Three Things from Spring
Revisions! Revisions! Revisions!
What I’m writing…
One night when I was a flight attendant for TWA and flying internationally, the pilot invited me to sit in the cockpit of our 747 during landing.
It was December, right before Christmas, and we were flying from Rome to JFK. I was told I had to be absolutely quiet, strapped into the jump seat, and within minutes the radio started crackling and things started beeping. It was like a director shouted, “Action!”
We began descending and at the same time, it started to snow. But at that altitude and in the jet’s lights, the snow sparkled like fairy dust. As we got closer, I could see the beautiful skyline of Manhattan.
The air in the cockpit buzzed with intensity. I was holding my breath as the runway appeared and that magnificent plane landed smoothly on it. To my surprise, I was crying, awestruck.
Later, the captain told me: “You know, a computer flies this plane. I do this job for the thrill and majesty of the eleven minutes of takeoff and eighteen minutes of landing.”
Friends, writing is like that too. There is the thrill of those glorious, messy first drafts. And the thrill of holding the finished book in your hands.
And there’s the long flight in between: revision. I’m so excited that my new novel has taken off (more on that soon), and I am starting the magical process of revision.
My process at this stage is to print a hard copy, take it to the library, and read it with a pen in my hand. Or, as Truman Capote said: I read it not with a pen, but a knife.
What I’m knitting…
As I recovered from a stomach flu, an afternoon stretched out before me. I was finally upright again, so I returned to my Crowberry sweater from Modern Daily Knitting, the one that needs concentration for the upcoming color work.
I was happily knitting when it was time to add a new skein…except there were no more skeins in the color I needed. Did I lose them? Not order enough? Still sick in bed, I ordered more yarn and returned to the very good television adaptation of Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories, with Jason Isaacs playing detective Jackson Brodie.
The yarn in my color, however, was back ordered.
So, I needed a…well…a revision. A new plan. I needed to knit!
Welcome my Loopy Mango Brioche Top—Summer in the loveliest Barely Pink.
One of my favorite projects ever was this Loopy Mango cardigan, so I am feeling optimistic and excited.
What I’m thinking about…
Love!
A few different kinds of love…
Recently, I fell in love with a new restaurant, Fish Cheeks in NoHo, and all I want to do is eat there every day. After our first visit, I woke up wanting more of their crab curry. Two days later, I still wanted that crab curry.
Here’s the thing: for the most part, I don’t like fishy things. The pallid supermarket salmon, no thank you. (Confession: Copper River salmon in summer, yes please.) Sad swordfish. Most tuna. I do like very fresh ceviche. And some fish and chips (preferably in Ireland, but Dame on Macdougal Street in NYC makes terrific fish and chips). I’m not even a fan of lobster, though I do like a good lobster roll, like this one from McLoons Lobster Shack in South Thomaston, Maine.
As you can tell, I’m fussy about my fish. Partially, this comes from growing up Catholic during the no fish on Friday era, which led to things like creamed tuna on toast—canned tuna, canned peas and carrots, in a homemade “white sauce,” over toasted Sunbeam bread. My mother thought it was very sophisticated.
But Fish Cheeks has made me revise my aversion. Not only the crab curry, but the whole branzino, the oysters, the crab fried rice…
Friends, it’s never too late to fall in love! To try something new!
And also…
Speaking of love—other kinds of love—last week was overflowing with it.
First, Sam’s birthday…
Celebrated at a fantastic restaurant, Rolo’s, in Ridgewood, Queens. I mean, look at this lasagna!
A few days later, Annabelle turned twenty-one and we celebrated at Roscioli, a NYC branch of the famous restaurant in Rome, which serves the best pasta alla Gricia, carbonara, and Amatriciani in the city.
And then two days later, it was our eighth wedding anniversary! We had a champagne breakfast at home, walked a few blocks to see the mind blowing play, I Assume You Know David Greenspan, then a few blocks away for dinner at The Old Homestead Steakhouse, which was my father’s favorite back in the 80s when he’d visit me here.
But we had to stop in Abingdon Square Park and get a picture in front of the tulips, on the very spot where we got married…
Then:
And now:
Best revision of my life!
PS…
So much happiness in one week. But it’s also a week with an enormous amount of sadness too.
In 1997, my beloved dad died way too soon. And just five years later, my daughter Gracie died suddenly.
Oh, friends, I know how grief knocks us down. Lays us bare. Consumes us.
And we can’t run from it. Sometimes we try. But it’s impossible.
This past weekend, I found myself alone in my loft in Providence where Hester Kaplan and I were leading a writing workshop.
On Friday evening, my to do list was long
That first item—bake lemon cakes—required zesting and juicing twelve lemons.
I put on Nanci Griffith’s album Other Voices, Other Rooms because the spring Grace died, she and Sam and I played it nonstop in what we called the Puzzle Room because that’s where we worked jigsaw puzzles. We also read in that room, and danced, and sang.
Friday evening, with Nanci Griffith serenading me, I zested and juiced those lemons and I cried my heart out.
We need to do that too, don’t we?
One More Thing…
I’m so excited to be doing an online class, Five Things I Learned About Writing Memoir, live at 5:00 Pacific, 8:00 Eastern on May 4. If you are interested in writing your memoir, or just interested in the art of memoir writing, I’d love to see you there!
As always, thank you for reading. I hope all your life revisions, small and large, bring you joy, even as you take the time to cry for what is lost.
My heart feels full after reading this. All of it--the exciting and the fulfilling and the celebratory and the grieving--is what makes our lives, each day of them.
Joy and sadness. Love. Loss. Reinvention. All there. Wonderful. And with such heart.