Festival Season

I managed to write more than 2,000 words yesterday, which is pretty good for a "just for fun" project with no deadline. However, the fact that the story is just kicking in at 2,600 words may be a sign that I am not meant to write short stories.

Now, though, that story will have to go backburner because late in the day I had a chat with my agent, and we decided that now would be a good time to revisit an old project and see if I can take it up a notch. I'm excited about that because I already feel like I've learned so much this summer, and I like the idea of being able to make this book be on paper what it's been in a vague, fuzzy sort of way in my head. That means I'm about to fall back into serious work mode.

Meanwhile, the fall festival season is really kicking off around here. This weekend, there are two I'm considering. There's the Oktoberfest (yes, it's September, but this is the weekend the Munich Oktoberfest opens), and though as a former resident of Germany I'm up for the whole German culture thing (though I lived in Hesse and the Palatinate rather than Bavaria), the main reason I'm even considering this is the Mobile Pie Hole. The folks promoting Pushing Daisies have turned an Airstream trailer into a mobile version of the TV show's Pie Hole, and it will be at this festival, serving up pie and Pushing Daisies kitchen swag. That's very hard to resist. And then there's the Plano Balloon Festival. Hot air balloons are one of those things that fascinate me for no reason I can discern. I don't have any experience with them. I just like the idea of them. Every year, I say I'm going to make it to that festival, but I never do. If I get all wild and crazy and want to do the festival thing instead of getting inspired and burying myself in the book, what I may do is hit Oktoberfest in the early afternoon, then head over to the balloon festival in time to see the early evening balloon flight, and then stay for the post-dusk balloon glow. They also will have fireworks that night, and I do love fireworks.

But unless some of my friends decide they want to go and that forces me to commit to going, I have a feeling I will change my mind and decide I really don't want to go out and deal with crowds by myself. I can already feel the book churning in my head, and you never want to waste a burst of enthusiasm for a project. There will be other balloon festivals, and I don't need more kitchen gadgets, even with a Pushing Daisies logo (though I am decluttering my kitchen by accident, breaking an average of a glass a week here lately, mostly through chain reactions started by bumping something that knocks something else over, and so forth).

Also, I'm already feeling last night's ballet class, and that may only be worse tomorrow. Holding proper second-position arms for a long period of time is rather difficult, and it affects the arms, shoulders and back. I'm not sure what we did that's making the backs of my thighs so sore. We did a few more grande plies than normal, and that may have something to do with it.

Next weekend is the Greek Food Festival, and I'm pretty sure we're planning on that one. Yum.