I may be in US late August/early September.....anyone want to meet up?

And here I thought you were Magginkat. How is she?
I bet she asked about me

Well damn! Just had the brains to check my available leave. Less than 2 weeks!

I have emailed the trainer to let me know if she has planned training for later, as I don't think I can swing this course....now it would have to be so short.... : (

Phooey

feh.

Well, if there IS a later one she can give me more warning about, that would make things much easier. I'm on a month doing something different right now. That ends on July 31st, but could extend.

My program, which I have worked hard to mould into a statewide consultation service, which I have made as instantaneously responsive as it can possibly be in the hopes of assisting issues not to deteriorate to the point where situations have spun hysterically out of control.....(I work in a field where people panic and react in quite seriously damaging ways sometimes.)...as well as a therapy and training service, cannot be serviced in the same way while I am diverted. This can easily make people enraged and I can lose the reputation I have worked hard to gain. If I were to travel in august this would mean I only had a couple of weeks to respond to people and pick up cases before I was gone again, which people who are finding it hard to cope would not deal with well.

I can manage all this far better if I can provide a full service again for a reasonable time before I disappear again.

Sounds ridiculously wanky, and I don't think I'm indispensable, but I'm the only person in the state doing the consults.

That makes good sense, and would leave you a more relaxed planning time too.

Oh! Plot twist.

Hello to all when I'm here though, especially Boomer. How's it going?

Hi, Soz. Miss you, of course, but understand. How are you and yours these days?

Very good actually! Working happily, traveling happily (just got home from a trip to the Netherlands, accompanied E.G. to a conference, sozlet's first trip abroad and while she was occasionally overwhelmed it was overall a really positive experience), writing happily. Book continues apace, kid will be at camp for a week later this summer and that's my self-imposed deadline for get it done or stop spending time on it. Already have about 10 completed chapters and a complete outline for the rest (plus lots of background info/ research etc.), so not crazy. (Will have ~25-30 chapters when done.) Not saying it WILL happen, 'cause that's vanishingly unlikely, but want to give it a real go.

How 'bout you?

What's the subject area of your book, Sozobe?

Getting smaller in my life's doings, but not unhappy. Lots of things to clear out by means of donations or consignment sales and whatnot. Miss my dog, Katy. On the other hand, I have 4 barking dogs next door, which is good; to me a neighborhood is weirdly quiet without some barks going on and some birds coming around in season. I wake up to the dachshunds making barking yard dashes on the other side of the property line wall with the blue blue sky just lighting up over the visible top of the house next door. A very nice wake-up.

Never did get to facebook or I'd be talking with you more often.



Oh!! Keep going with the book! Or I sure hope so.

Oh no, I'm so sorry about Katy. A lovely dog.

Great wake-up description, that does sound nice.

I'm not on A2K Facebook either (I am, but mostly not), so you're not missing me there.

Thanks for book encouragement! JTT it's a young adult novel. Has autobiographical elements (especially re: deafness) but that's in the background rather than the main focus. The plot is pretty standard adventure with some sci-fi/ fantasy elements (slight skewing of reality rather than anything too out there -- should come across as extremely plausible). Meant to be a series of five books. We shall see.

Hiya Soz!

Your life sounds hectic and fun, I'll bet Sozlet loved that trip!

I'm glad to hear the book is going well.

We aren't up to much of anything here.

"Hectic and fun" is a pretty good encapsulation. Especially "hectic." The kid is a teenager now in all senses of the word, so things are not all awesome. The nice calm friendly person I'd gotten used to is too often replaced by a snarly, moody grump. She'll do stupid stuff and then get mad at me for calling her on it.

So I'm not enjoying that BUT it's developmentally appropriate and overall she's still herself. She was occasionally maddening during the trip but then we also had a lot of fun together. And she has a pretty good awareness of when she's gone beyond the pale. ("Sorry. Hormones.")

You have to be kidding

Hi osso, My wife and I have been working at downsizing our junque for several years to move to a retirement home in a few years, but it doesn't seem to be getting smaller! It's amazing how I've gotten rid of boxes of stuff, but the pile doesn't seem to get smaller. Maybe it's the sentiment held onto things of old. LOL

Hey, welcome back 'n stuff.

Did you make it to the US?

Yep...and she's likely back again next year.