Well, dear readers, we are finally at the end of a long and tumultuous and yet productive week. Whew! It’s like a rollercoaster ride around here. I wish I could say that yesterday was without incident but alas I cannot. It was nothing horrendous, but I would have preferred nothing at all. And today could have some problems, but I’m hoping not and hoping for just a few more miraculous miracles to get past the troublesome spots, so do keep sending the strongest most excellent vibes and xylophones for miraculous miracles.
One truly irritating thing happened at nine last night when I went to make a telephonic call, only to hear a recording that my number was not in service and to call AT&T. I was furious, but they weren’t there to talk to. Fortunately they also have live chat, so I got someone there and I went ballistic. When I changed phone numbers and the new line went live here, they didn’t port over my auto pay that I’ve been doing for, I don’t know, a DECADE. Of course they did not tell me this, so when I received a paper bill in December along with a dunning phone call, I called them immediately. I also had combined billing and they’d undone that as it’s no longer an option. So, I had to talk to two different departments, but we set up the auto pay and I made the two payments. Well, the auto pay on the home line isn’t scheduled to begin for another week. So, rather than dropping me a line, or waiting the extra week, they turn off the damn phone and say I have to make the seventy-dollar payment before they’ll turn it on.
Thankfully I had a really good guy helping me and he totally commiserated me and said the fault was with them, since no one told me it was going to take so long for auto pay to begin. So, he very nicely gave me a credit for the seventy bucks and put in the order for the phone service to be restored. So, it should be back on no later than one this morning. Can you imagine?
Prior to that, I got almost eight hours of sleep. I woke up at five-thirty, and while I was trying to fall back asleep I had a little angel moment and got the idea that I think will be the ending of the book. I love when that happens. Hopefully it will work. I did get up and write it all out because I knew if I didn’t I wouldn’t remember it necessarily in the right way. The alarm went off at ten, but I stayed in bed another forty minutes. Once up, I answered e-mails, and then I futzed and finessed, making little adjustments throughout, adding a few things, subtracting a few things, and smoothing it all – the usual things. Then I wrote two new pages. I didn’t know what I wanted to eat, so I got in the car. I first ascertained there was no mail or packages, so I drove around, and stopped at Gelson’s. But nothing really interested me, and I didn’t want to sit in a restaurant for an hour, so I got Taco Bell and brought it home with me. Now, I have really enjoyed my two or three visits there, but not yesterday. Whoever made the crispy tacos but way too much of their meat concoction in, thereby rendering the shell soft and mushy and falling apart. So kind of a waste of calories, as I was hungry and did eat them all up.
Then I wrote about six new pages for a total of eight. Then I had to take a break. Grant Geissman stopped by for a bit, and then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I finishe watching the documentary Jim and Andy, about Jim Carrey playing Andy Kaufman in The Man in the Moon, a movie I really didn’t care for. During the shoot, Carrey allowed the to videotape everything that went on and what went on was not pretty. The documentary consists of Carrey now reflecting back on the shoot and his life, and the video footage. Carrey was so intent on becoming Andy Kaufman that he refused to answer to Jim Carrey or even acknowledge he was Jim Carrey – he was either Kaufman or Tony Clifton, and he was absolutely crazy as a bedbug. Actors who do this sort of thing are just dopes, if you ask me. As Laurence Olivier famously said to Dustin Hoffman when he was going through his actor crap on Marathon Man: “Why don’t you just try acting, dear boy.” Carrey is totally out of control and you can see how his fellow cast members are frustrated by it or rolling their eyes in disbelief. And poor Milos Forman – if I were him I would have walked off the film. I found it all painful to watch and you know what – the end result was a film that wasn’t too interesting on any level. But Carrey makes NO apologies and that’s who he is as an actor. Not one I’d care to work with, certainly.
Then I wrote six more pages and then took a shower. I’ve done almost fifteen pages, so when I post these here notes, I’ll finish the fifteenth page and begin the sixteenth so that I’m already there when I begin again in the morning.
Today, I’ll be up by nine-thirty at the latest. I’ll futz and finesse as much as possible, but I have to leave no later than eleven to meet up with dear reader Jeanne for a lunch at our favorite jernt. I can’t be there longer than ninety minutes, and will come directly home so I can finish futzing and finessing and write as many pages as I can in that first wave of writing – certainly at least five or six, but hopefully eight, which will leave me seven to do in the evening, although I’m fine if I only do ten. And we’ll be shipping the Levi and Villa-Lobos CDs – that will take until Saturday to get them all on their way.
Tomorrow I’ll be writing all day, then I have a dinner thing around six, after which I’ll write some more. Sunday will be more of the same, plus I’ll Xerox however many new pages are done by then and get them to Muse Margaret. Next week is more of the same until I finish the book. I can’t imagine it won’t be sometime next week and if I keep up this pace and I’m happy with the way it’s going, it could be as soon as Wednesday if the page count really ends up at three hundred manuscript pages. We shall see.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, futz and finesse, have an early luncheon with dear reader Jeanne, then return and write, relax, write, relax, write, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – CD, Levi. Nothing in any player. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that it’s the end of a long and tumultuous and yet productive week.