A Reprise

Grandma's birthday carrot cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory.

Not all over. And I must do something tomorrow. Today was really fun drinking tea from my Tare Panda tea set. I have things I need to get from the store, but I hate going to the store on a work day. It means I don't have enough time for reverie and I feel terrible when I go to work. I could begin my Ophelia project. First I would have to buy my domain name and set it up. I do need to launder the darks. I keep forgetting that I won't be home this weekend to do chores. I want so badly to play with Jonah. When I am at work. When I'm at home, I feel too lethargic and morose to be so moved. Maybe tomorrow I can work on my site with Jonah by the window. I can give him a treat. Maybe I will bring Dewey too. I can't just leave him in the cage while I play with my bird.

I used my beautiful Tare Panda tea set this afternoon for the first time and it turned my day around. It keeps the water close to boiling so that the teapot makes the bubbling noise The Book of Tea described as soothing. Actually it is soothing. The heated pot means I can sit here for as long as I want and the tea won't get cold. I wish everyone was as lucky as me. I have been contemplating my website just now to good end. I have a really good idea of what I want to do now. It is just right. It is very pared-down, though. I probably won't use anything but Dreamweaver to make it, and I'm not going to worry about CSS for now, either, since that is a matter of style, not content. Though to be sure I want to learn it. My site will be patterned after the four seasons in honor of my present interest in the haiku. The overall design will be minimal so I can change elements at will, like a Japanese tea room. I know I'm a freak. It's hard to imagine that there was ever a ti

I am so excited. I have a new story. Now that I understand how it works I'm not nervous about my vast lack of knowledge on this subject nor the voids in the story. I know that my stories take a long time to develop, and by the time I feel right about beginning it, there will not be these gaps. It is about a half-Korean woman who falls in love with a betrothed Japanese martial arts instructor. It is based on a story I began two years ago called A Question of Honor. I don't know what I'll do about the title since I have another story by that name now. I know how this works now, and so I'm not afraid. Last night I made a beauty mask and it didn't mix very well. The nonpolar cold cream didn't work with the polar yogurt. However on my face they were great. The nonpolar cream made the yogurt stick to my face when it would have slid off. Next I may try yogurt with glycerin. I really want rose oil. I wish I could find some.

Virtue and industry are rewarded. The near-last thing I wanted to do today was get my car work done, but since I will be traveling this weekend I knew I must. I came outside, which I probably would not have done otherwise, and realized that it is the most beautiful day it has been in a very long while. The sun is so bright it is really hurting my unaccustomed eyes, but the temperature is so cool that walking around while my car is fixed will be nothing. I have also broken my long, long bout of bad luck with servers. Yesterday at Coffee Haus the girl was very rude. Then today the serviceman was somewhat insulting to me because I did not call the valve cap or whatever the correct thing. Today the girl at Starbucks waited on me, the one that looks like Jennifer Aniston, and she was unbelievably nice to me after being brusque all last summer. It seems my luck has turned. Next my favorite song is going to come on the radio, I'm going to get good feedback for my story, and I'm going

I am reading The Book of Tea, which I found by chance on Gutenberg, and it is about much more than tea. It is leading me to think on the things that make me uncomfortable with regard to possession, aesthetics and self-awareness and the realization that even if I do not live according to Asian philosophies, perhaps I could. I seem to have an abundance of one necessary quality: self-discipline, and through this all other modes of living are possible. I am trying to remember what happened this morning. Someone called for Nathan Monteleone. I thought she was a telemarketer. She gave me little trouble when I said he was not home. Then she said something very peculiar. She wanted me to give a message to Jessica Henderson in apt. 534. She gave me her name and extension and asked me to convey it. I said whatever I could to end the conversation as quickly as possible and go back to sleep, including a believable pause in which I retrieved writing implements. Still I wonder what that was all abo

Blanche is, as I suspected, dull, lifeless and inhibited. That is what happens when I read too many guidelines and how-to books. Since writing it, I have decided that there is only one rule I will write by: put myself in the place where I want to be. If I rewrite the story by that rule I think it will be much better. Today I walked through River Legacy park and took many pictures. There were some interesting materials for my consideration: tires, a rusted and dissembled washer and dryer, and a metal barrel. I loved to see the rusted metal in the woods: it made a pleasing picture. Everything was dry and brown, so that my pictures were momochrome and unpleasant-looking, but this was part of my plan. Tomorrow I am going to convert the images to black and white, hopefully re-learning whatever technique enabled me to convert the Colorado River panorama, which is very impressive-looking. I think some of these will be similarly pleasing.

Guitars Originally uploaded by ladyhildegarde . This is supposed to post to Flickr and my weblog at the same time. Wow!

Pier Originally uploaded by ladyhildegarde . Beneath a pier at Lake Conroe, January 2, 2006.