Tues. Oct. 10, 2023: Back at the Desk
image courtesy of Christine Sponchia via pixabay.comTuesday, October 10, 2023
Waning Moon
Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Uranus, Jupiter Retrograde
Pluto DIRECT today
Cloudy and cool
How was your weekend? Ready for a good Tuesday morning natter?
Today’s serial episode is from Legerdemain:
Episode 127: At The Twisted Thespian
Shelley meets with a man in disguise to exchanged information.
Pluto goes direct today. What does that mean? Pluto influences what’s hidden. When Pluto is retrograde, secrets are often revealed: either yours, or someone who’s kept something from you. Also, during a Pluto retrograde, you might choose to reveal parts of yourself you formerly kept hidden, as might those around you. Pluto is also about transformation; when it’s retrograde, you have time to consider how you want to transform moving forward, but it’s not yet time to do so. Now, with Pluto direct, you can move forward with necessary changes.
With it going direct, it’s easier to keep secrets again.
I’m just happy we’re down to five retrogrades from the seven a few weeks back. But we’re stuck with these five until early November.
Okay, so catch up from the weekend. Friday was slow going. I had to do a bunch of paperwork/admin, etc. Worked on setting up a forum for the group; filled out some feedback forms for the two big units that ended this week. I managed to get an episode of Legerdemain rewritten, polished, uploaded, and scheduled.
I did the big grocery shop. The first shop of the month is when I restock staples, and then I fill in as needed, depending on the meal plan for the week. As I’ve said before, when I meal plan to recipes ahead of time, as I did this week, I spend more than when I go to the store, see what looks good, balance that with what’s on sale, and make up a meal plan on the spot. However, I want to start trying new recipes again and get my cooking mojo back, so I planned ahead. And thereby spent more.
Hauled it all home and up the stairs. Put it away.
I couldn’t get the hazelnuts for the chocolate orange hazelnut cake I’m planning to make this week, but I figured I could pick them up later over the weekend at Wild Oats.
Then started organizing my fridge along the lines of the way Jeremy demonstrated in last Wednesday’s class.
Yes, I’m aware I should have done it BEFORE I went shopping. But that’s not how it worked out.
Anyway, it wasn’t as difficult or scary as I feared; I’ve kept on top of things better than I thought. I switched out some Ziploc containers for glass jars, grated an entire wedge of Parmesan and put it in a jar, and so forth. Since we have PLENTY of glass jars, put them to work. And I’ll get more Pyrex dishes. I have some great ones from way back in the 60’s, along with casserole dishes, but a few more couldn’t hurt.
Since I was on a roll, I re-organized the freezer, too. That tends to be my trouble spot. I slam things into the freezer and forget about them. But I rearranged, cleaned out, got rid, and now can get at everything and know what’s what and where.
I couldn’t do it quite as efficiently as Jeremy, mostly because I don’t have a fridge that big. His is wide enough, with double doors for the fridge and the freezer at the bottom, so he can put sheet pans of things in the fridge. He has my dream fridge.
Someday.
But that took most of the rest of the day. Along with making three batches of differently flavored vegetable stock from the veg bits I’d saved in the freezer over time. I have plenty of vegetable stock, and I’m going to use one particular herb-heavy batch to infuse the next batch of rice I cook by cooking the rice in the stock instead of water.
But that was pretty much the day. I made a chili-spiced salmon on a bed of crunchy kale with roasted potatoes that was really good (and tagged Jeremy in the photo, since he’s always going on about kale).
Read more of Mary Rodgers Guettel’s memoir in the evening. I love it when she talks in detail about her composing and writing. I learned a lot. And, again, hearing anecdotes about people I worked with, from a very different perspective, is always interesting.
Slept pretty well, albeit with weird dreams about packing up a touring show and having trouble getting the guys to load the trucks.
Up at a decent hour, but a slow start, in spite of doing my morning routine of coffee, yoga, meditation, writing in longhand. Worked on some more catch-up admin, then got ready to go to the theatre, because I had to leave at noon.
Pittsfield isn’t that far, but with traffic, it took me nearly an hour to get to the theatre, park, etc. I was early enough to get one of the few spots in the theatre’s parking lot. The show was at the black box. Everyone was very efficient and very nice.
The show itself, THE HAPPIEST MAN ON EARTH, was powerful. It’s a one man show about Eddie Jakub, who was in concentration camps three times (Buchenwald twice and Auschwitz once) and lost 99 relatives in the Holocaust. Kenneth Tigar’s performance was astounding, wonderful, detail-oriented, and moving. To be on stage for 90 minutes and go through such a physical and emotional show takes stamina as well as talent, and he has both.
I’m really glad I met him and his husband before the show in Great Barrington this summer, and that they asked me to come and see it.
It also makes one ponder, how can people be so cruel to each other? I mean, they do it all the time, but what is so inherently wrong with the human soul that it can twist like that? When you think that Trump and his supporters revere this kind of treatment of those they deem “other” in order to feel powerful and good about themselves, you realize just how much is wrong with the human race.
I did not wait to talk to Ken after the show; he had an evening show for which to prepare, and shouldn’t have to be gracious to someone he met once for twenty minutes. I wrote him a note instead, when I got home. This way, he knows how much his work moved me, but I also didn’t interfere with his dinner break.
By the time the show let out, It was monsooning. The drive home took even longer than the drive there, due to street flooding. There were two points I was worried I wouldn’t make it through, but I did.
Dried off, warmed up, read a bit, but mostly sat with the aftermath of the show.
That’s how you know you’ve seen a good piece of theatre; it stays with you.
Tried a new-to-me lasagna recipe with chicken sausage meat instead of beef on Saturday night. It seemed a little funky when I read it, but I figured I should try it as written.
Well, THAT was a mistake.
The proportions were off (not enough ricotta, for one) and the timing of what to prepare when was wrong (preparing the noodles first and letting them sit and get gluey), and then the layering was wrong.
I should have just gone back to the way I’ve done lasagna before as soon as I thought something was off, instead of trusting the recipe just because it was published.
It was kind of a disaster. No, that’s too kind. It WAS a disaster.
We managed to scrape out some decent ricotta/marinara/spinach/sausage out of it so we wouldn’t go hungry. We rescued what we could of the big pan of it and labelled it “lasagna adjacent” and I’ll figure out something to do with it later this week. Tossed the icky bits into the trash.
Yes, I stuffed it into the freezer. But this time I won’t forget about it (stop taking bets over there, you).
At least we had chocolate mousse cake to make up for it.
I’ve cooked enough so I should trust myself when something doesn’t read right in the recipe.
Read in the evening. Slept decently, although I woke up around 1 from a dream about a mass suicide by drowning (not fun). When I went back to sleep, I dreamed of a parrot who’d call out, “My Queen! My Queen!” whenever his human entered the room, because she’d played a queen in a play, and that was his line when she entered the stage. She inherited him when the show closed.
I’m not even going to try to interpret either of those.
Made raw apple muffins from Marion Cunningham’s THE BREAKFAST BOOK just to remind myself that yes, I do know how to cook and bake. I only had one kind of apple (I usually use 5 different kinds). I also added allspice (anything with apples and cinnamon gets a dash of allspice when I make it) and substituted currants for raisins.
Yummy.
I also need to buy more currants this week. And liners for the muffin tins. And sugar.
Blog as grocery list. Um. . . .
Started decorating the kitchen for the holidays. This year, instead of just the pumpkin lights, I’m also putting up spiderweb curtains in the kitchen. And switched out the kitchen island curtain from the sunflowers to the witches, cats, and pumpkins one, and switched out the tablecloth and table decorations.
There’s still a lot of decorating to do, but I’m doing it in bits this year instead of a single burst. And we’re trying things differently.
Drafted an episode of Legerdemain. Edited, revised, polished, uploaded and scheduled an episode. I’m cutting it a little too close and must do better this week, and moving forward. Once I sat down at the desk, it flowed well, so I don’t know why I had trouble drafting episodes in-studio.
It doesn’t matter why. It simply needs to get done, and better, moving forward.
Had a quick bite for lunch, put on Real People Clothes and headed to the Clark for the “Experiencing Nature” workshop. Two staff members, three docents, and 20 people, a mix of first-time visitors, frequent visitors, and members. We spent some time in the woods around the property.
Of course, I noticed a pair of gravestones tucked away and had to ask about them. The staff explained that it was originally thought to be a pet cemetery, but it was recently discovered to be the graves of two children, who died in the 50’s or so. Their parents couldn’t afford traditional burial, and the Clarks let them bury the children under this tree on their property. The museum felt it was unethical to keep the original story of “pet cemetery” which is the story most of the locals know.
I could have told them it was human remains just by walking past. Human graves feel different.
We spent some time in forest bathing mode, then moved inside to the Munch exhibit, which was packed (and yes, I masked; I’m getting stringent about masking again, after being lax during the residency). We studied three paintings: “Summer Night” and “Fertility” and “The Sun” and talked about them in terms of nature and symbolism and tensions. It was so interesting. The group numbered about twenty, with a wide range of perspectives and experiences, and the way we showed each other how to see in new ways and then built on it was interesting.
I’m really glad I went. Believe me, I considered not going several times in the morning. But it was worth it.
Stopped at Wild Oats for coffee and hazelnuts – and ran into one of the docents with whom I’d spent the workshop! It really is a small town around here. Stopped at Stop & Shop for sugar. I forgot to look for currants; next shopping trip. I used the last of the currants in the muffins.
Home, and it started pouring with rain again, and the temperature dropped. Leftover chili and rice for dinner. Read in the evening for a bit. I started a mystery that was recommended by an acquaintance, but I didn’t like the protagonist enough to spend the length of the book with her (and she wasn’t showing me how to see things in a new way; she was merely annoying). I put that down.
Slept well, in spite of a few stress dreams.
Slow start on Monday. We were supposed to go away for a few days at the beginning of the week, but with Hurricane Phillipe making his way up the coast, and the coastal areas we wanted to visit being a mess, we scuttled the trip. We’ll do stuff at home instead. There’s plenty to do.
I finished, revised, edited, polished, uploaded, and scheduled a Process Muse episode. I did the episode graphics and loglines for Legerdemain, then did this week’s six episode videos for the three serials, uploaded, and scheduled them to TikTok. I typed up the meeting notes from the Collective’s meeting and sent them out for review, and the contact sheet, along with the link to the message board I set up for the group. People can visit to post about readings, post submission calls, opportunities, see if someone’s around to read something, etc. People can use it or not use it through the year to keep in touch.
In the afternoon, I read the book for review, and that’s all I’m going to say about that. But the review is due today, so I have to come up with something. I finished reading an acquaintance’s book, which was cute and fun.
I made Moosewood’s Thai Vegetarian Curry for dinner, which was good, even though there was a lot of vegetable chopping involved. I miscalculated how many sweet potatoes I needed, and peeled too many, so I cooked and mashed (with butter, orange juice, and brown sugar) the rest, and we’ll have them with tonight’s trout.
Stayed up until nearly midnight and finished A.J. Hackwith’s THE LIBRARY OF THE UNWRITTEN, which is just wonderful. If you love books about adventure, libraries, stories, and imagination, this book is a good choice. It sets up like there might be more in the series, but I kind of hope it’s a standalone. (Note: I checked; it’s the first of a trilogy, and yes, I ordered the other two books from the library).
Slept reasonably well. Woke to the smell of coffee and Charlotte using my stomach for a trampoline.
Today’s writing priorities are drafting Legerdemain and working on the poem for Sunday’s reading. I have to finish telling the story I want to tell in the poem, time it, cut it where necessary, and then go back and work on sonics.
I also have to write and get the review out the door, and let them know I’m ready for the next assignment. I have to negotiate with the car insurers – our insurance DOUBLED since April’s payment, and we haven’t had a claim in years. I have to revise yesterday’s meeting notes and send them out for another review. I have an early conversation on a possible freelance gig. I need to do a library run and swing by the pharmacy to pick up something. I also have to get back on track with promoting the serials again on the rounds of social media.
The new WGA contract’s been ratified. Hopefully that means more script work coming my way in the coming weeks. I’m still going to look for another big, but short-term client for November-March, remote. I’m waiting to hear back on a few proposals between now and the end of the year, and then we can figure out spring and summer.
The constant beeping from the heavy machinery and the construction workers sending cars speeding down our street in the wrong way instead of putting up signs like responsible workers would to detour them around on the proper streets is sending me over the edge. Enough already.
I better get going then, hadn’t I? Have a good one.
