Sometimes it Just Comes

#1 - Fingers lightly grazing my shoulders, sitting on the bench of the playground near my brother's while my niece, favorite 5 year old, and his two girls played at the park.

I wondered if it would be fun to take these four children camping together - with such wide age ranges would they play together?

They played together.

#2 - My favorite five year old still wanting to hold my hand while we walked to the lake. After canoeing I asked if he wanted to try the sit on top kayak. "Will you come with me?"

"Yes."

#3 - How welcoming my brother and sister-in-law are - helping bring the kayak to the lake, offering to make dinner. My brother biking to the store for groceries, my sister-in-law cooking while the rest of us played at the park.

#4 - My niece sitting on my lap eating homemade pizza while she flirted with the sweet man sitting beside me.

#5 - Seeing my niece (3 years old) riding fast and confident and at ease on a bike. She went straight from her Strider which she mastered last summer to riding a normal bike (no training wheels) in less than a week. She just kept going in circles, wanting to be chased and stopped at all roads/was observant of cars.

AWP

I am spending today (and yesterday and tomorrow) at the Association for Writing Professionals Conference. I don't know much about it. It was highlighted in the Loft Literary Center's brochure as a national conference that will in Minneapolis this year. Next year it's in L.A., then DC, and then Florida, so I figured now is clearly the time to check it out regardless of whether I know anything about it.

The events go well into the evening so I'll just write my gratitudes in my journal this week. However here are a few of the workshops I am looking forward to on Friday.

#1 - Wounds for the Wounded: Helping Special Populations Heal through Writing.

#2 - Contemplation in a World of Action: Thomas Merton

#3 - Lit and Hip Hop with Dessa

#4 - The Ties That Bind: Writing from the Sun about Our Closest Relationships. The Sun is my all time favorite magazine and Sy Safransky (it's editor and publisher) will be there!

#5 - The keynote speaker in the evening will be moderated by Patricia Weaver Francisco, a women I took a week long nature writing class with 8 years ago. I haven't seen her since and I adored both her and the class so I look forward to being in her presence.

It's Beginning

#1 - I've been groovin on the Love Someone (by Jason Mraz) 9 Theory Remix a lot lately.

https://soundcloud.com/9theory

#2 - My friend discovered these gorgeous new camper cabins at a park recently. Apparently they were immediately booked when the reservation system opened. Yesterday the reservations opened for the next 12 months. She was going to see if she could get us a weekend in October. I mentioned them to the guy I've been excited about recently and sent him the link. He was enthusiastic too and said it might be a while off but maybe we could look into one?

I said, "Yes!" You have to reserve now or never. The reservations opened yesterday morning and this morning every weekend until the end of October was already filled. I actually find winter time more appealing anyway. So this morning he made a reservation for us for January 1st and 2nd. (New Years Eve was already taken).

#3 - The only New Years eve/day plans are ones I make, kind of last minute because I should "do" something. Not that I haven't simply stayed at home. I've done that too many times - some happily, some not so much. Whether we will follow through on these plans doesn't matter much to me now. There is an $8 reservation fee that he could lose. What matters is at this point in time, both of us are perfectly happy with the idea of making a plan together that is 9 months away. This is five days after he was hesitant (he later told me) about spending 9 hours with me last Saturday because it seemed like a long time and he wasn't sure how it would go.

#4 - I also asked him if he wanted to put on his calendar picking me up from the airport after my trip this summer. I figured if we're making plans in January, I guess that isn't too presumptuous.

He replied,

"It wouldn't be presumptuous at all, I will definitely be there to pick you up when you return."

#5 - This Ghosts and Empty Glasses by Paul Frantzich I just discovered today.