Back Home...for a While

So, is it just me, or does the basement drain back up with sewage only on the night before dayshift/fun things out of town (say, Writers Conferences)?

Oy giminee cricket for the love of goodness vey!?!!

But that's fixed. Still cleaning...but it's fixed.

So, the Conference, right? Waaaaay too much to talk about, as usual, but I'll hit on some highlights:

- the lovely and talented Renee Nicholson and Natalie Sypolt, back again with writaliciousness. Scored three workshops.

- always love a workshop with El Presidente Eric Fritzius. Podcasting this time...

- discussion panel called "The Appalachian Inquisition" with Irene McKinney, Denise Giardina, Daniel Boyd, Norman Jordan, Gretchen Moran Laskas (love her!), and Tim Noland. Does an authentic Appalachian voice exist? Is Appalachia a myth? Hmmm...

- pitch session with an honest-to-goodness, award-winning agent...! Hyperventilated. I'll let you know.

- got to catch up with the incredible Granny Sue Holstein

- laughed at the banquet with my table of friends until we nearly shot tea from our nostrils.


Sigh. And now, it's over for another year. I dearly love the WVW Conference...

Staff Work Day

...on April Fools' Day. Uh-oh. Nervous.

I made a little playlist for the occasion.

2010

Oh, hello. So it's a totally anti-climactic New Year. I know it's supposed to be a Big One, new decade and all. Whatever. Perhaps after last years' high drama, this one just couldn't compete. It's the first New Year since Grandpa's passing a couple of weeks ago; I'm sure that's giving our family the ho-hums, with the memorial service looming sometime in the coming days.

Also, I spent the evening at home with Slarty. As in, by ourselves. The neighborhood kids are teenagers now, in skinny jeans, and waaay to cool to ring our doorbell at midnight to wish as a happy one. I had a couple of offers but still opted to stay in. If this happens again--Husbfriend working--I think I will have me own little shindig. (Does 'shindig' mean dance? 'Cuz I don't think we should dance, necessarily. If it means dance, then pretend I said 'soiree'.)

I did, however, sneak off to my friend's salon and get a fabulous new 'do. Those of you who have had to deal with my un-fabulous old 'do, conscientiously avoiding direct eye contact with it--Rejoice! Sorry it's taken so long! So great to have a buddy whom I fully trust with my lackluster locks. Thanks, Karen!

You know how I feel about resolutions...Okay, I'll tell you anyway. Impossible. Reckless. Doomed to failure. Impractical. I feel especially vehement about them, probably, because of all the retro-learning/conditioning I've had to do in the course of my adult (ha!) life. I'm a messy, a schizo, a flake, and ashamed of it no longer. I know that I--and others like me--have to carefully and gradually plan these changes. No such thing as magic. So New Years' resolutions scream, "Bad idea!" at me.

On the other hand, one of the reasons I love January (and I do love January) is because it's such a fresh, clean beginning. (That's what I kind of like about Mondays, too. I know. Hiss. I like House and Castle, too, though.)

So maybe I will make a little list of non-resolutions for 2010. Okay? Okay.

Here Comes Grace!!!

Got the word on the prayer chain---our friend Sarah is having a baby! AAAaaaghghgh! The suspense is killing me! Her baby shower is (was) this Saturday--she can't have a baby yet, we haven't given her the diapers! Her due date is next month! (hand wringing) And she's in Charleston, an hour away. Aaaaghghgh! Sarah, we are encircling you with prayers, Darlin'! Can't wait to meet Grace!

"Romans 5:20 But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down...Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.

Pickin'

Today we picked strawberries. "We", as in Becca and the kids, yay! Lacey said it best when she said, "I wanna doe back to da nice cool house!" Yes. At the strawberry place I picked up some regular and eight-ball zucchinis and a pound of peanuts, which are boiling right now. (West Virginia doesn't count as a Southern state--unless we're being judged by Northerners or those eerie mid-westerners...Mid-atlantic, people, we're mid-atlantic...--so I learned about the boiled peanut phenomenon while on a trip to Florida some, uh, several years ago.)

Then at the farmer's market I got some endive to plant--yessss!--and a loaf of lovingly homemade wheat bread.

This is a good kickoff for my summer break (or, brake). I'm planning on riding my bike again really soon, my skin is nearly grown back.

Off to make some jam, pies, a rhubarb-strawberry crisp, etc. I'll post some pictures from school soon.