31
Aug
Sunday Perfect Sunday
0
I don’t like Sundays. The end of the weekend makes me sad and oddly perfectionistic. (I wanted to do these 27 things and I only did 19! Gah! I am a Terrible Person!) But today was an exception. Three-day weekends are one of the more brilliant inventions ever.
I spent the afternoon at the Kennedy Center’s Page to Stage Festival. It’s the third year my husband’s participated. I hadn’t read all of his new one-act–it’s very very new–and it was cool to watch it unfold, not knowing the ending. The play’s a series of tall tales told by two sisters, and both actresses were fantastic. I loved how the tales all wove together in the end, and how it let Steve use a more colorful, lyrical style than usual. Afterwards I saw Act One of a musical written by MFA playwriting and DFA musical comp students. I was sitting next to the composer. Initially I feared that might be awkward. (I hate having to employ my catch-all "Congratulations!") There are obvious exceptions like Moulin Rouge and Rent, but 90% of the time I’m a straight-play person. But I totally enjoyed it. The script was hysterical; the music was super-catchy. I even got to take a break between shows to sit in a coffee shop, read, and have a Chocolate Chai. (Dd you know this existed? Why didn’t anyone ever tell me?)
On the way home we went to Barnes & Noble, where I picked up books 3 and 4 in Rachel Caine’s Morganville Vampires series. These books are compulsively readable, people. I could not put 3 down until I finished it. Nonstop action, a completely winsome MC, seriously brilliant plotting that sets up all kinds of natural obstacles, and a really hot love interest. I also bought Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, because it looks cool.
And then, as if a day combining theatre and new books was not awesome enough, I got my first feedback from draft 2. From someone who didn’t read draft 1. She’s going to give me more constructive criticism later, but she said that she started reading it and couldn’t put it down. She read until 1 a.m., thought about it while falling asleep, and then read this morning until she finished. She forgot she was reading a friend’s ms and not a real published book! And <giddy sigh> that’s the best compliment I could hope for. I know not everyone will have that experience, and that’s okay. But it meant so much to me. My friends are not all writers, but they are all voracious readers and very smart people. Not the coddling type.
So, yes. A nearly perfect day draws to a close.
