Sunday, November 17th, 2002 - Ladyfingers I am typing this while wearing a lovely, deep blue sapphire ring on my left ring finger. Yes, the ring hippies finally came through! We picked up the ring Saturday afternoon, and though I tried it on, Tim wouldn't let me have it yet (we wanted to wait until he did his whole big proposal that he's been planing). About halfway through watching The Professional (good movie!) Saturday night, Tim said to me, "It's silly that you don't have the ring yet, isn't it? I mean, you know I have it, you've tried it on -- would you like to wear it? Would it make you happy?" I said, yes, I really really wanted to wear it now. So he put it on my finger for me and we hugged and kissed and it was just lovely. It's been a lovely weekend overall. Later Saturday night I took my laptop up to Tim's garret, where I revised When We Were Twelve (WWW12). I rewrote the entire ending, slowing it down and generally showing instead of telling; I also put more details in earlier. Most of the improvements were inspired by Greg's critique that he kindly did for me months ago. I've been reading over his comments about once every two weeks, reading through the whole story, nodding at the fact that yup, he's right about that, then deciding I just didn't have it in me to rewrite the ending just then and giving up. It's all the better for having percolated for so long, I think; the ending is one I just came up last night, and I think it's the best of the lot. I'm very excited about getting this story out in circulation soon. Tim has been working like a devil on his novel this weekend. He just came down and told me that he has the first chapter for me to read! Whoo! I'm very much looking forward to reading his book. I've read some of the beginning before, but most of it after the first quarter will be new to me. I love reading Tim's work; my fiancee is a talented boy. Hee! My fiancee! Anyway, I'm sure there's more I meant to mention here, but really I just wanted to check in, not let it get to be a week before you hear from me again. Hope you all had a lovely weekend too. Discuss writing, revising and love and how they interelate. Use examples from class discusions, as well as your text, to help support your answer.

Exercise Log: Walked all over Berkeley with a very heavy pack full of clothes strapped to my back on Saturday. Was trying to sell the clothes, and had foolishly assumed that the first place would buy most of them straight off, thus lightening my load; I spent over an hour (not travel time, just waiting to be seen time and watching bitchy thin women paw over my clothes time) and sold not a garmet. Fuck. I was really hoping to make some cash that way. Excellent exercise, though. Writing log: Revised WWW12! Finally! It's only been months and months! It now has a much better ending (I think my first drafts almost always have rushed endings -- I tend to get excited about having finished and zoom towards the finish line) and more detail overall. Hopefully Tim can give me a good line edit soon and I'll have it in circulation before this weekend. I love this story; I hope someone buys it! Current Publications: In the Shade of You nominated in the long poem category for the Rhysling and will be reprinted in the 2002 Rhysling Anthology! "How to Suck" reprinted in From Porn to Poetry: Clean Sheets Celebrates the Erotic Mind I've been reading: Currently Reading: In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson Donate money to my teeth, my grad school application fees, our writerly projects (Floodwater and Flytrap!). Every little bit helps!

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