Catching up again

Wow, has it really been four months since I've updated my blog? This is not a good way to keep readers, I know. So....if any of you are still out there and you care, here's an overview of my last four months.

August was mostly spent traveling. I went again to Santa Fe for a week to attend the Image Journal's Art and Faith Workshop at the Glen. This year's theme was Love and Affliction: Art and the Paradox of Suffering. Pretty heavy stuff. What an incredibly fun and stimulating week. I took the songwriting workshop with Karin and Linford from Over The Rhine. How fun it was to spend a week getting to know them and how comforting it was to find out that everyone else in the workshop were also such big fans that they also felt like total idiots every time they tried to talk to them. This was nothing against Karin and Linford....it's just that thing that happens to you when you actually get to hang out with someone you really admire and you want everything you say to be so memorable and profound but you try too hard and it turns out to be ordinary or stupid. I got to have lunch one day with Bret Lott, an actual Oprah book club author. I didn't even know who he was until lunch was almost over. That was probably a good thing because I didn't turn into an idiot like I did with Linford and Karin. It was good to hang out with my friends who went with me....Scott, Anne and Cyndi, and my last year's new best friend Sara, and my this year's new best friend, Amy. (Yes...it's a lot like summer camp except you don't get kicked out for drinking!)

Then came the Star Trek convention in Vegas. I'm not really a Star Trek fan but some of my family members are and I figured what's not to love about a Star Trek convention? It was all great and I think I made it thru without exposing the fact that I knew almost nothing about the show. There was one terrifying moment when my sister and nephew got away from me and someone behind one of the booths starting talking to me all about the character development in season three. I just smiled and nodded and looked around for someone to save me. The highlight for me (other than winning $115 at 3 card poker) was the Leonard Nimoy photography exhibition. He's really an interesting man and it was great to hear him talk about his art.

Then came the Alaskan cruise. My six friends and I had an amazing time. I figured being from Colorado, that I had seen pretty scenery and I wasn't expecting to be impressed...but I was. There is nothing like watching a glacier calve or seeing a bald eagle soar a few feet above your head. We had too many laughs and good times to mention here. I'm just so blessed to have this group of people to travel with. We've been to Italy a couple of times together too and we all just mesh and enjoy each other. I hope there will be many more trips....after I get this one paid off. It was hard on the wallet....and the waistline....but worth it. The highlight had to be our night before the cruise in Vancouver. We went to a lovely rooftop steakhouse for dinner and the only seats that were left were in the bar section. So we sat with an older couple....Chuck and Dorothy. They were delightful and they seemed to kind of like us too. Chuck was fascinated by my tales of drunk dialing and he not only gave me his own number to store in my cell phone but numbers of many of his friends too. We spent hours ordering up martinis....wine....and food, and finally when it came time for Chuck and Dorothy to leave, the waiter informed us that they picked up our tab! UNBELIEVABLE! It was so touching that I actually cried. Here's our picture from the second formal night. We clean up pretty good, I think!


To complete the travel section of my update, my last and final trip, (not counting the wonderful weekend I spent in Idaho Springs with Mary and Betty) was a quick trip to Germany last week. Lufthansa Airlines invited a few agents to experience their new business class service, so they took us to Berlin and Munich. It was way too quick, but I found Berlin to be fascinating. I'd love to go back. I kept looking around for those angels from Wings of Desire. See it if you haven't. It's a great movie. Oh...and by the way...business class on Lufthansa rocks. They have those seats that lay all the way down and they have on demand movies and CD's. There was so much to do that I didn't even get a chance to sleep in the cool seats. Now I just have to figure out how I can only fly business class for the rest of my life!

In other news...that dating thing that I mentioned a few posts back...well...when a guy tells you in the beginning that he's never been in a relationship (besides his marriage) longer than three months...don't expect it to be any different for you. Honestly, I still think he's a really good guy and yes...we're still friends, but his life is just too complicated right now for dating. I don't like it but I respect his decision. To be honest, I'm still hoping that he'll come to his senses and realize what he's missing out on, but I'm not waiting around for that. My friend Sara reminded me yesterday of a passage in one of my favorite books The Inner Voice of Love by Henri Nouwen. (An amazing little book.) It pretty much sums up what happened and what I've been trying to remind myself since. I'll share it here because maybe someone else could use these words too.

Understanding the Limitations of Others

You keep listening to those who seem to reject you But they never speak about you. They speak about their own limitations. They confess their poverty in the face of your needs and desires. They simply ask for your compassion. They do not say that you are bad, ugly, or despicable. They say only that you are asking for something they cannot give and that they need to get some distance from you to survive emotionally. The sadness is that you perceive their necessary withdrawal as a rejection of you instead of as a call to return home and discover there your true belovedness.

So yeah....life goes on, and I'm in the ever ongoing quest of discovering my belovedness. I've got many good friends and family who help remind me of that, and many of them are coming out next week to my birthday party at Casa Bonita. Yes...I know the food there is horrible, and really once you get over about 10, the novelty of the place kind of wears off, but there's nothing like a cute young cliff diver to get you thinking about moving on.

(Last year's Casa Bonita Extravaganza)