i wonder if this will make sense in the morning

I am going to spend two months in Melrose, Florida, this fall. It's just sinking in what that means, really. I'm taking my cat. I'm gonna drive cross-country then fly back and pick Timmy up and return. I don't want to take him on such an intense road trip, and I want to do the road trip anyway. It's all for the novel, the driving, the being in Melrose. Well, not the cat part, but I'll enjoying having the cat for company, the cat will appreciate not being abandoned (after getting over the plane ride -- I need to look into tranquilizers, pros and cons, etc.), and S will appreciate not having to take care of the cat. Not that he doesn't like Timmy, it's just that he doesn't want a cat, and it also serves as further explanation (or delineation) of our relationship, i.e., if Timmy was our cat, then we would be a couple. I mean, what if one of us decides to move away; as it is now, there's no question about where Timmy would go.

But anyway, the journeys to Melrose... Or I guess that's "journeys to Florida" and journey to Melrose. I wonder if this will make sense in the morning.

I'm going to stay at the Lee House September through October. At first, I was a little bit unsure of it because of the Lee House's proximity to Tampa. It's not all that close (two-and-a-half hours), but it was a somewhat overwhelming concept at first. I wasn't really sure it was a good idea anyway, but I ran it past S and he encouraged it. I think he would have said something if he thought it was a bad idea, for whatever reason...

I don't know what I'm saying; I'm really just enjoying writing, watching the words come out of the end of the pen, writing fancy letters and watching them form into words.

So, two months in Melrose, twenty miles from Gainesville -- and I will have my truck, so I won't be stranded -- but a nice out of the way little town. I want to get a bike. Maybe I'll get one there. I also want to create a schedule for my time in Melrose. I told C when I first came up with the idea of going to Melrose to work on my book (and she encouraged it) that I was going to write myself a proposal, to see how it all looks on paper. Maybe I still need to do that, or maybe I need to do something different, maybe just a schedule.

I want to write a schedule for my days there and for the progress of the book while I'm there. Not that I want something to bear down on me, but rather as a target (or targets) of how I would like things to go. If my goal is to rewrite (second draft) the book in Melrose, I need to get my ass in gear to finish the first draft. But more likely -- and this is the reason I decided upon two months there instead of one -- I'll complete the first draft there. I'm working on it now but the work is all in my head, and my head is a bit full up with other stuff now as well. But I think it's a good thing; I think if I can tap into this misery that currently haunts me, I can get some good writing done.

I just have to tap it. Once it's flowing I'm sure I can channel it in another direction, like into august chagrin.

I'm sleepy now -- and a little bit high -- so I'm shutting of. I feel like the helicopter outside my window, circling over the neighborhood. That's me, I'm just coming in for a landing.