Musings

So, I’m just going to ramble a bit. First, I have a confession to make. I’m car crazy. Always have been. My father had the bug too, and my half-nephew who used to drag race my Dodge Charger. My dad bought his 16 year old daughter a Charger with an engine that had over 300 horsepower, and a racing setting on the steering wheel. I drove that car 12 years until it started costing me $200.00 bucks a month to keep it running and I didn’t want to become a mechanic or adopt a mechanic. Anyway, since then I have owned the Fiat two seater convertable. The Toyota Supra, and right now I drive the Mercedes SLK 350. In between I had two “mommy cars”, a Lexus sedan and a Mercedes sedan, but I was never happy driving them. All of this is a long way to tell you that I went out with a friend yesterday who is in the market for a new car. I’ve been going along as he test drove cars, and we ended the day with him driving the new BMW three hundred series turbo. Fun car! Great handling, super acceleration, comfortable cockpit with terrific ammenities. We had a lot of fun.

We then stopped for coffee and a crepe at this little pastry shop and crepe restaurant in the La Fonda Hotel. There we brainstormed about our stories for the upcoming Wild Card book BUSTED FLUSH that we will deliver to Tor at the end of this year. After working George, Parris, Carl, Ian and I had dinner at The Shed (a Santa Fe tradition for fifty years), and went off to see THE LAST MIMZY (I hope I spelled that right.)

This is a terrific little movie. A gentle, emotional script. Wonderful acting from the two children, and not a damn thing blew up. It was such a relief. Now I love a good action movie, but sometimes it starts to feel like an assault rather than story telling. The other nice thing is that no one in this movie is an asshole. Everyone is a basically decent person. I also wanted to see the film because it’s based on a famous science fiction story, and we have to show support to our community. The theater was full with parents and children, and even groups of adults like us. Ian recognized a man in one scene and said he’s a major scientist working on super string theory. You gotta love a movie that includes people like that.

Which brings me to what I’m currently reading. While I was in California I finished Brin’s KILN PEOPLE which I enjoyed. It had two endings, and I liked the first ending better, but it’s a really fine science fiction P.I. story. But now I’m home and I’m nervous because I’m reduced to waiting again, so I picked up a comfort book — THE WITCHES OF KARRES. This, along with HAVE SPACESUIT WILL TRAVEL, are two of my favorite science fiction books. I would love to adapt the WITCHES as a movie, but I’m not sure you could get it made since the protagonists are a man in his twenties and a ten year old girl. With all the Catch a Predator stuff on television I don’t think you can put an adult male and a girl child together. Which is sad. Schmitz was writing in a more innocent time.

I was keyed up after the movie so I sat up watching Daily Shows until 1:00 am. Which was a mistake because we had to be up early to meet Ali who was arriving at 8:00 am to let me look at this particular Turkish rug in my home rather than Walter Jon’s living room. Walter Jon and his wife went to Turkey for the eclipse last year, and bought a rug. This spring the gentleman contacted Walter because he had a van full of rugs that had arrived too late for a big show in Atlanta, and he was travelling around the southwest showing the rugs. Walter hosted a rug showing a few weeks ago, and I bought a beautiful runner for my hallway. There was another rug — a wool and silk blend — that Ali knew I loved so he carried it into my house this morning.

It was perfect in the bedroom, and then he showed us some silk rugs because Carl hadn’t been in town for the other showing. There was one intricate rug in shades of blue and salmon that just took my breath away. Ali made me an offer I couldn’t refuse so I bought both rugs. The silk rug is in my dressing room right in front of the make-up table. I’m going to take photos and get them posted so you can see the work.

It was also really fun because when Ali walked into the house he froze at the sight of my rug in the living room. It’s an enormous blue, cream and gold piece that is about 80 years old. Ali said it was one of the finest Bermain’s (I have no idea how to spell this) he had ever seen, and that they haven’t been made for decades. He asked how I got it. I got it because I grew up with Janice Knadjian, and her father owns the premier oriental rug store in NM. This rug belonged to an elderly woman whose heirs sent it to Mr. Knadjian to sell after her death. Because it’s very formal and very traditional he was having a lot of trouble selling the rug. People today prefer the geometrics. So he offered it to me at a stunning price. I knew I had a treasure. Now I really know I have a treasure.

I was exhuasted so I rested for awhile then went off and rode Pi. Oh yes, Pi decided to give us a scare this morning. He had a little gas colic. Two days ago it was snowing and very cold. Today it was in the 70’s. Horses guts just don’t handle changes in barometric pressure very well. They really are absurdly fragile. Anyway, that was my weekend. I told you I was going to ramble. I hope everyone else had a great weekend. Later.

Melinda

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 1st, 2007 at 6:49 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.