Inkhaven

Holiday report

Christmas was awesome. I spent it in a rented cabin in the mountains a couple of hours outside Sacramento with my entire family on my dad’s side.

A friend had asked me recently when I had last taken a real vacation – a totally relaxing escape with no worries, the kind where you really get to recharge. It was pretty apparent to that friend and others that I needed a vacation like that. It turns out that four days surrounded by kind people who are genuinely interested in each other is that kind of vacation for me. I am always struck by how good-hearted my whole family is. They’re wonderful examples of how to be a good parent, a good family member, and a good friend. They are a reminder of the kind of person I want to be.

Here they are, some of the best humans in the known universe:

There were glitches. My youngest daughter had the stomach flu Christmas Eve, so the two of us were up all night. I broke my glasses, which my dad super-glued back together so I could drive home. But even with those couple of missteps it was still the nicest holiday I can remember having.

I got to tell them all what I’m doing with the Clarion application, which served to create some extra accountability, because now there are a dozen people who are going to want to know what comes of it. One of my cousins is applying to grad school in London at the same time, so there should be plenty of family announcements  of one kind or another in March.

So I’m back and feeling good. Time is ticking away – the holidays are effectively over, with the exception of New Year which is mostly stress- and planning-free. I have to buckle down now if I’m going to meet my self-imposed deadline of January 31. Today I’m working on Clarion story #2.

Caren Gussoff, writer and graduate of Clarion West, sent me this link today as a form of encouragement. I recommend it to anyone else considering applying to either workshop (or both!)

I dream about it now, usually about being rejected. And I let myself daydream about it, too – about being accepted. :)

Back to the word mines. Cheers.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 27th, 2009 at 9:18 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.