Falling Off the Grid

I admit, I fell off the grid for awhile.  Been traveling a bit.  Was also looking for a new gig since I have a stack of bills staring me down.  Landed a temp gig down on Wall Street through my agency.  The job is perfect.  It's easy admin work and at the end of the day I can walk out of the building and not give the "work" another thought.  Today I finished out my first full week so a full paycheck by next Friday will come in handy.  I was told the gig is good until the end of August.  I have the next three months to find something a bit more permanent but in this economy a steady paycheck is enough for now.

Where to start?

Moving: In 16 days, I move from my current apartment in the Bronx back to Brooklyn.  Being out of work for two months left me needing to re-evaluate matters. I used up my piddly savings to pay for living expenses.  So I'm moving back in with the folks temporarily while I get this whole job/money deal sorted out.  Which is really kind of odd since they plan on selling their house in the next year or so.   Guess I'll figure that out when it's time.  Anyway, in the meantime I've been packing.  I've got a stack of boxes, comprised mostly of books, against the dining room wall.  It's strange to not have access to them. I know it will only be for a short time but I already miss the ability to grab a book at random just to read a passage.  I've whittled down my library every time I've moved and I'm down to about 10 medium boxes.  It's the object that I still spend money on acquiring. I keep sorting and re-sorting through papers and old journals and I keep wanting to chuck them but then my attachment to them stops me from doing it. Guess they go with me.

This whole transition time has me thinking about moving away from NYC to somewhere more remote. The problem with remote is lack of access to public transportation, 'cause altho' I have a driver's license, I really suck at the whole driving thing.  The idea of having to take care of a car and insurance payments and gasoline and whatever else it might need just does not appeal to me at all. So I guess I'm choosing to stay in a more urban setting. At times, I wouldn't mind living a simpler existence. Have less stuff but I'm not sure I could live out of a backpack tho'.  There are limits to my running away fantasies.  I'm not much of a camper.

Movie: Wednesday night I went to see the movie: The East.  It's another Brit Marling film altho' it was co-written with the director, Zal Batmanglij.  I've been waiting for this one for awhile now.  It's a decent flick but some of the storyline was problematic for me.  Sometimes, the dialogue got caught up in it's own sanctimonious bullshit.  I caught myself rolling my eyes a few times.  HOWEVER, what's underlying the actual story is this call-to-action social activism that I really dig.  I think Marling is still genius and I look forward to her next projects!!

Reading: While on vacation last week, I picked up the book Delirium by Lauren Oliver.  It's a young adult science fiction novel.  It's part of a trilogy: Delirium, Pandemonium & Requiem.  "In Delirium, the government requires that all teenagers be cured of love, a.k.a. deliria, to keep society safe. But 95 days before her treatment, Lena Haloway falls in love--and must face the truth about her own feelings and the world in which she lives." The writing at times has a lyrical quality that really made me savor the story. Oliver really captured that angst that comes with budding love.  I picked up her second book when I got back to the city and then downloaded the last novel onto my Nook.  I have to say the first novel was the best one for me because of the depth of emotion I felt while reading it. The second one was compelling but the writing was uneven for me. I finished the third novel today and hmmm....some of the story was satisfying and some of it was not.   

Writing:  I haven't been writing at all.  I've been trying to start a couple of new short stories but they won't come out.  Unfortunately, Indigo is still my obsession but I haven't been working on it either.  Which reminds me, I want to change the title...the title is starting to bug me.  I can't stop thinking about the story itself and my characters.  I just have to sit and write but I've been too active, too up-rooted, too social and doing everything else other than facing a revision of this novel.  I've been drinking with friends and going to movies instead.  Ergh.  Despite the fact the novel still calls to me.  I feel it constantly in the back of my brain, working, working out some of the problems.  But I need to take pen to paper or sit in front of my laptop and just start pounding on the keys.  I just need to get past my laziness and just take it one chapter at a time.  I can just feel that it's going to be a HUGE undertaking and I'm just not ready.

Play:  I went to see the play Relatively Speaking and I laughed so hard I could barely breathe.  I was up in the balcony section but I actually think the actors heard my hysterics.  I really love comedies based on misunderstandings and in this piece they were able to sustain the misunderstandings almost all the way through.  I want to know the craft behind that piece...perhaps I will break it down one day and figure out how it works.

Publication: I was notified a couple of weeks ago that Applause Books is going to take a monologue from Glass Knives and publish it in Best American Monologues.  How cool is that?!!  When I find out publication date, I'll let folks know.

All righty, I think that's all I have for the moment.  I've been sitting here for an hour trying to fill in all the blank spaces on this page.

Peace,
L~

P.S. Please forgive all typos and grammar problems.  I've realized lately that when I am writing off-the-cuff...the words are coming out before my thoughts have even formed.  It happens.

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