Harried check-in

Blog? I have a blog? Oh yeah :-) Little check-in here. I have been writing away, and there's not much to say about that but things I've muttered in tweet-form, such as how the story stretches ahead of me, seeming to grow, the way the horizon recedes in dream sequences and you can keep running and running and never get there, ha ha. But I'm not discouraged. I'm totally moving through narrative, it's just that the more it develops, the more there is to write! Still on track for my deadline, though. Whew!

Also, Clementine turns one a week from yesterday! Wowza! Thinking how to celebrate it in some mild way, with a minimum of presents, and a small number of people so she doesn't get too shy or overwhelmed. I'm excited. I have plans for a trunk of "artifacts" I want to collect for her for each year of her life, starting with, this year: her tiniest first onesie and pair of hand-knit booties (with pictures of her wearing them). I want to get some kind of cool antique chest to keep it all in (each year in its own little box inside), but I may hold off on that because it is looking likely that Jim and Clementine and I will be heading to ... and exotic location ... in the next few months, an exotic location known for its shopping, I might add. Not that that appeals to me, ahem. It's not for sure; I haven't planned a trip overseas in quite a while. When you haven't done it in a long time, it gets to seeming really insurmountable and improbable, as if you could just ... fly away to, say, India, or North Africa. Like: who does that? But then you do it, and you see: it's easy! (Well, so long as you can afford the freaking airfare.) So I'm just going to say here: we are GOING. Definitely. To an exotic place that shall remain nameless. Within a few months.

Anyway, the trunk of "artifacts." Along with letters to her, to read when she's grown up. I think it could be lovely. If/when I manage it, I'll post photos, of course! Gift-wise for now, I'm not big on oodles of presents for wee ones, but we have gotten her one of her favorite books (Homemade Love, by Bell Hooks) that so far we've had on a kind of permanent loan from the library. (The library can finally get their book back!) and one paperback that has been destroyed by love, in a more durable hardcover edition (Duck on a Bike, by David Shannon). I suppose some sort of toy will also make an appearance, but that's probably all. Someone suggested: wrap up a couple of her favorite things. It's not like she knows, and there's something so dispiriting about watching young children rip open gifts and toss them aside, isn't there?

I think my teenage niece and her friends are going to play guitar for us and sing and do some Polynesian dances, so that will be fun!

Anyway, I am perched in my cafe now, and I am on the brink of a Major Thing Happening in the story, so sayonara, Mrs. Kackleman!