For months, I have been preparing for our August trip to Sweden. For the most part, preparing for any trip starts with scouring travel guides. We tend not to schlep these doorstoppers on our trip, preferring to cull all the information we gather and create our own more usable document that incorporates sights and restaurants with hotel, flight, and car rental reservations. Also, I have yet to find a publisher that combines the meaty text of Rough Guides or Lonely Planet with the glossy, “I want to go to there” pics of the Eyewitness Guides. So, with some of our recent trips, I have started checking out travel guides from the library.
The first step was picking up travel guides, so I checked out the two that the library branch had on the day I visited—Rough Guide and Frommers. Both proved to be relatively useless. They had the same sort of information, beginning with the physical description of Visby (a walled Medieval city and I’ve often wondered why we need travel guides, visiting a walled Medieval city is all-inclusive but I need to know that there is more than Medieval week activities to do in this city).
In Stockholm, John and I will re-visit favorite sights…the ones that we said we would one day take our kids to see. Vasa, food halls, royal palace with armory, St. George slaying the Dragon. But we only have one day to overcome jetlag and hit these sights before we head to Visby for Medieval Week.
The internet is such a rich place to research a trip and must be changing the face of travel in unexpected ways. Keyword searches for Visby yielded an official site for the town, as well as one for medieval week. Wikipedia has historical, geographical, and meteorological information that is similar to printed travel guides. Blogs are also helpful as they contain uncensored suggestions of “must-dos” and “avoids,” as well as photos to pique the travelers interest.
Other things we do to prepare for a trip include the following:
~ eat the foods
just the one’s we’re familiar with…to whet our literal and figurative appetites. we need to leave ourselves open to discovering new things. salmon, herring, Jansson’s, Engebretsen’s
~ immerse yourself in culture
for Sweden, we’ve listened to music (ABBA, Hives)
~ read some books
aside from travel guides, these often include history, culinary essays and cookbooks, travel essays, memoirs, and fiction
~ brush up on how to say “where is the bathroom”
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
finishing up work
I can't believe how full this day has been, and it's not even noon yet. The boys had early morning dentist appointments. Just cleaning and fluoride treatments and x-rays. Oh my. Everything looks good for now, but both boys require orthodontic intervention. Then, a mad dash was made to Expo, where the boys are attending summer Discovery Club, so they could make the 9:30 bus for their field trip to Richardson Nature Center. Lucky them! I would rather be in an outdoor classroom than cleaning house and packing. Mad dash to the hardware store to have keys cut for the teenager who is cat sitting while we're away. Then mad dash home for a conference call with the author whose manuscript I have spent the past two months carving up. Deep cleansing breath. And a cup of coffee. My first of the day. I tell myself I probably didn't need the caffeine.
The conversation with the author went better than expected. When I last posted, I was hunkering down to do some serious molding and sculpting, which took five days. Typically during a developmental edit, I will scrutinize the manuscript for logic and clarity, as well as for tone and audience. In this manuscript, each of these elements required a lot of work. I did a fair amount of sentence and paragraph rearranging...all the while, leaving alone the errors in punctuation, spelling, and grammar. Those corrections will come later, when the author has made her revisions and I do a substantive edit, which is when I will make the author's prose sing.
I love what I do, especially when the author says "Thank you for your hard work," and "You made great recommendations that will help me." And, I think it ameliorates the blow of drastic measures, such as cutting an entire chapter. If I were a surgeon, it would be like removing a patient's gall bladder, an organ that, even though it labors for the digestive system, the body can survive without. The author had a chapter that essentially formed the basis of another book, but didn't really fit into this one. I stewed over how to make it work, trying as many different angles as I could come up with, and nothing made sense.
So I made a case to the author for cutting the chapter. Most authors would blow a gasket, feeling like their time had been wasted but also that their very important scholarship would suffer. I'm not joking. I've seen this happen so many times that I worked myself into an anticipatory lather with this manuscript. Giving the author a reasoned decision, though, as well as some time to percolate, may have helped. Either that or she's the most awesome author on the face of the Earth. Or a bit of both. She saw my point of view, but also offered an alternative that I think will work.
But the manuscript is done and out the door so I may take a well-deserved vacation. I had forgotten what it felt like to work like crazy to meet pre-vacation deadlines.
The conversation with the author went better than expected. When I last posted, I was hunkering down to do some serious molding and sculpting, which took five days. Typically during a developmental edit, I will scrutinize the manuscript for logic and clarity, as well as for tone and audience. In this manuscript, each of these elements required a lot of work. I did a fair amount of sentence and paragraph rearranging...all the while, leaving alone the errors in punctuation, spelling, and grammar. Those corrections will come later, when the author has made her revisions and I do a substantive edit, which is when I will make the author's prose sing.
I love what I do, especially when the author says "Thank you for your hard work," and "You made great recommendations that will help me." And, I think it ameliorates the blow of drastic measures, such as cutting an entire chapter. If I were a surgeon, it would be like removing a patient's gall bladder, an organ that, even though it labors for the digestive system, the body can survive without. The author had a chapter that essentially formed the basis of another book, but didn't really fit into this one. I stewed over how to make it work, trying as many different angles as I could come up with, and nothing made sense.
So I made a case to the author for cutting the chapter. Most authors would blow a gasket, feeling like their time had been wasted but also that their very important scholarship would suffer. I'm not joking. I've seen this happen so many times that I worked myself into an anticipatory lather with this manuscript. Giving the author a reasoned decision, though, as well as some time to percolate, may have helped. Either that or she's the most awesome author on the face of the Earth. Or a bit of both. She saw my point of view, but also offered an alternative that I think will work.
But the manuscript is done and out the door so I may take a well-deserved vacation. I had forgotten what it felt like to work like crazy to meet pre-vacation deadlines.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
live from Sioux Falls
Just a quick note to say that the boys and I safely arrived in Sioux Falls. The drive—interstate highways in two directions, all the way—was done in just shy of five hours. I have no idea if I was making good time, but we only stopped once. For Blizzards. And, I was able to drive 75 mph, which almost felt like flying. The boys plugged into their ipods and DSs. Didn't hear a peep from them the whole drive, which allowed me to listen to David Sedaris' When You Are Engulfed in Flames and laugh. A lot. One piece in particular had Sedaris, on a flight, violently coughing a throat lozenge out of his mouth, right onto the crotch of his sleeping seatmate. That was funny, but what was funnier? Before she fell asleep, they'd had a tiff over changing seats with her husband, who was in a different row. In the bulkhead. Sedaris said No. She called him an asshole. On audio, Sedaris delivers this story—and you know this story because you've lived it once or twice—with the most impeccable comic timing, earning Genius status. If you ask me.
If we were having a conversation right now you might ask, Why are you in Sioux Falls? And I would answer Because my mother is attending the national Izaak Walton League—Defenders of Soil, Air, Woods, Waters & Wildlife—convention, and there is a great kids' program, which the boys are attending. Simon did this a few years ago, traveling with Grandpa and Grandma to Big Sky, Montana, for fly-fishing and a daytrip to Yellowstone. Certainly Sioux Falls, SD, offers less in the way of impressive vistas and irresistable sightseeing, but it's funny that the boys don't know that or care. Today they are collecting soil samples, the description of which didn't resonate with them until I told them they would be digging in the dirt. They're pretty excited.
Grandpa is chaperoning. Grandma is in meetings. I'm editing a manuscript in the hotel, staving off horrible flashbacks to the seven years I spent on the road for St. Martin's Press. I loved the job, but the travel was brutal and the only reason I left the position after Simon was born. I have often regretted leaving my position, especially when I see other women my age, with children, who are still doing it. When I sat down to my computer this morning, coughing up $10 to access the Internet for 24 hours (usurious!), I went right back to that dark place in my mind. The one that,—sitting in front of my laptop on a hotel bed in Omaha, NE in 1995—would ask "What the hell am I doing here?"
I turned on the TV for company and have promised myself a really yummy, off-campus lunch, in exchange for two good hours of work. Gotta go....
If we were having a conversation right now you might ask, Why are you in Sioux Falls? And I would answer Because my mother is attending the national Izaak Walton League—Defenders of Soil, Air, Woods, Waters & Wildlife—convention, and there is a great kids' program, which the boys are attending. Simon did this a few years ago, traveling with Grandpa and Grandma to Big Sky, Montana, for fly-fishing and a daytrip to Yellowstone. Certainly Sioux Falls, SD, offers less in the way of impressive vistas and irresistable sightseeing, but it's funny that the boys don't know that or care. Today they are collecting soil samples, the description of which didn't resonate with them until I told them they would be digging in the dirt. They're pretty excited.
Grandpa is chaperoning. Grandma is in meetings. I'm editing a manuscript in the hotel, staving off horrible flashbacks to the seven years I spent on the road for St. Martin's Press. I loved the job, but the travel was brutal and the only reason I left the position after Simon was born. I have often regretted leaving my position, especially when I see other women my age, with children, who are still doing it. When I sat down to my computer this morning, coughing up $10 to access the Internet for 24 hours (usurious!), I went right back to that dark place in my mind. The one that,—sitting in front of my laptop on a hotel bed in Omaha, NE in 1995—would ask "What the hell am I doing here?"
I turned on the TV for company and have promised myself a really yummy, off-campus lunch, in exchange for two good hours of work. Gotta go....
Friday, July 17, 2009
TGIF
Phew, the end of a long week. The Shepard household has been a three-ring circus lately, with kids vying for the most attention (no camp this year week). Hubby follows a close second, requiring extra love to mend the wounds of a difficult work and band week. And, last but not least, we’ve had housepainters here for past three days. They weren’t really in the way, but they were here, and I had to be here more than I would have liked. The crew, bless them, made repairs that often required consultations.
Also, a tree limb came down in our yard. The limb is, remarkably, hung up on a lower branch, but until the tree guy removes it, I feel like we’re dodging a lawsuit. Also, I interviewed architects for a very special home improvement (more on this later). But none of these stressors beat the insurance rep, who dropped by unannounced to take pictures and measurements of the house for our file.
On the upside, the house looks amazing! When the sun comes out this weekend, I will take photos and post them, as well as give a plug for our painter who was top-notch. I want you to find something that needs painting so he can do it. Our paint job is so fresh that the house looks new, thus restoring my hope for getting things in order. I’m more inspired than ever to sort, toss, file, replace, update.
We have a pretty low-key weekend in store. We’ll help a few friends celebrate birthdays and gorge on TdF coverage, but mostly we’ll take some time for rejuvenation.
Hope you get what you need from your weekend!
Also, a tree limb came down in our yard. The limb is, remarkably, hung up on a lower branch, but until the tree guy removes it, I feel like we’re dodging a lawsuit. Also, I interviewed architects for a very special home improvement (more on this later). But none of these stressors beat the insurance rep, who dropped by unannounced to take pictures and measurements of the house for our file.
On the upside, the house looks amazing! When the sun comes out this weekend, I will take photos and post them, as well as give a plug for our painter who was top-notch. I want you to find something that needs painting so he can do it. Our paint job is so fresh that the house looks new, thus restoring my hope for getting things in order. I’m more inspired than ever to sort, toss, file, replace, update.
We have a pretty low-key weekend in store. We’ll help a few friends celebrate birthdays and gorge on TdF coverage, but mostly we’ll take some time for rejuvenation.
Hope you get what you need from your weekend!
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