(no subject)

[olmue]

So the other day I wrote a one-sentence summary of each chapter of one book and cut them into homemade sticky notes and taped them on my wall. The idea is to see the whole book at once. Does that help the overall structure? Well, sort of. I can see where some arcs dwindle into nothing and others emerge out of nowhere. I think overall, it's depressing, actually. I'm trying to see which whole scenes/threads I can lop so I can add in the stuff I think I'll need to. On the other hand, I'd much rather just jump back into the new book I'm writing, and apply all I've been thinking of to whole cloth.

Unfortunately, I can't do that, either. If you ever plan to move to Germany and adopt my lifestyle, please, get a personal fitness trainer about a year beforehand. And maybe a personal secretary, too. Here's my day (and all of it is on foot): get two kids out the door to school. Get a third child out of bed and to kindergarten. Come home and get husband and fourth child and walk to a bank, a mile away, to sign numerous papers and give bizarre data (why is it necessary to know when a person's parents were married in order for a child to open a savings account?) so that our six-year-old can have a saving account. The bank, which is kind of the chainiest chain bank in this country, is doing this thing with son's class on savings. They all opened a savings account, and over the next year they'll have regular opportunities to drop money in their account. Okay, it's a nice idea. But a) we use a different bank, b) aside from small things like allowance, any real money our kid gets will be in dollars, not Euros, c) if he puts his allowance and tooth fairy money in the bank, he can't buy gum with it, which is disturbing to him, and d) I don't know how many times we've run to said bank to get them one more document. Passport copies--from both of us--a birth certificate of our child, etc. They wanted to know where our passports were issued. If you renew through the mail, the National Passport Authority does it. There IS no city listed, no matter how much a German beaurocrat wants to know!!

So that left me about an hour to run into town and try to buy a book and a backpack and a birthday present, and then come racing home again (all of this is on foot/with buses, have I mentioned that?) to pick up the kindergartener. The other kids came home, we had about an hour (during which one individual had a meltdown), then we had to go to a birthday party. My younger son's best friend invited both boys to his birthday. Our kids have had a hard time making friends this year, so even though we already had people invited for dinner tonight, and the two events cross over slightly, we are glad to facilitate the party-going. Of course, this meant bringing all four kids a mile away on foot. The boys were on scooters. Older daughter was on a bike. Younger daughter in stroller. Which meant--mom got to jog. (Note to self: regular strollers with high handles are not comfortable for running.) Some amount of dryerless laundry has had to go on today, too, running up and down between the basement and second floor, because oldest son has his week-long class trip on Monday, and will need to bring clothes. And it's been raining all week, which is spectacular for laundry. In just a bit I'll have to start this dinner, then either pick up the boys or send my husband when he gets home, and then entertain tonight. And tomorrow is the city children's festival, and our kids are going to be singing in that.

Yes, I know I'm whining, but I'm TIRED!

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

We do have pretty nice sidewalks where I live, at least...but really, the only thing in walking distance is a hole-in-the-wall winghouse and an ice cream/sub shop. One time I decided to walk to the winghouse, which was, at the time, a bagel shop. I thought, oh, a walk and a bagel, how nice! But crossing the street was a terrifying prospect. I live off a pretty big, busy road, and people were constantly making turns at the intersection without really looking for pedestrians. People drive so scarily, they really don't watch out for people on foot or bicycles...because, really, there hardly ARE any. And of course, a lot of areas don't have good sidewalks. Only neighborhoods do so suburbanites can go jogging and walk their dogs, but around places you might actually want to go for a purpose, not so much. Even in downtown Orlando there is hardly anyone walking around! I hope I can move either to a larger city, or to a small town where things are close together.

[olmue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sometimes you just want to go around and picket for sidewalks! No-sidewalk communities are dangerous and annoying (and unhealthy!)