Gulp. Someone read this.

Yep. Someone knows I'm out here, or in here. Cybercized.

Sure, she's an old friend (Hi, Nadia) and all, but to know that anyone has actually taken the time to read this makes me feel ... responsible.

So, I haven't paid any attention to this blog dealy. I'll try harder. That's become my motto in life: I'll try harder.

That said, I'm in a tiny bit of a panic these days. I was home for Indonesia for a week when I learned that I'd received a Fellowship to attend a retreat -- Fundacion Valparaiso -- in Mojacar, Almeria, Spain. I'm flipping excited, sure, but the retreat is April 2009 ... so soon. I'm leaving next month for Montreal, then Paris ... where my brother, Ron, lives with his Latvian fiancee, and they're promising a whirlwind tour of Paris "with a bunch of crazy musicans, by torchlight". (I just know this is going to be too cool.) Plus, I've signed up for a cycling tour.

Four nights in Paris, then to Granada. Gotta see the Alhambra, right? I "took it" in Art History. And now I'm going. A friend recommended a super hostel in the Albaicin (alt. written Albayzin) the old Moorish 'warren.' Can you say "Turkish bath?"

Then onward to the retreat, with other writers artists writers from around the world, where I'll work on my poetry manuscript, The Blue Notebook, and my short story manuscript, Scenes From A Family On Fire. After that: Switzerland, and Latvia, and probably Estonia and\or Finland. We'll see where the wind blows me.

This all seems impossibly far from my real life, which has its own charms. ie) at the post office\coffee row this morning, a few people expressed an interest in seeing my Bali slideshow ... I said sure, this weekend ... let me know which night, so I have time to vacuum ... conversation turns to vacuuming, I explain about the shitey machine I have (requires two hands, one to "steer" and the other to keep the broken hose plugged in the canister thing), and a coffee-drinking friend says: "Would you like a perfectly working Electrolux, for free?"

And I bowled today. Now I used to be a fairly decent 5-pin bowler, with a few 325 games notched in my belt, but I can't do anything anymore. I threw four consecutive frames like this: 5 points, 5 points, 5 points, 4 points. A person could be blind and legless and bowl better than this. The only good thing is that one woman, bless you, R.H., had an even worse game. Oh, god, but we do cackle.

Anyway, more when I can. Have a book review to write. Over and out.

Oh, and photos are from Bali. Trip of a lifetime, as they say.