Okay, it's February 3rd, 8.48 am.

Okay, it's February 30, 48 a.m. And I'm actually in San Rafael on the one, 101, literally about to merge with 580 and get on the Richmond Bridge. And a unique thing, it's Monday, yesterday was the Super Bowl, February 2, and the San Francisco 49ers played the Kansas City Chiefs in Miami. And lost to the Chiefs. I can't remember exactly the score, but the Chiefs took over in the fourth quarter, which was at the time the start of the fourth quarter was 20 to 10 San Francisco. San Francisco defense, hella hard. And not only in passing, they were, but the 49er offense, hella hard. They were able to stop a lot of the passes basically from the defensive line. And by the defensive end, is that what they're called? I've never felt like I've never got what they're called, not the hands, but the defenders against the receivers. So anyway, Kansas City deserved it, especially after beating the Texans and that pretty amazing road to the Super Bowl. San Francisco got a couple, I believe five, Super Bowl wins, so. What's wrong with giving the Kansas City? They didn't give it to Kansas City, it can't sit here, but still. I shouldn't feel too bad about losing the Kansas City. Anyway, I'm, oh, and I made some nachos during the Super Bowl. I made nachos with beef carnitas. I don't know what you're supposed to call it, I'm sure there's another name for it, but you basically make carnitas instead of pork, you use beef and you use beef stew meat. And you pressure cook it for about 50 minutes in the instant pot, and it's very good. And when you sprinkle it on nachos and bake it, or roar, it comes out perfectly crispy. So yeah, Robin Wendy came over, that was a hit. So yeah, a couple of other funny things that, I mean, well, memorable things. I was supposed to go to a poetry reading with Rob tonight, but I canceled. You know, didn't get the best sleep last night. Laila came into our bed. That always messes me up. I'm distracted a little because I'm staring at the bay bridge. And I can pretty much see beyond the bay bridge and see the clear outline of the Port of Oakland Crain and Treasure Island. So that means it's a super clear day today. I think that's because of the crazy winds that we had yesterday. Anyway, I think Wendy at the party yesterday mentioned that she was having thyroid issues, so that's another thing I need to remember from context. And the kids played pretty well together. Laila and so on here. We got played around outside of the neighborhood. And Kareem and Alexi went to Starbucks and like, one. So I guess they enjoyed that. I have to admit that it makes me nervous the way the path in which they get to Starbucks and say, I really want people to pay more attention there, but they don't. What else? I don't know. Oh, Kareem ordered, I guess, some kind of mocha drink or whatever at Starbucks and said his name was Shrek. And I could... And he said me that the cashier thought that was kind of interesting. So that's kind of funny. Loved getting this drink back with Shrek on it. So... So anyway, I'm now on the San Rafael Bridge about to exit. Lemme pause because I want to actually start with a meditation.

Okay, it's 8.54am on the San Rafael Bridge about to get on to the 5.80, February 3rd, nice a clear day. And I want to talk about, you know, one, how to use, so in flight of horse, Rosalie D'Alethia finds a diary. This diary sort of consumes her for the rest of her life. What turns out to be a simple innocent loss and found issue becomes a life-changing object for her. And so, which that in itself should be paralleled in a micro story within the story. So, you know, maybe there is a tale of someone obtaining an object and that object transforming their life. I don't know if it should be a tale from Mexican or Aztec culture or a tale from the Arabian story. But it has to be accessible to Rosalie D'Alethia and either her sway or disweight her from her actions. But either way she can't, she cannot stop them. She cannot stop the result. She can prevent the future from changing. Her life will change as a result of the object. Florence is diary no matter what. So, and one thing I need to remember is that we need to emphasize that Florence was a pen not that it's just a diary. So take for example, if Florence mentions writing to Nassim, well, we should present it to the reader and suggest that it might be a fabric of her imagination, it might be fabricated by her. It might not be the truth. It might be in fact, in the context of things, suggestive. And so, she had to get a big Florence's mother, for example, and how she basically ended up in a hospital and had to get very specific care for her hormonal imbalance. And so, it's possible that Florence, which suggests that Florence might have inherited that. But let's not forget about her own sleepwalking. And how that can suggest to the reader that she might not be telling the truth. And so, and what's interesting about the diary is it should be told from obviously Florence's point of view. But it should be, like take for example, Florence may not even trust herself sometimes. Let's suggest that in the diary she actually wakes up one morning and looks at one of the letters and says to herself, you know, sometimes I think that I wake up in the middle of the night and I write these letters to myself. Because they're exactly what I want to hear. And I don't really know if I'm actually sending letters to anyone anymore. How does Rosa Aletia know? Because she does not have the letters in hand. She just has Florence's account of writing letters that this actually happened. Is that something that she would want to find out for real if she had the chance? And as a child, when she wanted to give the owner of the book the diary, she wanted to give her diary back. You know how it seems so important. It's got so much important things to someone to tell them. Here you go. It has to read like a diary, but expose the mind of Florence. Now how can it serve as a story within a story? That I'm going to think about because what if Rosa Aletia will definitely have read the whole thing through. But maybe will not have understood all of it when she was younger. Now maybe Rosa Aletia will have come to Texas from Mexico. Maybe that will be even better. Because her English will improve over time. I think that's better actually. And that is, but she will understand Mexico, but she may or may not understand Egypt. And she will assimilate in Texas. But you know, that process of assimilation will create her own amount of ethnocentrism and judgment in Egypt. So anyway, those are things to think about. But yeah, sleepwalking is perfect because now sleepwalking serves as Florence knows she's a sleepwalker. Does not know sometimes if her letters are real. The letters she receives in the mail are real. I mean, they come from other countries. They have stamps on them from other countries. But you know, one day maybe as a sleepwalker, she will burn the letters she receives. The person inside her as a sleepwalker. And so therefore she won't know if they're real. And her father takes care of her. He watches her at night. It doesn't wake her and he makes sure that the fire is always out. She wakes up in the morning and she is scared of that pit outside. And that fire pit resembles the hell that she thinks that her mother has suggested to her that she will reside in if she continues to speak to the heathens. And I think that her life is elsewhere other than home. This is the beginning of what clearly indicates a relationship that may fall apart one day. And so Rosa Alitia is as she grows older she sees. She reads the diary over and over and over again and sees how it changes before her eyes. Let's focus because I'm worried I won't have time back on the diary itself. Take for example the treatment of Horace. How does Florence and the diary mention Horace? And I want to emphasize the dual meaning of Horace in this story. It is both the Horace H.O.R.A.C.E. the Horace that we know from ancient Rome, the Orator I think or the Senator. And then there's Horace, the ancient Egyptian God. But I want to emphasize how the name in itself is a perfect example or metaphor of how a dual identity can exist. Horace, when you tell someone in Egypt his name is Horace, they don't know anything other than Horace. There is no other way to tell someone that. And they think immediately ancient Egyptian God is named after the Falcon God. If you tell someone here my name's Horace, it depends on who you ask. If you're talking to say the average person, they're not going to know anything other than, okay, your name's Horace. I need to think of famous people named Horace. And then maybe your professor in college, the classist, will make some comment regarding, oh, your parents must have loved ancient Rome and all that. And that won't be the case. So I want to emphasize the dual meaning of Horace and the dual role that he will play in the novel. I know there was something else that I wanted to address and I'm trying to remember. Well, there will also be, I need to capture events such as Florence's encounter with the Foreign Service worker at the embassy when she gets her interview. And the red dress. There are various other facts that my mother had related to me as truth. But you know, they either now only exist as hearsay or they might be in the letters. There's also the ad that Florence will take out in a science publication for Nassim to kind of hint that she's back that he can continue to write letters to her again after their long, after their year-long hiatus. And what do we do about Nassim becoming engaged? And then breaking it off. Let's think about that. See if it's doable. All right, I'm getting out and going to work. I'm done.