Canada: Day 4

Didn't post yesterday -- sorry. Happy fourth of July, everyone! I've traditionally been out of the country on the Fourth and this year is no exception. My aunt Carrie did create a "Fourth of July" tree, though. A real little tree that we cut down. What should we decorate it with? Popcorn? Red, white, and blue?

Yesterday, Big Project progress came to a screetching halt. Big zero.

Pages written on Big Project: 0
However, pages written on play: Eleven!

So...that's good, right? Some progress? I also think I very much see the end of the play -- a few more scenes and it's done (a short two-acter). The thought of finishing something is intoxicating; maybe that's the advantage of writing a long-ass Big Project (BP): you get so crazed with frustration that you finish other things.

And I started the BP when I was trying not to write a philosophy paper on the metaphysical reality of fictional characters...so I'm all for procrastination.

Things I've done instead of write, yesterday and today:

1) Bike ride into Port Sanfield. A mile both ways. I know you real bikers are like "Man, I do two miles before breakfast," but for me it was a big deal.
2) Finish Philadelphia Fire.
3) Ditch all the books I've brought up here to read a ratty paperback edition of John Updike's Couples, about which I have complex thoughts, but I just vented them in an email to Matt, and am now bored with thinking about it.
4) Take the boat up to Windemere with family and have sushi (!) on the lake.
5) Swim to neighboring cabin and back.
6) Make scones.

No progress yet today. Bad Laura. No cookie. It's possible today might be salvaged, but I'm not sure. I really do have to start first thing, peeling myself away from my bed and going out onto the porch to write, before I talk to anyone. I have a coffee-maker in the cabin, so there's no excuse not to get up, make coffee, and get to work. If I don't, if I wander over the cottage and eat breakfast and chat to my uncle and aunt, I end up collapsing on the bed on the veranda and reading and then getting sucked into some scheme for the day. Doing delicious vacationy things like drinking gin and tonic far too early and napping in the sun or swimming or cooking or taking a bide ride or going on an expedition in the boat.

Read in the paper that eating chocolate in the morning combats your cravings for sweets later in the day. At night I dreamed I ordered pasta made out of chocolate. In the morning Carrie gave me a piece of chocolate with pepper in it. I ate it too fast and it burned my mouth and didn't reduce my chocolate cravings at all.

I miss all of you and talk to you my head a lot.