The beginning of the end, for real. Page 781.

I am so close to the end of this project, at least as far as copying text on to rubber gloves goes. It has put me in an odd state of mind. I am almost nervous about it, as though the end is more of a challenge then starting it. I could have finished it today if I had wanted to, but I was not ready. I have other things to do and I just want to stick to my routine of about a page a day. Tomorrow I'll do the last full page. Thursday & Friday I think I'll take a break, and Saturday I'll do all but the last few sentences. I'm saving those for my party on June 16th, when I'll write the last bit in front of my friends.
Meanwhile, I heard that tonight there is going to be some sort of astro phenomena. The transit of Venus? The Venus transit? There are lots of postings on facebook about the implications as far as moods and feelings. I am such a tumultuous person anyway...I'm not sure any astrological event could have much of an effect on me that anyone would notice. I am up and down on an hourly basis. I am cranky and then corny with love. I want to do everything but I want to sleep in. As my husband says, I am uptight. The nice thing about this project is that I have had a plan for each and every day. I always write something of Ulysses on to a rubber glove. Soon, I won't have that. It's like studying meditation or yoga or being a runner, and then stopping cold turkey.
I have been thinking a lot about what I want to do next as far as art work. In a way I think I would like to do a series of still life's (or is it still lives?), just small paintings and drawings of things around the house. I feel like I want to do something kind of conventional to cleanse my palette. But, who knows? I don't have to decide for at least a few days more. Maybe Venus will give me a clue.

Page 417

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4Wm5JYBaHY
It has gotten longer between posts. The pages I am writing in Ulysses are covered with type...long words, short words, almost no paragraph breaks. Just page after page of thick, dense type. It hasn't been that fun to transcribe lately. In part this is because I don't have an audio book at the moment. Stories can take my mind off of what I am doing until I become lost. The last book I listened to was The Sun Also Rises. I had always hated Hemmingway, but after a while of listening to William Hurt read about Jake and Brett and Spain, bullfights and fishing I found myself looking forward to going back to it, and therefore to writing on my gloves. When I finished listening to the book I was sad...I miss those characters.
A lot of the time I listen to television when I write. The best show to listen to is Sex & the City because I have seen all the episodes numerous times, they usually make me happy, and I don't really have to pay much attention to the plot. But that isn't always on (unless someone knows of an all Sex & the City channel I may have missed), so much of the time I listen to the news, which seems sadder and more upsetting each and every day. Between the economy, Obama's worrisome poll numbers, and the lunatics running the republican party, I can barely stand to pay attention. It is like watching a Stephen King book acted out on the screen as a reality show.
I am writing almost a page a day right now. I had been doing more, but between the back to school schedule for my son, plus the denseness of the pages, plus the lack of distraction, I have slowed down a bit. I think on page 428 things lighten up in Ulysses, and maybe, with any luck, it will be the same out there in the news world. I can only hope.

Page 383

I am so, so close to the halfway mark, on page 290. It's been difficult these last couple of weeks. The pages are so dense with type. Barely a break for a paragraph, and pages 282 and 283 were full of giant words combined in such a way that I can't even believe it is English. Why did my dad love this book so much? Why did I never ask him?
For this portion of Ulysses I have been listening to The Sun Also Rises. I thought I hated Hemmingway, but I don't hate this novel though I don't love it. It irritates me when the female character (and in this book there is really only one woman, in a sea of hovering men)in any book  is gorgeous, stunningly beautiful, mesmerizing, etc. I mean, very few people are so beautiful, and can someone really fall in love just because of beauty? Maybe so. It is just so far removed from my life. But to my surprise I have loved the descriptions of the place, especially the parts in Spain, and even the fishing. It is clear to me that Earnest knew so much more about fishing, war, and bullfighting than he did about women. And the drinking. Oh la la. I feel like I should have a tumbler of scotch anytime I listen to his words.
Anyway, it's been a nice contrast to the long, difficult pages of Ulysses that I am now writing. And it isn't going to get any easier for at least forty more pages. Still, reaching the halfway point should count for something.
Meanwhile, hurricane Irene is heading our way.

April 26, 2011

Page 253.
This has been a long, difficult two pages to transcribe. Most of the time I barely know what I am writing. I memorize two to four words at a time, trying not to make mistakes, though if I do, I just keep going. This page doesn't even have an indentation for a paragraph break. It's just a continuous band of type. I've worked for about forty minutes, but am going to take a break and do some more later. My goal for today is just to finish this page.
Meanwhile, there is a news feed on my television. Big deadly storms in the Midwest, floods, tornadoes. Chatter about the royal wedding (big snoozefest as far as I am concerned). More publicity for Donald Trump who seems to want to argue with every celebrity he can find.
I'm going to try to work on a large slinky drawing I thought was finished. But there is something not right about it. It needs more...words to go on my gravestone.