Home again, home again. …

Home again, home again. It is so good to be home, I can't tell you. I opened the door to find an apartment just filled with the smell of hyacinth -- it's all coming from one little pot I bought last week, and it's lovely and soothing and springish. We had a five hour train ride back from Ann Arbor, and I have to say, if I had realized how cheap the train would be ($20-ish each way), we would have just taken the train to begin with. Sigh. I was reasonably cheerful for the first couple hours of the trip, snuggling with Kevin, chatting, but for some reason about halfway through, I started to get weepy and exhausted, and poor Kev spent the next three hours or so trying to cheer me up with little funny comments and lots of small forehead kisses, so that I wouldn't just start bawling. This has not been a good week for Mary Annes. Or at least for this one.

But on the plus side, I did get that essay revised and sent out (though it could frankly still stand another pass or two, but que sera sera), so I'm pleased with myself for being productive. And I had a nice time at Sean and Kira's, including giving them a copy of my cookbook and showing Kira how to make a bunch of dishes from it last night -- they invited some friends, including another very old friend of mine, Don (I met Kira and Don in University Theater my freshman year of college, so I've actually known them both even longer than I've known Kevin, surprisingly), whom it was delightful to see. He actually still had copies of a show I acted in back then, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and made me a copy on DVD, which will be much fun to watch. I was Potiphar's wife (which meant I didn't actually have to sing) and had a fabulous boa for my slinky part. I can't quite believe, looking back, that I had the nerve to slither around on stage supposedly trying to seduce Joseph. I haven't acted since then, and it seems almost like a different person.

I had a pile of rejections waiting when I got home (of course), but also some good news -- for one, I've made some sort of preliminary nomination for a Diarist.net award, in the Legacy category -- I'm not quite sure what this is, and I'll have to look it all up properly tomorrow, but regardless, it's nice to be nominated, I'm sure. And I also got a quite nice note -- the Kearny Street workshop in San Francisco is interested in having me come out this summer and teach an eight-week creative writing class on sexuality/erotica (I think with an Asian focus, but I'm not sure). We'll need to talk about the schedule/salary before it's definitive -- I don't think they can afford to pay me much at all, so doing this will be dependent on my finding crash space in the area for two months (I'll probably be moving around a fair bit). But the pay would cover food and train expenses, at least, and it would let me get out of Chicago for the worst of the summer heat and come visit Bay Area people and get more teaching experience for my c.v. -- all good things. Less Kevin, but he's wanting a good chunk of time to focus on work this summer, so that might actually be productive for both of us. And he'd come out for a visit halfway through, of course.

Anyway, way too exhausted to make any decisions now, of course. Taking the next few days very easy -- I have to go to the gym tomorrow, and a meeting in the evening, but otherwise, I don't think I'll be leaving the apartment so much. Slowly putting together my dissertation manuscript and the Blowfish manuscript again are the only two tasks on the agenda. Duncan's supposed to let me know at the end of the week about the third waterproof book -- if it's happening, how much they'd want to pay me, etc., so that'll be good information to have too. If all goes well, then I might (knock on wood) not have to go look for a day job this spring, and can just focus on doing good work on the dissertation (and huddling under the covers some, when it all gets too much for me). We'll see how it goes.

Thanks again for all the kind wishes re: the accident! I'm car-less for a few weeks, and my insurance rates will go up, but again, we're definitely counting our blessings. Thank god for insurance and for nobody getting hurt.