Man, I kicked this weekend’s butt and took names. I have a place to stick my vegetables. I have a clean kitchen and a clean bathroom. I’m hardening off my veggies so they can go into the ground next weekend. The tomatoes are already ready to go. I always forget how tomatoes are like “Doot-doot-doot. I am small” until one day they’re on the basketball team, like overnight.
Some day I will get the hang of tomatoes and plant them in the ground the moment before they’re all gangly instead of the moment after.
I got all of my errands run and the only thing left on my t0-do list is to pick some stories for Thursday’s reading at the JCC.
And I just fucking rocked my manuscript. Spent a good chunk of my weekend on it, like some madwoman with my computer on the couch, with comments and notes pulled up, a printed-out version of the manuscript on my lap, and a red pen. And I just went at it, reconfiguring some stuff and working to make some themes more obvious and rewriting two parts completely.
So, now my task for this week is to incorporate all those changes into the manuscript, then incorporate K.’s stuff, and then give it a good once-over just to see if it works how I want it to work now.
But I’m feeling really good about it. Every time I read it, I like it. And every time I read it, I wonder what it will be like for ministers’ kids to read it, if they’ll like it and find something honest about our experiences in there. I’m hoping everyone likes it, of course, but I have my dream audience, too. So, here’s hoping I can sell some other folks on the idea.
I don’t know. You never know how this shit is going to go, obviously. But I just really, really want to try.
Tiny Cat Pants 
Congrats on a great weekend! I’ve been lurking here for a while, and I suppose it says nothing good about me that I’ve been all excited watching your book grow, but I’m finally commenting because I don’t know what “hardening off vegetables” means. I’m imagining little cucumbers with callouses.
That’s pretty much it. You take them outside, you teach them how to roll a cigarette, give them their first shot of whiskey, and send them in to town to kill a man. When they come back, if they come back, you plant them. The tomatoes never have any problem with this.
Or you could go the non-murderous way and take a week and put them outside during the day and bring them inside at night to help them get used to being directly in the sun before you stick them in the ground.
Either way.
Anyway, welcome!
Heh, my tomatoes have been in the ground about 3 wks, and they’re definitely ready for JV basketball. Very preteen and gawky.
Wish I’d known about this “hardening” process before I was put out in the cold, cruel world forevah. It probably wouldn’t have been able to penetrate through my hard head though. *sigh*
TN Volette, if you’re still feeling fragile about it, you could sit under the top of a milk carton for a few days until you start to be more at home in the world.
“The tomatoes are already ready to go. I always forget how tomatoes are like ‘Doot-doot-doot. I am small’ until one day they’re on the basketball team, like overnight.”
This is the best thing I’ve read this morning, and it’s stuff like this that’s why I stuck around after I stumbled over here from wherever it was I stumbled in from…
nm thanks for the suggestion. Sometimes I do feel fragile about it and would gladly sit under a milk carton, other times I feel way “over hardened”…so I just have to take it on a day-to-day basis. lol
I will totally be finishing it up, it’s been totally busyfrustratingmaking over here recently.
I’m leaving you this link, which I have not bothered to read, because the title made me think of you: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2011/04/12/how-not-to-bug-the-fuck-out-when-writing-a-novel/
Are you saying that I shouldn’t have been giving my plants cigarettes and whiskey? Perhaps this is why all my houseplants die.
Also, thanks!