Wed. Feb. 5, 2025: Keep on Rolling
image via Gordon Johnson via pixabay.comWednesday, February 5, 2025
Waxing Moon
Mars Retrograde
Sunny and cold
Good morning! There’s a post up on Ink-Dipped Advice here.
Yesterday morning, it snowed! Yet again, the weather app was wrong, and it mucked up my plans for the day.
One of the things I want to start doing is under-planning my day, instead of overplanning it. My colleague, artist Laura Baring-Gould says, “we over-estimate what we can do in a day, and under-estimate what we can do in a year.” I often plan too much in a day, and burn out before I even get close to completion. For this month, I pick a handful of priorities to get done each day. If I wind up with extra time and have energy, I will do the next thing that needs some attention. But I’m tired of overbooking myself, and then getting frustrated because I’m not getting everything I planned done, even when I meet all my deadlines. I’m sticking to “if it takes longer to set it up in the tool than to do the task, skip the tool, do the task” and that works for me.
The Chewy order arrived Monday. That bag of cat litter is far larger than expected, yay. Now the cats have two boxes in which to play. I will break one of them down later today.
Sent out the newsletter blast about my Script Tools class. Followed up with cohort friends on some information we discussed Monday night. Tried to work on the anthology story without much success. I know what needs to happen next, but I haven’t made the transitional scene work yet, and the prose equivalent of a jump cut won’t work in this case. Kept checking to see if I could/should go to the library, but the weather was mucky. I did, however, dig out the slush behind and around the car, and top it with sand before it iced over later in the day.
I spent too much time doomscrolling. I also wrote and scheduled the Ink-Dipped Advice post. By then, the snow had let up, so I packed up the rolly cart with books and headed for the library. After a few blocks, I ended up walking in the street, because the sidewalks were so mushy that the cart kept getting stuck, and then there was sometimes ice under the slush, so it was slippery. I dropped off one set of books, picked up another, and rolled home. Hauled the books up the steps and was exhausted. Had a good chat with the assistant library director, who is setting up our Boiler House Reading in fall. He’s delighted with the logo we created, and excited for our event.
By that time, it was lunch. After lunch, I went through the quilting books from the library. I’d ordered them because, in the keyword search of the catalogue, the pattern I wanted was supposedly in all of them. In reality, it is in none of them. And the books aren’t very good. So they are going back.
How much do you want to bet I have the pattern in one of the books I have here?
If not, it’s back to sketch time, figuring out how to make it work.
The gallery got back to me about my idea for the piece/exhibit. They love my idea/proposal. So I better get to work on it, hadn’t I? There’s a fabric for one of the borders I know I will have to order, but it’s not expensive, so that will be fine. The rest I have to figure out once I’ve sketched it. I might have to color in the sketch, because the contrast of colors has symbolism, and I have to pick backgrounds that work with them. And the backgrounds are part of the piecing, so it’s not like I can add them in later. I have a feeling that my initial idea for background might have to be one of the borders instead.
I also got an idea for a stark black-and-white quilt that I want to do. Maybe with some greys. Either in a pinwheel pattern or tumbling blocks. But that will have to wait until after I do the textile piece for the gallery show.
Because I get the sense that it WILL take until August to do it right.
Finished reading the background information for the script commission proposal, and the sensation that this is not the right project for me right now is stronger than ever. I am not the right person to pull off a full-length, vicious, absurdist piece right now in the way they want it. I played with some ideas, and I could do it on a technical level, but there’s no spark. Without the spark, the sense of joy, curiosity, and emotion to drive the piece, it will be flat, and that just wastes everybody’s time. “Writing mean” just to check boxes rather than it being the best way to tell the story I want to tell won’t work. I think I will pass on it, and focus on a couple of other grant possibilities, while keeping my eye out for other commissions more in alignment with the type of work I’m doing now, and want to do. But I hate walking away from even the possibility of a $15K commission, especially with so much uncertainty. Part of me feels that, as a skilled professional, I should be able to pull it off no matter what. The problem is that I don’t WANT to work in the required style right now. I think there are other ways to tell stories that need to be told right now.
Started reading a book of essays by playwrights about the play that changed their lives, and that is very inspiring. I hope I can get back to work on I WILL BE DIFFERENT soon.
Woke up at 3:30, worried about everything. Managed to work with yoga breath and just started to doze off again when the coffee clicked on, which meant the cats got feisty, and it was time to get up.
Deleted a paragraph that I’m just not going to get into now, about the current chaos. I’d rather work for change offline than rant online. There are those whose work is strong online, and I’ll boost them instead.
Got my login credentials and curriculum from the For the People library cohort, which starts on Monday. Monday’s session will help prep me for attending the meeting I’m attending that following Thursday night.
I put in an order for a few things that are too difficult to maneuver back home on foot, and they will be delivered later today. I am headed out to the grocery store soon, with the rolly cart. It’s supposed to snow tomorrow and then over the weekend. I may not get down to Open Studios tomorrow night, but I will go to my friend’s opening on Friday, even if the weather is yucky.
Once I get home, I will get in touch with my editor to find out if she’s well enough to give me my next review assignment, and then try to work on the anthology story. In spite of three contest deadlines on January 31, no coverage work has come in, so I need to turn my attention to other clients. I’m hoping the ghostwriting notes will come in a few days early, so I can get back to that.
Unfortunately, I can’t get to the state capitol today for the protest, but I will do what I can to support it from here.
One step at a time, right?
