Recap
For posterity, or whatever. Also so I can track my own progress on various fronts.
Day -2
During the day, I buy a black and gold cigarette-shaped one hitter with J. at a shop near Washington Square Park. It reminds me of the Nat Shermans we used to smoke in college. At night I cook sausage and mushroom pasta for C.Y. He brings copious snack items: lightly salted crackers, rosemary shortbread cookies, chocolate. We drink red wine. He wants to make love but I am not quite there yet.
Day -1
Thesis defense. Last MFA class. Alina's reading, where I run into P. and others. Luke and Tz. join me on the way back to Greenpoint. We meet up with J. at Beloved for several rounds of beers. She leaves early. Tz. and Luke are funny companions to have on this last night.
Day 0
Wake up early to pack. Hungover, probably because I didn't really eat dinner the night before (two empanadas don't count!). Mad scramble to finish things during my half-day in the office. J. and I smoke one last cigarette at our stoop. It's a perfect spring day. I nibble a cookie before I take off for Penn Station. Of course the train is delayed by half an hour or so. I'm ravenous by the time I arrive in Ghent. Everyone is so exceedingly pleasant, the housekeeper who picks me up, the director of the program. I go to a reading by the latter in a local bookstore with all the residents. Then we have dinner on the back porch with Jill, a publisher. Bottle after bottle of wine is circulated, emptied, and replaced. I'm just starting to settle in, go to bed exhausted but fidgety.
Day 1
Discovering the amazing sculpture park on grounds. Huge open fields punctuated by monoliths, slabs of wood, elaborate structures. So many bugs. At night we each give a reading at the visitor center and sit on the grass afterward eating from paper plates. We end up back on the hill. I smoke with Tia before rejoining everybody on the back porch for more wine and whiskey. The lot of us walk off into the woods. I share pot with A. "I will always remember this night," she says. "For the rest of my life." There is something sweet and solid about this woman, who translates from Russian to Dutch. I felt an instinctive affinity for her. By the time we get back, it is raining lightly, and the black leather of my Campers has soaked through to my socks and feet. I pass out in a happy daze with my screen doors open, listening to the rain.
Day 2
Morning jog, only to get every insect bite known to man. Start doing some work on a short story revision. Watch half of Air Hostess at night.
Day 3
Yoga in the morning. Translation proofreading. More revision/rewriting. Read "Night on Barren Mountain" by Sanmao on the lawn chair in the afternoon. Leave cellphone in room during dinner. Second half of Air Hostess, thinking about why this film speaks to me - something about gender performance, modernity, history.
Day 4
Sleep in until noon. Character development exercises. Begin novel manuscript, chapter 5. Package arrives with Murakami's latest book. Read 1/3 of it. Translation proofreading by night.
Day -2
During the day, I buy a black and gold cigarette-shaped one hitter with J. at a shop near Washington Square Park. It reminds me of the Nat Shermans we used to smoke in college. At night I cook sausage and mushroom pasta for C.Y. He brings copious snack items: lightly salted crackers, rosemary shortbread cookies, chocolate. We drink red wine. He wants to make love but I am not quite there yet.
Day -1
Thesis defense. Last MFA class. Alina's reading, where I run into P. and others. Luke and Tz. join me on the way back to Greenpoint. We meet up with J. at Beloved for several rounds of beers. She leaves early. Tz. and Luke are funny companions to have on this last night.
Day 0
Wake up early to pack. Hungover, probably because I didn't really eat dinner the night before (two empanadas don't count!). Mad scramble to finish things during my half-day in the office. J. and I smoke one last cigarette at our stoop. It's a perfect spring day. I nibble a cookie before I take off for Penn Station. Of course the train is delayed by half an hour or so. I'm ravenous by the time I arrive in Ghent. Everyone is so exceedingly pleasant, the housekeeper who picks me up, the director of the program. I go to a reading by the latter in a local bookstore with all the residents. Then we have dinner on the back porch with Jill, a publisher. Bottle after bottle of wine is circulated, emptied, and replaced. I'm just starting to settle in, go to bed exhausted but fidgety.
Day 1
Discovering the amazing sculpture park on grounds. Huge open fields punctuated by monoliths, slabs of wood, elaborate structures. So many bugs. At night we each give a reading at the visitor center and sit on the grass afterward eating from paper plates. We end up back on the hill. I smoke with Tia before rejoining everybody on the back porch for more wine and whiskey. The lot of us walk off into the woods. I share pot with A. "I will always remember this night," she says. "For the rest of my life." There is something sweet and solid about this woman, who translates from Russian to Dutch. I felt an instinctive affinity for her. By the time we get back, it is raining lightly, and the black leather of my Campers has soaked through to my socks and feet. I pass out in a happy daze with my screen doors open, listening to the rain.
Day 2
Morning jog, only to get every insect bite known to man. Start doing some work on a short story revision. Watch half of Air Hostess at night.
Day 3
Yoga in the morning. Translation proofreading. More revision/rewriting. Read "Night on Barren Mountain" by Sanmao on the lawn chair in the afternoon. Leave cellphone in room during dinner. Second half of Air Hostess, thinking about why this film speaks to me - something about gender performance, modernity, history.
Day 4
Sleep in until noon. Character development exercises. Begin novel manuscript, chapter 5. Package arrives with Murakami's latest book. Read 1/3 of it. Translation proofreading by night.