First Week Report

I guess technically the first week ends on Sunday but for all intents and purposes, since this was Octavia's last day with us and aside from working on our Monday crits and any stories in the pipeline we are free to roam about the cabin for two days, I'm calling it.

Tonight we party. Some local writer is offering to open their home for this wild wacky bunch of renegade writers to party down. Thank YOU, whoever you are. Octavia will join us, apparently a group photo will be taken. Merriment will be made. I am driving a 4Runner load over, so I will have to behave with restraint (probably a good thing) and depending on how late this goes, I may just want to crawl into bed a relatively reasonable hour. Say before 2 am. I'm aiming for 12, but I'm not stupid. Parties happen.

Its been a long week, but time for a recap.

Stories I've read/critiqued: 18. Yes I did cried my own. Ouch.
Stories I've bled to write: 1
3am college "greek life" commentary sessions: 1
Movies watched while hammering away at story: 1
Phone calls to mom: Okay that's almost embarrassing. Nevermind. I love you mommy!
Phone Calls home: 4 I finally got hold of BJ on the 4th. We talked for way too long. It was great. I love that girl.
Googly messages left for dog on home answering machine: 1
Tears Cried in private: a few or was that just my eyes trying to blink after being awake for 24 hours?
Tears cried in public: actually it was more snot dribbling, but there might have been a tear or two mixed in. (Its a long story. Suffice it to say all is well. I am just emotional and wacky due to lack of sleep)

The week's best: Octavia Butler. Every fucking minute of Octavia Butler. WOW. I have enough OB to keep me writing for years.

The week's worst: Arrival day. I felt absolutely unkempt, verklempt and silly.

The week's wackiest: sitting on the floor in the living room next to the printer hammering out wildly obnoxious replies to postings on the listerve while giggling inanely. Did I mention it was 2:30 in the morning?
Fun Out of the House adventure: Archie McPhee's! One part Wishing Well, one part party store, one part wacky stuff you will never find anywhere else. Have to make a return trip. Look out for postcards.

Solo Adventure: Riding my bike down to Lake Washington and watching the sun go down. Even though I got lost looking for two yoga studios, went the wrong way down a one way street and bent the front fender on my bike (cheap plastic piece of crap)

The clarion "I am so spoiled moment of the week:" Tie! The dinner four nights a week that became two hot breakfasts, four lunches AND four AMAZING dinners four nights a week PLUS free rein over the fridge contents over the weekend. When Joni left for the weekend I almost wept. How will I survive without that woman? I shall waste away to nothing until Monday. Thank good two souls brought me Jack in the Box this afternoon. I didn't have the strength to go down to the basement, fish two garden burgers out of the fridge, cook them and eat them. If I had died of hunger down there, would anyone have found me?
And...the NAPS. Oh what a lovely thing -- to sleep at 3 in the afternoon, wake up, eat and get down to writing. Sheesh, I am ruined for life!

So its been a pretty good week, I am pleased and sad to wave it goodbye. There were, however, some hang ups, screw ups and fuck ups...as follows:

Things I forgot:
laundry soap
body lotion
headphones
tape (argghhh!)
desk lamp -- thank goodness for the Clarion freebie pile. I found a nice flexy one for my bed instead.
a trash can of some kind...even a few bags from the bathroom would have been great.
film -- now I have to go hunt down a camera shop and pay 9% sales tax for my ilford Black and White (damn Washington!)
Magazines. Its amazing how much I really want to know how Angelina and Brad are doing post Jen and what the best way to wear purple eyeshadow is after straining my brain doing real thinking. My kingdom for some escapist bullshit magazine!
Shorts. Who knew it would be so freaking hot here?
Earrings. Why does this drive me crazy?
My rice bag eye pillow for headaches. I am taking out stock in Advil after this week.
A masseuse. Is it too much to ask for clarion west to hire someone to work the tension out of my shoulders once in a while. Okay I guess the food really is spoiling me. I'll shut up now.
A pea shooter. Nothing like scaring the crap out of overdressed sorority girls on spike heels staggering down the alley below my room talking at the top of their lungs at 2 am. Having a bb gun would probably get me in trouble.
A car alarm. Every time those boys get bouncing that GD basketball and throwing each other around said alley (where my car is also parked) I fear dents, dings and broken windows. I watched one of them take most of the paint off one side of his white Suby by scraping it along the telephone pole when he was trying to park. Or back out. Who knows what he THOUGHT he was doing. He looked pretty wasted. SIGH.

Duh-Oh...
I made a gently chiding remark at breakfast and heard about it at dinner. SIGH. For future Clarionites. Keep your mouth shut until you are certain people know you well enough to know you're not to be taken seriously. Save yourself the pain in the ass of extracting foot from mouth while you're trying to eat dinner so you can get back to your pile of crits.

Most of that is all minutiae, at the moment I am exhausted, happy and basking in the window with the late afternoon sun peaking through the space between frat houses on the other side of the alley. Its warm and soft, life is so good and sweet at this moment its almost too much to bear. Gotta throw down some clothes for the shindig-- will consult fellow ladies on dress attire for the evening. I have everything from a sari to my domanatrix corset suit. I may have overpacked and forgot half the stuff on my list. But the other half is kickin...