January 06, 2009

6:24 p.m.

Quite a Productive Tuesday

...if I do say so. Categorywise, I only did two things: completed and sent in my MacDowell application, and made lamb stew. However, these two things took the entire day. I labored cunningly over my project proposal, which I invented just this morning. It turned out to be so intriguing that I actually want to do this CD. My great grandparents were among the hopeful settlers who participated in the 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush. The project involves songs celebrating the loves and hardships of those people... my forebears. Because, ultimately, it's still all about ME. The keystone song is already written and recorded. It's a(n imagined) love letter from my great granddad to his wife after their covered wagon-journey to the plains of Oklahoma to build their ranch.

Meanwhile Wes was also working on his application, which, though he's a famous musician, is an autobiography of his music career, so it falls in the nonfiction writing category instead of composition. He's working with a publisher already and has a bunch of chapters written. He was all wigged out about the application process and the paperwork, so we'd slated today as the day we worked through it all and sent it out. After I was done, then, I took my materials over to his apartment and helped him fill out all the boxes and assemble the various parts.

Then to the post office to dispatch my packet; to the spirit shop to get wine; and back home, to await the coming of the sleet. It's supposed to suck all night and all day tomorrow. I've cancelled everything. I'll stay in and wash my other bulky sweater. The next Netflix will come in the mail. I got my application out; I'm so relieved. My gut can relax.

And the lamb stew -- I'm trying to recreate the soup we were fed last weekend. The slow cooker has been warming the kitchen all afternoon. I got a multigrain ciabatta and had a hunk dipped in olive oil and italian herbs. Nothing has ever tasted so good.