“He’s just the right man for me. So strong, and cheerful. And I can really tell he likes me. It’ll be great, he can move here and we can…”

Liz put her hand up. “Woah. Come on. You’re going into that whole overimagined dreamland before you even know the guy. He could be married. He could be hung up on his high school sweetheart. He could be… gay.”

Melanie’s eyes opened wide. “Do you think he’s gay?”

“No.”

I’m putting the entirety over on this page: Writing Projects / Beer & Chocolate, and I’ll just put a bit up here, in a blogpost, regarding each day’s writing. Voila.

Went to Berkeley last night for Dia de los Muertos. It was fun! We were focusing on our grandparents, and we reminisced about some stories that neither of us knew. I made two little shrines for friends of mine that had died- a Chinese tea cup and flowering blossom for my friend Cathy, and a symbolic doobie for my friend Andrew. The kids sprinkled calendula leaves at the front door, and we went on a walk while the spirits enjoyed the literal spirits. At one point my sister and I discussed the aesthetic differences both of our grandmothers’ had. One was into more simple, ornamentation, the other was into the glitz. I gave my grandfather a symbolic iPhone. He loved to try new things- I remember introducing him to the BeeGees one summer, to hilarious results. My other grandfather was very well groomed so I brought over one of his handkerchiefs I still have. He cut quite an figure as a young man.

My niece & my sister had some good input about this novel. While I’m not sure that the niece has read or seen Pride and Prejudice, it made me realize that there are some major fans out there that would enjoy a tighter mesh with the actual story, so I’ve reread some of the Austen novel this afternoon, and worked out a clearer idea of a character mapping from the original.