A busy day doing nothing

Whoosh! I am tired tonight, though I can't tell you what wore me out today--a trip to the grocery, a long time spent trimming porch plants and planting my new cilantro, getting as much ready for tomorrow night's dinner guests as I could. Seems like I kept getting to the point that my back told me to sit down for a while, and so I did.
By five o'clock, I was really tired, so I saw Jay and Susan in the yard and suggested they come for drinks on the porch at six. Meantime I went and rode my bike, but didn't go nearly as far as I usually do. Nor did I get my pulse rate up as high. But it sure felt good to sit on the porch, with a light breeze, and visit. Sue came over to steal some of my rosemary, and so she joined us. We sat for an hour and then I came inside and sauteed some sugar snap peas, grape tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, and one lonely stem of asparagus--it got left out when I cooked and put away the asparagus for tomorrow night! Then I sauteed some Dover sole, and when I took it out of the pan, I deglazed it with white wine and lemon juice. Poured that over the fish, added a little more olive oil to the pan, and sauteed some capers until they opened up. That was an experiment because I want to scatter sauteed capers over the non-traditional version of salad nicoise that I'm doing tomorrow night. Really good.
I'm really back on a writing roll, and it feels so good. This morning, as I lingered in bed as is my Saturday habit, I had all kinds of thoughts about how the plot was going to work out--and when I got up I rushed to put them on paper. So I'm itching to write a scene that's in my head and will do that tonight, though I've also started reading an old Mary Higgins Clark novel I've never read and am itching to keep on with it. Her plots are so complicated, with so many threads going from the very beginning, that it makes me feel amateurish. But I'm not giving up--I'm having fun with this.
I corresponded with an author today who published two books that I thoroughly enjoyed with a small press unknown to me--or so I thought. Turns out they were self-published and the name of the publishing company was a well-chosen ruse. Makes me think two things: I don't want to have to go that way, and there must be lots of writers out there, like this woman, who write really well, absorbing characters and plots, but just don't get the right break in the larger, competitive world of publishing, where agents are inundated with proposals. This author told me she got tired of waiting. I can sympthize.
I had another thought today--I'm beginning to worry less about what I would do in retirement. I was so busy all day, and there are lots of things I've left undone for tomorrow. I think I'd find plenty to do, plus plenty of company. Something to ponder on.

An up and down day

This was the kind of day that wears me out. I started it with a mammogram at 8 a.m. which meant I had to get out the door earlier than usual and was feeling pushed. I have to say this for new technology--getting a mammogram is the most efficient, painless procedure in the whole spectrum. They really get you in and out, the people are cheerful and kind, it's just all a smooth operation. But at this particular facility I had to park across the street and walk up a curving driveway. I worried about the open space problem a bit but needlessly--I breezed in and out.
Stole a couple of hours in the office, then went to sell books at a luncheon with an author who is also a personal friend. Mary Rogers (Dancing Naked) was speaking to a ladies group at Colonial Country Club, and while it was all fun, it was still a long experience--three hours from the time I left the office till I got back. And then I was late for a meeting, which I kind of flitted in and out of and finally left before they were through, having put my two cents in. Late this afternoon, I took a nap and slept so soundly that when I woke up I was convinced I'd already gotten up, fed the dog, and fixed my dinner--a shock to find I'd done none of that.
If I'm going to follow Mark Bittman's advice about vegan until six, I didn't do very well today. I had low-fat cottage cheese for breakfast. I always thought that was a healthy choice. Once, when I was eating regular cottage cheese and tons of it--not only for breakfast but throughout the day, I cut it out and lost so much weight that my brother was concerned. Now I'm more conservative about quantity. But then for lunch, the first course of a cream of mushroom soup--absolutely delicious but probably full of cream, followed by a flank steak salad which was beautiful in presentation and good, though too generous with the steak. I consoled myself that I wouldn't eat the brownie promised for dessert--but, gosh, it had a scoop of ice cream, lots of chocolate sauce, a bit of whipped cream with blackberries, raspberries and blueberries. Who could resist? I ate more than I meant to. Tonight I paid penance and had a one-dish dinner of a small can of white tuna, a small bit of tiny pastas, capers, olive oil, and parmesan cheese. Gosh it was good. But I don't think I lost weight today!
Tonight, my friends Gayla and Fran called me. Gayla is the marketing manager at Texas A&M University Press, someone I rely on almost daily, and a good friend besides; Fran is the retired director of the University of North Texas Press. The three of us have "pajama parties," often on my front porch, where I cook dinner and we sit and drink wine and solve the problems of the publishing world. But lately, they've been getting together a lot without me--not deliberately but because business occasions dictated or Gala joined Fran for holidays when I as with family. I have cried unfair. Tonight Gayla, on her way to Missouri, stopped at Fran's in Dallas, so they called me and we must have talked 45 minutes. The conversation ranged from serious matters to hilarity and was a real mood-raiser for me. Nice end to an up and down day.
Now I'm going back to my second mystery and see what's to be done. But I'm sleepy again.