Catching Up on Life

Time for an update, as I purposely skipped posting last weekend. Though I had a tiny bit of free time, we (as a species) tend to make too much of birthdays and anniversaries (even happy ones), and I wanted to get away from the build-up. June 15 will always be a very special (and tragic) day for us, and I'd rather not build it up to the point where we dread it every year and can't get through the day. Instead, I had a good cry on Friday, triggered by various sad events...I was missing Andrew like crazy, and was reminded of that fact in several ways. On Sunday, I essentially ignored the fact that it was Father's Day, which wasn't fair to either of my fathers but was my chosen solution.

We spent the weekend in LA, where we saw a crappy movie (Indiana Jones and the Ridiculous Premise), had a fantastic dinner (Mastro's in Beverly Hills), and went to the concert I mentioned a couple posts ago (Fisher at the Ford Amphitheatre). They were all fun and relaxing, even the movie, and they were just what we needed to keep our minds on other things. There was only one sad song at the concert (the one from the YouTube clip), so we all got another quick cry....just enough for a fitting tribute.

When we weren't busy, I was furiously cranking out the second version of one of my book chapters. It was the culmination of several weeks of intense work on both the book and my "real job." In fact, last night was the first time in about a month in which I haven't had any work to do at night. I'm all caught up on the book and my two big work projects are both done. It's a huge relief, as I've pulled at least six recent all-nighters and been as stressed out as I ever get.

D and I are headed out on Monday for a much-needed vacation. School is over with and I'm off for a week and a half. We're heading to the Canadian Rockies on an organized tour run by the same company that ran our trip to Costa Rica two years ago. We'll see at least four national parks in both Canada and Montana, explore fun mountain towns and beautiful lakes, and hopefully come across a bunch of wildlife. This tour will be similar to one I did on a bike in 1994, and I've been wanting to show this area off to D for a while. Here's a pic from the last trip:


We'll be back on the 1st, we have a wedding on the 4th, and then we'll start thinking about the next portion of our summer. D is going to the Journalism Institute in late July in Reno, and I might be sent to Hawaii for work (the horror!) around the same time. We have another wedding (in Chicago) in September, and Danielle has a "gig" for her new part-time job in August (more on that later). I'll wrap up the book in late July/early August, and it should be on the shelves by Christmas.

I'm going to stop here for now, as I need to take advantage of my vacation and catch up on some much-needed sleep. Thank you for your wonderful notes and cards and comments last Sunday. Andrew's really missing out on an incredible group of family and friends; we're lucky to have you all.