It's a Rainy HBO Kind of Day

Pouring rain again. After feeling kind of limp after my presentation last night, I played major hooky today and watched an episode from Six Feet Under’s Season 4. (which I missed first time around; what was I doing that whole year?) Thank you, Netflix. God, I love that show. I watched it with the director/writer’s commentary and it was so fascinating, getting that insight into the development of story. (OK, can I count this as work?) One thing he said was that in storytelling, you always want your audience to be asking “Why?” and saying “Oh NO.” That’s a new one and got me percolating on the current piece I’m working on. I need to develop some more “oh no” moments. But I am so continually moved by the totally human situations in SFU and the subtleties of relationships between people. This is the best of what writers do: remind us of what it is to be human.

The presentation last night felt good. I was unbelievably nervous in the last half hour before it began: I came upstairs after dinner and just paced around like a tiger. Tried to listen to calming music but my heart was going at about four times the normal speed. I think it’s because the bar has been set so high here. I jumped. I think it went well. Several people wanted to talk about various aspects of my writing this morning and said they’d been thinking about them late into the night and today. Good sign.

It’s pouring rain again. I think some people are definitely showing signs of cabin fever. Not me though. I think I am showing signs of wanting to be a total hermit. I don’t miss driving a car, or going to stores, or answering the phone or any of that. I miss my people though. I miss them a lot.