I admit to being a terrible blogger…when the semester hits the fan I am nowhere to be found, it would appear.  But looking back…it would also appear that when the summer hits the fan I am nowhere to be found, either!  I am going to forgive myself and simply inform any readers that my blog-absence is my way of demonstrating my human failing so that YOU can do the same in some other way and we can still love and respect one another.

My blog absence had NOTHING to do with BIG things happening in my life (which makes the fact that I did not document them even more absurd).  I traveled to Bali, Indonesia with my gamelan troop and performed at the Bali Arts Festival. I said goodbye to my “surrogate” mother who died on Mother’s Day (of all things!) and was memorialized in August in a beautiful service. We acquired new family members, Luke and Lorelai, the parakeets.  I got half a new knee (the surgery from which I am still recuperating).  I read 21 books (actually I listened to 21 books).  I knitted a bunch of lovely things.  Friends got hitched (shout out to Tom and Stuart, Shannon and Jonathan).  An election shit show was endured.  We (collectively) lost Carrie Fischer, Glenn Frey, Leonard Cohen, Mohammed Ali, Richard Adams, and many other pivotal public figures.  And a bunch of my beloved undergraduate students got themselves graduated!

On this the eve of 2017 I hope/intend/promise myself to do the following next year:

• Listen to or read 25 books
• Avoid purchasing any new yarn (there are a few exceptions to this resolution)
• meditate 20 minutes four times per week
• go to the gym four times per week
• Work on my scholarship for at least half an hour four times per week
• Post on this blog twice a month (at least)!