A better day today. Felt more normal. Did my writing. Wasn’t particularly productive, but I did it, and that’s okay. I just need to get back into th rhythm. Night night.

So, One Battle After Another was pretty good. I’m in. If you read yesterday’s journal entry, I was wagging-the-hand, I-like-it-but-don’t-love-it. After finishing it…I wouldn’t say I love the movie. There Will Be Blood it is not—Leo is a fine actor, but he’s no Daniel Day—but I do love PARTS of the movie. Like, the last car chase was some goddamn Hitchcock shit and I was here for it. Sean Penn was legit brilliant, he stole the move for me. Well, I take that back, he and Chase Infiniti. God she was good.

I have an inkling what it must be like for parents, worrying for their kids. It’s all I can do right now, sitting in bed: worry about them. Will they be okay? I don’t know. I keep thinking of Spock. “Each according to their gifts.” We’re not totally helpless, us adults—the environment our kids grow up in, the people who surround them, make an incredible difference. But at some point, eventually, inevitably…there is nothing we can do. Kids will become full-ass people, and they will choose who they will be. Tragedy will come for them, and they will handle it how they handle it.

I remember the invasion when my brother died. Our house suddenly became filled to the rafters with people. Sometimes it helped, but mostly it was a very painful reminder of just how much things had changed in an instant, and how they were never going to be the same. All the attention was overwhelming. It was helpful, I do want to be clear about that—the outpouring of love and support for my family was heartening to see and feel. It’s a crucial part of the collective grieving process, and that sense of community was impactful.

Something I’ve learned about storytelling: just because I’m emotional telling a story doesn’t necessarily mean the audience will also be emotional. It’s a good start, for sure. Requisite, even, I think…though maybe not. Maybe one can tell a story wholly rational and calculated and have the audience all up in the feels. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before, but I won’t rule that out as a possibility. But either end of the spectrum, the point is that it’s not necessarily about how the storyteller is feeling, it’s always about what the audience is feeling.

Doing the finances. In between stuff for work. It’s a hustle. For sure. But it has to be done. I’m late on it already. Sigh. I feel like I’ve been “behind” for several weeks, now. Not able to catch up. Push push push. It’s exhausting. But…I am getting it done. Little by little. That’s all I got for you tonight, kids. More tomorrow.

Tonight’s fine distinction is between cardinal numbers versus ordinal numbers. Cardinal numbers are for counting. 1, 2, 3, etc. Three sheets. Ordinal numbers are for ordering. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. The third inning. Been a long, long time since I last ran into this concept. Grade school, probably. Fun to consider it again. It’s interesting, I think this book sometimes is less aiming at making distinctions between two (or more) terms that are commonly misused or swapped, and more just bringing up terms that are closely related, whether they’re common, confused, or neither.

Watched There Will Be Blood tonight. I wanted to watch something really good. It’s what I needed. Don’t really know why, but I could just feel it. I needed to watching something really good, and There Will Be Blood is. First time watching it since…theaters, I think? And I do believe I went to go see it in theaters. No Country For Old Men, too, which I can’t help but think of the two movies in the same breath. It was an interesting watch as a full-ass adult. Very interesting.

I. Am. Beat. Home, though, so that’s wonderful. Wiped from travel. Happy to be with the pups. Miss Liz. Sleeeeeeeep.

Twas a travel day today. At least for half of it. Woke up at the buhcrack and drove my ass to the airport. Long term parking was actually gonna be cheaper than taking a lyft there and back, which is kinda wild. I think it was because I had to get there so early. But it all went smoothly. Plane left pretty much on time—a rarity for Southwest in my experience these days; this is my last time flying them for quite some time, I think—landed on time. We went straight to lunch and Liz’s favorite book store.

I was just reaching to pull out the dictionary for another fine distinction…and it’s not there. I left it somewhere in the house. Sigh. That is to say: I know I haven’t done one in a while, but the fun with that book has not been abandoned. I’ve just been very, very busy, y’all. Very busy. Today was medium. A last-minute request came in, but it was pretty easy to handle, in the end. I got some weeding done in the front yard. That felt really good. My hands are INSANELY dry tonight.

Got some bad news today. Not about me, specifically. Someone else. Which means I can’t say specifically, except that I’m very sad. Hard to write an entry tonight because that’s really all that’s on my mind, and it’s just not my story to tell. The pups are warm. I finally had a day that wasn’t so crazy. I feel like my feet are back on the ground. The kitchen is clean. I’m all caught up on work. Life is beautiful. Night night.

So I watched Megalopolis today. It was…a 138-minute plot synopsis. With one exception, there was one scene that felt like a real scene: with his mother. That felt real. The rest was pantomime. Pastiche. Untethered. I also don’t think Coppola actually knew what he was trying to say, which is to say, he was trying to say too many things, maybe even all the things, which means he ended up saying nothing. What I didn’t expect was how earnest a movie it is. That was a complete surprise, and not something I expected from the man who made…

Woof. Today was WAY longer with work than I expected. Sigh. It’s okay. I think we got everything done. We’ll see in the morning. Almost a thirteen hour day. Yikes. I’m wiped. Time for sleep. Tonight’s photo was selected randomly, and what a photo. I miss her so, so much. Night night.

Boy oh boy did I not want to get up this morning to do my writing. It’s been a week, folks. A week. And this one upcoming will probably be similar in that a lot is going on. For the rest of the year, in fact…but I am resolute. I don’t know how much of this detailed outline I can get done before the new year, but it’s not nothing. And I intend to extract everything I can from it. A grind this morning. Not super productive. But I was out there, butt in seat, grinding away, which is all I can ask for.

I’ve finally read The Martian. I know. Fourteen years late on that one, but I wasn’t reading much fourteen years ago. I went through decade-plus…probably fifteen years, during my late 20s and almost all of my 30s where I wasn’t hardly reading anything at all. It was school. I got burned out. SO MUCH reading in college. And memorizing, too, because I was in theater school. Liz picked it up again when we graduated, but I did not. I wish I had. I was an avid reader before that. Constantly reading.

Go watch 2000 Meters To Andriivka. I, meanwhile, will go watch 20 Days in Mariupol, which I missed the first time around. Same filmmaker. I can tell you that Andriivka is one of more intense docs I’ve ever seen. It’s almost entirely made up of real-time helmet cam footage of Ukrainian soldiers fighting to reclaim a Russian-occupied village called Andriivka. Breathtaking. Whew. I am tired. Like deeply, deeply exhausted. We said farewell to Liz’s fam today. Sorry to see them go. And we put up the Christmas tree, so that’s up and looking beautiful.

Bear is home. Halleloo. By the way, autocorrect tried to make “home” into “gone” just now and that’s hilarious and horrifying because that would literally change that sentence to the opposite meaning. It’s been a week. Feels like Friday even though it’s Monday. Thanksgiving is tomorrow, which…that’s a head trip. Coops is still having the bowel issues, but nothing acute any more. So I think he’s doing better. He’s certainly acting like normal. Hungry. Peppy. Sweet. So, he seems to be absolutely on the mend. Hopefully normal BMs are close at hand.

Coops seems to be on the mend. Thank goodness. Still having the bad BMs, but not in the emergency fashion. He didn’t want to eat this morning and was very lethargic, which had me worried…but he perked up after taking him out, and he ate a small breakfast. He then passed out for the rest of the morning, which was also encouraging, believe it or not. He was sleeping well. Not in pain. And then he perked up even more around dinner time. He was hungry! I made him boiled chicken and he had that with rice, some broth, and some probiotics.

Ooowee. Longest day of the year today, I think. Work was insane, which was expected…unexpected was Cooper having bloody stool all day and throwing up his breakfast. He was so uncomfortable, I ended up taking him to the ER the second work was done. Five hours later, plus a bit…I’m finally in bed. Only ate breakfast today, and then snacks at the ER. Wiped, to say the least. Coops was sent home with tummy meds. Doc didn’t see anything too wrong with him, thank goodness. He should be on the road to recovery. Poor babes. Night night.

Well, today was slippery. Joy got up about once every two hours last night to go out and potty—pee, mostly. So, sleep was not reliable. Sigh. Spent the morning finding a place to take her to get checked out. Not the easiest thing to do on a Sunday morning. It meant I didn’t get to write this morning, and I didn’t get to go see Wolfie. I was able to find an Urgent Care spot for her, and they agreed that it sounded like a UTI. We’ll know for sure tomorrow, but for now she’s on the pink stuff (she loves it, lol).

Tonight’s fine distinction is Volts vs Amps vs Watts. Let’s actually start with Amps, which is a measure of the amount of electricity, how much current. Volts is a measure of the pressure of that electrical current. Watts is a measure of the total electrical output, and is simply a function of the previous two measurements, Amps x Volts = Watts. Electrical output is what drives up the utility bill. So, it electricity is like water in a hose, which is apparently a fairly accurate comparison, amps would be how much water is in there, volts would be how much pressure is pushing that water, and watts would be a measurement of both of those together.

Phone is dying. iPad forgotten in my office. Oh my. We must make this quick. Work: busy. Writing: nope. Costco. Pups. Warriors aren’t great, but there’s still time bc Steph is great. Night night.

A rainy day. It’s raining outside right now, in fact. Our winter is off to a wet start, which is good. The LA cliche about rain is always: “we need it.” It true tho. We always do. Wolfie played the Mad Hatter tonight in his school play. He was great. Very funny. Did a great voice. Had a wonderful time doing his scenes and songs with his friends. It was a very charming, very sweet show. Grateful I was able to catch it. Liz is out, now, working. Got settled in. Miss her. I feel out of sorts. Hoping I can find a groove tomorrow. We’ll see. We. Will. See. Night night.

Blerg. Today was…helter skelter. And for no reason, really, except that Liz is going out of town tomorrow for some work. Sigh. Threw me off a bit. And work was busy. I feel…cluttered. Not focused. I can do better. Not sure if tomorrow will be the day that happens, but I hope so. I’ll try to establish my groove as quickly as I can. No reason why I can’t finish this scene-by-scene (or just get a ton of it done) before the holidays descend and everything pauses. Good lord I’m so looking forward to having it done.