We've been busy, and so have had little time to blog. One of the fun things we had going on was bringing our nephew, Nick, to the slotcar track at Dave's favorite hobby store. Nick had a great time racing his slotcar, and we had a great time too. Nick is some kind of slotcar wizard. Neither Dave nor I were able to beat him in a race (and believe me, we tried...none of this "oh, let the kid win" stuff), and eventually the guy running the place gave Nick a more difficult track because Nick had so clearly mastered the track on which he started. And even with the more difficult track he figured that out pretty quickly too. There's skill to the slotcars...you have to ease up on the handle things (you can see this in the bottom photo) around the corners or else your car will go shooting off the track like a freaking bullet. So the trick is to keep the car going as fast as it can, but also to stay on the track. The cars we were using go about 80 miles per hour, but there are specialty-built ones that go well over 100...which is insane. After slotcars we went to the military museum...somewhere. I don't really know where it is ~ I'm a girl. That's Dave's kind of stuff, and I basically just went along to take photos. And finally we went on the trolley over by Lake Harriet. A really full day of various vehicle-oriented fun! We love spending time with Nick. He is such a sweet, smart, patient, and pleasant young man.
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Other than that, there's been Dave's job search. He has an interview on Wednesday, but not for a teaching job. I don't know how I feel about that. Maybe that's a good thing? I mean, perhaps being a teacher is just more hassle than it's worth, especiallys since one could do many other (far easier) things and get paid more money...and not have teenagers swearing at you, parents blaming you because their student doesn't do their homework (yes...some parents do believe that teachers are merely hired parent-surrogates), and dealing with almost criminally insane administrators. Maybe THAT'S why the average career-span of a teacher is a mere 5 years ~ work constantly, little pay, and treated like poo. But on the other hand, Dave went through considerable time, sacrifice and money to switch careers and pursue teaching, and I'd hate for him to give it up so soon. He does have the "calling." And maybe there IS some magical school where he'll be treated as the well-educated, dedicated professional he is. Maybe he can find that school and be happy there. It could be just around the corner. So I have mixed feelings about him interviewing for non-teaching positions. But, goldangnabit, I also want to move...NOW! So I guess wherever the money is coming from, maybe that's ok for now.
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As for me, I have been writing. I'm stuck in the revision whirlpool, however. I keep revising the same things over and over and over. Then I say "I promise next session I'll move forward" but then the next session I read over what I revised the previous day and see all kinds of little things that could be improved. The other day I spent 2 hours revising a single paragraph. At that point, it's not even "revising" anymore. Does this kind of nit-picking make the novel better? Well...yes, I do believe it does! A novel is nothing more than the sum of its parts, so each sentence needs to be improved if it can be. But it's also making it nearly impossible for me to actually finish the BIG revisions that are still awaiting my attention. They're like "hello! Over here in chapter 21! We've got faulty character development going on, so maybe you want to stop fretting over subject-verb agreement in that single chapter 3 sentence. We've got plot holes to fill! How about spending a little time on that, lady?" I need to pull myself away from this charybdis and move forward toward bigger revisions.
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Finally, we decided to head to Chicago for a week this summer. Yay! Even though suddenly one of us is without a job, we're STILL going to take a vacation. Take that! Take that, unemployment! We're going on vacation anyway. Neener, neener, neener! So what if you suddenly tanked our new home-buying and new car-buying plans. You can't keep us down! Maybe we'll get on Oprah and that will be the day she doles out both new homes and new cars to everyone in the audience! Maybe if we spend some time around her studio, telling passers-by our story, one of her producers will go "they're the face of this horrible economy!" and have us come on her show...which will somehow result in our own reality TV show! Ok, that would be pretty boring...pretty much just us going to Target, working at computers, and periodically getting up to go look in the fridge. So maybe we'll have our own talk show instead ~ I have ideas for that! And then while I'm on her show, I can slip her the MS of my novel and she'll LOVE it and make it the first in her "Unpublished Book Club" series, and then it will be made into a movie starting Toni Colette and Conan O'Brien in his first film role. And even if none of that happens, I hear Chicago has good pizza and a couple museums, so we're bound to at least have fun.
7 comments:
Pizza in Chicago sounds good. And so does Oprah!
Ive just finished having a conversation with an aspiring comedy writer where we concluded that one should 'do what you love and the rest will follow.' Easier said than done in some cases, but there is a grain of truth in it.
Good luck on Dave's interview. And good luck with revisions. Im with you, I think even nit picking is valid. God is in the details. Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. And all that. So long as you keep sight of the big picture then the details must have time spent on them. How many times have you read a novel where the big picture was inherently good, plot structure, storytelling/page turning qualities were good, but the little editing niggles kept tripping you up? Ive read it enough to know that when I get to that stage in a novel I will also be spending lots of time on those details.
I want to see revisions!!
Good luck to Dave tomorrow. I soooo understand your feelings, because we are going through similar crap over here with Chris. Sigh.
Good to see you today, too - too bad it is impossible to have a real conversation in the presence of a 3 year old!
JoJo ~ I'm glad you concur about the details. There are so many good stories, but yeah...just sloppy writing. And I'm one of those people who are sloppy writers, but still good enough editors to know their writing is sloppy. So it's like a circle of hell.
Merie ~ maybe both Dave and Chris will find the right place soon...we'll have to chat one of these days and share in some therapeutic venting.
Yes, it's hard to talk with a 3-year old around...especially one as distractingly cute as Cora. She brightened my day.
Which hobby shop is that?
I'm glad you are sounding more chipper these days.
That editing sounds ugly. I don't have any good advice to give, but I do have a sympathic ear if need be.
Give my best to Dave on his interview! (Oh, and his Vonnegut shirt didn't go unnoticed)
Cory ~ I can't believe you could tell that's a Vonnegut shirt! Impressive...
I think I've reached a kind of denial state...which is, indeed, a more chipper place. I can't keep ignoring our plight forever, but for now I'm kind of hiding my worries in the closet. I'll take them out again later.
Oh, and Cory, Dave's favorite hobby store is this weird dungeon-like foul-smelling place called Full Scale Model Supplies near the corner of Lexington and University. He loves it there. Me...not so much.
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