I feel spring here -- I feel it! I am sooo glad for the gorgeous weather, the sun shiny blue sky, the at-least-an-hour-longer days.
I've got a bike on its way to me -- one that has not seen many a playa dust storm or sat in the rain several winters.
I'm looking forward excitedly to riding it about -- with daxle and Heath, perhaps (their biking tales and general excitement have reawakened my velo-love) -- maybe commuting some.

The literature/creative writing masters program I'm in is coming along, one night class at a time. The challenges are mostly social (must speak in class! must speak with others I hardly know!), and good for me. The reading is interesting, the writing enjoyable. My mini, pre-fantasy involves the fact that, with a masters, I could teach at a community college. Of course, that too would involve speaking. I'll see the future once I'm there.

Yay for spring! Now to do some yoga with Toners.

I got the next few days off work, thinking I'd be driving my parents to Arizona. Then they made other plans. And Monkey boi is off to Hawaii.

Yay, I'm going someplace pretty! Hot water... time to write and just be alone, and not be around the usual things in my life that can be so absorbing and distracting. A pretty place. A little breather.

A few weekends ago I attended a heart-melting literary event in Grass Valley. What other little town holds a literary event that fills bleachers? Wow - yeah!

The event was Coleman Barks, poet, scholar, and the translator known for making Rumi's poetry accessible to English speakers, reading from Rumi's work as well as his own. He was accompanied by a harpist and a cellist playing tunes ranging from blues to Celtic and on. I'd never heard of Coleman Barks before this, and hadn't delved much into Rumi's work. Barks, with his sweet southern accent and fabulous timing -- inserting jokes and commentary mid-poem -- had me laughing a great deal of the time. What surprised me, though, was that I was also crying, almost as soon as the words and the music began. The mixture of sounds, music, and ideas were so beautiful!

Here's a link to Barks reading Rumi's "Love Dogs" (melts me!) at a different event: es.youtube.com/watch



I took the picture in Bali.

Oohooh, Monkey boi made corned beef and cabbage last night, and it is the perfect lunch today. He's such a wonderful cook. And I am a good eater. Just thinking about cabbage and carrots makes me happy. He used purple cabbage, so the whole dish is prettay. Special thanks go out to the cow.

Last night, we had a visitor to the monkey gym, who joined us to lift weights. Our guest asked why we work out.

Me, I want to be super-duper strong, and have wanted that since I was little-little. I hope to grow o-l-d in the future and have bones of steel, something that's too often not the fate of women.