragile baking recipes and see what happens.

-Made two batches of roasted vegetable marinara sauce. I am upset with myself for not taking full advantage of roasting vegetables until now. Tomatoes, garlic, bell peppers, and eggplant roast very well. Zucchini turns to mush.

-I cleaned the house. My house is never loud at baseline, but I notice that after my house is thoroughly cleaned, is it quieter. Every room is hushed and subdued.

-Walked Trixie every day. She still hates walks, and curls into a pitiful trembling lump when walking is suggested.

-Lots and lots of running. The shin splints returned. That should surprise nobody.

-Ordered custom window treatments for the house. No more venetian blinds, ever. They will be installed in 4-5 weeks.

-Finished four books: Hooked by Les Edgerton, Howl's Moving Castle, Castle in the Air, and House of Many Ways, the last three books by Diana Wynne Jones. I am bitter at the world for not introducing me to Diana Wynne Jones sooner.

-Did some minor weeding and have moved from the pre-contemplative stage to the contemplative stage of planting stuff in the yard.

-Planned on ordering some clothes from a catalog. Then I read this story (Maggie Stiefvater is awesome) and I chucked the catalog in the trash.