I woke up with a cold last night. Sore throat, aching head, general malaise. I like the sympathy but hate being sick. Alas, there’s no way around it at this point so I suppose I’ll have to pull up my drawers and get on with life.
Rachel’s visit was great! We did our usual site seeing tour – in the rain, went swimming a few times at the pool, saw a movie at Kino Gandusio – our local movie house, dipped her toes in the Adriatic, took lots of walks, did some good cooking at home, and spent an overnight in Zagreb before she went back to the U.S. The overnight was lovely and Zagreb is a beautiful city. While there, I felt a tug to be somewhere a bit more, hmmmm, bustling perhaps, than Rovinj. But yesterday we met our friend Alex on the square for coffee and the pleasure of sitting on the square reminded me how nice quiet can be.
Only 8 weeks left before my first draft needs to be finished. I think I’ve squeezed my way through that last sticky part and I’ve got a plan for this week but it is work … like brick laying or digging trenches. I remember how annoyed I used to get when I told someone that I taught dance at the University and they’d say, “That must be fun”, as if the work of teaching dance was no more than flitting about the studio asking young people to grow like flowers. It was hard work and so is writing. One of the hardest things to overcome is the little voice that says you don’t know what you are doing, this sucks, why bother, what are the rewards – you’ll never sell, be read, be appreciated, etc. etc. etc. It’s that whole critic thing. I’ve come up with a few tricks to silence the little bugger – sometimes I wear a hat while writing just to keep my head in place, other times I talk to the critic – yes, out loud, telling her that it’s too bad her childhood had been so awful and that she had to take it out on me. Sometimes I eat Nutella – oh wait, that doesn’t keep the critic down – but it helps me a little.
So this week is slogging through the middle part – trying not to let myself be distracted by things that won’t help me to complete the task. And getting rid of my cold.
