Happy. Really, just happy.

I’m feeling very blessed right now, very grateful for all I have in my life.

Oh, it’s not perfect, of course. I just deleted a paragraph about what’s not good, what’s weighing on me, things I need to improve and things that are out of my control. That’s not what this post is about.

Here’s what the past few weeks have brought me:

• A hugely beneficial workshop on the beautiful Oregon Coast, giving me more tools I need to succeed in the business I truly love. It’s never been a better time to be a writer!
• A car trip to AZ and NM and back with an utterly wonderful man who inspires me and challenges me and makes me laugh. It’s easy to take people for granted, especially when you’re close to them. The trip, and watching Ken with other people, reminded me just how amazing he is.
• For that matter, travel. I love seeing new places, experiencing new things. One day we went to a ghost town and by the end of it, I had so many bits and pieces and shiny gems and copper pennies that will someday gel into a story. Or maybe a series of stories. Possibly with Mopsy Rothschild as the protagonist.
• Front row at a Styx concert (pictures to come). Sure, it involved being the only three people in line for hours, but it was worth it. (Hanging out with Sara any time is worth it!) I’m grateful to have the money and time to be able to hit my 110^th show, and also to know that the band appreciates my presence. Plus there’s nothing like walking out of one’s hotel room, looking over the railing, and seeing the crew and a few band members in the parking lot below tossing a football back and forth…. Styx’s music has brought me through the bad times, and still does.
• Friends. Oh, the friends! Sara, who seems to be my twin in so many ways—okay, I’m going to complain here only to whine why can’t she live closer, dammit?! Vicki-Marie (crap, she lives in Paris, so my whining just got a lot louder), with her whip-sharp mind that makes me feel smarter just talking with her, and her delightful laugh that makes my heart sing.
• Tea at St. James Tearoom with Ken and Vicki-Marie and V-M’s Tony and Pati and her husband Chris. (Pati also goes in that friends category, and the writer category I haven’t even gotten to yet!) They put us, appropriately enough, in the room inspired by the Bird and Baby pub where the Inklings (Tolkien, Lewis, etc.) met—how appropriate for Pati and I! And then today, tea at Fresh & Fabulous with an amazing group of local writers—Christine, Kim, Sheila, Tanya, and I were there for two and half hours, talking and laughing about writing and everything else, for that matter.
• An incredible access to incredible story: books, TV, music, friends’ tales and anecdotes, and more. Story fills my life, illuminates and illustrates all life. 

I think some of my joy comes from the diversity in my life and in myself. For example, at concerts, sure, I’m wearing a low-cut top and flirting with Lawrence (much to Ken’s amusement), but it’s a persona, and we all know it. I’m a fan, and I’m also a writer, a reader,  a traveler, a scholar, a friend, a wife, a lover, a seeker, a dreamer. And right now, I’m blessed and grateful that I have access to the things that allow me to be all that.

This is long and rambly and not as focused as I would like, and I wish I had more time to talk about every one of these things at length. But all that traveling means I really have to focus on work right now! In the past few days I’ve finished a CES story, started a copyediting job, designed a book cover, and prepped a story to go online. In the next few days, I have a novel to finish editing (and then another one to finish editing), short stories to write, copyediting to do, stories to prep for online, and, um…. ::checks To Do list::  Ooh, and a lot more! So I’m diving in! Whee!