Catching up.

I took the towels off the windows yesterday. It's a low-budget, low-impact, and reasonably effective way to insulate against drafts and the cold. And it's a nice way to feel like the seasons are really turning.

Last Saturday, I went up to the New York Botanical Garden for the orchid show. I almost caught a snake, got to stroke some koi, and took in a lot of buds and a fair number of blossoms. My brother came with me, and after he pointed out a hawk I'd missed spotting, we talked about seeing cherry blossoms in heavy bloom on the trees. Usually the emphasis is given on the falling petals. But seeing them on the trees, sturdy against the sky, is a lovely sight on its own. The magnolias were almost blossoming, and the forest didn't have many leaves out. Springtime is its own transition season, and this year, it's been easy to see that. The slow rising of color and life.

Saturday night, I went out to see Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, which was beautiful, impressive, and left me largely untouched and unmoved. I'm glad I saw it, because it did some wonderful stuff - real candles on stage; real drinking on stage; dozens of parts spread across a six-person cast lead to some gorgeous emotional continuity because it allowed for the idea of who this person was, not just the specific speaking roles; a few props and a handful of chairs and the lights shifting around a static environment crafting an immediacy for each new moment. And mostly, I've been thinking about what did and didn't reach me personally. Not just the art, but the philosophy. At one point, a character asks the others, "What do you answer God?"

And my immediate thought was, "What is the question?"

Tomorrow I'm meeting someone for professional coffee in the afternoon and going to a Buffy-themed trivia event in the evening. On Thursday, I'm going to see Infinity War with a couple of people, and the prospect of going with people is more exciting than the movie itself. The rest of the week is going to work, the usual activities of daily living, and a fair amount of homework that wouldn't be too much bother if I had those nights free. But I don't. So I'm hoping the crunch will help me get a couple of projects structured up ahead of time to get things going without much stress.

What really bugs me is another four nights, maybe five, of looking over beta-reader notes and my own scribblings across assorted notebooks and loose sheets, and I could finish this round of edits and maybe go back to fiddling with chapter titles.