Reactionary

Since I think time is circular and just an attempt for humanity to cut it up into chunks the better to administer everyday life, I’ve never taken the New Year’s holiday seriously. But I’m all for parties and am quick to agree that humanity needs diversions in order to cope with the harshness of reality and the loss of small battles every day. As the last day of the Gregorian calendar winds down under heavy cloud cover and new snow on the American Eastern seaboard, I have to find something over the past ten years to be happy about. It’s been roundly called the Decade From Hell and no one here is pretending it was all daisies and buttercups.

Over the last ten years, I left my miserable home town for the big city. I paid off my student loans. I started making decent money. I traveled a lot. The concert at Slane was one of the greatest things I’ve ever witnessed ever. I will never forget it. On the same trip, I actually made it to Wales, becoming one of the only people I have ever met outside of Britain who has ever been there.

I rediscovered Italy and now consider Rome one of my homes away from home. I learned the spoken form of the language. At the midpoint of the decade, I did what I’d been saying since college. I got a job in the OR and now work in the hyperkinetic atmosphere of a level 1 trauma center as calmly as others punch timecards. I continued going to concerts, up close, and traveling. I’ve pushed my cooking skills into another echelon entirely. The Food Network and other movements have transformed American cuisine once again and Philadelphia’s food scene has got stratospheric.

As the decade draws to a close, I’m revising the most promising novel I have ever written and I have finally seen South America. I own real estate and my money accounts have blossomed. And don’t forget the Adonis. Talk about a catalyst.

In the midst of everyone losing money and alarming job reports, continue onward. Everyone always thinks what they’re living through is the worst time and it only seems to be because it’s real to you. The past was just as bad, don’t forget history, yet people still got through it. People get through it. Don’t wallow. Don’t be careless.

Keep calm and carry on.

I wrote this on December 31st, 2009 | Topic: Life |  Print |  Email | Say something

And just like that, it’s Christmas again. The run-up always catches me by surprise. I leave tomorrow to try to get to the other coast without too many problems. Hopefully, the union-wracked, lazy, inefficient East has gotten its fair share of snow and I won’t have many problems. I’ll be off the radar until I get back here Sunday.

Happy Christmas.

And just to avoid sounding saccharine, I hate people who hate Christmas and I still hate vegetarians (and this article makes a good point).

I wrote this on December 22nd, 2009 | Topic: General |  Print |  Email | Say something

Snow Day

Well, the weathermen were finally right. I’m glad for them. They can keep their jobs now and with the constant bloodletting in the latest business news, I’m happy when anyone anywhere keeps their jobs, even if it’s weathermen, a subgroup of some of the shallowest people on Earth.

I was on call today but I think the storm may have saved my bacon. No surgeon was coming in from the suburbs unless it really was an emergency and the likelihood of those happening in a storm are much smaller than they are in good weather. So how did I spend my day? Well, I read a chapter of my latest how-to book, read a few chapters of the mind-blowing Brothers Karamazov, watched TV, researched Christmas Eve dinner, made crespelle, and spent half the day with Andrea Bocelli. All in all, it was a good day. I printed out my latest novel and wrapped it so I won’t be tempted to look at it before Christmas Day. Later on as the evening began, I went out to my neighborhood restaurant to buy bread and a protein and then my corner store to get milk with which to make the crespelle and the hot cocoa I plan on drinking tonight.

As I write this and sip beaujolais nouveau, I have arrived to a conclusion or two: I have to write a sequel and use the scene that’s been killing me this past week (even if I hate sequels), true emergency cases are rare and I get my ass called in for stuff that really doesn’t need to go, people may lecture on and on about how to write a great novel and yet I have never heard of their work (see the link above). Is it more important to be known or be true to some kind of fuzzy ideal? I think art has to be accessible and you can labor in your garret forever on writing a “great” novel or you can allow yourself to have fun with it. People need distractions and art should never be so far away that only a few anointed people can appreciate it. There is only one Dostoyevsky every century (if that), don’t kid yourself into thinking that you’re it or that anyone should be. This is a paralyzing ideal.

Luciano Pavarotti was the voice of God, like a volcano or a coming storm. Andrea Bocelli is more accessible and I love him. That’s all. I was struck by a falling bunch of snow by the passing PATCO train and I should go lie down. I’m confused…

I wrote this on December 19th, 2009 | Topic: Life, Shutterbug |  Print |  Email | Say something

This is why I have never attempted to publish anything before. This is why I have huge boxes of things I wrote that will never see the light of day. I don’t know if I could deal with the heartbreak… and by heartbreak I don’t mean the rejection of publishers. I can’t deal with it when it ends.

It ended today. I needed to finish it up so I could get on with my periholiday life that’s always spinning out of control. I needed to get done just to be done and because too many people know about it. Well, first draft is done. I wrote the words “The End” at about 1645 this afternoon at my favorite cafe in Philadelphia. It was shortly before I decided to stop worrying about what a loss the memory card is that the postal service refuses to give me. I decided it wasn’t worth my angst and I will write what I need to on the seller’s feedback page and never again ask for anything to be shipped via USPS. I will try to stop my mind from boggling at the sheer ineptitude of some people (white a lot of people).

I just finished a novel, probably one of the most poorly written but perhaps the best story I have ever done. I will not worry about some people’s accents coming and going, logic problems, and a supremely ill-written climax. I will enjoy it for a day or two. I will not read over it for the recommended two weeks. This means I’ll see it again on Christmas Day. Hallelujah.

It’s hard, though, it’s like when a love affair dies, seriously. It’s like losing a friend. That first run can never be duplicated and I’ll never see the plot spin out in real time of this particular story ever again. I’ll miss my characters, I’ve been thinking of them nonstop for six weeks. It’s hard to suddenly be without them. Suddenly, my Saturdays are free.

I’ll see you guys later, though, for Revision. On Jeanne, on Tina, on Stephen, on Marco. It’s been real.

I wrote this on December 11th, 2009 | Topic: Life |  Print |  Email | Say something

I wish I could write “out all night”. It would be so way more interesting. But it’s quite the opposite. I’m on the verge of finishing this thing around furious Christmas shopping. I can’t stop. I slept maybe an hour and a half before I was up again with buzzing scenarios both for Christmas Eve dinner (did I really need to plan it just now?) and the end of this novel. I want to finish it soon and be freed during the Away phase of novel-writing, that depressing yet elating time when you’ve finished and the thing isn’t full of problems yet because you have yet to reread it. I can rejoin the human race. Also, I’ve spent enormous quantities of money these past couple of days. I finally found a dress that might work for the holidays (that are around the corner) and I have to order all the things I’ll need for the multiple-course dinner I make for the famiglia on Christmas Eve. I’ll be squeezed for time thanks to not arriving until the morning of the 23rd (if all goes well).

There are other baking chores, too. The gingerbread house for the Daring Bakers, cookies for next weekend’s “cookie swap”, food for the work Christmas party, and biscotti to take home. Damn. I’d better get back to doing what I should be doing. It’s time to reclaim my weekends.

I wrote this on December 7th, 2009 | Topic: General |  Print |  Email | Say something

It’s been since last August that I have added new headers to the blog. That is, since I adopted the new template. The new headers (there are four) are from Buenos Aires, which joins Paris, Barcelona, Naples, Positano, and Philadelphia as the cities which have been memorialized in the header since the blog’s inception. The current lineup includes only Barcelona, Naples, Positano, and now Buenos Aires. The Philadelphian and Parisian headers left when the template was changed. I may add them again at some point, but I’d have to make the graphics all over again since the requirements have changed.

Subjects for the new BA headers are, in no order since they change: bottles at the Plaza Dorrego fair, a statue from the cemetery in Recoleta, the ceiling from Cafe Tortoni, and the ceiling and lights at the Abasto. These things have something in common, can you guess?

More later.

P.S. I have forgotten a lot of the Photoshop essential shortcut keystrokes. Have I really become that useless? Plusly, that program grinds my computer into the dust. Maybe I need a new one.

I wrote this on December 6th, 2009 | Topic: Shutterbug, Tech, Travels |  Print |  Email | Say something

I hit 90,000 words today. When I posted that thing yesterday, I had no idea how much I had left to go. That, plus a furious dry spell left me hobbling along word after word to reach the 90,000 plateau. It was a big chapter and now I will hopefully coast to the climax and denouement that I have been planning for nearly two months. Characters have sprouted all kinds of possibilities and the story itself has grown heads, but I’ve managed to keep it all together and this will be a ripping yarn yet.

I missed the local NaNo chapter’s Thank God It’s Over party today (though the weather helped) to push through this last part. Since NaNo officially ended the night of 30 November, I had no idea how much I missed the word counter. It kept me honest and seeing progress in something as tangible as word count gave me something to work towards.

My coffee shop is awesome even if they only take cash and my Canadian boots are holding up to their billing. I didn’t go to Sephora today and I have very little recollection of any events in real life, but I suspect it was a good day.

Oh, and I like my new phone even though it doesn’t have automatic word guessing when you text someone.

I wrote this on December 5th, 2009 | Topic: Life |  Print |  Email | Say something

I guess Apple isn’t the only American company making money. Comcast must have a stash up its sleeve in spite of abysmal service (another symptom of Americans’ addiction on television and mindless entertainment). Comcast just bought NBC. I almost enjoyed finding a New York-based source for the story. In essence, Comcast now owns Rockefeller Center. After the Iron Chef victory for Jose Garces over New York’s Mehta, we’re on a roll. It’s an old rivalry. As much as I like living in this irascible, brisk, moderately affordable, culinary paradise, I wish we did have some things New York has such as the MTA over SEPTA (boo!) and the Village. There was no World Series victory, but Philadelphians agree the better team won, adding the championship was bought and the Phillies are a “real” team. Personally, I’ll take the Iron Chef victory.

In other news, the matchups for the FIFA World Cup were made today. Six months is a long time to wait. I enjoy when the article states “Anything short will be considered a major disappointment.” when referring to the USA team’s expectations to advance to the second round. I’ll be watching the usuals: Argentina, Spain, and Italy.

In still other news, I have yet to eat a Tim Tam and I expect to break 90,000 tonight or early tomorrow.

I wrote this on December 4th, 2009 | Topic: Life, News |  Print |  Email | Say something

I’ve just written 40,000 in less than two weeks, and this is not counting work days. My eyes are about to burn out of my head. I’m on the other side of the hill now. It would be nice to finish by Christmas.

I wrote this on November 29th, 2009 | Topic: General |  Print |  Email | Say something

On Thanksgiving Eve while trying desperately to keep myself and my coworkers from having to eat cafeteria food, I’m trying to add another 1000 words to my total that has seen minimal movement for nearly three days. I’m not having much luck. I don’t know what to do with them. Ideas spin through my head but I can’t find a way to make it all hang together. I refuse to skip ahead, that kills a story dead. But right now, I don’t know if it’s just fatigue or stress (terrible work week) but I don’t see a way through and they’re hanging there with so much to do or say but I can’t get them to do it. I can’t make it happen for them. This should be easy. It’s not.

Is this it? Is this where I decide I can’t go on and make it worse by making it real? When a story is written down everything it could have been disappears in favor of what it actually is and sometimes, that’s where good stories go to die.

Don’t die, “Argentina”. There is so much left to do.

I wrote this on November 25th, 2009 | Topic: Life |  Print |  Email | Say something

The last of the leaves

We not only have streets like this, but we also have the newest Iron Chef and five of his restaurants. And it’s a all a lot cheaper than the same in Manhattan.

I wrote this on November 22nd, 2009 | Topic: Life, Shutterbug |  Print |  Email | Say something