river_kate

I've been indoors an entire week now.  First it was because this thing that happens where I can't stand up straight and can barely walk for a few days happened.  Then it snowed and got very, very, very cold here.  If I don't have to go out, why should I?  Actually, it isn't the cold so much as walking on icy sidewalks.  I have become terrified of falling down.  Last autumn, I prepared for this.  There is food stashed here; I have books and movies and my computers.  I am not crazy yet; I have walked down the hall to the mailbox and yesterday I went to the bistro on the first floor and had a tuna sandwich, a red potato salad and coffee.....and a brownie to go.  Almost any food that I haven't fixed myself sounds amazing right now.

My apartment was clean when my cousin visited the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  I spent three days on the living room, kitchen and bathroom.  She came with her oldest granddaughter who is about nine years old and they stayed all of about half an hour.   They looked at me and at each other and paid no attention to my stuff.  The tidied apartment made the piles in my bedroom and little paths that I walk through start to bother me.  So, this evening I hauled some of the piles into the living room and will attempt to begin organizing tomorrow.  The fact is that I will need to get rid of stuff and that's difficult and scary for me.

After finishing my NaNo novel, I started working on the journal-like prologue to it again, the Dark Shadows fanfiction with original characters that I've slowly been posting here.  The novel is in three timelines, 1967, 1897 and 2009 at the very end, where a young woman discovers she is the reincarnation of the 1897 woman and also is having a parallel life (same soul) as a 1967 woman.  I really enjoy the historical parts.  Right now I'm reading a series of Regency era mysteries.  I tend to focus on the romantics of the past, the furniture, architecture and clothing.  After recently watching the John Adams series, I was reminded that I much prefer the medical care of today.  After the rather graphic depiction of a smallpox innoculation, leg amputation and masectomy as it was done in the late 18th century, I wonder how hardly anyone survived.  It was very obvious in the film that the dental care of the time left a lot to be desired too.

What started my latest history thing again was giving in and reading "The Lost Symbol".  As with "The DaVinci Code", I barely recall anything of what I read.  It did make me want to look into the Revolutionary War again.  I am also reading "The Autobiography Of George Washington" by Edith Ellis.  Edith Ellis channeled this book in 1944 at the request of Washington and it was finally published in about 2005 or so.  It is way more personal and insightful than what is recorded in the history books.

I have my next painting roughly sketched out.  It's of a covered stone bridge over reflecting water.  I love the photo that I'm painting it from and am aware that what I usually paint has little resemblance to the real subject.  I got some ready-made frames for the little miniatures I've done and am amazed at what a frame can do for a painting.

So, this is how my life's been going as everyday I've somehow not been posting here.