Crap, has it been that long?

I so suck at this blogging thing.  And the other social media stuff.  Maybe I'm just being pulled in too many ways and need to cut back on my obligations.  Especially with my "mundane" job picking up steam and my Mom's health deteriorating like it has been in the past month.  She's about 7 hours away, if I speed and don't stop to pee.  So, a weekend trip isn't fun if I have just 4 days to make the trip. 

I have a college friend who recently contacted me and wants me to see her in the Durham/Chapel Hill area of NC, which is on the way.  If I make the trip next weekend, I plan on lunching or having dinner with her on the drive, either coming or going.  I haven't seen her since the year after graduation, in 1994.  Damn, that admission makes me feel old.

I was in San Francisco Bay area a week ago, at my Aunt's house about an hour north of the city.  I hadn't seen her in about a decade, since the last time she and my Dad had flown in from California to visit a great-aunt and attend a family gathering.  At least my Dad's side, anyway.  Since my parent's divorce, we kids have felt a bit like the black sheep of that side of the family.  Everyone loses something in a divorce.  And since we weren't especially close to any of the extended cousins -- how could we when we grew up in Alaska, the entire North American continent away from them? -- it was easy for us to just fade away. 

I attended a poetry workshop for 3.5 days of my 6 day trip to SF.  I learned a lot, got to see the SF symphony perform a lot of Latin songs from West Side Story, Rodeo, cha-cha-cha & mambo medleys where the crowd started dancing at their free concert in Delores Park.  I think I took a gazillion photos of the dancing -- from toddlers in the crow to practiced couples who looked ready for competition.  Gotta download some of those photos for the participants of the workshop.  And get my poems revised and sent back out to everyone else. 

If you get a chance to participate in an on-line workshop with Diane Frank, do it.  Or her annual workshop in her home in San Francisco.  It's a great experience.  Multi-cultural, no, not the word I'm looking for -- multi-disciplined, with the music and the sight-seeing and the poetry. 

Just ran out of time for this blog.  Gotta go work out now. 

Hmm, I seem to be neglecting myself

It's been a busy three or so weeks.  Sorry for the silence on my end.  I'm not sure why I keep ignoring my blog.  It's not made itself into a bi-or tri-weekly habit yet, I guess. 

And I've been juggling a lot of things, primarily traveling this last month:  Balticon46 over Memorial Day weekend (more on that to come, I promise!).  Then I drove to a karate/grappling seminar in my old dojo in Greensboro, NC (more on that, too!) with an extension to my Mom's house for a quick and dirty, but uneventful, girl's weekend with my sister's and my Mom (also a four day trip -- Thur through Sun).  Then my older sister & B-I-L came up the next Thurs so we could go see the Hokusai print exhibit before it left the Sackler Gallery in D.C..  And this weekend, the S.O. and I are in Williamsburg at the annual Virginia Dental Meeting.  Four weekends of travel, strange beds &/or guests (sorry Lisa & John, but y'all are strange :)

The Hokusai exhibit is almost indescribable.  These are woodcut prints are from the1830s and are frelling beautiful.  Especially the ones printed all in blue ink.  If it comes to a gallery anywhere near your city, do not hesitate to go, & go more than once if you can.  It's definitely worth the price of admission. 

The Japanese Mezzotints exhibit is worth a peek, too, especially the lone copper plate showing the etching.  It's warm copper tone blew the black and with print away, in my humble opinion.  And my sister made sure I saw it.  She knows what I tend to be drawn to, as she's seen enough of my photography and stolen, er, appropriated enough of her art/sculpture over the years.  (I still want my turn with the Jhierry totems.  Where the heck are they, BTW?)

More later, when I'm not getting ready for a dental CEU which prolly won't carry over to my massage therapy credits, not that I need anything but an ethics class to renew this year.  August will surprise the heck out of me, so I'd better get to reading that ethics book I borrowed from Kristen.