Fri. April 24, 2026: The Start of a Very Shakespearean Week

Friday, April 24, 2026

Waxing Moon

Sunny and cold

Friday, Friday, nearly time for the weekend!

I went down to the mechanic and was there just a few minutes after they opened. They had the blades in stock – who knew I needed two different sizes? I know now! The mechanic also taught me how to switch out the blades, gave me a spare set of clips and special cloths to wipe the blades in case they get streaky. Good thing I cleaned out the glove box a few months ago! Each blade had to be bought separately (for what a pair used to cost), but it was still within my budget. And these blades are so much better than the other ones.

I was done in 15 minutes.

Back home, played with the cats because it was too early to head for the stores. I put in a Chewy order for more dry food – got to keep those tummies full.

The fog cleared up, and it was nice and sunny. I grabbed my bags and headed out for errands. Grocery store first. I shopped more than I planned, but some items I wasn’t expecting for a few weeks were in, so I grabbed them. I mean, now that we’re stocking for the Apocalypse, and all that. I grabbed a bag of decaf coffee by mistake, but I will mix it with the one with caffeine in it (two bags were on sale for the price of one, and I grabbed the wrong one). If I just drink decaf, I get very sick, but if I mix it, I should be okay. Or, I might go back to the store and see if I can switch them out. Liquor store next – it’s almost rosé season. They had a lovely looking bottle of Portuguese rosé on sale, so I grabbed it. Library last, just as they opened. Dropped off a big stack of books; there were only 2 to pick up.

Home, unloaded, put everything away. Took a break, then turned my attention to BETTING MAN. Got about 1K done, less than I hoped, but hit the day’s goal.

Did the day’s marketing.

The #FreelanceFriends chat was fun, with a guest I hadn’t had a chance to chat with in a long time.

Ate lunch on the porch, enjoying the beautiful weather.

Switched to the ghostwriting. Got some good work in, where I hoped to be. Today I have to add in a few things, give it a polish, and I might be able to get it out by the end of the day. Fingers crossed. Then I could switch back to the other assignment on Monday, and get that out by early the following week.

I was done early enough I even had time for a bit of a break before getting myself together and heading for the book swap. I even got some planting done – more cat grass, more wildflowers (packet from a different company), lemon balm.

It was lovely weather to walk down, nice and sunny, not too cold, a bit of a breeze. The book swap was a lot of fun. One of the two books I brought was scooped up almost immediately, which made me happy. I found a book I’d been looking for, and having trouble finding a copy.

The only person I knew was the owner, but everyone attending chatted and was happy about being there. I’m glad I went.

Came home, made pizza, had a quiet evening. Weird dreams in the night.

Up early, out to the laundromat, got the laundry done, and will put it away after breakfast. I’ll try to get maintenance scheduled in here at some point, too, either today or early next week. I’ll finish the ghostwriting assignment this morning (I hope) and work on BETTING MAN once that’s out the door.

I’m making salmon with a honey miso glaze in the crockpot tonight, and it only needs 2 hours, so I have to remember to actually do it this afternoon.

Tonight, our associate member show closes at FutureLabs. I’m going to nip down just for a bit to look at everything one last time.

Tomorrow, at 5, when the gallery closes, I will drive down and pick up my pieces, bring them home, have a quick bite of dinner, before I head to Mosaic Gallery. The friend who runs a Shakespeare company is doing a performance of KING LEAR. On Sunday, my radio play “Inspired By” that was produced in the UK goes live. In the afternoon, I’m supposed to attend an artist talk up at Eclipse Mill, the converted factory that’s live/workspace for artists.

In between all that is housework, finish reading the scripts for the literary committee meeting next week, and do some serious work on contest entries. I also have to make some decisions on a couple of things that need answers by next week.

Next week is very busy, too, mostly with the local Shakespeare Festival, but also with the literary committee meeting, wrapping up contest entries, and ghostwriting deadlines. It’s the good kind of busy, it just requires focus.

Have a good one!

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
-- Douglas Adams

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #DouglasAdams #Deadlines

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #LakePowell #SlickRock #Canyon #Utah

Tues. March 31, 2026: Crossing Multiple Finish Lines

Tuesday, March 31, 2026

Day Before Full Moon

Thunderstorms and chilly

Happy New Week! Let’s hope we get some actual spring weather soon.

You can read the Community Tarot Reading for the Week here. It’s our last week using the Mystic Storyteller Tarot. Next week is a new month, and we work with a different deck.

Friday, I found out that PAC NYC has a musical GIULIA running from June 28-July 26, about Giulia Tofana. Jennifer Nettles wrote it and is in it (I assume she’s playing Giulia). Very exciting! Yes, I wrote a play about Giulia (JUST A DROP, which was featured by the Athena Project last May). Mine takes place in Rome, well after the events that are depicted in this musical set in Palermo. She was a fascinating person, and deserves many projects in her honor. Mary Zimmerman directs, and I really like her work. I worked with her briefly at Manhattan Theatre Club, when I stepped in to help out on a show when the wardrobe person went walkabout. I really liked my conversations with her, and I really like the way she approaches the work. I’m so glad that Giulia is getting celebrated through various venues. If you’re in the New York area and get a chance to see this play, please tell me about it. It’s unlikely I’ll be able to get down there and see it myself. I am very pleased this project is happening.

Sandy Rustin got the Bechdel 2-year grant for her new project, and I’m so excited about it. It sounds absolutely fantastic. I put myself on her mailing list to keep up with that and the rest of her work.

Painted spoons, dealt with email, put away laundry. I’d done my yoga practice before leaving for the laundromat, and did my meditation and free writing later in the day. Since the cats were being chaos demons for much of the morning, it was a bit challenging.

Typed up some of the handwritten Nina Bell notes from the free-write sessions. I mean to only work for 30 minutes, but the next time I looked up, 90 minutes had passed.

I got the timeline for the cat anthology, before I even had a chance to ask the editor what was going on. The timeline/admin/payment schedule looks very organized. I put all the dates in my calendar, leading up to the Aug. 25 release. I am in the second volume of these stories – they had so many good ones, they’re making them a series! The first volume is cozy, the second (which I am in) is noir. So that’s fun. I updated my bio and sent it off to them, as requested.

Painted another coat on the spoons. Worried because I couldn’t find the photo of Iris Woolcock I’m using for the sculpture. There aren’t many photos of her available. But then I found it, so all good.

Worked on sizing the images, so I can put them into the spoon bowls, once the painted spoons are dry.

By then, it was time to switch to the ghostwriting, although I would have preferred to work on other things. But deadlines call!

I didn’t get as far as I hoped, but I think I’ve finally cracked it. I’ve overwritten this draft, because they need to see some of the very specific details that matter both to this book, and as we charge through these last three books to the end of the series. Several times I’ve put details in that the writer has subsequently ignored, and then we have a problem a book or two down the line. At this point, after multiple conversations, they should know that when I get specific about something, it’s because it matters in the overall arc.

I had hoped to go to the closing at the gallery, but as I was working away, suddenly the internet went down. I pulled up the app on my phone and a tech person talked me through the router and modem fixes via live chat. It took 90 minutes, and by then, it was too late to go to the gallery.

I felt guilty, but my hip and back were also bothering me, so maybe it worked out for the best.

Woke up from a nightmare at 2 AM on Saturday, and with a grumpy hip. Managed to get back to sleep until a little after 6, and then got going on the morning routine, Saturday’s housework, etc.

I spent the morning working on the art pieces, both the wooden spoon sculpture and the collage. Experimented with a few things until I found what would work. Did the text portion for the wooden spoon sculpture and printed it out on card stock, so it’s ready to hang.

I ate a quick lunch and then bundled up and headed downtown for the No Kings rally. This one was even bigger than the last one. It was really terrific – speakers and performers and tables with all kinds of information. There was a lot about how to participate and work for change. There were a lot of comments on social media the last few days deriding having another rally, saying if you only show up once every few months, nothing changes and no one cares. I disagree with that. I think the growing numbers do matter. I also think that having information on existing organizations doing the work and different ways people can help in their capacity matters. Every individual doesn’t have to start from scratch. Join with people who already set up structures and strengthen them. It’s easy to feel helpless and overwhelmed. Rallies remind us how many of us are trying to do something, and organizers are there to answer questions and help us find our place in the ongoing fight.

I ran into a lot of people I knew there, which was great, and people who didn’t know each other introduced those they knew to each other, and so forth, and built an even stronger sense of community. Also, there were a lot of happy dogs there.

A bunch of people then headed for the gallery to uninstall the current show, so it’s a clean slate for the new show going in. And then, they planned to attend the Northern Lights Ball tonight! (Yes, I was invited, but I knew I wouldn’t be up for it). Oh, to be the age when I used to be able to go flat out like that all day! I have to manage my energy really carefully right now. I had put a pre-emptive pain patch on the bad hip before I headed out, and was glad I had, because I was hurting, even with the patch, by the time I got back.

I’m really glad I went. It made me feel like even though there’s a lot of work to be done, there are a lot of people willing to be involved. And it was nice to genuinely see an all-ages crowd.

Tweaked the images for the spoons and fastened the images to the spoons. I’d done a test on a spare spoon (I decided to only feature 8 women) before I left for the rally, and it looked good when I came back. I wanted to seal everything with Mod Podge, but it turns out my Mod Podge had dried out. Which meant a trip to the store on Sunday morning, to get fresh Mod Podge.

I worked on the ghostwriting, even though I prefer not to work on it over weekends, but this was a me problem, not something from their end. Made good progress.

Up early Sunday morning, usual routine, with Tessa supervising. Dashed out to get the Mod Podge and tried it on the test spoon. It’s supposed to “dry clear” and whatever that damn thing was, it wasn’t clear. I’m glad I didn’t ruin all my spoons.

On the way back from the store to get Mod Podge, I put gas in the car – first time I bought gas since January. I only needed a half a tank, but figured I should top it up because things are so chaotic. It was less than I expected, for which I am grateful.

I took off the image from the test spoon, repainted the spoon, and fastened a fresh copy of the image to it, so I could try something else.

In the meantime, I started tying/gluing the red gingham ribbon to the spoons and hanging them from the wreath form I’m using as a hanging rack. That seemed to work. Even though I had to perch the wreath on the handlebars of the stationary bike to have a place to work.

While spoon things were drying, I worked on the collage, gluing on some more pieces and doing the broken black lines to make it a graph. Then, I had to manipulate the text. I found some old Avery clear labels in one of my office boxes. Anyone who tells you to throw something out because you haven’t used it in a year gets a cut when you have to go out and buy something to replace it. Don’t listen to them. These labels are from early in my Cape years, and I still had a few sheets left, thank goodness. I wanted to use Comic Sans font, but, of course the Avery template didn’t support that, so I wound up using something called “Spicy Rice” which has the same childlike, cheerful vibe.

There’s a lot of patience involved in letting things dry properly.

There’s a part of me that feels like I’m supposed to know how to do all this properly the first time, but at the same time, how? I don’t know what I don’t know. I won’t learn if I don’t experiment.

Once the spoons were dry, I hung them from the wreath form, at different heights, then  wired the form to an S hook, and added hanging cord to the S hook. I then wound the wreath form in the blue gingham ribbon, all the way around, stitching ribbon together when I needed to start a new roll, and stitching it closed.

I’m happy with the way it looks. I’m going to add extra hanging cord in a separate envelope, and I have the text portion ready to go with it.

I had to use the adhesive spray on the labels, because they wouldn’t stick. Then I had to use cooking spray to get the adhesive off my hands.

Somewhere in the neighborhood, they had a birthday party for someone. It was fun to work and listen to them singing and laughing.

By the end of the day, the wooden spoon sculpture was done, and the collage was done except for putting in the eyehooks and wiring it. I worried I would crack the frame doing so.

My hip and back were hurting a lot. I cooked dinner, but didn’t have anything left in the tank to work on the ghostwriting, which meant more pressure for Monday, since it was due Monday.

I had a restless night, full of strange dreams and waking up to discomfort in my hip and back. One dream is a progressive dream, and I didn’t like the direction it was headed, so I lucid dreamed myself back into the world and changed it. Hopefully, it’s resolved, and I won’t be back there again. I have enough to deal with in this reality!

The morning routine was fine on Monday, with Tessa serving as yoga coach. I posted the Intent for the Week post and the Community Tarot Reading post.

I got the eyehooks into the collage frame without breaking it and wired it to hang. I was so proud of myself.

I made the difficult decision not to apply for the Creative Capital grant this year. The May Morris piece isn’t ready for this process, and I can’t reapply with a previous piece. I would rather spend the time and energy on the commission pitch to another organization that’s due in early May and do a good job on it, then keep researching the May Morris piece, and finishing I WILL BE DIFFERENT and CONSEQUENCES. Otherwise, I’m getting too fractured.

By late morning, I was able to turn my attention to the ghostwriting, after slogging through a bunch of email.

I did some work on that, took a break to run the artwork down to the gallery, dug in and finished the ghostwriting by 6 PM and got it off my desk. This one is problematic, and needs a lot of input from them.

By then, my brain and my back had just about had it!

I received a lovely gift card from an organization with whom I did some work, and I was able to treat myself to something I thought I would have to put off. So that was my gift to myself for making these massive deadlines.

After dinner, I was cat furniture until bedtime. I was so overtired that I had trouble getting to sleep, but finally did.

Morning routine went well this morning. We have thunderstorms and lots of rain right now. I need to go to the pharmacy, the grocery store, and the library later, so I hope it lets up a bit.

Today, I’m back to work on BETTING MAN, the contest entries, and starting the next ghostwriting assignment.

Tomorrow is the full moon on April 1. I hope it’s a fun day. Have a great week!

My mother is not feeling well this morning. We may have a trip to urgent care later today.