The world still turns...

...only slightly off its axis.

Well, I suppose I should have written much sooner to mention I was still alive after the earthquake and tsunami and all of that. Sorry, if you were worried. Today, though I don't feel like addressing the terribly serious topic of the disaster. I have much to say about it, but I've already said most of it in other places (mainly my website that actually has my name attached to it) and I a. don't really feel like repeating myself and b. am in a slightly more chipper mood than is required for respectfully addressing the devastation wrought by such an even.

Instead, I'd like to talk about things that are happening in my life. Good things, as it happens, and more than one of them. For one thing, I'm a few days away from completing my first ever triathlon and I am reasonably confident I will finish within the time limits and all will go well. For another thing, (and it's directly related to the first thing) thanks to all the training I've been doing I'm back to the weight I was when I got my first driver's license at 16 and I'm in possibly the best cardio shape of my life. For yet one more thing, I have not one, but TWO schools back in the US interested in me as a candidate for a teaching position. Nothing is even remotely final in either case and I haven't had a job offer yet, but both sets of interviews are going well and I am cautiously optimistic. It could all fall apart at the last second, it wouldn't be the first time it had, but it's nice to know that you've still got enough allure to reel a few in. And for a final thing, there is a hypothetical situation for returning home in which the man I'm over the moon crazy about and I might get hitched. Despite my general skepticism about matrimony, I find that I'm rather excited about the possibility of shouting my love from the rafters and having a big ol' party to celebrate it.

To top it all off, I have a paying writing for some short stories that I'm working on, and things are progressing with editing the latest novel. In other words, life is pretty good. I'm an extremely fortunate person and I hope I stop to appreciate how lucky I am often enough.

For the moment I'm going to celebrate by running a few miles. It's a beautiful day out there so it looks like the sun and the wind and the earth will be celebrating with me. That's a good start.

Rolling along...

Well, I finished my first round of edits and sent my first draft off to my first readers. I have gotten feedback from two of them but am still waiting on the third. Once I hear from all of them I will do my second revision and then I will send the result off to the small press that wants to read it. So, things are progressing... slowly.

In the meantime, I'm keeping busy by training for a triathlon. I signed up for a race in June and started a training program about 3 weeks ago. Things are going well so far. It's exciting to be getting back in shape and to rekindle my love affair with swimming. Also, it's exciting to have a fairly substantial goal ahead of me. I'm doing an olympic distance race which means that the swim is 1.5 km the bike is 40 km and the run is 10 km. In the world of triathlons it's not that big (there are some seriously insane triathlons out there) but in the world of people like me who haven't done long distance running or biking in a long time/ever it's a pretty big deal.

So, life remains pretty interesting. In the meantime, there is the terrifying prospect of having to find a job back home in the US before we leave here. Yipe! I'm working on it, but it's slow going and I'm working hard not to get discouraged.

All and all life is pretty good. I will update as soon as there is anything movement on the novel revision/publishing front. That's it for now.

I leave you with this food for thought: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpypeLL1dAs