Production of quota

c. 1,000 words, for a total of 35,790 words.

I had hoped to write yesterday also, but after an initial stab at heading out to set up shop in a cafe somewhere I had to admit defeat, there were simply too many things clamoring for my attention at home...

(I am home! And it is snowing, and I am going to go out for a gloriously snowy run later - it is good...)

The trip back from Cayman went fairly smoothly, though I was traveling with an excessively large amount of luggage (books are heavy!): I had four bags, two of them c. 52 lbs. each and the other two adding up to an additional 70 lbs. or so (the big ones were my XL North Face duffel and the Aerus bike bag that I used to take that second-hand road bike I acquired this spring down to Cayman, only stuffed with clothes and with no bicycle in it; the small ones were my Tyr transition bag packed so absolutely full with books that they have torn a hole along a seam, it is not what it was designed for, and an ancient small duffel bag to which I will not be able to find a link online), plus a backpack with laptop and a large handbag for carry-on. It was a relief to get here with everything still in tow; the carts at JFK are not designed for carrying so much stuff at once!

I have renewed my lease, I have sorted out the overdue library book situation, I have begun to unpack (but there is still much more to do, as I very thoroughly stowed everything away for subletters and now need to excavate and rearrange as well as unpacking the things I had with me in Cayman). It is also amazing how much junk mail accumulates in just a couple of months; I last picked up mail in late October, but there was still a huge shopping bag of catalogs and credit card offers and so forth waiting for me here...

It's about a week and a half till school starts; I need to make up my syllabi for the new semester and take care of associated logistics, but really the two main other things I am doing are striving to maintain quota production and ramping up the fitness schedule. I am looking forward to teaching again, though; I guess in that sense the purpose of the sabbatical has been served!

Production of quota

Didn't get started till mighty late today: it was the first day for a week when I really could lounge as opposed to getting up and hastening out of the house to write quota, and then I got diverted onto the complex job of beginning to pack up all of my things, including a vast number of books - I'm going back to New York on Wednesday afternoon, I'll be teaching again in the spring semester.

But I did in the end squeeze out quota.

(I am still disconcerted by the way the shape of the novel has suddenly come into focus for me over the last few days. I don't think it's going to be a very long novel - in fact I would be surprised if it comes in much over 65,000 words max, which means I really am pretty much halfway drafted...)

c. 1,100 words, for a total of 32,117 words

The books I want to bring to Cayman

may be too heavy to carry in one trip, especially since I will also be traveling with a bicycle and many months' worth of clothes/gear...

Ace Luggage

Robert Hudson on luggage and the importance of attention to detail in theatrical productions.

"Dear Sir, Am I alone in thinking. . . .?"

Unpublished letters written to the Telegraph:

SIR – I find it intensely humiliating to be asked by airport security staff if I have packed my own bag. This forces one to admit, usually within earshot of others, that I no longer have a manservant to do the chore for me. Gentlemen should be able to answer such questions with a disdainful: "Of course not! Do I look like that sort of person?"

Arthur W. J. G. Ord-Hume, Guildford, Surrey

Baggage

Three blissful weeks await in Tropical Island Paradise!