(no subject)

Oh my god, my program finally sent me the goddamn information. I would have preferred this before I made my travel arrangements; it would have been so much simpler. *bangs head into desk* (On the other hand, I'm sure the extra day will be nice, since I plan on using it to recover from traveling halfway across the world and also meeting local fen. Well, some local fen, anyway.)

Fortunately they also tell us what we can wear! So there's a plus. And also that they're providing linens, which is nice. (I have no idea what the weather is supposed to be like, slight problem. Do you know what the temperature is in Ellensburg right now? SIXTY-TWO DEGREES with wind gusts of 36 mph. When I left New Orleans a month or so ago it was in the mid-eighties and humid. I am so confused on weather, you have no idea. Wait, is it humid in the UK?)

...is there an actual place in Cambridge that sells ostrich burgers, or is that just a name? (Note to self: during last year in New Orleans, eat a gator burger.)

Ah, they know their target audience: they tell us there are second-hand book shops (stalls?) in town. (A.K.A. I can get A Dance With Dragons when it comes out. Oh my god, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out the day after I was in transit back from Brown to Ellensburg the summer between junior and senior year, so I hadn't made plans to buy it and I was terrified it would be sold out of all the stores in town. So I managed to get my mother to take me to Fred Meyer the next morning as soon as it opened and...there was basically no one else there. I was so disappointed. I expected a CROWD. Presumably everybody who wanted it right at the stroke of midnight had gotten it at the release party at Jerroll's. Anyway, where was I? ADWD. I am tres excited, though I guess I'll have to reread before I fly over, since while ASOIAF would be excellent plane reading, I only have AFFC in hardback.)

BUT WHY WON'T THEY GIVE US THE SCHEDULE YET. *weeps* (I know, I know, it probably isn't finalized; I know how summer programs work, I did them two out of three summers in high school.) All they tell us is that we have four days off, but WHICH FOUR DAYS?

And...there's going to be a group punting trip? (Wait. What is punting? It has something to do with a boat, right? I assume it's more casual than crew? Wait, this is why Wikipedia was invented. ...oh my gods, that is so medieval, awesome. Look, American, okay?)

Anyway. I'm pretty relieved to hear from them; I was seriously starting to think that I was going to show up in Cambridge on July 4 and have no idea where to go aside from "Corpus Christi College", which probably isn't that specific.

Most importantly: there must be a yarn shop in Cambridge, right?

apropos of nothing, I really want bread, so I guess I'll be baking tomorrow

The thing about ever trying to start a chapter of Dust is that I freeze up and either (a) can't write or (b) hate everything I do write. I never get blank page syndrome as badly with anything else as I do with Dust. Occasionally I get past this by handwriting the first bit of the chapter (usually the first two handwritten pages, back and front of one sheet of loose-leaf lined paper, in pencil -- I used to be able to do it in notebooks and in pen, but not anymore), but sometimes I end up going, "I am WASTING a sheet of paper and it's not even going to be the final chapter ARGH HATE HATE HATE," or, if I try using a sheet of paper I've already written on, "IT WILL RUIN IT. ARGH HATE HATE HATE."

(Also, my prose is slightly different handwritten v. typed, which I'm not really that happy about. I know why, of course: handwritten is more deliberate; I have to think about every word, I shape each letter individually, I can't just bang it out like I do when I'm typing. It takes longer to write less.)

Anyway. I have a suspicion I might have worked out my problem with Dust 25, and it's not with the chapter itself, but with the structure of Part II. I already wrote 50K of build-up, let's do something else -- let's get into the meat of it. So we'll see if that works. Eventually. If I can bring myself up to it.