I went to St. John's NL for the annual meeting of The Writers' Union of Canada for the weekend, plus. I'm back now. Did you miss me?
I took my MacBook Air (I call it Little Mac, as opposed to Big Mac, my desktop). But I couldn't get connected to WIFi so I couldn't post my blogs. However, I tried to write something like a blog. I put the collection into Dropbox and I'll see if I can open them now.....
St. Johns, NL May 30,2014 6 a.m. NL time
I may not get connected to the Internet because my hostess says she doesn’t know her connection or password. She said I could write on her computer and send it – to my blog?? But I can write it on mine.
phantoms at the fair
We’re all ghosts, projections of an inner self that has very little similarity to the real being within, and each one different. I went to the Meet’n’Greet event last night, launching the annual meeting of the Writers’ Union, after a long day spent on a Turbo Prop flight from Toronto to St. Johns, with 2 stops (Ottawa and Halifax). Writers really are loners; they have to be, in order to get any writing done. It’s a solitary occupation and they seldom get to talk to each other. Well, of course, how often do dentists get to talk to each other, or want to? So that’s no explanation. But when writers gather - in a flock?
Not a herd; they’re harder to herd than the proverbial cats. Clutch? A clutch of writers? That suggests too much angst. Quire? Most of them don’t write on paper any more. Rant? Vent? URL? REM? Keep thinking.
Anyway, when writers gather together, they talk, though perhaps they are not as articulate as they are on paper (computer – well, you know what I mean), and they drink and they make a lot of noise and I’m not sure if anything they say has any value, I mean, lasting worth, but they’re being social and never mind the hangovers. I am not referring to the physical result of too much alcohol, I mean the residual effects of too much talking and not enough thinking. But all that talking has very little meaning.
That was the end of my blog yesterday. It was time to go to the meeting. I have written a little in my diary about the people I met and that I have to write. Today, the business session begins.
May 31, 2014
The nicest thing about being away from home like this is that I can’t do a thing about most of the fiddlies. I do draw arrows, though, and underline the people I must write or do something about, thereby adding to my lists when I go home. For the nonce, there is no pressure. My chief problem yesterday was when I was trying not to fall off my chair in the afternoon as nap time came and went without me.
Does this give me a new perspective on my to-do list at home? I wish. At best, it puts a different spin on the priorities.
One of the time-study experts I have read discusses priorities: A list, B list, C list, and so on. The idea is that you should tend to the A list first. Well, duh. The C list items either creep up until you have to pay attention and do them yesterday, or they fall off the list entirely – not always a good thing if something important passes the expiry date. Some things are okay, like coupons past their prime when you can throw them away with impunity, uncluttered and guiltless. That is, you are uncluttered and guiltless, a rare and welcome feeling. I have already referred to the pleasure derived from finding that my mending or ironing doesn’t fit anyone I know. That doesn’t happen any more, not that I have changed my ways, only that the people I knew who wore those clothes are grown up now and out of my purlieu.
It’s too easy to make lists and it takes very little time. Performance, however, that is, following up on and completing the tasks so blithely assigned, can take hours or days, or longer. I don't want to think about them now. I'm not there/here. Next.
Happy June the First
Still no WiFi, but I am plugged into me.. I will enter my absentee blogs when I get home. I’ve encountered a number of things I could write about, and people, and of course this wonderful place – St. Johns, NL. I have also acquired a cold, the first in several years, can’t remember when. I hope to swim out of it, when I get home. I do wonder what’s waiting for me. Without WiFi here I can’t check my email box and it must be getting very full. I’ll deal with it when I get home. Isn’t it amazing, and frightening, how dependent one becomes on technology, especially one’s own. Do I sound homesick? Not really. I’ll be over it when I get home. Next.
So that was yesterday and now it’s June the Second
and I am flying home today, ears willing. I come away from these writers’ events harassed and humble, grateful for my blessings, admiring others’ talents and success and not quite envious. But I remember that line (I’ll look up who said it when I get home):
“The book of mine enemy has been remaindered and I thank thee.”
I don’t think it was Gore Vidal but I’ll check. He said a few other things worth looking at/ thinking about.
Hey! I was given a discount on my annual dues because I am over 80. I gave the money (20 %) back. Big Deal. What I need, is a guaranteed income. Don't we all?