Back to Life

Here I am, back to life, back to the blogs, back to work — part of it anyway. I’ll be doing a lot of cross-posting the stuff I write here on my writing site, just because they correlate, so please excuse me if you’re reading some of this twice.

This weekend we came back from St Paul, MN and I am truly pooped from the whole experience! I can’t call it a vacation because I thought it was going to be a relaxing trip seeing mjp’s family and friends. That was the plan as far as I thought, but it was a pretty hectic schedule — long marathon visits where I found myself having to relearn a bit of patience here and there (during a couple of the visits anyway). If we had more days there it would have all been very different.

HOWEVER, we did have a day at The Walker and that seemed casual, yet perhaps the most physically exhausting. We saw a few exhibits there, mainly the Jimmy Durham show and that was kind of interesting.

I had a few favorites from his pieces and the above was not one of them. I can’t find pictures of the ones I liked. I did have a hard time understanding some of his work though. Hard to explain why, but he is neither an insider or an outsider, so you’d think I could identify with him. And I did, I guess. Yet there was something about the work that didn’t invite me in all the way. But I was not generally in the greatest of moods during the trip if you can’t already tell.

We did have fun walking around in the sculpture garden and standing under Katharina Fritsch’s ultramarine blue chicken though. I tried to take a decent photo of it, but could not, so I found this one on the Internet. Much better.

We had fun alone time together there in the sculpture garden. I never knew that Claes Oldenberg cherry in the spoon was partially over a pond. It made it a lot nicer to see in person.

We also went to Prince’s Paisley Park. That took all but an hour, though, it was worth it. I admit, it did have its cheesy moments, but it was also cool and I’m glad I went. I think everyone should go. I even cried at the end of the tour. I think they purposely rip on your heartstrings. And I think they are going to stop the tours in December, so hurry up.

The rest of the time was mostly about mjp’s family, which is really why we went. I didn’t mind that at all because I consider them family too. I’ve been nagging him to make the trip for the last several years. None of us are getting any younger, especially our parents. Mjp still has both his parents and they are alive and well, thank God. He lost his step father over 18 years ago though, and I lost my parents a little over WOW! — has it really been eight years??? I can’t believe it. Well, it goes to show you: people are here and then they are gone. It’s really odd — whether you love them or hate them, or a little bit of both. With your parents, it doesn’t seem like they will really die. And you always seem to think you know how you’re going to handle it too, but you DO NOT. You really don’t.

So, if your parent(s) is still alive, especially if they are healthy and sane, go see them. Listen to their boring stories. Sit with them for hours and let them complain about the price of gasoline. If you have a beef with them and haven’t been speaking to them for years, let it go. You’re going to have to let it go eventually anyway.

In the meantime, since I’ve returned, I have my manuscript back from the copy editor and I have opened it. Not only that, I’ve been working on it since Monday. I actually got it back during the trip towards the end of last week and it was really hard not to open it!

Firstly, I was just going to read it, as is: as if I had accepted all of the changes the way the copy editor would have reedited the book — and I promise you, I gave this my absolute best attempt. But after just a couple of chapters, I could not go on. I just couldn’t.

The first chapter is so important, as you might guess. I was so happy that he was able make the syntax so concise. In fact, I think he did a brilliant job at this. However, my voice was no longer prominent. As I went onto the second chapter, my voice was all but disappearing, and as I continued to read, this only got worse. There are very good aspects as far as correction, but I had to… I had to return my own voice. I believe this is a call I had to make. It is my book, after all.

So that’s what I’m doing now. So far it’s been like seasoning a stew that was once complex — in a pot too big for the stove! Now, it’s been made streamline, simple, even portable for the girl on the go.

Hopefully, I can get it all together soon.

One thought on “Back to Life

  1. Birte Hella October 13, 2017 / 11:43 am

    Go girl! I identify with so much of what you just wrote. Thanks, as always.

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