The Tropics Are Depressed, But I'm Happy

How can it be July already?  In some parts of the country that don't have (suffer?) endless summer, this time might be the midway point of summer.  We've passed the solstice point, which means the days will be shorter for the rest of the year.  But there's the first tropical depression of the season to watch, and plenty of reasons to feel happy.  Let me list some.

--The tropical storm, should it become a tropical storm, is not likely to affect land.  Sure, I know it could be a category 1 hurricane by the time it wanders ashore, if it ever does.  But I'm predicting a sloppy tropical storm--which means that my first statement is likely not true.  It will affect land, but it won't rip the land to pieces.

--The storm is forming to the north of me.  It will travel north.  I am selfishly happy--yet still worried about flooding down here.

--I had a nice day yesterday.  I thought about going back to work a day early, but decided I needed a slow day at home.  I was right.  I travel as if there will be a nuclear apocalypse while I'm away, so it always takes me some time to unpack.  I had taken my laptop with me so that I could stay in touch with my online class, which began on Thursday.  It was nice to return home and not have to wade through a bazillion e-mails.  In between rain showers, a side effect of said tropical depression, I read by the pool, took a nap, made a quick trip to the library to get more books by Julia Glass, and got organized.

--I got an e-mail from Kathleen Kirk, an editor at Escape Into Life, a fabulous online journal, where she pairs art and poetry (go here to see how she paired poet John Guzlowski with painter Margarita Georgiadis).  She asked me to send her some poems.  I am thrilled!  I think this is the first time an editor has contacted me about my poetry.

--I also heard from Living Lutheran; my editor at the site is no longer there.  Happily, the new contact person still wants to work with me.  I wrote back and asked if she had any holes in the schedule, and she wrote back to ask if I wanted to write a blog post for Independence Day.  Of course I said yes.

--So yesterday evening, while my spouse worked on his consulting project, I worked on that blog post.  And while I was doing that, I also created some blog posts for my own blogs for Independence Day.

--I do have plans to get back to my memoir.  In fact, I had just opened that document when I heard from the new editor at Living Lutheran.  Starting on July 10, I plan to work on the memoir before doing anything else--I will do that on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and one week-end day.

--Being with my English friend inspired me.  She said that she wanted to write a young adult novel before she turned 50--and she did just that.  I will have this memoir ready by Christmas if not before.  I want to be on the road to publication by the time I turn 50 (that's July of 2015).

--If stories of inspiration and collaboration make you happy, don't miss this story which aired on NPR's Morning Edition.  It talks about Old Crow Medicine Show; I didn't realize that their song "Wagon Wheel" was a bit of a Bob Dylan song originally.  It's a great story about inspiration and the ways that artists help each other.