Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to a composer I discovered on the Tube of You – Lee Actor is his name and he’s an American composer, five years younger than I am. Interestingly, most of his output seems to have been written post-2000. I began with his first symphony and found it excellent – tonal, attractive, a bit movie music-like, which is always fine by me – I hear some Herrmann in him for sure. I’m listening to his piano concerto as I write these here notes, and that’s got a really Herrmannesque first movement, and it’s really good. I have two more symphonies and a violin concerto to hear, then I’ll listen to his shorter orchestral works, but so far, I’m a fan. I may drop him a note. Earlier, I tried to watch something, but I just wasn’t in the mood, and that’s when I found Lee Actor on YouTube.
Yesterday was, for want of a better word, yesterday. I got almost eight hours of sleep, I answered e-mails, I did the last bit of futzing and finessing and sent Muse Margaret ninety new pages. I wrote about seven new pages after that, then went to the mail place, where I picked up a couple of things, but not the envelope I was expecting. Since I was there, I went next door to Subway and got a spicy Eyetalian sandwich and came home. Before I could eat it, however, I had a very unpleasant telephonic conversation, which I felt was very disrespectful in a large way, and I don’t react well to that sort of thing. It was unpleasant and made me a little nauseous and even a little angry. I called the Muse to make sure she got the new pages, which she had but hadn’t read yet. I told her about the conversation and that I was tempted to put a period on it – she said I shouldn’t do it while I’m angry and that was probably wise.
I ate the sandwich, which was very good, then I wrote the dealer whose envelope hadn’t arrived. He apologized and they got the money due into my bank account in seconds. Not sure how they did that – it wasn’t Zelle or Venmo, that much I know. Then it was time for the Zoom thing. That was very productive and lasted about ninety minutes, after which I wrote two more new pages. I suspect I’ll write one more for ten pages after I post these here notes and then I’ll be going into a section that is pretty well laid out already. At this point in time, I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to be what I thought it was going to be, a novella. I think it will end up as a novel, but we’ll see where I am twenty pages from now – that will tell me the exact tale in terms of novella or novel.
After all that, I attempted to find something to watch, I watched some random music videos on the Tube of You via the Firestick – a BBC Proms concert, a bit of a John Williams concert, and a bit of a James Bond music concert.
Then I ordered three small side dishes from the California Chicken Café – they arrived twenty minutes later. I began with their roasted potatoes, which I’ve never had there, and those were really quite good. Then I had a bit of rice with veggies, but I spit it out because the rice was weird – might have been basmati rice, but I threw that out and then ate the third side dish, my chicken pasta salad, and that was very good.
Then I figured I’d calmed down enough from the phone call and wasn’t coming from a place of anger, so I wrote an e-mail to the caller – I think I kept it short and just laid out my issues with the call and how the contents of the call were presented in a completely disrespectful way and how I was thinking about putting a period on it. I’m still deciding about that – we’ll have to see what the response to the e-mail is.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, hopefully I’ll hear from Muse Margaret, then I’ll futz and finesse yesterday’s writing and then I’ll write new pages. I’ll eat at some point – I do have some pasta here if I want that – we’ll see how I feel. It looks like we’ll have the Vernon Duke CDs on Thursday, so we’ll prepare for that over the next two days. I’ll do whatever else needs doing, then I can watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same – writing, another Zoom thing tomorrow, but mostly writing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, hope to hear from Muse Margaret, futz and finesse, write new pages, eat, prepare for Vernon Duke III to ship, do whatever else needs doing, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: How do you deal with disrespectful conversations that make you nauseated and irritated? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, about to shower and wash off the disrespectful conversation.