So, it's nearly summer in these parts, despite the past two weeks of rain... and boy am I excited! Yeppers, I'm feeling really upbeat about this summer; it's shaping up to be one of my best in awhile.

First, my garden is doing quite well... a few weeks of heat followed by a couple weeks of rain seems to have done it good. And it's supposed to shift back to warmth again soon, so there you go. Also, my peepers are happy and growing. The Mod Squad (older peepers) still terrorize the Nabokovians to a certain extent, but then they all settle in quite happily in the evening before I shut them up. Another few months, and maybe I'll start getting some eggs... though likely not until mid-fall.

I took this weekend to go down to Olympia and visit with some friends. They are actually super-close friends of my sister and her husband, but we've pretty much adopted them into the extended family and I haven't had a chance to see their baby in nearly a year, so it was about time to head on down. Perhaps bad timing for me, because I still have one more week of classes, and a number of papers to grade before the end of the weekend, but also the perfect respite... They are great company, plus baby-playing, and some wind and sun, Farmer's Market, good food, and so forth... prep, really, when you think about it. Plus I'm going to a friend's reading in Seattle on the way back north on Sunday... I'm excited to get ahold of her book, which is supposed to be excellent (I have no doubts, considering what a talented and disciplined writer she was at SAIC). I'll have to write a review later when I have it...

Moving on: Mom and CR are heading to Scotland in 1.5 weeks, and I'll be house-sitting for two weeks. It's pretty awesome timing: school ends, SP visits, grades are due, the next day everyone leaves and I'll have utter quiet for two weeks to meditate my way into the summer I want.

After and during those two weeks, I am starting an independent study with a creative writing student who wants to focus on writing science fiction. Thus, I will get to do some writing as well, and can be reading textbooks and books that head me in that direction... get me on my way, plus I get payed to help someone else on his way at the same time. Considering how wretched my writer's block -- or writer's laziness -- has been, it will be an nice slide into loving the writing again.

Then, following that, which will be a mellow 5-6 weeks, during which I will only teach the independent study and work at my mom's clinic for one week for some spare cash, I will go down to Austin for 3 weeks and work for the non-profit literary organization, Badgerdog, where my friend JS works (she hired me!); and I'm so excited about it! I think I'm supposed to be teaching lower elementary, which is an age group I am utterly unfamiliar with, so there will be a huge learning curve on my part, but I'm excited: more writing! more teaching! more meeting folks interested in the same! more JS and FS! more grandparents!

After summer camp, I come back and have about a month afterwards... again to focus on my stuff, and I was also given a creative writing class for the fall quarter, so will get to start prepping for that. All in all, everything seems set up - enough, but not too much.

Oh, and I convinced MH to put together a reading list of poetry -- "Poetry for Ignorami" -- so I can be a better poetry teacher in fall!  This, along with the other creative writing books I've ordered and the big pile of excellent books stacked on my coffee table promise good readings...

Next: the online dating - I've set up a profile but haven't yet fully signed aboard. I got stumped for a couple weeks over the whole "a few extra pounds, stocky, heavyset, big and beautiful, curvy, full-figured," etc. choices. I haven't a clue where I would fit within a whole number of euphemisms for overweight to really overweight. So, I just picked heavyset and hope it's accurate and yet not a deterrent. Then I got hung up on what to say about myself and my wishes for fishes... Then hung up on being winked at... And now hung up on whether to bite the bullet and subscribe, or try a different, more in-person strategy.

In the meantime, I'm still working on figuring out the mystery deal with my knees: had fluid removed via horse-size syringe and some cortisone pumped in, which after a few days seems to be helping. But a very nice doctor and some very friendly nurses too. The doctor got excited by my traction scars from when I had a broken femur at age 5; traction for a month is apparently not even remotely close to what they do these days, so he brought in the nurses and talked about the 'old days.' He also commented to a colleage on how my chart read "like the Far Side" as he entered my room, which I think means he's as perplexed as I am. But I can't say that I'm in any real pain, so it could be far, far worse.

Speaking of which, things got worse between NM and myself as we 'exchanged a few words' over stupid text message (god, how embarrassing is that?!). So much for trying to patch things up somehow. But though it feels achy from time to time, overall I'm feeling not too bad about it. I think it will be fine in the end, although I wish there wasn't the anger between us now. But it was a highly-stressed and overly-dramatic friendship, and rather a hard one on either side, with both of us caught in roles that weren't particularly rewarding. If you take the anger out of the equation, I think we just needed (and need) time apart, so if it's possible, a healthy and mature friendship can be created in the future, or at least healthy mature futures for each of us regardless.

Okay, going back to the feeling upbeat about the summer. I've also decided something. So, I have a reader in CA (who should say "hey," because I like having new friends) who has been reading through my archives methodically over the past year. Since I have a sitemeter that tells me where people live who read my blog, how many people read my blog a day (very few!), and what they take a look at... sorry it's sneaky but it also brings me happiness to think I "make contact" with a few people out there in the world. Anyhow, back to the reader. Since I have a sitemeter, I have been reading back through my archives with CA Reader. Or skimming rather. And I realize that I like past me's on this blog more than current me on this blog. So, after school is done, I am going to try to write more about what I'm reading, what writing exercises I'm trying out, who & what I see out there in that world that rightly fascinates me, what is crazy in politics, and in general, less about the me shit. I think it will be a good shift... good for the Year of Repair (of the Blog), and good for the feeling happy about my life.

So. Whala!