Hyperfocus: Planning a Trip

So this is a day later than usual because bake sale baking and the Marine Corp birthday ball. Merengue is hard. On to the show! 

I head off to New York in about a week to sing with women from several choirs around the country in a concert directed by Rosephanye Powel. I am pretty excited. 

The friends I am attending with decided we should build some extra time in to see shows and do touristy stuff; I happen to have some research I need to do in the area so it sounded like a good plan. We weren’t counting on a lingering government shutdown. 

This upcoming week might be a fitting time to drop my Overthinkings on “How Do I Choose Settings” so I won’t give too many spoilers, but I wasn’t ever planning on setting a book in New York. However, sometimes the plot takes you where it takes you. 

Given that I have only a few hours on three days to scout locations, check out museums and archives, and get the lay of the land as best I can in the modern city, I’ve tried to use my prep time efficiently. 

The Battlefield Trust had some lovely printable maps which should help guide me around The Battle of Brooklyn if the weather permits. Because I don’t know if the battle itself with showcase on the page I am hesitant to spend the time or money on a tour, but thankfully there are plenty of Youtube historians who have covered the subject. 

I made a reservation at an historic tavern for lunch. Washington gave his farewell to his officers there and they have a museum next door. It is also relatively close to Wallabout Bay —where the prison ships were moored—and one of the earlier history museums. 

There are plenty of history museums in New York and none of them have all the exhibits I would like to see. Several of them have some. My process for choosing museums tends to look like:

1. Trip Advisor for reviews, links, hours, locations, etc.

2. Check websites for current exhibits and special talks or events.

3. Map out locations to see if I want to navigate on public transit

I try to include keep my research fairly open on trips like this because I never know when an idea will strike and get tucked away for later. I am just as excited to go see a museum dedicated to arts and crafts as I am to walk around Wallabout Bay (which doesn’t have a museum).

Aside from practicing my music daily, I have also been getting my handcraft projects ready to take. I’ll have two plane flights (theoretically—shutdown again) and plenty of waiting time on transit and such, which is prime Christmas present sewing time! Thanks to a new Sashiko book, my mending game has taken a step up and with a little more prep work I should have hours of fun ahead. 

And finally, I read two more books in the Gunnie Rose series. Yeah. That got painful. You know if you stop reading to google, “does this author have dementia” the plot has lost you. Maybe less the plot as the character voices that all became identical, the manufactured tension through out of character behavior, and so. much. after the fact exposition. The characters spend so much time getting from place to place just for nothing to happen when they get there. 

Charlaine Harris has plenty of good writing under her belt so my only thought was that something must be wrong. A quick google search revealed some hints about post-covid brain stuff. I get it, my long haulers was rough too. Which lets me happily pass the blame to her editor. What on earth editor? Do better. 

There is one more book in the series– which I did pick up while Violet was at her library Teen Advisory Board meeting– but the first sentence set up the action at a park in San Diego that won’t exist for another couple decades presuming that the alt-history closely follows US history, and the narrative voice grated on my eyes. I put it back on the shelf and hemmed my jeans so they look pretty for New York while my friend Sarah and I listened in to the kids chatting about library sleepovers and what food you can transport in a backpack. 

There is more baking to come this week, and hopefully next edition will be all about how to make a perfect macaron. Thus far they are tasty but less than pretty.