Day One

I half-strolled, half-rode to Dolcezza, with my ailing laptop, still good enough for writing, exactly at noon. Kind of symbolic.
I have rewritten my new story, New York, New York. I know it's not really the most imaginative title, but it works for now.
So, it took me three hours to significantly rewrite 4,000 words.
Not bad.
So, I'm down to...wait for it...wait for it...(How I met you mother, I know, it's just so funny and I swear, I have never used it before)....-19,600 words!
That's about half of what I need.
Of course, I will need to do a little more edits for this story, but nothing significant, I hope.
I'm waiting for the feedback on it first.
So, I will get some late lunch now, I try to do some more work this afternoon/evening.
Damn, it's cold outside! Good for writing I guess.

Countdown

Countdown to finishing my second version of my first book of prose starts tomorrow!
I will keep a blog-journal of what I do every day towards the goal of finishing it by Jan. 27, since on Jan. 28 I will be on Grand Cayman Island drinking a Strawberry Daiquiri. Oh, yes!
I want to submit my manuscript to a book competition at the end of this month.
I have about half of 40,000 words ready to go, and another 10,000 in the works. So I need to drain 10,000 out of my head or my first version.
The problem with that is that I have become a better writer in a year. So, whatever there was in the first version, needs to be reworked.
And I have...what...23 days. (Faint sound)
You should keep me in shape with your comments.
I like deadlines, they help me strengthen out. Like boot camp.
So, let the games begin....tomorrow, that is. Now I will watch new Parenthood.
Challenge Number One of 2012!

Burning PCs, I mean, Word...

This new year has started well and not so well for me. The "well" part is that one of my poems is going to be published in the Burning Word magazine by the end of this week. It's a poem I wrote a long time ago, and it was published in Serbia and Serbian in 2002. but when I started building my brilliant-idea hybrid book, I translated some of my poems. You see, last year, I envisioned my book somewhat as the New Yorker--short stories, essays, poems and plays, but I guess that was a little too creative for the depleting publishing market of 2011.
This year I decided to be boring and only write short stories.
Maybe a novel later on.
While looking for an outlet for my stories, I stumbled upon the Burning Word that accepts flash fiction (I only have one flash fiction story) and poems. So I said, "why not" and I sent a few.
I got an e-mail on Jan. 1, 2012 (cool, right?!) saying they loved it and want to publish it.
This was while I was buying and listening to my favorite Bijelo Dugme songs, on iTunes. It was a good moment.
The not so good part is that I hate my PC. And all PCs. I was actually so frustrated with my Toshiba Satellite yesterday that I went to an Apple store to look at Macs.
I got some Vista Security 2012 virus on it, on Christmas day, and whatever I did, I couldn't get rid of it. It would actually completely hijack my laptop, and my laptop is my right hand. I am kind of lost without it, and very, very obnoxious to be around if there's something wrong with it ( just ask my husband.)
So, then I spent half a day working on it, finally uploaded Norton antivirus, which then screwed up my Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox so now I probably don't have a virus on my laptop, but I can't use Internet either.
Even this stupid little Notebook of Dell's I'm writing on right now, I really, sincerely want to smash against the wall. And I'm not a violent person. Usually.
So, I'm waiting for my next big payday and I'm getting myself a Mac Air. And with it, my sanity back.

Five days in New York City

Back in DC after five days in NYC. We (my husband and I) have covered a lot of ground by foot in five days. We have lived in Manhattan for three years, until 2010, so we're not tourists nor New Yorkers any more ( :-(( but some strange hybrids who still hate tourists and crowds, but have their favorite places in the city close to those crowds of tourists. Like Union Square or Soho's Broadway.

And NYC at Christmas is really beautiful, with sparkling blue and white trees left and right and Christmas music literary everywhere you go, even on subways and streets.

So, this is, in a nutshell, what we did, and what you should do, if you have good taste, next time you are in NYC.

We love great cappuccinos and lattes so we went to La Colombe in Soho twice in five days. And we stayed with friends in Long Island City, so it was not that close to us. Not only that La Colombe has great espresso, makes great cappuccinos in stylish dark-blue and white cappuccino mugs (very important for the experience of slowly sipping great cappuccino) but also they use organic milk! Score!

The location could not be more perfect, especially at Christmas. It's two blocks away from Broadway, so away from the crowds but close to shopping. If you're a woman or a shopping-loving man, you'll know what I mean.

We also had pizza in L'Asso, a new friendly neighborhood pizza place, which was good, not great.

Guacamole and vegetable quesadillas in Rosa Mexicana in Union Square only for two reasons: I was craving guacamole, and we were in Union Square when I was craving it. They make the best guacamole!

Third Rail coffee close to Washington Square Park was good too.

Cafe Joul on Upper East Side had a mediocre fixed-price brunch--poached eggs with tomato, hollandaise and broccoli was our, probably the wrong choice. I would pass on this one. The location is not interesting either.

The best meal we had this time was in Eataly--mushroom risotto and mushroom-tomato polenta. Both, just, excellent! I love Eataly.

And we saw two movies, when our feet were hurting--The Descendants and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

The Descendants was amazing, in fact so good, that I think Clooney will get the Oscar next year.

And Tinker, Tailor, something, was so slow that I wanted to lift my feet on the chair in front and take a nap. Life is unfortunately not long enough for movies like that.

What else?

We did some shopping in Soho and Union Square--Union Square had its annual open Christmas bazaar with original, usually foreign gifts, food and drinks.

We also went to Cafe Falai twice, both times to have bomboloni, Italian, or really, European donuts, with marmalade inside, wrapped in granulated sugar. No resemblance to American, Dunkin donuts, which I loathe and think are made of plastic. No pun intended.

All in all, a very productive visit, so much that I still sleep until 10am (I was waking up at 8am while there).

I guess there's more time for sleeping in DC. But to be honest, I'm glad I'm back. It's just different, living in a city so fun and huge as NYC, and visiting. When you live in it, you're not in any rush to do anything, but when you visit, you feel like you have to get as much as you can out of it, while you can.

And you exhaust yourself...but it's worth it...if you have time to sleep in.

Caribbean, where art thou?

I blatantly asked my in-laws if I could use one of their two timeshares. I desperately want to go to Caribbean in January. I love the Caribbean sea and islands and hate winters in DC. Hate them! Then again, I hate winters anywhere. Well, maybe not in Paris. Definitely not in Paris. Sigh.
So, they of course said yes. But easier said than done. Everything is taken! Everything good, that is, everything you could easily reach from DC, such as St. Martin, USVI, Aruba...
Crisis, my respectable behind. In what world crisis did people descend on Caribbean?! Give me a break. I love how American whine to unwhineable stuff.
Actually, I'm an American too. Just half though. One third maybe. And I love to whine.
I'm sure not everyone is doing fine, but isn't that the case at any given time?
So, what's left is Mexico, Cancun. Plenty of Mexico. And some average place in Bahamas. Venezuela (I don't think so.) And Curacao which is wonderful, but there's no direct flight from DC, and the trip lasts eight-nine hours because of the layover. I could be in London by then, and then some.
So, I'm still looking for that perfect, affordable Caribbean vacation in January when I can go to the beach twice a day, and shop during the early afternoon. And eat tons of seafood. Drink Strawberry Daiquiris. And laugh at the forecast at DC.
For a week, at least. But then our whole lives consist of weeks, days, moments.
No, I won't go philosophical on you...yet.

Christmas Exit

I was invited to an Atlantic magazine's event last night in the Watergate building, The Exit Interview, in honor of the departing British Ambassador.
Usually, I'm invited with a guest to these high-profile Washington events, but this time, it was only me. I was just a tiny bit nervous, but then, I just started talking to everybody, even though I only knew one person (a very busy person) in the room. (So proud :)
It was exactly as I expected--a beautiful room on the 8th floor, waiters with trays of white wine and mineral water (I asked for red, just to be different :) Not really. ), bowls of nuts. Lots of foreign policy people, public diplomacy people, journalists, diplomats. Some women, some young men, lots of balding, gray-haired, middle aged men. This observation comes from someone sitting in the last row, by choice, during the interview, and being shined by lots of heads :)
I met several interesting people, including the British Ambassador briefly, since he was rushing of to some high-profile Christmas party.
Speaking of high-profile Christmas parties, I have one to attend myself, tonight. And I got a dress for it.

The art of rewrite

You must be tired of my stories about rewriting stories. But, tis the process.
Last night, I brought my rewrite of the Balkan Voodoo to my writing group, and they, of course, butchered it. But I love them anyway.
Not really. They said that it has improved, but I still need to flush out some aspects of my main characters and her relationship to Voodoo. Of course, I have no idea how to do this. Neither did they.
But it's a valid point, so I came to my "office" i.e. a cafe, ordered a latte and I'm hoping caffeine will help me come up with usable ideas.
It's not easy to achieve perfection. And that's what I'm striving toward. The story is very good as it is. But it can be better.
I guess everything could always be better.
So, instead of perpetually working on one thing, when do you say enough, and move on?
For me, it's usually the third rewrite.