The Year in Review, Part 2

December 18, 2011

It was a cloudy, rainy day with Bill and me out in the yard pulling weeds with only a few weeks before the wedding… Yeah, we spent most of this year’s wet spring working in the yard. The cherry on top was pulling out all the California poppies ( I remembered from fourth grade that it is “illegal” to pull out the state’s flower, so they had proliferated in  my yard, well, mostly in my path – right where I didn’t want them. Bill eloquently stated, “They wouldn’t have grown so well if you had tried.” That must be the motif of my life!) and spreading new pea gravel.

The day of the wedding, I cringed when the wind picked up thinking of us all blown away, then cringed when it died down thinking of insects swarming. Luckily, the weather gods smiled upon us, and the day was perfect, a perfect start to a long and happy marriage.

Then I changed my facebook picture. I kept getting comments about how I hadn’t aged a bit and figured that eventually no one was going to believe “good lighting” and call me out on it.

Then God was willing and Wes graduated!

Then all our hard work on the yard made throwing his graduation party easy.

Then I, finally, was awarded my Masters of Fine Arts – but since I’m in charge of the camera, there are no pictures of me, besides, the lighting was really bad….

Then Bill went back to work in July, yeah, July. So much for going into teaching so you can have the summers off. Then I got a new job teaching part-time at Desert Hot Spring High School – freshmen English. It has been great working part-time, well, kind of part-time since I am still tutoring and actually added four new students to my schedule and freelancing for a video company writing their curriculum. Plus, I have been lucky enough to be teaching some writing courses at University of California, Riverside.

Then, Bill and I went to Provincetown, Massachusetts because I was accepting into a weeklong writing seminar. We flew in right before an incoming hurricane….

Remember, I’m writing a trilogy, and I’m dividing the year into thirds  and August is where I end. So…

We got to Boston to find out that all ferries to Provincetown had been cancelled because of the weather. We spent an extra day in Boston, hoping things would clear out. We walked the Freedom Trail, free of crowds because all the smart people were indoors, out of the rain, and out of the potential to be swept up in a hurricane. We, on the other hand, dodged fell trees, peered through locked gates at the closed tourist traps and ended up in a pizza place, chatted up the owner who lamented how things had changed, and ate some great pizza.

Bill was happy because his stomach was full. I was happy because we were out of the rain, then I became estactic because I found out that there was supposed to be a parade with thousands of people in the streets, the owner showed us pictures from last year, and, as most of you know, lots of people is my worst nightmare, so obviously, I was in heaven.

And, I’m not in the picture, guess who was holding the camera, and the lighting was… actually, do you know what wet weather does to my hair?

We made it to Provincetown, checked in and prepared for me to become a brilliant writer under the tutelage of Michael Lennon, a Norman Mailer expert and friend, and surrounded by the brilliance of well established writers. I was hoping some of it might rub off on me!

While there, September came and…

This week I will plan to write the end of my trilogy!