Two Jobs

I've been writing a new novel since April called "The Arrival (and departure) of Martin Martinez, Future President."  It's 36 chapters long, around 40k words, and it's about board games, childhood and presidential politics.  Whatever spare time I have is given over to writing, research and revisions.  The first half is getting there, but the second half is still being revised.  It's the first novel I've written from beginning to end while working full time.  It's like working two jobs at once and logging in 80 hours of week each week.  Poor Alice.  She's been a writer's widow these past few months.  Next weekend we go to Bellingham for a few days.  I'm looking forward to it.

The other day, I went to Mitt Romney's website and this is what I found on the front page:

How does this front page win an election?  Anyone can state what the answer is Not, but presidents are supposed to state what the answer IS.  What does Candidate Romney think the answer is, and why isn't it the first thing I read on his website?

I spent last weekend visiting my nephew Mathew in Pullman, WA.  I hadn't been back at WSU in a couple of decades.  A lot has changed.  The new wing of the main library, named after WSU President Glenn Terrell, is beautiful.  There's also a new rec center that has four racquetball courts, a field hockey court, badminton courts, four full-length basketball courts, a track, lots of cardio equipment, volleyball courts, ping pong, darts, and even a foosball table.  We went there four times.  I saw a few of my former residences (Scott Hall, Monroe Ave., and the Honda Shop).  The CUB is a totally new building.  It's hard to believe I was there 26 years ago.  Wow, that's nuts. 

One of my favorite hangout spots at WSU was the periodical section of the Holland Library.  I was here nearly every day, reading magazines and newspapers.  It was always busy, but now the hall is a ghost town.  The main doors of the Holland Library are permanently closed, which is really sad.

Bruised Books was one of my favorite used bookstores of all time.  And it still is!  I bought David McCullough's "Mornings on Horseback" (hardback) for $7.  Nice.

I walked past this park every morning in 1986 when I lived above the Honda Shop in downtown Pullman.  I'd forgotten how steep the hill was to the top of campus.

I remember seeing Hannah and her Sisters opening weekend at the Cordova.  Now it's a house of worship.

Luv my Sistas!

Then and now...we took this last weekend for Dad's 70th birthday.  We went through lots of pictures, many of which I scanned into a thumb drive.  I need to scan the whole collection.  There are some crazy pics...like this one from the 70s!

I need two pairs of sunglasses for this color combo.  Holy cow the that was one crazy decade!

I took Rossana and Daniel to Flipside Burgers Wednesday night, our new neighborhood burger joint on Lakeshore Ave. 

Our meals received a coveted Three Thumbs up for freshness, taste, and juiciness.  We were very satisfied.  Welcome to the neighborhood, Flipside!

I hit the racquetball courts extra early this a.m. to counter the effects of all those fries. 

Wolf House

Alice and I visited John, Sara, and Seth Donnelly in Sonoma over the weekend.  What a fabulous time!

We took a walk in the rain to Jack London's Wolf House in Glen Ellen. 

My Kindle's loaded up with Jack London novels, but I haven't gotten to them yet.  I should read one this week in his honor. 

My days are overflowing with work, writing, and endless little items that take longer than they need to.  I miss the balance of a writing life.  Writing while working has always been a great challenge to me.  One day at a time, that's all I can think about right now.  I do like how this new book is shaping up.  I still haven't come across anything like it out there in middle grade land. 

Haven't seen The Hunger Games yet, but plan to soon, maybe this coming weekend when I'm in Seattle for my dad's 70th birthday.

State Singles in Fullerton, CA

The California State Racquetball Singles Tournament was last weekend in Fullerton, California and my energy was zapped early in the tournament, which was something I was worried about in the weeks leading up to the event. My endurance has been an issue since November. After only two matches in Fullerton I was tapped out. My third match Saturday morning was against the eventual winner of the A Division, Octavio Medina, who made some incredible gets during our second game and managed to overcome a 10-4 deficit to beat me and take the match. I didn't win another game after that in my age bracket. I could barely move properly on the court and my focus simply wasn't there. I look forward to getting back to full strength next year and becoming more of a threat. The one bright spot for me last weekend was my come-from-behind win in the first round against a player named Frank who had a great drive serve. I was down 2-9 in the tiebreaker but managed to claw my way back and take the match 11-9. I didn't play well throughout the match, leaving balls up and missing my serves, but toward the end of the tiebreaker things started to click, especially with a couple of wall-hugging Z serves. Unfortunately, I was so exhausted after the match that two hours later when I faced Octavio I wasn't fully there. The walls on our court were also very wet, creating all kinds of sick spin on the ball. The organizers actually shut down our court after the match because it was so unplayable.

Two days later, I'm still very sore in my legs and right arm. I'll play again on Friday and definitely work on my leg strength in preparation for the Stockton Pro/Am next month.

While in Fullerton, I visited my nephew Tristan, who's a freshman at Chapman University. We had a great time together over a couple of delicious burgers at Claim Jumper and sandwiches at Watson's Diner in the center of Orange. Tristan's future looks very bright indeed!

Now that the state tournament is over, my attention has shifted to the new middle grade novel I'm working on about a future U.S. president who as a 5th grader believes he was a mighty king in another life. I hope to have this story finished by July.