Jenyfer Matthews

It’s Sunday, the first day of the week here in Cairo. Time to get back to the business of writing.

I spent the weekend doing other things. With the kids and hubby at home, there are too many distractions to try to concentrate on writing anything. Instead, I quilted…and let my mind wander. Quilting is actually productive on several levels. When I’m done I not only have a lovely handcrafted item in hand but I usually have a glimmer of the next part of my story too. My characters talk to me while I sew.

We had our dinner guests over last night. Now I remember why I don’t have guests over more often. It’s not the cooking (though that is part of it). Mostly it’s the mad dash to clean up the house – pick up the toys the children leave scattered around, fluff the pillows on the couch, clear away all my sewing things from the dining table and get out the best napkins and place-mats (which we only ever use when we have guests!)

And the dishes….I always forget how many dishes are created when you have a couple of extra people over for dinner. I cleaned up the pots as I went along but still had a sink full of bowls and plates and glassware to wash at the end of the night. No dishwasher here – strictly handwashing for me. As much as I would have liked to have left it, I had to get it finished. Not only do I hate waking up to a mess, but we didn’t have any clean silverware left!

Does it sound like I’m complaining? Nope. It was a very nice evening with good friends and great conversation.

But unless I can talk hubby around to doing the dishes (or getting me a dishwasher) it will be a while before I do it again!

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Saturday was the beginning of Banned Book week in America. Books are challenged and banned for a variety of reasons. You may or may not agree with the books on the list but isn’t it everyone’s right to make up their own mind? I’ve read about a third of the books on this list, many of them as class assignments and most in complete ignorance to the notion that there was any problem with them. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell was a childhood favorite. How many of these books have you read?

It’s the last day of the week here in Cairo and I’ve suddenly conceived a desire to have dinner guests over. Probably the result of all the socializing I’ve done this week.

The menu: potato soup, salad, and beer bread with apple crisp for dessert. It’s vegetarian fare at my house in case you were wondering. I haven’t decided who to ask just yet – maybe we’ll just eat it all ourselves!

What’s for dinner at your house? Any special weekend plans?

EDITED TO ADD:

Since Nina asked, here is the potato soup recipe I’ll be making:

Potato Cheese Soup (from The New Laurel’s Kitchen, 1986)

4 medium potatoes
2 carrots
1 onion chopped
(1 whole clove garlic)
1-2 Tbls butter
3 cups milk
1/2 – 1 cup grated sharp cheddar
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 Tbs chopped parsley

Peel and cook chopped potatoes and carrots in water (or stock) to cover in a large, heavy pan. Saute the onion and garlic if desired in butter and combine with potatoes and carrots. Puree in batches.

Return puree to pot and add milk. Heat until steaming but do not let boil. Add cheese slowly and stir until melted smoothly. Add seasonings.

Makes 8-10 cups.

It has recently come to my attention that some friends and acquaintances have been using me as an example of how they would like to spend their next vacation.

Let me explain. My husband and I tend to take separate vacations. It’s not something that we planned, exactly, it just sort of happened. See, he likes to take advantage of the fact that we live abroad and are in closer proximity to other parts of the world by spending his annual vacation exploring someplace new. Since that would be difficult to do with the children in tow, he usually goes on his own. I prefer to take the kids and go visit family.

Then it occurred to me that it wasn’t fair that he should have all the fun – footloose and fancy free for a month while I travel on my own with the kids hither and yon, so I decided that I should get my turn away as well. At least once a year I take a week on my own and travel someplace with my friends. It started out several years ago with a 5 day trip to Egypt and this year ended up with 10 days in Germany. It’s not totally fair time-wise, no, but a girl’s gotta take the time she can get.

And I do make the most of my time.

So, a neighbor told me recently that she tried this idea out on her husband and suggested that she would like to take a weekend away with some of her girlfriends. Her husband was not enthusiastic about the plan and she gave up the idea after getting the cold shoulder for three days. Another friend told me that it was her husband encouraging her to go away with her friends. Apparently he likes to be on his own. She also declined the suggestion.

Whether or not these couples decide that separate travels are their cup of tea is beside the point. What I find ironic is that anyone should use me as any sort of a good example.

I’m pretty well used to being used as a bad example. I’ve been accused of being a bad influence on people ever since I was in grade school. I never did anything to deserve that reputation (well, not much!) but I must just have some sort of disreputable aura. My teachers and friends’ parents were often suspicious of me. My friends’ boyfriends never trusted me either, though I never did anything to lead anyone astray.

The fact that my best friend broke it off with her boyfriend the morning after she and I went out to eat together this summer was just a coincidence, no matter what he thinks.

Honest.

I have seen this question discussed many times before on various blogs and forums and have even had to address it in real life when I tell someone that I’ve published a book – and then have to defend the format.

Do I think digital books are real books? Hell yes. If I could ever truly describe the process of getting a story out of my head and on to “paper” – the months of work involved – then no one would ever question the format again. A book is a book whether digital or print. Period.

(It’s sort of like asking if the friend you have in real life vs. the friends you make online are equal? I don’ t know about you, but mine are)

Another issue I see discussed a lot is the quality of the writing in e-books. Are there better and worse e-books? Sure there are! Just as there are better and worse (and horrid) print books. Fact of the matter is that not everyone is going to like the same books. Some books are best sellers and some…aren’t. Writing is a very subjective area. There are tons of books by very popular writers that I haven’t liked but I’m not going to name them all. Okay, I’ll name one – just as an example: The Davinci Code. An international best-seller-made-into-a-movie-adored-by-millions-book and I didn’t like it. It was an interesting concept but the characters all sounded the same to me. I found the plot predictable and the prose wooden.

See how that works?

Some will argue that digital books are just too hard – you have to either get a portable gadget and then figure out the formats and uploading, etc, or you have to read on your computer which isn’t always that attractive an option. I understand. There is a learning curve. I got my e-reader this summer and spent a lot of time figuring out how to get books on it. But there is also a learning curve with reading print books. We’ve just forgotten that since most of us got over that hump in grade school when we finally were able to sound out the alphabet.

All this isn’t to say I don’t long to see my books in print one day soon. There is a stamp of legitimacy that comes with having a book to hold in your hand. Beyond that, I’m a bit old-fashioned. I worry about changes in technology and formatting. Remember 5 1/4″ floppy disks? Vinyl record albums? 8-tracks? Some of my original manuscripts were created in Word Perfect. I still prefer film photography because even if you lose the pictures, you have the negatives. If my computer gets a virus, I’m screwed. I’d love to have my books in print as the ultimate hard copy backups against digital mishaps and technological advances.

I could get into issues of acid free paper and insect / glue problems at this point but I think it’s time to move on.

Well my refrigerator must not be a Capricorn because the freezer went ka-put over the weekend. Fortunately I noticed it and was able to evacuate the most valuable (and potentially stinky) of the contents to a neighbor’s house before it all thawed out.

I called maintenance yesterday and kept my fingers crossed for a speedy fix. The fridge was still cold so it couldn’t be that serious right?

The repair guy decided that he needed to take it away to fix a freon leak. At least that’s what I think he said. He’d arrange a loaner for me in the meantime.

That all sounds pretty reasonable until I tell you I live in a fourth floor walk up. Just take a look at these stairs:

I felt bad for the TWO (incredibly strong) guys who showed up at my door with the replacement. They were obviously winded and tired, but it’s Ramadan so I can’t even offer them a glass of water to refresh themselves before hauling the broken fridge back down again. And they get to repeat the process in a couple of days.

In spite of all that excitement I did meet my writing goal yesterday and expect to again today as well. This BICHOK really does the trick sometimes.

So maybe SATURN is responsible for my sudden popularity??

CAPRICORN (Sept. – All You Magazine – www.cainer.com)

Saturn, the ringed planet, is traditionally seen as “belonging” to Capricorn. When astrologers want to know what’s happening in your life, they look at what “shape” Saturn is in. Right now, it is entering a new sector of the sky. That only happens once every two to three years. It’s an important development. A truly life changing shift is about to occur. This change has got something to do w/ your horizons; with your ability to go further, see more, deepen your understanding and strengthen your ability to do the right thing-at the right time, at the right place. It’s also got a lot to do with your becoming happier. The change starts this very month.

I hope that Saturn sticks around a while because this is the best horoscope I’ve ever had!!

Yesterday was an odd day for me.

Started out with the impromptu tea party with my neighbor. Later in the day, some friends who live downstairs from us invited us to come over for dinner with them. That suited me since I had been busy sewing all day and hadn’t given one though to what to make for dinner. Shortly after that, a friend called me to see if we were free to get together Friday afternoon for cocktails. Sure, great, see you then. I went out to collect my son from our shared back yard and another neighbor asked me to meet her for coffee Tuesday morning.

Okay – while I’m pleased that so many people apparently enjoy my company enough to want to spend time with me, I have to say that all this sudden attention kind of freaked me out. It’s rare that I have so many social engagements so close together and I’m not sure I’ve ever had so many invitations in the space of a hour. The feature on me in the local expat magazine hasn’t even come out yet!

I’ve said before I’m chatty. Well, I am. But I’m also a bit of an introvert. On a normal basis, I keep to myself and spend a lot of time on my own doing my own thing. I’ll get crabby once in a while for no particular reason and that’s when I know I’ve had too much of my own company. Even still, the prospect of spending so much time socializing is a little unnerving.

Clearly I need more balance in my life.

I had a rather eventful morning.

Most days start out the same: I get up, pack school lunches, take the kids to the bus stop and then by 8am I’m on my own until the kids come home from school. I normally come home, have a little breakfast, sit down and check email and then try to write something.

Not today.

Today, while waiting at the bus stop with my kids (which was late arriving), I witnessed a minor car accident involving a neighbor in my building and a local. My neighbor was attempting to make a left turn on to our street. The local was also trying to make left turn – local style: he pulled into the oncoming lane of traffic and started his turn from there, into what would have been the middle/right side of the street onto which he was turning.

Fortunately, the damage to either car was minimal but there was lots of confusion since none of us was bilingual. I put my kids on their bus, which arrived moments after, and went down to our building to find someone to interpret. After about fifteen minutes it was agreed just to let the matter go and each driver would take care of his own car. Since my neighbor only had a scrape and the other driver wasn’t even the owner of the car he crunched, I think my neighbor got the better end of the deal.

On the way back to my own place, I ran into a South African woman who was out walking her dog. She inquired about the accident and then announced that she was pretty sure that a bus driver who was parked on our road had just propositioned her. It seemed an unlikely thing to happen during the school rush at 8am, but what do I know? I don’t speak Arabic either. And it certainly worked as a conversation starter.

We got to talking and she invited me up to her (magnificent) apartment for a cup of tea. She gave me the grand tour and it turned out that we have quite a bit in common. We practically talked over each other for a little over an hour and I left with a standing invitation to come over anytime and the offer of a ride to a bigger grocery store I don’t often visit since I don’t have a car.

And just think, if the kids’ bus hadn’t been late I would have gone home sooner and maybe missed the chance to make a new friend.

Does it sound odd, the speed with which we bonded? I’m a friendly, chatty sort of person and have never had trouble making friends. I admit her openness – normally only found in Americans on airplanes – took me aback just a bit. But I think that when you’re living in a community of people who come and go so quickly, that you learn the art of making friends quickly. Who has time to be coy when either of you may be gone in a year?

My only reservations about this friendship at present revolve around the fact that having such a pleasant distraction so close by may cut into my productive time that much more…

So let’s face it – it’s going to get pretty boring around here if I all ever talk about is how slowly I write and how much I *didn’t* get done because of x, y, or z. (Though I was on a bit of a roll the last couple of days)

Some of you may know that I have another blog called Squash Blossom over on vox where I talk about my life in Egypt, quilting, and motherhood. And some of you have let me know that it’s frustrating because though you can read it, you cannot leave comments unless you are a member of vox. Good news! I’ve decided that it doesn’t really make sense to keep two blogs going so I’m just going to merge all that into one blog, right here at blogger.

Writing and all the other stuff too. It really will be full of my disconnected thoughts now.

In the spirit of fresh starts, I’m playing with some new looks too. Be patient while I play.

Well, another week has come and gone. Time has a funny way of passing. Some days seem to drag on and on, though that is mostly when you are engaged in doing something you aren’t that interested in. Most of my days seem to pass in a blur. I get up in the mornings full of plans and before I know it, it’s time to make dinner. Where did the day go?

I am pleased that I met my day t0 day writing goals last week. Aurora is warming up to telling me her story again, little by little. It’s just that sometimes it takes me a bit longer than she’d like to get it down right. She’s in a bit of a complicated emotional state at present and capturing that in just the right way on paper can be a little tricky. Or maybe that’s just me?

I feel like I spend a lot of time apologizing and explaining why it is that I write so slowly. So many of my peers seem to really zip along and by their own reports they turn out in a day what takes me a couple of weeks to produce. For a while I wondered what was wrong with me that I couldn’t quite write my stories in the same way. Was I less dedicated? More easily distracted?

Then, as I was cruising around the internet this week I happened upon Susan Elizabeth Phillip’s website and checked out her FAQ link. The usual question “how long does it take you to write a book?” was there. Her answer? TWO YEARS. She admits to being something of a slow writer as well but I don’t suppose many of her fans complain about the end product (though perhaps they wish there was more of it!!)

Seeing that made me feel better about my own writing habits. Yes, I probably could push myself to write more, faster – but I suspect the result would be a lot more re-writes and editing.
And besides, if I can go on as I am and in any way claim to be in a league with a writer like Susan Elizabeth Phillips then I’m going to do it – even if it is only because we both take a long time to tell our stories!