Friday, June 5, 2009

A Sad Day In Polka Land

Yesterday I endured the trifecta of discomfort, taking Scooter to the vet in the morning, having my annual mammogram in the afternoon, and working on the revisions for This World We Live In in between.

Scooter is fine. He weighs 4 pounds 2 ounces. My vet thinks he's a week or so younger than I keep saying he is. He'll go in for what my vet so tactfully referred to as his "big boy surgery" at the end of July. I would have gladly performed little boy surgery on Scooter myself this morning, when he woke me up at 4 AM, 5 AM, 6 AM and 7 AM to play Purr On The Neck.

Not that mammograms or revisions are that much fun either.

I'm about 1/4 the way through the revisions (I've decided that's a much classier term than rewrites), and should make the June 11 deadline, by working non-stop starting tomorrow. Today I'm getting a shingles vaccine (I've never heard a good thing about shingles) and having a late lunch with a friend, so once I finish this blog entry I'll get to work, but I don't anticipate working in the afternoon.

Thanks to all of you who voted in the chapters/no chapters poll. I'm favoring chapters, in part because my friends Geri and Paul, both teachers, say it's easier when a book has them. I think in the case of this particular book, it will be easier for the readers as well.

But the true sorrow of yesterday was the announcement that the Grammys are no longer going to have a polka category. Polkas are very big around here, because Jimmy Sturr, winner of 18 Grammys (one less than Bruce Springsteen, and I think that's why they eliminated the category, because they didn't want Jimmy Sturr to end up with more than Bruce Springsteen), lives in Orange County, NY, same as me, and is quite the local celebrity. I've been to a couple of his concerts, and if the weather is good, I'll go to his July 3 outdoor one, although it will be a tad more patriotic than I usually care for. The last one was, but times have changed, and maybe I'll be more in the mood.

Clearly, I'm not in the mood to work on revisions, but work I must. At least I have something to look forward to. Jimmy Sturr's upcoming CD is called "Polka Cola: The Music That Refreshes."

I'd like to see Bruce Springsteen top that!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In college, I took social dance to meet girls. The only steps I remember are the polka. You want to know how many girls I met in that class? Well, it was a very round number; literally.

Glen - forgot the password.

By the way, good luck with the revisions. It takes me half an hour a page to revise.

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Hallo Glen-

If it took me half an hour to revise a page, I'd alternate between being homicidal and suicidal.

It's always good to have choices.

Mostly I'm putting in commas the editor wants and taking out commas the editor doesn't want. She and I have very different attitudes about commas. And while I'm dealing with commas, I tighten a little bit, or, if the editor has requested, add a little bit.

It is seriously tedious work.

I have some actual rewriting to do at the fabulous end of the book to make it even more fabulous, but I seem to be holding off on that until I get to it. Otherwise I'd say I'm a third of the way through.

I've done enough for today though. Miranda and her commas will have to wait a while longer.