X Eye Ting! Gnus ^ 2/22/07's

(Translation: Exciting News Updates)

A compendium of exciting recent and upcoming developments in my life:

• I spent the past weekend on Whidbey Island with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. We had lots of fun making games, playing at the beach, birdwatching, going on lovely walks, etc. It was a glorious time.
• I have successfully managed to get my cousins hooked on Apples to Apples. Since they can't read, we made our own set of cards with pictures. They love it. Plus, it allows me to address the Apples to Apples deficiency I have been experiencing this year. (I've also made a pretty intense A2A Recipe Book compiling numerous game variations, so if there's anyone out there interested in getting a night of play together, I am more than prepared. Seriously. Just say the word.)
• I started a new writing project this morning, for a variety of reasons, chief among them being the fact that it popped into my head so clearly and insistently that I couldn't not start writing it. But also, conveniently, it actually fits much better than my novel with the type of project I said I was interested in working on in my application for the writing residency I'll be attending in March. It is also a shorter project that will fit better within a ten-day residency. It's called "Confessions of A Teenage Dating Addict," and it's a semi-autobiographical short story/article targeted towards adolescents via magazines like Seventeen. Should be interesting.
• I just found out about a year-long literary internship at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, which provides housing and a stipend on which it would be possible to live. It would involve work similar to the things I most enjoyed about my internship at the Playhouse last summer, and would run from August to next June. So basically, it's work I enjoy and have experience in, in a place I would be interested in living, for pretty much precisely the time that I will be needing something to do between my time writing and my entry into grad school. Needless to say I sent away for the application. So we'll see whether anything comes of that.
• I've joined a weekly women's Bible study group which has been quite fabulous. We're exploring various spiritual disciplines (so far we've looked at Examen and Lectio Divina), and I have been getting a lot out of the process. The women involved are all wonderful as well, and I am looking forward to continued and deepened relationships with them.
• Lots of chances recently to hang out with fun people in the area for dinners, conversations, movies, etc.--people from church, from back home, from UPS. And the weekend after next I'm going up to visit Coach, who I haven't seen in quite a while.
• There is a ceili this Saturday!!!! Seriously, that in itself is pretty much more excitement than I can handle.

There's so much more, but those are the highlights. I think this entry was even shorter than the last one. Look, I'm learning to condense! My long-time readers will be quite proud--not to mention relieved. :-)