more on the fun stuff

I took the gov water center's beginner's course and assessment this weekend, and I passed!!!! It was a two-day course and on the first day, I found that I could do very little of what I had previously learned, and I'm not sure why. I almost decided against going to the second day of the course because I was so sure I would fail the test in the afternoon, but I couldn't give up because my brother and a couple of my friends had signed up together as a group. I couldn't give up because I was the only girl in the group.

Anyway, I gritted my teeth and prayed hard for light winds, and thank God that we did have light winds, and also that by the afternoon, I finally understood what I was doing. My arms and back are very sore and tired from having to haul and rehaul the sail every time I lost my balance and fell into the water. But I think I'm going to keep going when I can and hope that I don't forget what I learned this weekend! Renting gear from the gov centers is much cheaper AND they include wetsuits for the winter too, so it makes sense to learn this sport now. At about USD 4 an hour for a rig and wetsuit? That's a pretty good deal.

Teaching moves apace but publishing is still very slow. By the end of October, I need to send off an essay for a small book collection (published by a minor press) but I haven't started writing it!!!

Am I happy? I think so. I am happy most of the time, and as some of you have pointed out, that's as much as anyone of us can hope for. ;)