My friend Kevin sent me this picture from our visit to an abandoned mental hospital in Kings Park, LI.
I like his composition.
A book review had this line, it was a loving tribute to her cat, it went something like, “to (cat's name), who sat on my work for 18 years.”
When I was organizing my Duke papers, I’d start with a decade, and make one pile for each year. The cats would come and pick a pile and sit on it. I’d have to make alternate piles. So 1952 became 1952 and 1952B, and so on. And I have two cats.
Except - I’M DONE. So there! Take that cats! Go find a magazine or book I want to read and sit on that! That's right. No more piles of papers. I've foiled you this time, cats.
Here is Finney in a relatively benign spot. On top of a box on top of the armoire. He loves that box.
1. New covers. Here's the cover for the British paperback edition.
2. Working at home.
3. Getting to see stuff. (Like going to the Property Clerk Warehouse when I was writing the cold case book, or going into the attic of the Rhine Research Center to see the scientist's old equipment for Parapsychology Lab book.)
4. Interviewing. That can go either way, obviously.
5. Seeing your book in bookstores.
6. Email from people who read your book and have interesting thoughts or suggestions. Or, just say something nice.
7. Meeting with your agent and/or editor and getting to go on and on about all the cool stuff you're finding out.
8. Amazon and Barnes & Noble stats! Alright, let's just say from now on it goes without saying that any one of these can go horribly horribly wrong.
9. When someone says something nice about your book on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
10. Research. Those months I spent at Duke were heaven, even though I was staying in a dreary motel. There is just nothing like being immersed in a story that has grabbed you. It's one of those, "I can't believe they're paying me to do this," things.
11. Reviews.
12. People quoting you. OH!! There's a show that I love love love called Bones. They basically quoted me. They used something I had written about a cadaver dog. It had to have come from me -- they pretty much used my exact wording, and I had been telling that story all over the place while I was promoting my book. That show keeps getting better and better. (And I'm not just saying that because they kinda quoted me. Ask anyone. I've been telling my friends to watch this show.)
13. People saying nice things about your book on their blogs.
14. Getting invited to fun things. I'm hoping I get invited to a seance or haunted house or something for this book. Although that was not what the Duke guys were into. Still. I mean, come on. Haunted houses??
I pretty much think I have one of the best jobs in the world. Although there are other things I'd like to do if I was smarter or more talented:
Work in the ME's office.
Be a singer.
Some political office. I never used to care about politics, but we are now on such a downward spiral, I wish I could do something about it.
Saturday
- Went to choir practice.
- Then Union Square. Stopped to listen to music. There was a cute banjo player. When they took a break I went up to him and asked him about banjos. Very unlike me to just prance up to strangers without any real reason except they're cute and play an instrument I like and want to learn.
- Lunch at City Bakery.
- Emmet Gowin show at Pace McGill.
- Research at the Museum of TV and Radio.
- Walked home without my headphones. (About 50 blocks.)
- Continued organizing the papers I brought back from Duke. The movie Signs was on in the background. I watch that movie every freaking time it's on. I can't resist. The basic message -- horrible things might have a good end result -- is just too comforting. I must watch.
Sunday (today)
- Brunch out somewhere.
- Browse a book store.
- Museum of TV & Radio again.
- Met. Although maybe not. There's nothing I'm dying to see there right now, I don't think. Except I feel like looking at art, so what the hell. They got some there.
- Organize more papers. I'm up to 1955.
Hell. I see it's supposed to rain. It's getting darker as I type. I may not be able to have such a wandering, walk around day.
I've missed rehearsing so much. The whole thing of singing in a choir is singing with other people. But so far I've been working on Mendelssohn's Elijah ALONE. Tonight I sing with people! Ohmygod. Mendelssohn's Elijah is ... PEOPLE. (Soylent Green humor.)
Among the various pieces we're rehearsing tonight is #35. For some reason, this is one my favorites. I say "for some reason" because the choir's part is very simple. No show-offy parts anywhere. What's the appeal?? But for whatever reason, this one is so satisfying to sing. I love it. Also, for some perverse reason, I find measure 34 difficult to get right. There's no good explanation anywhere on earth for this, it's as simple as it gets. Seriously. It's Three-Blind-Mice-level easy. But I tend to mess it up. Wish me luck.
I've spent all morning at YouTube. Here's an early favorite. Even if you hate cats, take a look. Trust me. You'll thank me.
The cats are already back sleeping in one of their favorite spots (it also happens to be my favorite spot, too).
I'm back at my desk, with pretty daffodils. To the left are the boxes of papers and tapes I brought back with me.
But I wanted to post the last of my Durham shots. Here is Ruby shopping at the Target.
And here's the great picture Ruby took of me and Finn in my kitchen at the Extended Stay Hotel.
We're going to Target later, but so far we went to lunch at the Washington Duke Inn and then for a walk. Ruby having her lunch.
Ruby walking down the hall towards the ballroom.
Is this dress ugly? I liked it. Ruby didn't and Ruby wants to take a vote. Ugly or no?
"Take a close-up," she said. "So people can really see just how ugly it is."
Ruby likes this statue, however. Not ugly.
Ruby walking a nature walk.
Ruby gets a completely renovated room. Note how fresh and clean everything is! Note the new wood floors!!
My friend Ruby is on her way down to drive back to New York with me and the cats. ON SUNDAY.
Before I go I want to thank everyone who made my time here so great. (Although I will think of a more fun thank you when I get back to New York.)
First, here are the people at The Special Collections Library at Duke. I spent the most time with them (six days a week!!). I'm going to sound like every other "thank you," but I swear they really were incredible. There wasn't anything they wouldn't do to help, they were fun, they made suggestions about other collections that might help with my research -- they even fed me and took me to buy kitty litter for the boys.
Thank you all!
You've all been great and fun to work with, and I will miss everyone. I don't think there's a single thing you could have done to make my visit better.
Linda McCurdy, Eleanor Mills and Janie Morris from the left.
Linda McCurdy, Eleanor Mills and Janie Morris from the right.
Elizabeth Dunn (amazing cook).
Linda McCurdy (action shot).
Zach Elder (action shot).
I also want to bring back this picture of Zach, which I think captures the real Zach Elder.
Lynn Eaton.
Laura Micham.
And this is me, sitting where I’ve been sitting six days a week, from 9 to 6, for almost two and a half months, going through one of my last boxes.
I completely forgot to bring a camera with me to the Rhine Research Center, now run by J. B. Rhine's daughter, Dr. Sally Rhine Feather, who also fed me and opened doors for me, lent me books, and otherwise has been as gracious as can be. Lots of people helped me there too, including Dr. Jim Carpenter, Ben Perry (who has been lugging around old film projectors I can barely lift so I can hopefully one day get to see films of the people I will never meet but must bring to life) Deana Cloverfox, Joyce Daniel, Barbara Ensrud (who also fed me and took me shopping!) and Temple Richmond (who did my chart and told me all sorts of things to look forward to). Sally also personally drove me to meet and interview the fabulous Betty MacMahan, who is one of the scientists I will be writing about.
There must be people I'm forgetting. Forgive me. I'll make it up to you if I have.
Oh! If you’re ever in Durham and need to be here for a while, The Extended Stay Hotel has the best deal, including a daily shuttle that will take you back and forth to Duke, and fabulous drivers: William, Omar, Chris, Danny and Ed. You also get a free membership to Beyond Fitness right down the road, and, if you use this you should definitely sign up for a personal trainer (not free, but very reasonable) and if you do that, ask for Iris Ferrell. In addition to being a good trainer, she's just a lot of fun. She'll make you crack up while you're trying to remember to breath!
Goodbye, everyone. Thank you for taking such good care of me and Buddy and Finnegan.
I love this blog. It's pictures of baby animals with very funny commentary. It's not cute. It can get crude, there are typos galore, but spend a couple minutes reading it. You'll get into it. He--actually I don't know who the person is, he reads male--anyway, he has his charms.
It's called "Just a Little Guy."
Five more days! Until I'm back on Perry Street where I belong. I looked for pictures of my block. This is Perry Street one block East. Much nicer than my block. This is where they shot Carrie's apartment for Sex and the City. (Their crews where the nicest crews. TV and film crews can be miserable to have around, but theirs were alway polite and fun.)
Here's Perry Street all the way West. It's the worst part of Perry Street since these towers went up.
I couldn't find my block so here's a shot inside. Kinda cluttery, I know. I do my best. I'm not even a hoarder, I'm a thrower-outer. But you live in one place long enough, things accumulate. (Am I repeating myself? I think I already said the exact same thing here in an earlier post.)
I've started a list of things to do when I get back:
Fix glasses (stepped on my favorite glasses the first week here).
Home Spa Day (I need some sprucing up).
Backup iBook (forgot to bring a back up device for one of my computers).
Healthy snacks (been od'ing on Smarties here, my comfort food).
Buy weights (I got into working out!).
Look into gyms (see above).
Go to Lush store (Bath Bombs!!).
Hair cut (need desparately).
Go to Met, Moma, hit the Chelsea galleries (not something I do a lot when I'm actually there, but I feel the need).
Laundry and dry cleaning (needs no explanation).
Walk to Battery Park bench (I have a favorite spot to sit downtown).
Take cats for dental work (poor things).
Okay, they sleep while I watch the Oscars.
Comment spam. Every day I have to delete comment spam. What the fuck do they even expect to gain?? They post spam in old posts that no one looks at anymore.
The worst is when they post spam to my blog about unsolved murder. Under a post about a murdered child I'll find spam for drugs and porn. These people really do suck.
Oh, I just read that the point is it makes the jerks pages look like they're getting a lot of traffic. I'm not a programmer. Can anyone tell me what I can do to at least slow it down? I block the IP's everytime it happens, but of course there are endless IP's, it's not a terribly useful solution. I wildcard it when I can, when I get a lot from a certain range of IP addresses.
People suck. Except for you guys, of course.
Thanks to Janie Morris at the Special Collections Library, I'm giving a presentation about my research at a Scholar's Tea. Look at this great ad that appeared in today's paper!
I did 23 boxes yesterday. That's a record. 23.
23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23.23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23. 23.
