Jackie Wilson, Where Art Thou?

The holiday thing is happening. The thing where I just endure my day-to-day from sometime in December until early January. The stress in the air from all the humans in a ten-mile radius is painfully palpable, for me at least. I had to shop at the mall yesterday morning and I'm still recovering from all the negative energy. It was like that scene in Ghostbusters II where Ray and Winston start yelling at each other for no reason.

Pink slime = "holiday spirit" 

Partly for that reason, that I'm still grumpy and headachy (and I STILL didn't find the right goddamned dress), I haven't got much to share with you today. Maybe next week I'll have a glut of Topics to write about.

The opera on Saturday was Un Ballo in Maschera, by Verdi, and I think it may have been the best opera I've yet seen. Many of the reviews of the production said the opposite things about it that I thought - they said the staging was unoriginal and forced, when I thought it was innovative and revealing; they said the tenor lead was known for being a poor actor when I thought his acting was one of the best parts of the show; they said Kathleen Kim was physically awkward and mediocre when I thought she was perfect and adorable. I suppose I will never be an opera critic, but I think that means I'll enjoy it a lot more, so it's okay. The encore is on January 9th, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to go again. I suggest you all go too. It's an opera that shows how weird and interesting and stunningly emotional opera can be. If you can sit through it and you cry and boggle the way I did, you'll love opera for life.

I'm pushing through KUFC word by word. Yesterday I wrote a somewhat fragmented chapter and finished it off with a sex scene, which was fun. I love writing sex scenes. Also, I did some revisions on the urn story last night that I hope will improve it. I wish I had a better sense of how subtle is too subtle, but it's the thing I have learned I am most terrible at judging in my own writing.

That's shaping up to be a long list, actually, things I am terrible at judging in my own writing. Ah well.