Faulkner on splendid failures:

"Probably the reason the man writes another book is that he tried to—to tell some very important and very moving truth and failed. He's not satisfied, so he tries again. He writes another book, trying to tell some—the same moving truth, since there's only one truth, and they fail. And this one I worked hardest at. It's—it's like the—the idiot child that the parents love the best. This one was the—the most splendid failure,but I—I wish I hadn't done it because if I could do it now, I think I could do it better. Of course, I couldn't, [audience laughter] but I would like to try it again if I had never written it."

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I've gotten lots of notes back on the book from my first readers, none of them requiring radical changes, I think, but all of them making good and helpful suggestions, and I am now kind of aching to dive into revisions. But I told myself that I'd let it sit for a week, plus this weekend we're celebrating Kevin's 40th and Anand's 1st birthday (a few weeks early for Anand), and there will be lots of out-of-town visitors and cooking and cleaning and board game playing and really absolutely no time for writing.

But I still wanna. :-) I'm guessing I'll be busy enough starting today that I'll be sufficiently distracted not to go nuts with wanting to write. But I can still think about the book, right? I'm pretty sure I need another garuda scene...

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I was intrigued by Lisa Gutierrez's Mary Jane crocheted slippers -- they seemed so simple and fast; could they really be? So I started making a pair for myself, and in fact, they were! (About 1.5 hrs per slipper, and simple enough to do while watching tv.) I love them!

But I realized as I was finishing them that my little sister's birthday was coming up. Luckily, she wears the same size shoe I do. So I sent them off to her, and she loved them. I'm making a pair for Kavi now, because she kept stealing the finished one while I was working on the second.

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Just as a minor diet note -- it is almost impossible to eat low-carb on campus unless I bring food in from home. At least, it's impossible if, like me, you want neither a cold salad or a soggy wrap for lunch in the middle of an intense teaching day. Much of the cafe food looks repulsive, and that which looks decent is inevitably pretty carb-heavy.

I need to start planning groceries and meals better if I want to lose any more weight. As it is, I've just been holding steady since the semester started.

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Me: Why won't they let us sleep? If I could just get a few nights in a row of eight hours sleep, I would be so much nicer to live with. Do you remember when I used to make you wonderful dinners, and bring you treats?

Kev: You used to bring me beautiful Australian girls.

Well, technically, I only did that one once. But she was a doozy, and I don't blame him for being sad those days are gone.

I did get eight hours of sleep last night, so this morning I only feel mildly exhausted, instead of about-to-fall-over-exhausted. Perhaps the days of beautiful Australian girls will return...

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