~~ "She has so many aliases, you'd think she was a spy!" ~~

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Coasting

Words Written: “Behind the Masque,” ~1500
Writing Stats: Talking about writing!
Exercise: walking

So, here I am on the Oregon Coast. Ken and I rode out yesterday with Ernie & Pauline, and Jeff, the latter who let us borrow his K1200GT for the ride to Tillamook so we could try it out. (Ken’s thinking of it for his next bike.) Needs a better set and the passenger pegs readjusted for someone with, oh, legs (I’m a passenger, dammit, not a jockey!), but otherwise it’s pretty nice. Still considering. Anyway, we had lunch at the Tillamook Cheese Factory (cheese!), but didn’t have time for the tour because the other folks had places to be, and we were all going to ride to Newport together. Which we did, and then Ken and I split off and went to the Newport Aquarium.

Otters! Otters otters otters. One, who I believe was female, curled up against the glass and kept pressing her nose against the glass every time Ken looked at her. I’m sure if the glass hadn’t been there, she would have been trying to rub noses with him. Too adorable—I hope my photos come out. And there were moon jellies, and regular jellyfish smaller than my thumbnail, and an octopus, and purple starfish… The place was smaller than I expected, but no matter. There were otters!

We repaired to our hotel, whereupon Ken collapsed into a nearly two-hour nap. I napped a bit, checked e-mail, gazed at the gorgeous ocean view out our window. Now, while we were at the aquarium, I was looking at the salmon and insisting they should be pinky-orange on the outside, and Ken said, “Ooh, sushi for dinner?” But by the time we were ready for dinner, we were so hungry we hit the hotel restaurant, and ended up having a stellar meal. (Cajun garlic prawns and a glass of Chardonnay for me, salmon and zin for him.) Then it was back to the room for lounging and a loooong night’s sleep.

We got up here in time for the weekly writerly lunch, which was fun, and then we were able to get into our beach house. I chose the smallest room because it has the best view of the ocean. :-) That’s worth having to go downstairs for the bathroom. There are five of us; two people I’ve been in workshops with before and two I met for the first time today. All at different places in our careers, all with different projects to work on. Should be fun! We nipped out for food and supplies, ate dinner, and then sat around rambling about writing. The biggest distraction here won’t be TV (there are four in the house. Four!) or even the ocean, but the company.

But now it’s just about 11 p.m., and I’m going to work on a story collab with Teresa, then curl up in bed with the notes for DFL and refamliarize myself with the novel. Tomorrow, the fun really starts!

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Currently Reading: Mystic and Rider, Sharon Shinn
Lately Listened To: random Cyndi Lauper from iTunes