perfect timing

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desirous of everything at the same time

Oh, hi!

Well this last month has really gone fast. I apologize for disappearing without warning. In fact, I had no idea I'd be gone so long. I got out my calendar in an effort to figure out what I was doing that kept me from my blog for so long. Here are the bits and ends of my last few weeks:

• Attending many Great Lives lectures. Most recently I learned about (Nelle) Harper Lee and I was inspired by the way she lives her life. There are many more interesting lectures coming and I plan on attending many of them.
• Contemplating entering an art show. Should I? Shouldn't I?
• Completing #25 on The List. Yes, we have a huge tipi in the middle of our living room and it is lovely. I took a nap in it this past weekend and woke with a smile on my face because, um, I woke up in a tipi.
• Taking a road trip to That Little Quilt Shop, Yoder's Country Market, the Tulikivi showroom and then to Culpeper, VA.
• Visiting friends in Maryland and northern Virginia. And, you know, making bread and gifts to share with them.
• Continuing with my drawing class. Learning to draw is like learning a new language. And it also feels that after each class I've both learned a whole lot and realized how very little I know. That old double-edged sword!
• The Hubby was out of town for a week...while I had a sinus infection.
• Attending multiple doctor appointments. All is well. But these things always take so long. So much waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting.
• Contemplating whether to participate in the 150-mile bike ride in June to benefit the MS Society.
• Reading, But No Elephants by Jerry Smath, too many times to count since I found it in a used book store. Is this book familiar to anybody else? I saw this book and it felt as if I fell into a childhood porthole. It is even better than I remember it.
• Enjoying three consecutive beautiful, sunny days which we spent almost entirely outside. What a welcome reprieve.
• Talking with friends: one was just diagnosed with MS, the other is in the midst of a messy divorce and the legal wrangling has reached a high pitch.
• Dealing with the fact that my family keeps eating (and I must keeping menu planning, grocery shopping and cooking) and wearing clothes (meaning I must keep doing laundry).
• Putting together an application for a work-for-hire gig. This has been a long time coming - years! - and it feels as if things are finally falling into place for me to pursue this. But just applying has been consuming most of my evening hours.
• Trying to figure out how to do this blog. I haven't been satisfied with my very shallow, daily posts. I would rather offer something of substance, though not as often. So, the search for some sort of style and balance and substance for content. Bear with me as I find my sea legs.
• Working on The List: I've purchase (but not assembled or used) a pinhole camera kit, I'm methodically reading "Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects" one chapter at a time, I've put together a list of publications to submit my quilt essay to, I'm reading my Nikon D70 camera manual and it is so interesting and I'm not even being sarcastic (if you have a digital camera and haven't yet read its manual, I urge you to do so now as opposed to waiting 6+ years like me!), deciding not to attend the Virginia Festival of the Book (sadly, the only event that was of interest to me was $100 per ticket and sold out), working on reading Shakespeare (4 down, 2 to go).
• Feeling more and more like Jack Kerouac and I have so much in common.