Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, finally listening to some music after a very long day. Other than one irritating telephonic call wherein I really took someone’s head off, but the person was just not hearing me and pushed a little too far. You never want to push too far, especially after I’ve given fair warning not to. But other than that, it was a perfectly pleasant sort of Saturday.
I was up after maybe seven hours of sleep. Once up, I had to get coherent quickly for our ten o’clock rehearsal. I did manage to futz and finesse a couple of pages, but then no one was here at ten, so I did a couple more pages. Everyone arrived at ten-thirty so clearly the schedule I’d been sent was wrong, which was annoying as I could have slept another half hour. What I thought would be over at one wasn’t over until almost two-thirty. It all went well, though. I came up with a few stronger endings to things that were just petering out and I flipped the order of two songs, and may do a bit more of that as I begin to hear everything together.
Once that was over, I went to the mail place and picked up a couple of packages, then came right back home. By that time it was three o’clock. I finished futzing and finessing and thankfully there actually wasn’t all that much to do. Then I wrote about almost five new pages, and by that time it was time for the early dinner. I’d called the Smoke House for a five-thirty reservations and these game players there said they were overbooked with reservations from four-thirty to eight-thirty. This isn’t the first time they’ve done this and I happen to know it’s a complete load of malarkey as they then tell you they’ll take walk-ins and it will probably be no wait.
So I made reservations for what is essentially the Sherman Oaks version of Smoke House, Valley Inn – both restaurants opened in the same year. There I had not a lick of trouble. But we had some miscommunication and Peyton and her mom had gone to Smoke House instead of here. They said it was only a ten-minute wait, so I said I’d come right over – but when she went to confirm that they told her it was not thirty minutes. They left and came here and we’ll do Smoke House another time. So, we had our meal at Valley Inn. It was excellent – not as good as Smoke House, no, and no incredible garlic cheese bread (they do have that but it’s very different and I don’t care for it), but my filet mignon was really good with good bernaise sauce. Peyton also had a filet – she began with escargot, which she loves. I must say, she’s probably the only thirteen-year-old in America who’s ever actually eaten them. I had a small Caesar to start (hadn’t eaten all day) and I had a baked potato with the filet (Peyton had fries). Her mom had the Valley Inn’s signature dish, fried chicken, and I tasted it and it was really good. We had fun, and then I gave Peyton her special A Carol Christmas gift. I’d already given her my typed/hand-written work sheet for Spelling Backwards – I never give out working copies to anyone ever, but I knew she’d love to see how I developed the lyric and she did.
But that wasn’t her real gift. I had my friend, Jimmy Mulligan, who does a lot of fine art paintings for Disney – his originals go for a lot of money (I own two oils by him, non-Disney related and gifted to me – and he also did the Red Gold cover and I have several watercolors, as he brings those to the Christmas Eve Do as my little Christmas present. So, I asked him as a favor to do a watercolor of Peyton as Trina in A Carol Christmas. I sent him some photos of her from the show, and he finally delivered it to me on Friday. It’s adorable and both Peyton and her mom loved it. Anyway, it was lots of fun.
Then I came home and began writing immediately. I wrote four more pages right away, leaving six to do. I then took a break and watched another episode of You – I cannot tell you how bad the writing of the supporting characters is, especially the lead gal’s friends. Note to writers: When you do this stuff it takes everyone out of the show you want taken seriously, not to mention that all this “hip” stuff you think you’re writing is already dated and stupid – oh, and no one really talks like that, sorry. Lazy and terrible.
I then wrote three more pages, then watched another episode. This show in six episodes has, as they say, jumped the shark about fifty-three times. After that, I wrote three more pages, for sixteen pages. I’m in the home stretch now – I mean the real home stretch. Unless I’m miscalculating, I can’t imagine I have more than twenty to twenty-five pages left, but then again it may be a few more than that. This will be a little longer than GEE.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven and my goal is simply to write until I finish. We’ll see how that goes. IF I do finish, I may try to celebrate with a meal if anyone is available. But I’ve probably got at least six hours or more to write to the end and that’s with no breaks. So, the celebratory meal may have to wait until Monday, which is fine.
Tomorrow, if I’m done, I’ll print out pages, Xerox pages, deliver pages to Muse Margaret, then wait for her call. Otherwise, I’m trying to finish casting the March Kritzerland so I can be ahead of the game for once. I know two of the performers already, so that’s a start. The rest of the week is meetings and meals, rehearsals for the upcoming concert, and then we do the concert on Sunday.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, write, and write. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, while I take this book over the finish line.