Disappeared.

So the thing about living is when you're all caught up in it, it's hard to find time to reflect on it. Or write about it. Whatever. I've been spending time writing about the past and finding myself where I am now through what I remember of the past, but I ain't publishing that stuff here. So, I'll update y'all on the past two-ish weeks that I've been away:

1. Paddy's Day: aka my coming out to my creative writing program. With a too-low cut top and shamrocks stuffed into my cleavage (for coverage, people!), I stood in front of colleagues, friends, family and enemies and presented my writing past and present. It went over well. At one point I looked up from the podium and saw my mom, Sher and Carlos in front of me, my philosophy mentor directly to my right and my current writing mentor to my left. It was a moment; I felt the love.

Then we all high tailed it back to my house for a fabaluss partay. Tex Mex and Irish music. Dancing and Drinking and Dining--the three d's essential to a good night. Fun, fun. Yay.

2. Screenplay workshop: I discovered that in writing Act One of my screenplay, I have given voice to my shadow side. She is unleashed. I was surprised that people's reaction to the thing has been, "Wow. This is dark. Every scene is sexually charged." Hmmmmm.

3. At one point in the past couple of weeks I paused, looked around (metaphorically speaking), and thought to myself, "God damn. I am exactly where I want to be, doing exactly what I've always wanted to be doing."

4. Technical difficulties: My digital camera's battery power is zip. I've had to replace the batteries four times in a month. So I returned it, and the guy exchanged it no problem. That night I discovered he sent me home with the same defective camera I brought in. The previous morning, my computer wouldn't boot. After three calls to AppleCare, a dozen calls to the tech guys at work, a borrowed firewire, a borrowed laptop, borrowed time on a colleague's top-of-the-line, souped up Mac, I realized that I could not solve the problem. The AppleCare guys treated me like a 'tard. I couldn't cope anymore. So I hightailed it to the nearest Apple store (an hour away) where a beautiful geek missing his trigger fingers listened to my baby like it was a human heart and then shook his head sadly. "This is not good," he said. Then he helped me transfer as many documents as possible onto my ipod, which also mysteriously, spontaneously shut down. You see, and I don't want any finger wagging, please, I had not backed up my stuff. My book manuscript, my screenplay, all my articles. We managed to rescue most of them, but not all of the book chapters. You see, the computer's hard drive has been dying, and some of those files were already dead.

But what can you do? Trust that the chapter will come out better the next time, pray that my baby come back from Memphis even stronger, and back up everything in three different places forevermore. Live and learn.

5. Chicago: the trip was abbreviated because of my technical difficulties. But it was a blast. Eating, drinking, not enough dancing, but lots of laughing with some of the people I love the most. Thanks Sid, Shas, Y, Carlos. Y'all are my kind of fun.

Thanks especially to Sid and Carlos for accompanying me to the ballet on Saturday. NYC's American Ballet Theatre was in town to put on "Le Corsaire" and it was divine. I had never seen the show or ABT in the flesh before. They're astoundingly glorious dancers, and I've never seen such a male-centered classical piece. Act Two has a pas de trois that is the hottest thing I've ever seen on stage. And as I said after act one: "I'm in heaven. A shirtless pirate heaven." Lord have mercy. And did I mention that we scored student tickets for $20 a piece that happened to be center orchestra seats--the best in the house? Chicago Civic Opera House is a glory. Go see something there if you get a chance. It's worth it just to look at the house ceiling.

I ran the Shamrock Shuffle Sunday--the first race of the new season--and had a personal best. An 8K under a 10-minute pace. Hot damn. I'm on fire. Started strong, ended strong. Then went for brunch and got drunk. Man, life is good.

6. I also started a new quarter at the private college where I teach. This means a new narrative journalism class, and I have a feeling this group is going to kick ass. I'm eager to get my hands on their eager young minds. . . .

Geez. There's all kinds of other stuff, too, but that should do it for now. I got my hairs cut and I did a presentation in a lit. class on Toni Morrison's novel, "Jazz", that went awfully well. Read that book. It's hot. And astounding in what it sets out to do and what it actually accomplishes. Great writing changes the temperature of my blood as I'm reading. Whew!

Oh, and remember Bono? We have a date May 5. In my hometown.

And the daffodils are blooming where I can see them everyday.

Okay. That's enough for now, methinks. Thanks for your patience and sorry that I've neglected you.

I hope all y'all have had a less eventful time the past couple of weeks.

Or do I?