lesson plan

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a hundred miles or more

Radio silence yesterday: I spent eight hours in a conference room learning how to be a lady entrepreneur, then another four at one of the awesomest Monday Funday dinners in recent memory. A restaurant opening, cocktails with limes and tarragon-infused gin, and some truly hilarious dining companions: a recipe for success, to be sure. Also at some point we should talk about boulliabaisse, and how I ordered it last night just to see, and I can’t figure out where it has BEEN all my life. Also parmesan and olive shortbreads. Also grand marnier souffles.

(It was a fancy dinner. I wore my highest heels.)

Also: Thanksgiving is in nine days? Are you effing kidding me? I have three dinners to plan for, two birds to cook, and one boyfriend to convince that deep-frying on the deck is maybe not an avenue he wants to pursue. I have a book club assignment to start (erm, for book club this weekend…), some knitting to finish, and my favorite kid to sit for. Christmas card supplies arrived yesterday, and I owe my dad a batch of the chocolate-raisin cookies in the December Martha. My inbox is overflowing. I’m thinking about you.

Coffee and lists. Coffee and lists.

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like a melody in my head

back

Here we go. 

Back from the mountains. Pictures to come. The Adirondacks in the fall are beautiful and spooky, red trees and grey sunlight and somebody’s old-fashioned honeymoon, everything shut down for the winter. We wandered around an abandoned amusement park and went for long drives up windy mountain roads. We played Scrabble and had a fancy lobster dinner and saw Couples Retreat, which was (shocker) Not Very Good. They upgraded us to a fancy suite for no good reason except we were almost the only ones at the hotel. Would have given me the jimjams, had I been there by myself. 

Instead, suffice it to say: vacation is nice. 

And now: two weeks outside of Thanksgiving. Cookies to bake. New families to babysit. Menu to plan. Cards to design. Anne Tyler to read. Stock to simmer. Inkscape to decrypt. Stockings (or something like them) to knit. 

Plus I need to get back on the Shred before the buttons on my jeans start flying off at random and kill someone.

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Schooled.

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Back from Philadelphia. A happy, happy, happy girl. Long walks. Chocolate-covered almonds. This Is It. Hashing stuff out. Magic Garden. Bookstore browsing. Sleeping in. Sendak exhibit. Coffee times one million. Giggles just about that much.  Hey R: thanks for a bitchin’ weekend. I’ll meet you at home in three weeks. 

This week: Finished the Updike. Starting the Roth. Website building. Business-card printing. Shredding times five. Birthday dinners times three. Babysitting times two. Grocery shopping times one. Thanksgiving planning.  A trip to Target for some much-needed supplies. Photo-heavy. Stay tuned.

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Walk it out.

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New picture. So there.

Sometimes I go to New York and hear concerts that make me crazy and see movies that make me cry and my family is feisty and I ramble around. Sometimes I see a girl from high school and a boy from college at a bar on Avenue A, and then I see another girl who made my life a vague sort of misery ten years ago on TV. Buying a wedding gown. On Say Yes to the Dress. 

Sometimes it’s raining and I feel things too much and my feet are cold inside my socks, and by the time Tom picks me up at South Station he says, “How you doing?” and I say, “I am really, really glad to be home.”

This week: Back. Updike’s Rabbit at Rest. Financing some new endeavors. Working out some old demons. 30-Day Shred started yesterday. Martha’s November issue. Taking my vitamins. Eating my fiber. Tom in Missouri. Boston Book Festival. Contemplating quilting. Poking (cautiously) around the edges of some holiday prep. Looking for inspiration everywhere. Outside my window. Inside my guts.

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School this week.

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Second Quarter. Three stories to send out. Some Geraldine Brooks to start. Finished Oscar Wao, a thunderstorm-quick read which left my head spinning but honestly feeling a little cold. Notebooks to cover. Pictures to hang. Some fancy new software to learn. Concert at Boston House of Blues on Wednesday. Bolting to New York on Thursday. Jackie. Bethany. Sierra. Have scarf. Have sunglasses. Have coffee. Will travel.

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Lesson Plan: Week Four Already!

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Jeez. I feel like real school never flew by this fast.

Let’s go!

Literature: Oscar Wao didn’t happen last week, although Blindness is officially conquered and I did fly through Richard Russo’s new book (in case you were wondering: it was a giant snooze. But I still love him). This week: Kavalier and Clay. More on that tomorrow. 

Writing: I AM GOING TO FINISH THIS STORY IF IT MAKES ME DIE. I’ve been tinkering with it for toooooo long, including for three tortured hours this morning during which I drank an entire pot of coffee and peed about a thousand times. I want it to be send-out-able by the end of the week. 

Management: This is a new elective, the objective of which is the opening of a (dun dun dun) small online business. Students will be expected unveil said business at the beginning of November. Timeline, cost projection, and business plan due by the end of the week. 

YIKES.

Ok. Gotta go do my homework. 

How was everybody’s weekend?