It’s a rainy Monday afternoon… which is a good afternoon for several things.
Trips to the library…
(where D’s eyes are the same color as the carpet)
…to borrow some hilarious Elephant and Piggie books…
If you have not yet had the pleasure of reading aloud from the Elephant and Piggie books, please do so immediately. Tell Mo I sent you. (No, Mo doesn’t know me, but it just sounds cool to say “Tell Mo I sent you”.)
After coming home from the library, it is fun to cuddle in bed with lots of blankets and your new Elephant and Piggie books. Also, it is fun to pretend that you’re taking a nap.
and then perhaps actually take a nap.
(While I love Mo Willems’s work, I also borrowed some gothic fiction and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman… cuz grownups can’t live on Mo alone.)
In other news, I took Z to Odyssey Dance Company’s Shut Up and Dance last weekend. (D reminded me that we don’t say ‘shut up’… so we called it “Be Quiet, Please, and Dance”.)
It was a hip hop rendition of Romeo and Juliet (and featured a friend of my little bro’s, who played a wonderfully creepy Paris). Z’s only real knowledge of the story of Romeo and Juliet is the movie Gnomeo and Juliet, which we saw just a few weeks ago. She kept turning to me during the show and saying things like, “Ooooh, I get it. In the movie they fought on lawnmowers, and in this they fight by dancing…” Yes sweetie, that’s the basic idea. Lots of fighting, dancing, and dying. She was a little shocked to learn that it didn’t have a happy ending. They actually died. Well, not actually died… the dancers all returned the following night to do it again. I met my bro’s friend in the lobby and gave him a hug and told him that I was delightfully surprised to see him. “Did you like it?” he asked. I responded by saying “Yeah, but your dance with Juliet (which was little more than a sexual assault with pirouettes and choreographed throws) was actually kinda creepy.” Not sure if that was the right thing to say, but I was actually try to pay the boy a compliment. If I were flexible enough to dance, I’d stick my foot in my mouth.
And lastly, I’m working on a short story that is trying to morph itself into a novella.
Instead of shrinking, it’s growing and lengthening. It’s about a teenage girl (with a secret power of sorts that I don’t want to divulge yet) whose father is an over-protective demon. He demands that the girl bring home all of her suitors on the third date, to give them a once over. If they don’t pass daddy’s high standards for his daughter… well… he devours them on the spot.
Tracks I’m listening to as this plots grows and thickens:
Lux Aeterna, Clint Mansell
Teardrop, Massive Attack
Jon’s been crafting my actual “author site”, which will be located at www.suzannegale.com
I’ll post the entire short story there once it’s complete.
