Squaw Valley post no. 6

The nights are getting very pleasantly cool up here. Earlier in the week it was hot and sticky, and on Tuesday evening it stayed sticky far into the evening. But lately it's been really gorgeous. Yesterday, the "light" day, several housemates went to Lake Tahoe, and others I've met climbed the mountain behind the ski lodge. They reported there's a pool up there with a poolside bar.

The way I spent my free afternoon was to drive down to Lake Tahoe and along the shore until I got to the Nevada border, where the Cal-Neva Lodge is located. That's the casino-hotel formerly owned by Frank Sinatra and some mobsters; I set the ending of my book Make Nice there, but I had never actually been inside. So I was curious. Inside there's a small (relative to the ones in Las Vegas) casino, a beautiful and unique circular bar, and a large "Indian Room" which I guessed is used for meetings and functions. I sat there at a table and went over the pieces for today.

In the evening my housemates got pizza and beer and had a reading for each other. Maybe we all hauled out our best stuff, but I was much more impressed with the quality in that group than I have been with most of the pieces in the workshop I'm in.

Then we went to one of the parties at another writer-occupied chalet. I'm not big on parties and I didn't interact much, just sort of sat back and watched people. One thing I'm already tired of is talking with people about what they're writing. Conversation A here is "What are you working on?" or "What's the book you're trying to get published?" and Conversation B is "How's your workshop going?" and "Who have been your workshop leaders?" Both those conversations are getting pretty tired by now. Maybe we all need an artificial topic we all have to answer, like "What's your favorite sexual position?" or "Do you believe in God?"