It rained non-stop yesterday and they are predicting snow. It’s almost May. “We’re going to have to hunker down this weekend,” my husband said. He has said this a lot this past winter, our first back in Ottawa. I giggle every time he uses the expression “hunker down.” I’ve started using it myself I love it so much.
It’s probably a good thing that the weather sucks this weekend. My productivity has been appalling since I handed in my last requirement for Year 1 of my MFA program a couple weeks ago. The boondoggle about being an MFA student though is reading counts as “work.” And I’ve been doing a lot of that. “How was your day?” my husband asks when he gets home from work. “Exhausting,” I respond. “I’ve done nothing but work.”
Here is the work I’ve been doing: “Committed” by Elizabeth Gilbert; “One Strong Girl” by Lesley Buxton (a recent grad from my program, this is exquisite in the saddest possible way); “By Chance Alone,” by Max Eisen; “Brother” by David Charandy, and many articles in the New Yorker. Did you know E. Jean Carroll leads tours around NYC of where despicable men work (read current issue of the New Yorker). Trump Tower, Fox News, etc. are some of the stops. I tweeted to her that this was a fabulous idea and she should franchise to other cities. She tweeted back. Arguably the highlight of this week was being seen by E. Jean Carroll.
I’m now reading Claire Dederer’s memoir “Love and Trouble.” When my MFA class was in NYC in January, a publisher liked my book idea. “What are your comps?” he asked. I listed first-time Canadian authors with modest social media footprints like Mandy Len Catron (“How to Fall in Love with Anyone.”)“Find a US comp,” he advised. Dederer’s is it. She talks about dormant teenage feelings of lust bubbling to the surface in mid-life and the impact on her marriage. I was describing some of the explicit things she shares in her book about her sex life to my husband. “This sort of candour is what makes great reading,” I said. “You make me lunches,” he pointed out by way of encouragement. Sure, I bet my little act of domestic affection (I even got up at 5:30 am to bake banana-apple bread to pack in his lunch bag on Wednesday) will titillate readers as much as Dederer’s account of lying across her husband’s lap.
Anyway….here’s the good news. I’ve been learning a lot about sex in the interviews I’ve been doing for my “Sex and Relationships” column for YouAreUNLTD. Here is my interview with Dr. Amy Muise (teaser: research found sex only once a week is enough to keep your relationship strong – YAY!) and my interview with Venus Envy owner Sam Whittle (teaser: vibrators are even more essential in middle-age). And, I continue to talk to really interesting people. I’m almost embarrassed to admit just how much I’ve learned.
One last thing I want to share is my story about Chelsea, Quebec for VIA Rail that was published this week. Many of my dear Toronto friends promised to visit me in Ottawa after we moved. But so far all I hear is excuse after excuse. “It’s too cold,” they whine. Fine, don’t visit. But you are missing out, my friends. Ottawa is a lot of fun (and we live in a to-die-for location) not to mention minutes away from Chelsea which has the largest spa in North America. I’m not typically a spa kind of girl but I’m going back. Plus O’Brien House (fabulous, fabulous, fabulous) and so much else. I challenge you to read about Chelsea and not beg to take up space in my guest room.
Enjoy the weekend. I’m going to go “work” now.
Photo Credit: Nordik Spa
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