My life is very busy right now. Just for once, Im going to skip over the health stuff entirely. I know I\u2019m juggling newly hatched chicks and cannot drop them: you don\u2019t need to know about the enar-misses and the squawks and the way my hands are scratched and pecked at. To avoid talking about being sick, then, I\u2019m going to make a list.<\/p>\n
Ten things I\u2019m doing this week.<\/p>\n
1. Researching \u2013 this is my regular research and is all about how the built worlds are described in novels. Not just any novels. Fairy tale retellings.<\/p>\n
2. More researching. I\u2019m giving an academic paper that involves close knowledge of Marvel movies and of Old French chansons de geste and Medieval Arthurian tales. I\u2019m not reading and watching all these stories from scratch. This is stuff I\u2019ve known for years, especially the chansons de geste. My first academic analysis of Old French epic legends was in 1982. (I grow old.) It\u2019s the most fun revision ever, and it\u2019s going to last me through until May. It\u2019s my spare-time reading and viewing, and a really good reason to get other work done.<\/p>\n
3. Eating. I\u2019m finishing food up for Passover. Tonight I became so tired of it that I ordered takeaway dinner. Three hours later I got my act together again and mung beans are madly sprouting for eating in two days. That\u2019s the last of the mung beans.<\/p>\n
4. Preparing for Passover, the rest of it. So much work\u2026 and I have to start extra early because of not being that well. I watch my progress every day. Today\u2019s big event was making sure I had the right birthday present for my mother and that she could have it on the right day. If I fail at everything else, as long as Mum has her birthday present and I have the right food and a clean kitchen I can manage.<\/p>\n