I'm back from my week off from writing... but, it doesn't feel like it's been a full week to me. I guess days go by faster during the congestion of the winter holidays. For those of you who read this blog with any regularity, I appreciate your effort and hope not to disappoint as I write through Christmas and up until new year (Come on, 2010... I'm over 2009 already!) before changing formats.
So, what did I do with myself while not writing in this blog?
Honestly, as you may have guessed, I was a little sick for parts of it... not deathly ill, but, not enjoying the cold and snow. Well, okay - I'm a Virginian, so, snow is great... to look at through the window from inside your apartment. During both snowfalls this past week, I had to venture out into the evening and run errands and make visits. While I'm a decent driver, cautious but not in the way of other motorists' confidence, I did not like squinting through the falling white dust, my windshield wipers somewhat useless against the downpour- or trying to predict if those shiny spots on the road were just moisture or patches of ice.
On a more pleasant note, during this break I had a chance to read a book to which I had been anxiously looking forward... there's something about cold weather that puts me in the mood for "classics," or, rather Victorian or early 1900s literature. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton reeks of sophisticated sarcasm and delicate, thoughtful emotion. She was the first female writer to win The Pulitzer Prize and she won by obeying the rules and breaking them simultaneously. Here was a women writing about forward-thinking while minding her P's and Q's about love and sex. It was a cozy and moving read. The book club discussed it during our seasonal meeting making the book even more enjoyable. I will miss reading books with friends after the club disperses across the states, with hope that we will still keep each other up to date on what we're reading, and what we're liking and hating about our solo book choices.
I spent some time with a dear friend I see so infrequently... we had a whole day to bash around and do some holiday shopping (I was relatively productive). I've missed having my writer-pal to talk to about our work, our methods, our new ideas. I'm fortunate to know someone I trust with my hopes for future projects... she's given me a reason to look forward to summer no matter where either of us lives by then. It's great to have another writer in my world to hold me accountable for my work... and vice versa.
I started Julie Powell's latest memoir entitled CLEAVING. She discovers that she has this passion for artisan butchery while her marriage survives an illicit love affair. It's much darker than her first published work, but I think she's maintaining her cleverness and self-awareness. There are few lines between her need to learn butchery and her desire to be with this other man. She's able to look at these seemingly disparate obsessions and figure out where it puts her on the path of her personal life journey. Get upset about the implications of writing about adultery, (as the adulteress), if you want to waste your time with that... she's not you and you're not her and her marriage was made with a different material than many others. A lot of us see adultery as a reason to split... maybe Powell had believed that as well... but, some people take that whole "for better or for worse thing" pretty seriously. That's not license to do whatever you damn well please, but, if you have the love, maybe that transcends certain mistakes (I'm not talking about the run of the mill asshole who never loved you in the first place and has been cheating on you ever since he met you... I mean someone who loves you and had a personal lapse that drove him or her to do something hurtful). I doubt I have the strength of character to make it through "the cheating game," but, I hope someday I can look back and say that I had the love to try and make it. I'm enjoying Powell's process of working through... herself.
I have a whole week of little holiday activities planned... from finishing a few homemade gifts to seeing friends coming home from out of town to having family time with my whole family (including the best of friends that became family over the years). I hope it will be a fun and heartwarming week for us all.
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