I am a writer

Some of you may know that I have been trying to write for the past year - -in the genre called memoir of creative nonfiction. To motivate myself, I have submitted a couple of pieces to competitions. I haven't hit the jackpot, but was very chuffed to get this yesterday:

Dear Jane F. Hacking,

> Thank you for participating in the 2012 Summer Literary Seminars

> <http://sumlitsem.org/> Unified Literary Contest. It was our largest and

> strongest contest to date, with 1600 submissions received from every

> corner of North America and the rest of the world. The results have now

> been posted on our website: www.sumlitsem.org <http://www.sumlitsem.org/>

> .

>

> As indicated previously, we are offering a number of merit-based

> fellowships to the contestants whose work placed beyond the mean of this

> year's submissions. Our judges were strongly impressed with the work you

> submitted, and we are pleased to offer you an SLS fellowship, in the

> amount of a 30% tuition waiver. This offer is being extended to the thirty

> final runners-up in the respective categories of fiction, poetry, and

> non-fiction.

Welcome back

OK, back in Utah and ready to recommit to blogging.

Random thought: just like people seem to be either cat people or dog people, people seem to be either canister or upright when it comes to vacuum cleaners. Craig and I, as in so many things, do not agree. Do you all think it just stems from what you grew up with?

For Alison: I promised work gems.

Got back into the office on Thursday morning and asked Fernando what I had missed.

1) The guy who teaches Kmer is in hospital and unlikely to return before semester's end. Quick, find another speaker of Khmer qualified to teach....starting tomorrow. Done. We are that good (or, at least Fernando is).

2) Wife of Arabic instructor who is scheduled to teach conversational Arabic for us starting in mid-May broke both legs in a car accident while I was gone. Will not be teaching from her wheel chair apparently.

3) Faculty member who discovered this term that she has a hole in her heart (when I asked her if she had known this, she replied, "Well, I knew about the figurative one, not the literal one.") is not American and puzzled to learn that insurance will only cover the operation to repair the hole if it is large enough. If smaller than designated size, she must have two strokes first to qualify for surgery.

Tale of Hotels

So with all this traveling, I am seeing some hotels. You know you are at the US Naval Academy when your suite comes equipped with an electric shoe polisher... And then Catherine and I dipped seriously down the food chain in Tempe Arizona at the hotel next to ASU's campus where everything was tired but they hoped it was made up for by the large cage with exotic bird in the lobby. This week, Alison promises me the Grand Hotel Brighton, which will, I am certain, eclipse the others.

Travel

On my way to Baltimore. I had the very pleasant experience of being rung up by Delta to see if I wanted to change to a nonstop flight and be in first class as opposed to coach via Minneapolis. Ummmm, that took a little thought, not. So here I am, perched in my first class seat with the wifi hooked up and having gotten to leave the house three hours later. This meant I could do a snow shoe up Mill Creek with Sam and Craig, a shopping blitz with Catherine and some quality time on 19th century European history with Sam. Yay.

This is the big travel binge. Annapolis (Naval Academy review) till Wednesday, then Thursday thru Saturday in Phoenix, home for two days and then off to UK for Stiff Little Fingers concert and other merriment.

skin

So, I tried the microdermabrasion thing again. Astute readers may recall that the last attempt was before a tense faculty meeting and I attributed the less than happy reaction my skin had to that stress. But, it didn't much like it this time either.

On the subject of skin, I also invested in some very expensive skin care products in December and my skin does not like these either. I heard on the radio today that Jennifer Aniston spends about $8,000 a month on her physical upkeep: products, private yoga, dietician, etc. My modest $200 outlay (products formulated by a Beverly Hills dermatologist) pales by comparison... as does my skin condition.

Poutine

No trip to Canada would be complete without a picture of:

Followed by the robocall scandal that dominated the Canadian news

Ottawa pics

At the National Gallery:

At Randall and Don's local:

Back at the National Gallery:

Walking to dinner: