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Charles Deemer MFA, Playwriting, University of Oregon Writing faculty,
Portland State University (part-time) Retired playwright and screenwriter.
Active novelist, librettist and teacher.
cdeemer@yahoo.com.
Links:
Literary archive
Personal home page
Photo
Electronic screenwriting tutorial
Online writing classes
References
Bookstore
Highlights:
Dress Rehearsals
A memoir
Love At Ground Zero
Seven Plays
Oregon Book Award finalist
Blogs by (mostly) creative writers:
"Can We Talk About Me For A Change?"
Playwright Debra Neff Nathans
Inkygirl
Debbie Ridpath Ohi, a weblog for writers (resources)
Silliman's Blog
Ron Silliman, contemporary poetry and poetics
Maud Newton
literary links, amusements, politics, rants
Darren Barefoot
Technical and creative writing, theatre, Dublin
Rob's Writing Pains
Journey of a struggling writer.
Mad, Mad World
Cara Swann, fiction writer, journalist, "reflections on humanity, random news & my life."
Writeright
Random musings on a writer's life and times.
Flaskaland
Barbara Flaska's compilation of the best online articles about music and culture.
Write Of Way
Samantha Blackmon's written musings on writing (composition and rhetoric).
Alexander b. Craghead: blog
Writing, photography, and watercolors.
Rodney's Painted Pen
Rodney Bohen's daily commentary "on the wondrous two legged beast we fondly refer to as mankind."
His pen runneth over.
Frustrated Writer
This one named Nicole.
scribble, scribble, scribble
Journalist Dale Keiger teaches nonfiction scribbling to undergraduate and graduate students at Johns Hopkins University.
The Unofficial Dave Barry Blog
The very one.
The Hive
The official blog of science fiction / horror author Terence West.
William Gibson Blog
Famed author of Neuromancer and Johnny Mnemonic: The Screenplay.
The Word Foundry
Joe Clifford Faust's "blog of a working writer: tracking writing projects, musings on the
creative process, occasional side trips into music, media, politics, religion, etc."
A Writer's Diary
By Cynthia Harrison, who has the good sense to quote Virginia Woolf: "The truth is that writing
is the profound pleasure and being read the superficial."
Bow. James Bow.
The journal of James Bow and his writing.
Ravenlike
Michael Montoure's weblog about writing, primarily horror and speculative fiction.
Globemix
By David Henry, "a poet's weblog from Aberdeen, Scotland."
Modem Noise
By Adrian Bedford, a "fledgling Pro SF Writer, living in Perth, Australia."
boynton
"A wry writerly blog named in honour of a minor character in a minor Shirley Temple film."
Real Writers Bounce
Holly Lisle's blog, "a novelist's roadmap through the art and ordeal of finding the damned words."
2020 Hindsight
By Susan.
downWrite creative
Phil Houtz's notes on the writing life.
Vivid: pieces from a writer's notebook
Blog of Canadian poet Erin Noteboom.
The Literary Saloon
The literary weblog at the complete review.
Rabbit Blog
The rabbit writes on popular culture.
This Girl's Calendar
Momoka writes short stories.
Twists & Turns
Musings by writer Michael Gates.
Plays and Musicals -- A Writer's Introspective
A blog by John D. Nugent - Composer, Playwright, and Artistic Director of the Johnson City Independent Theatre Company
The American Sentimentalist
"Never has any people endured its own tragedy with so little sense of the tragic." Essays by Mark W. Anderson.
Screenwriting By Blog
David C. Daniel writes a screenplay online. "I've decided to publish the process as a way to push myself through it.
From concept to completion, it'll be here."
SeanAlonzo.com
Official site of occult fiction author Sean-Alonzo, exploring symbolism, alternative
history, philosophy, secret
societies and other areas of the esoteric tradition.
Crafty Screenwriting
Maunderings of Alex Epstein, tv scribe, about life, politics, and the tv show I'm co-creating.
Letters From The Home Front
The life of a writer, 21, home schooled, rural living.
Venal Scene
The blog of bite-sized plays inspired by the news (by Dan Trujillo).
'Plaint of the Playwright
Rob Matsushita, a playwright from Wisconsin, "whines a lot."
I Pity Da Fool!
Glenn's adventures in screenwriting.
Time In Tel-Aviv
Hebrew modern literature at its best, by Corinna Hasofferett.
Big Window
Robin Reagler's poetry blog.
John Baker's Blog
Author of the Sam Turner and Stone Lewis novels.
Suggest a writer's blog
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The Writing Life...
"And it came to pass that all the stars in the firmament had ceased to shine. But how was anyone to know?"
The Half-Life Conspiracy
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Monday, December 29, 2003
Snow!
It doesn't snow often here in Portland, Oregon, hence my exclamation point. Woke up to 2 or 3 inches for our second seasonal session with the white stuff. Naturally everything comes to a halt once more than an inch sticks. We are off to go tromping in it before it likely disappears this afternoon. Onward.
12/29/2003 09:02:27 AM |
Sunday, December 28, 2003
A book in the hand ...
... is worth two in the brain? At any rate, my first copy of Love At Ground Zero in hand. Nice to hold this slim 176 pager. I'm quite proud of it.
How different, welcoming fictional children into the world from welcoming dramatic children. The latter birth often is more social, more immediate. sitting in the house at opening night of a play, for example, where you can feel and hear if the audience is where you had hoped they would be. Once, at the end of a play of mine, after the curtain call, someone in the audience yelled out, "This play has balls!" You don't get such immediate feedback in fiction. This moment, holding the book, is more quiet and private but no less special. Onward.
12/28/2003 09:33:57 AM |
Friday, December 26, 2003
Honky Tonks, Hymns & the Blues
Website to support the NPR series on roots music. Great musical resources and audio.
12/26/2003 01:09:57 PM |
Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Merry Christmas
At the end of my play Christmas at the Juniper Tavern, after a comic confrontation between the unemployed loggers of the town and Swami Kree, a Zen clown who has started an ashram outside of town, Frank and Stella, who owns the tavern, are alone. Across town, Sheriff Billy is dressed as Santa Claus and beginning his annual Christmas show.
What has baffled the loggers is this episode from the Swami:
SWAMI: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
BILLY: What's the problem here?
REX: What the hell's the matter with you?
SWAMI: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Everything is foolishness!
Everything is pride!
Everything is ego!
Everything is blindness!
The eyes do not see!
The ears do not hear!
The nose does not smell!
The tongue does not taste!
The mouth only is alive with speaking!
Everything is speaking, speaking, speaking!
Speaking and pride and ego and foolishness!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
(Ma has approached Swami with a glass of water, which she now throws in his face. Swami is immediately silent. He looks around. He slowly gets up. All eyes are fixed on him.)
SWAMI: I feel like the center of attention!
You are asking yourself, What was that all about? I'll be expounding on the significance of what you've just witnessed in my lecture tonight. Usually we charge outsiders two dollars and fifty cents — but all of you can come free. A Christmas present from Swami Kree!
Eventually everyone leaves, and Frank and Stella are alone in the tavern. The action continues:
FRANK: Listen ... you want to dance or something?
STELLA: I'd love to dance.
(LIGHTS FADE TO HALF and RISE on Billy in the neutral area, dressed as Santa Claus.)
BILLY: And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
(Focus changes.)
FRANK: Ahhhhhhhh!
STELLA: Maybe you should start your own cult and give the Swami a little competition.
FRANK: I'm a lone wolf. I belong in the woods with the rest of the wild animals.
(Focus changes.)
BILLY: And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
(Focus changes.)
FRANK: But we've already logged the woods out of wild animals and practically out of trees. Who the hell knows where it's gonna end?
STELLA: Sshh — it's Christmas.
(Focus changes.)
BILLY: And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known to us.
And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
(LIGHTS OFF neutral area, FULL in tavern.)
FRANK: Fred Ross hit it right on the money:
I'm in from the cold where the vine maples grow
And the dogwoods bloom in the spring.
I've been in the woods for thirty years
And I haven't accomplished a thing.
(Billy enters, still in part of his Santa costume. Frank and Stella stop dancing.)
STELLA: How'd the Christmas show go, Billy?
BILLY: Terrible. I kept thinking about that Swami. What the hell makes a guy like that tick?
STELLA: Ask Frank. He's the convert.
FRANK: I'm a lone wolf.
BILLY: Listening to him got me all mixed up. When he started yelling, I felt like yelling back at him.
FRANK: Like this? Ahhhhh!
BILLY: Ahhhhhhhhhhh!
FRANK & BILLY: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
STELLA: Frank? Billy?
FRANK & BILLY: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
STELLA: (under the yelling) God help us all!
(LIGHTS FADE TO BLACKOUT as the yelling continues. The play is over.)
Merry Christmas, everyone!
12/24/2003 11:45:35 AM |
Very short fiction
Polishing my 1500 word short short, "Meeting Nicole Kidman." Great fun -- and the very opposite of screenwriting where the story comes first. Here the language comes first -- in fact, the charm of this story is not the story but the way it is told. Every word, every turn of phrase, the literary pacing, everything that matters in this story has to do with the particular language and grammar choices I make. Rewriting in this context is great fun. Tried out the story on two readers, both writers, and it works for them. I still am changing a word or two for each reading. When I can do three readings in a row without changing anything, it's done. Onward.
12/24/2003 08:18:01 AM |
Ward of the state
What a rush to wake up and discover the U.S. Treasury has fattened my bank account! This is as much fun as making a writing sale and much easier. Long live Social Security! (I hope that's not a joke.) Onward.
12/24/2003 08:14:41 AM |
P.S.
Ah, another highlight of 2003 -- my introduction to vocalist Stacey Kent! In general, I like very few contemporary jazz vocalists, almost all of whom use a song to show off their own vocal artistry and histrionics. No one seems able to just sing a song any more. Kent can. In fact, she regards herself as a storyteller, not a singer, with lyrics at the center of the communication. I love her! She's been voted best jazz vocalist in Britain. She sings without showing off.
12/24/2003 08:11:57 AM |
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Rewards & Resolutions
2003 was a good year for me, full of personal accomplishments and rewards. A few highlights:
- My return to fiction after an absence of three decades finally found solid ground. It was a long difficult transition after so much scriptwriting, such a different art, but 2003 saw the appearance of two novels, Emmett's Gift and Love At Ground Zero (more information here).
- I remain in good health, or so it seems (if cancerous subterfuge is going on, it is out of sight of me and my doctor).
- I continue to enjoy teaching -- so retiring, which I can do at any moment, does not appear to be in the immediate future.
- Harriet and I had a lovely time summer camping at Flathead Lake in Montana, a favorite spot.
- We got Sketch, our rat terrier, our first dog after Levi died a few years ago. A fine addition to the family.
- I finished the libretto to an opera, now in the composer's hands, and fell in love with the form. We shall do a second collaboration as soon as Dark Mission is done. I'm also working on a musical.
There were some dark moments as well. I lost my friend Ger. Harriet continues to suffer from her addict daughter, whose children (H's only grandchildren) finally became wards of the state.
In 2004 I hope to move in some new directions:
- Keeping up the present writing and reading rhythm, of course.
- Studying piano with more rigor, especially since I'm working with composers now.
- Beginning a serious study of Homer. I have a series of lecture tapes and two translations of both works (Iliad, Odyssey) ... so I'll begin right after the first of the year. Not sure I can get through both in a year but I should be able to do The Iliad at any rate. Reading a modern (Fagles) and 17th C (Chapman) translation at the same time.
- Exercise! I need to get more.
High hopes for 2004. Onward.
12/23/2003 12:26:22 PM |
Home sweet home
Self-explanatory. Full of energy to write and bring in the new year. The trip was short and sweet, just about perfect. Onward.
12/23/2003 08:22:54 AM |
Sunday, December 21, 2003
Hollywood's bottom line
Great chat at the Vancouver BC Xmas party with two film pros, both stunt artists, the guy a regular stunt double for Robin Williams, plus other work, and the woman presently one of the stunt doubles for Halle Berry in "Cat Woman," now in production. The guy also just opened his own small movie studio in Vancouver.
Both see a trend in big budget movies they don't like -- starting to shoot before a script is in hand! The "Cat Woman" script, for example, is still being written (!). They have a premise, a super star, an obvious money maker, so they just start shooting action scenes and let the writer(s) try to catch up and somehow make sense of it all with some sort of story. Yet another point for greed over art in LaLaLand.
Homeward bound tomorrow. Short but sweet visits. Onward.
12/21/2003 11:00:25 PM |
On the road
Good meeting with JB. He's fragile but alive. We had a good time catching up.
Then off the Vancouver, where there's a Xmas party this afternoon. This morning I got up and wrote a 1200 word short short in my head, called "Meeting Nicole Kidman," a comic story about a professor emeritus, an old man, who meets the star. One of those nice creations that was in my head whole when I woke up. Happens like this a few times a year. Glad I brought my portable keyboard so I could type in out this morning. Upload to my home computer and revise it this week.
A short but fine visit. Onward.
12/21/2003 10:19:31 AM |
Friday, December 19, 2003
Old friends
To Port Townsend today, always a great place to visit, to see an old friend who recently had a kidney transplant. I met JB in the late 60s when I was a grad student at the Univ of Oregon. My wife and I were camping on the Oregon coast. In the adjacent campsite was a bear of a man traveling alone in a camper with Michigan plates. He heard us picking and singing around the campfire and came over with his guitar. When we ran out of beer, he fetched a bottle of Ouzo from one of his several cases in the camper. It was the first time I'd had this Greek liquor.
We exchanged addresses but I never expected to see JB again. Only a few months later he arrived on my doorstep with a bride. They ended up buying a house in Eugene and we became tight friends. Over the years, JB and I have kept in touch although careers and whatnot have taken us to different states.
I was with JB when he learned he was diabetic, not an easy transition for a hard-drinking country singer like himself. His health deteriorated over the years and he was on the waiting list for a kidney for about five years. He is still with his bride, a nurse by profession (who has kept good care of him), and he still plays music.
I'm looking forward to seeing him -- it's been a while. In fact, the last visit was in Seattle, a tad over ten years ago, and it was during this visit that I almost passed out. Consequently I went straight to the doc on return and found out my blood pressure was in the ozone -- the first step that kicked me in the ass about the relationship between booze and health.
A short trip before the new year and the new term. Onward.
12/19/2003 06:21:25 AM |
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Now available
12/17/2003 04:07:25 PM |
Monday, December 15, 2003
Holiday music
A 45-minute lecture on holiday music, with musical examples, from Prof. Robert Greenberg of San Francisco Performances (streaming audio). Begin the lecture now.
12/15/2003 01:50:19 PM |
Angels in America II
Saw the second part of the HBO film last night. A fine achievement! Very curious how different my reactions are to the film and play, loving the former, bored by the latter. I've been thinking why this should be so.
First, I saw a touring show in a large auditorium, in cheap distant seats. All intimacy was lost. But I also think the story strategy, with its intercutting parallel stories, works better on film where the intercuts are easily done more frequently. Also, despite the impressive arrival of the angel on stage, the story lends itself well to special effects on film. And with closeups, the film has many more intimate moments.
Perhaps I'd like the play better in a small theater in the round. Certainly better than the way I saw it. But I think I'd still prefer the film because I think it is a film story more than a stage play story, given the author's story strategy. In fact, I think most American plays today would make better films. This is not so true of European plays, which more than here use the presentational techniques that usually work better on stage. But American theater, despite Thornton Wilder, became rooted in "invisible fourth-wall" realism, the audience as voyeur, and film has come to own this storytelling parameter, it seems to me. During my playwriting career, I tried hard to tell stories for the stage primarily, not stories that would make better movies (hence The Pardon, Country Northwestern, The Comedian In Spite Of Himself, The Half-Life Conspiracy, Christmas at the Juniper Tavern, Famililly, Who Forgives? and others, all in the presentational mode).
So glad I got to see this film. We just switched to HBO a month ago, good timing. All this time I was wondering what the hoopla was about, so bored was I by the touring stage play, which struck me as long-winded and pretentious at best. The film led me to the gripping material.
12/15/2003 08:44:07 AM |
Sunday, December 14, 2003
Alternative energy
THE DISCLOSURE PROJECT ANNOUNCES NEW ENERGY DISCLOSURE INITIATIVE
The Disclosure Project has announced that it will be pursuing a
disclosure on the existence of new and alternate energy systems that
have been deliberately and illegally suppressed.
The Disclosure Project, in cooperation with Space Energy Access Systems
Inc., has discovered that over the past 75 years a number of important
breakthroughs in energy efficiency, alternate forms of energy generation
and propulsion have been deliberately withheld from the public to prop
up the oil, gas, coal, public utility and nuclear power industries.
These significant technological breakthroughs that have been suppressed
range from modifications of the internal combustion engine to get
significantly higher miles per gallon to new electromagnetic generating
systems that extract energy from the so-called Quantum vacuum.
Current intelligence gathered by The Disclosure Project and SEAS
indicates that a shadowy operation connected to covert government and
intelligence programs but run primarily by US and foreign corporate
interests have resulted in this suppression.
Actions taken to effect secrecy and to neutralize the public
availability of these technologies - which by now could have completely
replaced the need for fossil fuels - include:
> Threats, intimidation and on occasion the murder of scientists and
inventors originating these energy breakthroughs;
> Corporate acquisition of technologies with subsequent 'black shelving'
- that is the deliberate suppression of the technology by owning the
rights and then refusing to release the technology to the public;
> The illegal application of section 181 and related sections of the
Patent Law to force inventors to keep the technology secret or face
substantial fines and jail time;
> The bogus and illegal use of other so-called national security
provisions to intimidate inventors and suppress technologies;
> Sabotage of inventor labs, prototypes and facilities in order to cause
the loss of the technology or to intimidate inventors and colleagues.
It is clear that human society will continue to be harmed by the
deliberate and illegal withholding of such technologies and that a
thoroughly documented and sourced Disclosure of the matter is urgently
needed. The widening gap between poor and rich nations, the worsening
situation in the Middle East and elsewhere, the relentless decay in the
environment, global warming, intractable world poverty and many other
pressing problems facing humanity are directly related to the
suppression of these energy breakthroughs.
We call on all concerned citizens to assist us in identifying and
securing the cooperation of the following:
> Scientists and Inventors of high credentialed credibility who have
been the target or victim of such suppression;
> Corporate Whistleblowers who have observed or been part of the
acquisition or suppression of such technologies;
> Government, military and intelligence whistleblowers who have
witnessed or been part of such actions. These include current or past
whistleblower witnesses from the Patent Office, Department of Defense,
CIA, NASA, NRO, NSA, Executive Branch/White House, Congress or any
other branch of the military and government;
> Non-US whistleblowers associated with foreign governments,
particularly western Europe, Great Britain, Russia/former USSR, and
Japan;
> Foreign corporate or institutional whistleblowers
> Whistleblowers associated with government labs or para-governmental
institutes, universities and research centers.
> Any person who has or can acquire documentation, whether government or
private/corporate of such suppression and acquisition of technologies
and who can establish the authenticity of said documents.
The Disclosure Project will coordinate an international release of such
whistleblower testimony and documents once there is sufficient credible
named sources and evidence to establish beyond any doubt the reality of
the existence and suppression of such technological developments.
Please help us identify such witnesses and evidence. It is time the
world knew the truth about energy, oil and why humanity continues to be
held down by our artificial addiction to oil and fossil fuels. The time
for change is now.
For more information: http://www.disclosureproject.org
12/14/2003 03:06:36 AM |
There but for the ...
Yesterday I had a long visit over coffee with two figures from my past, one a poet now in his 50s, the other a theatre tech artist in his 40s, both drinking buddies of mine in the 80s. Neither is in good shape. The poet has been struggling with addiction, first to alcohol and recently to heroine; the theater guy, long out of theater, has been homeless for some years now and has a leg bad enough that he moves with a walker. The poet looks eighty -- white, pale, a ghost of his former self (once on the Canadian Olympic tennis team). The theater guy, who worked tech where I was the resident playwright, is mentally as sharp as ever, yet strangely and psychologically isolated, "hiding out" from old friends, homeless because he wants to be invisible.
I walked away from this meeting feeling considerable sadness. These are good, talented men. Each has somehow slipped through the cracks and now lives an existence on the edge of how most (or is it just many?) of us live, financially living hand-to-mouth, without prospects as my mother used to say. I saw myself in them if I had not initiated some strong changes of behavior a decade ago. And if I had not had some lucky breaks along the way. The luck is probably as important as the behavior.
We live in precarious times. It is a luxury to be able to sit at a computer and type this, warm and dry, fed, without significant debt, dealing with crises in imaginary worlds of my own construction (my stories) rather than in the world at large. I'm one of the lucky ones.
12/14/2003 03:05:01 AM |
Friday, December 12, 2003
Update
Back into my writing rhythm, all pistons pumping. Making steady progress on the novel draft. And catching up on reading -- finally read The Hours and admire it greatly. Curious why some changes were made in the movie, which don't strike me as necessary unless one believes in some kind of conspriacy theory against women. The book is much more "liberating" than the film, which in comparison to usual Hollywood fare is liberating indeed. Also back to my lecture tapes on mythology, refresher course before tackling Homer after the first of the year. And back to some piano studies, too, trying to get semiliterate for my composer collaborators ha ha. Shaping to be a fine break from school. Only one trip planned, up to Vancouver BC via Port Townsend, visiting friends. All is well! Onward.
12/12/2003 07:55:02 PM |
Tuesday, December 09, 2003
Finito!
Just turned my grades in. Still have a missing final to track down but home clear, off from teaching now till after the first of the year. Expect to get a ton of writing done, though I am taking the rest of the day off to watch a movie and read. Onward.
12/9/2003 11:29:44 AM |
Angels In America
I caught the first three hours last Sunday and was impressed. I admit, I was not a fan of the stage play (one of the few, apparently) when I saw it. I thought the narrative was too leisurely, long and rambling. On film, the parallel stories were intercut more frequently, giving much greater drive to the developing events. Here, perhaps, is a play that should have been a movie in the first place. The play dragged on and on; the film is gripping.
12/9/2003 04:46:33 AM |
Saturday, December 06, 2003
Army-Navy game
One of the great family rituals when I was growing up was to gather around the radio and listen to the Army-Navy football game, which is today. A Navy family, we rooted with clear biases. I'll be watching the game on TV today -- and rooting for Navy, even though my own military service was in the Army (a family scandal). The loyalties of childhood appear to be stronger than the practical decisions of young adulthood. In the meantime, I may get my grading done this morning before the game starts. Light at the end of the tunnel! Hoping to get my grades in next Tuesday or Wednesday ... and then I can write for three solid weeks before I have to think about school again. Onward.
12/6/2003 03:54:17 AM |
Friday, December 05, 2003
Gasp
Buried under in student scripts ... up briefly for air ... and back to reading. Onward.
12/5/2003 09:20:31 AM |
Monday, December 01, 2003
Back to normal
There's a scene in the movie Prefontaine in which a shot putter complains about the holidays -- all of them. He hates Thanksgiving, Christmas and all the rest because they interrupt his normal training routine. I am coming to feel the same way about writing. I have my morning routine and I am happiest when I am in it and sticking to it, and therefore I hate anything that interrupts it. The past four days were disastrous for reasons I won't get into and I am delighted this morning to feel like normalcy has returned. Of course, this will be an unusual week since it's the end of the term -- I pick up about 600 script pages to read tonight. But I can do that in the afternoon and evening and still keep my precious mornings to myself. The older I get, the more I like my routine.
Something else new: Christmas eve the first Social Security check is supposed to be deposited into my account. Merry Christmas! I must say, the Social Security Administration is the most efficient and personable government bureacracy I have ever dealt with. My wife, who retired first, had the same experience. In fact, when I was applying on the phone, the woman on the other end had me in stitches much of the time with wisecracks and puns. Then my application went through the hoops faster than the estimate. This part of the government seems to work -- well, until they go broke, I guess. Meanwhile I'll enjoy it while I can.
What a lovely quiet normal morning! Onward.
12/1/2003 09:54:51 AM |
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__The Writing Life
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