Tues. Aug. 22, 2023: Emerging into the Week with Care
image courtesy of annca from Pixabay.comTuesday, August 22, 2023
Waxing Moon
Pluto, Saturn, Neptune, Venus, Chiron Retrograde
Mercury turns retrograde tomorrow
Sunny and pleasant.
Today would have been my father’s birthday. He died in 1972, but I still remember days like this.
Griddle’s surgery is on Thursday. Please donate what you can or share the link on any and all social media.
Ready for our regular Tuesday natter?
Today’s serial episode is Legerdemain.
Episode 113: The Botanical Garden’s Healing Energy
Shelley checks herself out of the hospital and goes to the garden to heal – with a surprising companion.
Friday’s storm cleared away by the time I headed for The Clark. I spent some time in the Munch exhibit, specifically with the paining “The Women on the Bridge” which I’ve mistakenly been referring to as “Three Women on a Bridge” because there are three of them. I’ve named them; the personalities are emerging. But I need to know the secret they share, because that is the fulcrum of the play.
I managed to write a half a page of the play, but until I know the secret, I can’t go much further. And I don’t want it to be something that’s easy, or a cliché.
I need to do more research on the painting itself, and the social/political issues around the time it was painted.
I took the shuttle up to the Lunder Center to see the rest of the Humane Ecology exhibit, and the garden that was up there. I took pictures for my friend, because it reminds me of her pollinator garden. I also went to see the exhibit by artists with disabilities, which a local artist I met through the various meetups here helped curate, and taught the workshop(s) in which much of the art was created. It was vibrant and happy and exalted. I’m so glad I saw it.
Wandered back down, visited my favorite Renoir in the collection, went downstairs to the wall about Sterling and Francine Clark and how the museum was born. His grandfather was a partner in the Singer Sewing empire, and built the Dakota apartments in NYC. Sterling was also a horse breeder and thoroughbred owner. Francine was an actress in Paris. They married nine years after they met. The photos of them together are great, because they have such joy in each other’s company. So different from many wealthy couples, who can barely tolerate each other.
I restrained myself and did not buy anything in the bookshop.
I did, however, mask at the museum; it was crowded. It’s good to see an uptick in masking again. I mean, I haven’t stopped masking indoors in most situations, except for yoga and the rare time I’m in a restaurant.
Picked up groceries on the way home. Did the social media rounds for Angel Hunt.
MailerLite is forcing a migration to their new platform. It doesn’t work the way the tutorial claims it does. Although they claim that anyone needing help with the migration will get it, they only actually provide it to paid accounts. The mailing list signup integration with WordPress is now mucked up, and the whole thing is a mess. I should be able to do the September and December newsletters on the platform; after that, in January, if I continue to have problems with the migration, I will be on the hunt for yet another mailing list platform.
It won’t be Brevo (what used to be SendinBlue). I really don’t like Constant Contact, but I might have to do it with them or with MailChimp, neither of whom really serve my needs. The French platform Mailjet is looking pretty decent, but we’ll see.
I was so pleased with MailerLite when I started using it; so, of course, they had to fuck everything up.
Which meant I lost the time on Friday afternoon I’d blocked off to work on something else, because the migration was only supposed to take “ten minutes” (which I figured meant an hour). Four hours later. . .
Cooked dinner, and then read in the evening. My brain was tired, and basically out of words.
Up early Saturday morning, to another dreary, rainy day, but at least it was cooler.
Intense dreams – one, where I was experiencing the dream inside a person definitely not me, whose boyfriend was a hockey player who sustained a serious head injury. The second dream I was me, and new landlords came around with a BINDER –like a large, 2” binder – with all the transition information. That was definitely a stress dream.
My lower back was quite painful; I ended up taking Tylenol to get a little relief.
Drafted an episode of Legerdemain. Drafted the first episodes of THE VICIOUS CRITIC, the second season of Deadly Dramatics. It’s good to be in Nina’s world again. Revised, edited, uploaded, and polished the next four episodes of Angel Hunt.
Got next week’s six episode videos made, uploaded, and scheduled on TikTok. Added some material to the Legerdemain website.
On the couch most of the evening, trying to get my back to cooperate.
Up early on Sunday; my back was still cranky, although it was a little better, because I’d kept it warm overnight.
Couldn’t sit up much; I managed to write/polish/edit/upload two Process Muse posts, and that was about it.
However, lying on the couch, I figured out the secret shared by “The Women on the Bridge” and I now know what has to be done in the play. I can even combine it with the information from early Croton Heights days that interests me so much. Almost the entire play fell into my head. Originally, I was going to start early in the piece, but now I think I’ll have the opening scene on the bridge, and then the rest of the play.
All I have to do now is be able to sit up long enough to write the damn thing.
I also figured out the next section of FROZEN AT THE PALACE THEATRE.
Sunday night, we had a plumbing emergency. I tried to turn on the shower; it sputtered, but then I couldn’t turn the water all the way off. I called maintenance, who said there was nothing that could be done; it would have to run all night until tomorrow morning. But the water wasn’t draining fast enough, so I called back, two hours later, and said they had to come and shut the water off. They shut off the hot water, which was most of the pressure. They couldn’t shut off the cold water without shutting off everyone’s water. But it was a slow enough trickle that drained, and I checked it every couple of hours to make sure. I set my alarm for every two hours. Which meant very little sleep.
We’d planned to spend Monday morning at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield; that did not happen. Instead, we waited for the plumber. Who was on time at 8, then had to leave to look for a part, came back, had to leave and get a different part. . .you get the idea.
There went my morning, and my prime writing time.
AND, Chewy is out of the special cat food the cats eat.
I HATE MERCURY RETROGRADE. That is all.
I need one fucking year of no fucking Mercury Retrogrades to recover from all the crappy retrogrades that hit every year.
Anyway, but mid-day, we had a shower that only ran water when I asked it nicely, which was a much better situation than we had for the previous 15+ hours.
A friend of mine said, “You’re a Pisces under stress. OF COURSE there are going to be issues around water.”
Since I lost my best writing hours, and my back hurt like hell, I spent a few hours coming up with more options for the flyer for the reading, and sent them off to the coordinator, who picked the one she thought worked best. I will send it to Assets4Artists and the Bear & Bee Bookshop to make sure I didn’t miss any necessary details. Then we can get it printed, and start getting it out there.
The listing won’t go out to the papers until just after Labor Day.
I’ll do a graphic of the flyer for the social media rounds.
Next weekend, I’ll work on the program.
It felt good to get it done.
Tessa was on the sofa, and my back hurt too much to sit at my desk, so I withdrew to the sewing room; the bed there has headboard and footboard, so I could put cushions there and lean, or slide down and lie down, depending on how bad my back was at any given moment. I read the book for review there, and will write and submit the review today.
At one point, Charlotte jumped up onto the small table serving as a nightstand in that room. She admired her reflection in the glass doors leading to the living room, princess that she is, before stealing Tessa’s catnip carrot. I had to retrieve it, because otherwise Tessa would be Very Upset, and I’d have to buy Tessa a new carrot (she doesn’t want toys with Charlotte’s cooties on them). Those two!
Willa stays out of it.
Started reading BROKEN GIRLS by Simone St. James, and it’s really good. I’m a little tired by books that structure alternate chapters in different time periods, because of the way it’s used to give information to the audience while hiding it from the book’s protagonist, but this book does it really well. It integrates and weaves the timelines together beautifully, rather than running parallel tales that sort of make sense at the end. St. James uses this structural choice to its best. It was hard to put the book down this morning and go to the desk!
Especially since I overslept – finally slept well last night, but didn’t wake up until 7 this morning. Tessa Was Not Amused.
Today I have to get some emails out, get the review written and out, draft another Legerdemain episode, work on the Llewellyn articles, work on the play inspired by “Three Women on a Bridge” and, hopefully, get a little work done on FROZEN AT THE PALACE THEATRE.
We’ll see if I can sit up that long.
I’m looking forward to gentle yoga to stretch out my back this evening.
Have a good one! This is a challenging, dynamic astrological week, with retrogrades and squares causing all kinds of tension. Be thoughtful rather than reactive, watch unnecessary spending, and be kind to yourself and those around you.
