Thurber House: Day Twenty (PokemonGo, Camp, Bananas, and Farewells)

Last night I stayed up writing very late. But before I turned in... I gave in. I needed to know what unseen forces I might be unwittingly sharing Thurber House with. That's right. I downloaded Pokémon Go.

It turns out that Thurber House is a PokéSpot, as is the statue of Muggs in the garden outside (mislabel in the app as Snoopy!), as is the David Deming stainless steel and brass installation Terrestrial Gest in the park outside (mislabeled as the Donn Vickers Gazebo, which is nearby). With so much Pokémon activity, how could I not?

So, this morning, while I was trying to make my coffee, I found a Krabby loitering in my kitchen! Fortunately, I was able to catch him and continue with my caffeination. Though he did take a few swipes at me with those nasty claws!

In the afternoon, I wrote my first ever attempt at a romantic scene. The current project isn't a children's book like the one I just finished. Rather, it's a YA or adult novel staring an older version of a character who is an adolescent in the Thrones and Bones books. Maybe because the character was 12 when I created her, I found myself oddly protective and parental. I had to fight the urge to let her be herself with *gasp* a boy. I kept wanting to come in and chaperone. It was the strangest sensation, and one I never would have predicted. If I'm this protective of a fictional creation, boy am I going to be in for it when my children are a few years older!

After lunch, I taught my last two sessions of the Thurber summer camp. The kids at all of these workshops have been great, and this week's batch were no different. We had a great time learning about the basics of character creation and story construction.  Also learning how to say "Norrøngard" as the old Norse would have pronounced it. (Although it's not a land found on earth, my Norrønir pronounce the name of their land in the same fashion.)

When the workshops were over, as I'm on my penultimate full day here as Children's Writer-in-Residence, this was the day I got to sign the closet as well as sign my photo for the wall. I thought it was the downstairs closet in the room with James Thurber's typewriter that I was to sign, but that's apparently for famous folks and such who drop by the house or contribute in some way and not for author residents who live in the apartment upstairs. We get a closet on the third floor (where, I suppose, only we can see it!). But I signed it and drew a little Viking too.

Around four o'clock a bunch of the campers came to the house with their parents to pick up my books. Since I was downstairs (doing laundry!), I volunteered to go ahead and sign them so they wouldn't have to bring the books to camp with them tomorrow.

Sadly, the next thing I dd was to say my goodbye to Meg Brown, Director of Education. Meg has to go out of town this evening, so I won't see her again. It was Meg that first interviewed me on the phone when I applied for this residency and made it through the initial round of applicants. It was Meg who called to tell me I'd made it to the final three. It was Meg who called to tell me I'd won. And it was Meg who has chauffeured me around to all the workshops and classes and to and from the airport. She is an amazing Director of Education, and I've gotten to see first hand how hard she works for all the outreach that Thurber House does.

Afterwards, the plan was to return to Wolf's Ridge Brewing one last time, for a dinner and another taste of the amazing Dire Wolf Canis Mexicanus Russian Imperial Stout. But I was barely a block away when it started to pour down rain. In minutes I was drenched, my shirt soaking wet and water streaming off the brim of my baseball cap. So instead of dark beer and duck tacos, it was more laundry and a turkey sandwich. But I did try taco sauce on a banana, and, despite how it sounds, it wasn't too bad.

And on the bright side, I caught another Pokémon on the way home.

Tomorrow I'll have an afternoon signing for the campers and then I'm doing a signing at 6pm at The Book Loft of German Village. And that will be it for me and Columbus.

But now I'm going to spend the bulk of what's left of my evening finishing that romantic scene. I need to make sure my girl and her boy take their hands off each other. And I want to send him packing before it gets any later!