Grammatical Chainsaw Juggling

The day begins with a Toffee Nut Latte from the mermaid. I’ve been off morning coffee – iced tea is my summer ritual – but with temps in the sixties and the pissing-down rain flowing freely from a dank sky, it was a TGIF coffee morning. Having under 400 calories in the lunch bag was also a contributing factor. On the plus side, I won’t need to run out for a salad to go with my soup at lunch time.

The 41 Year Old Hoya hits the ground running – first assignment is due for the Reported Memoir by Monday night, which means an intensive writing session this weekend. I freely cop to volunteering. One, I was in a position to do it. Two, it gets 1/3 of the longer writing in the books early, giving me more time later, when I may need it.

It’s hard to believe I’m already in my last semester. Where did two years go? I have not yet decorated the last day of the semester in fourteen bright colors in my day planner (which I have an ugly habit of, um, not opening. I suck at birthdays for a reason, kids…) but I’m thinking that a big red Sharpie circle around the date just isn’t going to do it this time. Now, a graduation party? Definitely mulling that over.

Capstone also got some work on Wednesday, but I need to get some interviews going. I have draft questions. Baby steps on the way to a partial draft deadline in October.

The new short story, which is nearing a first-draft completion, has received the working title “Between Zenith and Nadir With Lucy Kerr”. This may or may not be its actual final title, but for what the story is, it works. Aiming for a first draft by next weekend. Deadline on that is mid-October.

And thus is life a three-chainsaw juggling act between Memoir, Capstone, and Fiction. There’s a queasy joy of creativity in here somewhere… but October is going to be a busy row.

Eight mile training run tomorrow – the other deadline - the actual Army Ten Miler - is four weeks away this Sunday. But the seven miles this past Saturday, along the lake in Chicago, was smooth, well-paced and successful. All I’m doing is adding a mile to the next plateau. Easy, peasy.

* * *

This morning, while the iPod recharges, I’m knuckles deep in my favorite Bruce Springsteen bootleg: the 1979 unreleased-and-then-reconfigured-into-The-River album The Ties That Bind. Aside from being a much better produced and mixed version of material that was officially released in 1980 (ever wonder why Bruce doesn’t sound like Bruce on “Hungry Heart”? It’s at the correct speed here) and outtakes that later surfaced on Tracks, the disc touts a couple of solid alternate versions (a longer “The Price You Pay” and the rockabilly version of “You Can Look…”) and boasts a better overall flow. As a follow-up to 1978’s Darkness On The Edge of Town, it may be the best Springsteen album that never was.

And speaking of music, The Beatles are hot once more. To riff on Tommy Lee Jones in Men In Black, now I’ll have to buy the White Album again…

Song of the moment:
“The Price You Pay” – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band