Thursday

Today has started early. I was up dressed and out the door at 3:30 am. I came back quickly, but the day smells great and I am keen to walk. But first, some New Yorker reading, kitty time and a bath.

Wednesday: A Walk to West Van

Walking through Stanley Park on a glorious day, I passed this stump. It looks like a miniature planted garden. The red flowers are teeny weenie little blooms. You could barely see them; they are the size of pin heads. And they say, "Stop and smell the roses." I excel at that.

Click on the photos to view them better. 

Tuesday

Vancouver's new bike racks.

Yesterday I walked the seawall and it was spectacular because there was no one on it whereas on Sunday it felt like the entire population of the city was on the wall. I am far happier when there are fewer people. And then I met Bruce and Annabel for lunch.

After walking 24K on Sunday, I was quite tired and my Monday walk felt laboured so feeling back in full form yesterday was a relief. The mildness of this winter has meant I have not lost strength in my legs from last year's many walks.

It's Wednesday morning and I still do not have a confirmed time and place for the meeting with Brad's production team that was rumoured for Friday.

•

I am executor of Rita Ferguson's estate. In early January, my lawyer requested that VanCity close Rita's bank account and forward the money to them. The bank said I needed to have the beneficiaries sign a notarized form so I sent the form first to Oklahoma and then to Oliver, BC so that Rita's children could sign it. On February 3rd, I took the signed form to VanCity so that they could release the funds.

Yesterday it was February 17th and I discovered that the woman at the bank had done nothing since I delivered the forms. I was incredulous and so she did it yesterday, but fuck, what has happened to the world?

Reasons to Be Happy Today

• The re-drafting of the script of Uncle Gus' Monkey is finished. This is a hybrid of Knock Knock and the screenplay of Monkey and has been developed for submission to The Arts Club. (and other theatres if they pass). Warren will want changes; that is next.
• Friday, Warren and I have a meeting with the production team about the Monkey screenplay. I expect to come out of the meeting with a status. I want an "official status" so that I can announce it in my newsletter.
• I have finished my newsletter that will announce Trudeau to my mailing list. It is important because I hope to raise $3,000 for the set construction from it. Presentation House allotted all their production money to the plays of their season before they chose to do my play so there is no money for the set.
• It is sunny and I am about to walk the seawall for the fourth time in three days.
• I am completely up to date with Trudeau, the Felons & Me.
• Since the last century and until September of 2014, I weighted 180 or more, but I have kept my weight at 160 pounds for three months now and today I get all my pants back from the tailors with 2" taken out of the waists. Now I have many pants that fit instead of two.
• Readership of this blog has suddenly spiked: For some reason, for some reason (probably one post) this blog is very popular in Romania.
• The "In" box of my emails is empty. I am completely caught up on my correspondence.
• I am not teaching this term.
• Spring and summer are coming.

Good News on Monday

We (Warren and I) appear to be headed into a meeting with the production team that likes our screenplay—the whole team. Their organizing this meeting suggests to me that although the production has hit a bit of a bump with the cost of the period nature of the screenplay, they remain interested. I have proposed moving the whole story into the present to save costs but Warren has not shared that idea. He wants to bring it up at the meeting, so here we go….. Stay tuned.

Sunday Walk

After so many days of sewing and writing and endless rain, the incredible clarity of clean winter air on a spectacularly sunny day drew me out for a long walk. I walked 24 kilometres along the seawall ending up at the Granville Island market where I bought some of the finest ahi tuna imaginable to eat for dinner. I am hooked on spicy tuna.

The low point of the day was walking into a branch of a tree.I did not see it coming and I walked right into it, banging my head and knocking myself to the ground. Senior down, and not a single person came to my aid. All is fine, though. Just a big ugly scab on my head.

Moss on an unused sidewalk at the entrance
to Stanley Park.

Like the tuxedo shirt?

Fragrant as heaven.

Another variety of the fragrant plant pictured
above. I am seeing them everywhere.

Money Problems

It has been interesting thinking about Brad the producer’s email and "the money problem." For me, it was a lovely email with its comments about the writing. Monkey's success with every professional reader allows me to believe in myself as a writer of dialogue and dramatic structure. I valued reading that Brad's “whole team” was enthusiastic about it.

Also, it has been gratifying to discover that Brad is "driving" our development. I thought it was Warren  but yesterday I found out Warren hasn’t been in touch with Brad since the initial meeting. So a lot of what I have been hearing from Warren has been instigated by Brad and that gives me a sense of the strength of his interest.

But the financial problem is a considerable hurdle. We talked about cutting the France scenes, but it is not France that is the problem, it’s the period nature of the early scenes that present the challenge and there is no way to get around the period nature of the piece.

Last night I went to bed thinking about the problem. All my life I have been solving problems, but this is the first one that seems too big for me to solve. My understanding has been that Brad’s company planned on investing $1 million and they would seek another million from a partner. Now they/we face raising more—but how much more is not clear. One million? Two million? (Note: Writers earn $30,000 per million budgeted dollars.)

Our story requires three decades to tell. Ours uses the 50s, 60s and 70s and that is the problem. So this morning I have written to Warren to ask him what he would think if our story was set, instead, in the 90s, 00s and now. Maybe I can solve this money problem with these dialogue writing little fingers after all.