take comfort

This past week was pretty stressful and I ate my way through the drama. I also kept up my daily exercise routine so didn’t do too much damage but I know now that buying property isn’t for the faint of heart. I’m so grateful for my “team”! Seeing bad behavior from another attorney and agent makes me appreciate the professionalism of the folks who represent me. It took a real group effort to get us over the finish line, but I found out yesterday that we finally got the title and can proceed to closing next week. Not on Monday as was scheduled, but on Thursday. That messes up my plan to hire cleaners, an electrician, and painter to fix up the place before I move in, but it’s okay. Everything will get done in time. I’m more than half packed here in Evanston and so don’t have to rush or stress when the time comes. And I’m purging again…that’s got to be the only upside to moving three times in three years. Two bags of clothes to the thrift store, two bags of books to the donation bin outside the public library. I ordered a new bed this morning, which means I’ll be leaving my four-poster bed behind. Trying to find a local church or nonprofit that picks up furniture donations but it’s hard; COVID makes folks unwilling to come upstairs and I can’t get things down to the street on my own. But I’ll figure it out! I’ve got paint colors picked out. Yesterday I was ready to walk away from the sale unless our terms were met but it would have hurt to lose this condo. I can see myself in that old building, or reading beneath the mature trees in the private garden, or running by the lake, which is nearby. On Thursday Cozbi and I skipped our usual two-hour walk in favor of breakfast at her place (which looks like a Parisian salon!); she effortlessly whipped up a delicious meal that included buttermilk biscuits and when I blabbed on and on and lost track of the time, she drove me back home in time for my noon Zoom—but not before handing me ALL of the remaining biscuits. I’ve been trying to use up everything in the fridge and now I can say the jar of lemon curd is GONE. My meeting was with my theater team and everyone had great suggestions on ways to move our play forward. I’ve tried unsuccessfully to connect with theater folks in Chicago but decided to try the university one more time—and got an instant reply from a Black woman who isn’t even working there anymore; she suggested two other sisters and within minutes, one reached out to invite me to apply to her theater’s upcoming play competition. After so much silence it was heartening to get such an enthusiastic welcome. They’re building a performance space just south of Hyde Park so I could potentially walk to work…getting ahead of myself but excited about the possibilities. I turned in the final round of edits for The Witch’s Apprentice yesterday and found a way to donate copies of Milo’s Museum to kids in York, PA. The school board there has banned a resource list designed to help educators address race and equity in the classroom. I haven’t missed social media much but I was glad my friend Jung tagged me because I otherwise wouldn’t even have known what was going on. If you want to see the list, you can find it here. And a local nonprofit is accepting donations if you want to buy some books on the list and send them to York: Haybrook Little Free Library, 131 Haybrook Drive, York, PA 17406. Students are also fighting the ban and have created a petition, which you can sign here.

I haven’t met my daily word quota for The Enchanted Bridge this week so will stay home this weekend and try to write. If I start October with 30K words written, I’ll be able to finish by the time my deadline rolls around on the 15th. Then I can finish my Amish farm novel and THEN I can turn my attention back to writing plays. The Global Read Aloud starts next month; it’s reassuring to know that educators around the world are committed to helping their students connect with other young readers through inclusive kid lit. Banning books hurts kids but it also just doesn’t work…we live in a global society. It’s our job to prepare kids to become global citizens who can recognize and respect different points of view. Unless you actually want your kids to be isolated and ignorant, which seems to be the goal of this school board…so much work to do.