if only we didn't have to go through the separation part of being apart.
It's the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan for 9 hours a day.
Today: nothing.
Yesterday: 3.5 miles.
Darin came home yesterday. Surprisingly, by the time we got home, we both wanted to take a nap. (Twice, in fact.) We woke up around 7pm, totally groggy. We couldn't find the brochure for the new pizza place that opened near us (on the site of the late and completely unlamented Brooklyn Diner), so we ordered in from Louise's, since neither of us wanted to drive anywhere.
We both had indigestion after eating, so I don't think we'll be ordering from Louise's again.
I asked Darin repeatedly, How did we get by when I moved down here to go to USC? He said, "We didn't." Probably the fact that we both had structured days--him at General Magic, me at USC--helped take our minds off the fact we weren't together. But I won't try it again.
Tonight was the first Murder For Fun and Profit class at UCLA Extension at CityWalk. I didn't realize the summer session is so much shorter than the other quarters--only 6 weeks long. (Can we possibly learn everything and read people's stuff?)
I volunteered to go in the first group that gets read next week. As if I wouldn't. Early and often, remember.
The teacher, Jerrilyn Farmer, seems like a lot of fun and a heck of a lot more patient than I would be. When one student mentioned the book he's working on would be 800 manuscript pages, I felt like dropping my head to the table and shaking it from side to side. Jerrilyn explained why that might not work and we moved on.
(Jerrilyn has a 3 book deal--and her novels haven't cracked 300 pages. I get the feeling that over 300 pages is something you have to earn over time.)
Afterwards, Jerrilyn, Jorge (a guy who took the same Mystery Writing class Jerrilyn did 5 years ago), and I walked across the CityWalk to the Upstart Crow to chat for a while. I had possibly the worst hot chocolate I've ever had--note to self: bring own drink to CityWalk--but it was fun talking to them.
Jerrilyn told Jorge the story of she and I met cute (she found my web page). They also told me that, out of the 15 or so students in the Mystery Writing class they took together 5 years ago, only 3 students finished their novels, and only Jerrilyn's been published so far (I think). And that's the first step to getting published, you know? You gotta finish.
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Copyright 1999 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com