Today's moment of calm....

Back from whirlwind Toronto business trip. It went as well as could be expected, though the one bright spot in the trip - dinner with my pal A. - had to be cancelled as she came down with the flu. So, it was just me, trying to spoil myself in my hotel room, with limited success. As for life in general - things are still pretty challenging. But, I'm pushing my focus to the forces of good (read: the gym, friends, walks, good books...) and am excited by this year's DOXA festival - I have at least nine films picked out to see, hopefully I will feel motivated to write about some of them here. And in the meantime, I will find my zen with Shiro's help....

Lost and found

Thought I'd share a video from my most recent musical experience - not my favorite Andrew Bird concert of all time, but I'm someone who looks less for the polish and more for the passion. That being said, it was still pretty great. I was there with the Terrible Twosome siblings and a couple of friends, including my dear pal L. She is now an Extra Dear Pal after helping me through yesterday's crisis - which involved a couple of large pieces of jewelry finding their way down my bathroom sink drain and into the comforting hammock of the u-bend beneath. This was upsetting for me for a couple of reasons - the pieces themselves, and the cosmic significance that their potential loss meant, and the fact that I couldn't deal with it myself. The u-bend connectors were too tight - not just hand-tight, as they should be. Luckily, between L. and a huge pipe wrench, the problem was solved. Jewelry retrieved, cleaned, and safe. Emotional breakdown averted. And the cosmic significance of their retrieval embraced. Off to Toronto tomorrow - there for a day of work craziness, then I return. Hopefully it will be so whirlwind that jetlag won't have time to set in. Wish me luck.

If wishes were horses....

One thing I am learning is that life will laugh at you as soon as you think you've got it all planned out. There are changes in my life, and though I'm not ready to talk about it here, know it is a rough and rocky road. The right road? Ultimately I think so - I have to think so - but that doesn't make it easy, trust me.

One thing that seems to bring calm are ridiculous cat videos posted here.  Something about Shiro's (the cat on the far left, of course) face makes me smile every time.

I may be awol for a while, or I may be back sooner than you think - right now, it's hard to quite figure out what I'm doing in the next hour, let alone anything more forward thinking, so time will tell.