For the first time ever in the history of the Oscars, self will be unable to watch tomorrow’s show. Why? Because she has been invited to dinner by the Robbianos! And if she doesn’t attend tomorrow’s dinner, she will have forfeited a chance to catch up with the family who self first rented rooms from, when she was a very very green Stanford graduate student from the Philippines, still getting used to the idea of biking to campus from Menlo Park!
Let’s see, it’s almost the end of February. In terms of travel, this has been a helluva two months. Since January, self has:
- been to India and experienced firsthand the glories of: New Delhi, Dharamsala, Bir, and Amritsar.
- Learned that Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, and Ed Norton were all in Manila, at the end of January, in connection with the filming of The Bourne Legacy. Specifically, in Intramuros.
- been to Ontario (Calif) and seen her first Cirque du Soleil show (OVO) in over a decade. Watched son dance (and discovered that he is one helluva dancer: how the husband and self pulled this off, when we are the kind of people who are famous for having two left feet, is beyond comprehension)
- made travel arrangements for going to the Smithsonian in April, for the Edgar P. Richardson Symposium: Asian American Portraits of Encounter Between Image & Word — and for the first time ever in the history of self’s readings, hubby has agreed to come along! Self is dying of nervousness! Now he will realize the full extent of her craziness!
As to her reading, self has:
- Spent almost one month reading a book. Which hasn’t happened since self was in Bacolod, January 2011 (Then, the book she was reading, which took almost a month to get through, was Antonio Muñoz Molina’s Sepharad). The book that has had her mesmerized for the past couple of weeks? Adrian Goldsworthy’s Julius Caesar: Life of a Colossus (She’s down to reading about five pages a day. Which means this book will be very very overdue at the Redwood City Library)
- Discovered that Rowena Tiempo-Torrevillas’ short story “Sunday Morning” is better than The Hunger Games!
As to her writing, after a veritable storm of rejections (“We liked the concept behind this, but overall felt that it was a little too over-manufactured in terms of voice”; “Although the narration is emotionally resonant it does not fit our current needs”), she has her first acceptance of 2012! Yaaaay!
Moreover, self has made the most amazing discovery: she has learned that she is actually capable of revising a whole novella in one sitting. Which is a very, very good thing to know – wouldn’t you agree, dear blog readers? (Of course, it also means that now self has an extremely painful neck. A moment ago, the husband cracked open the door and peeked in, and caught self in the act of clutching her head. Which makes her feel – Aaargh! Who cares! Get back to work, woman!)
Stay tuned.
