10/28 An apology about inconsistent blogging

I am now so far behind on this blog that I can only start from here and go forward. My excuses are ignorance of how to get the job done ( I sort of figured that out when I discovered Blogsy an app that helps with writing, adding photos and posting blogs.) But then I have to deal with the China bureaucracy which won't allow blogging. So then I bought a package to get around that (a vpn service called Astrill) and it works now and then for FB and YouTube, but it is inconsistent and I have to keep turning it on again and that gets frustrating. So when my VPN is on and the blog is written and I'm ready to post, up pops a window that says Blogsy isn't authorized to post my blog! Occasionally I get out a blog by accident, but it still isn't clear to me what I did or didn't do to make it work.

Solution: stop trying to be chronological, stop trying to answer all questions or notice everything at once, stop, in other words, trying to be perfect, and just write up a storm and create a backlog of blogs which will be regurgitated all on one day when all the gods are in favor.

So that's the new plan. Thanks to those of you who have written to wonder what became of me. I'm fine and happy and very glad I'm having this adventure.

The last two weeks have been a big internal upheaval, a crisis of confidence and intention layered onto a huge case of the lonelies. For all the people I've met, for all the really good connections I've made, for all the insights and experiences I've had - I just wanted - in a sort of crazed way that took up all my bandwidth for 2 weeks, I just wanted to snuggle down on the couch with really dear friends and loved ones and talk and talk and talk about everything they and I felt like talking about. You know - girl talk of a high order. But it didn't happen, what with Skype and Facetime inconsistencies, and a 12 hour time difference and all that jazz. It just didn't happen. And I guess when it doesn't happen in a familiar way, it takes a couple of weeks to work through the issues or whatever. I see the light at the other end of the tunnel, my urge to write is returning, my nose is coming out from under (and even if the air is polluted - nose out is better than nose in). Another apparent life crisis survived.

Somewhere in the middle of my silence I became 50 (my hair stayed 70 but my spirit could not be restrained - it said "you are 50") and so I am from now on until it changes. And here's the birth photo of the day it happened :~)

News from the home front - Ripley, my dearest son, is going to the Peace Corps in Dominican Republic in March and in the meantime will be manning the lift lines at Alta in culmination of that life-long dream. He's had time to say goodbye to Nashville in an unexpectedly leisurely way (working in a lab since last July) and can move on to his next step in life. I am so happy for him.

Bill is thoroughly enjoying being home and on his own. It's funny, I was telling someone on the camping trip to the Great Wall that my husband stayed home because he doesn't like to travel when suddenly her husband turned around and asked "Is he Chinese?" It seems she coerced this husband into the camping trip. If he had his 'druthers, he'd be at home watching TV or reading. He too hates to travel. I've bumped into more than one man who has expressed the same sentiment and more than one wife who has taken up traveling on her own because that's what she wants to do. Actually I was embarrassed that Bill doesn't want anything active to do with the trip, but as it turns out, ours is not a unique situation. So now I don't worry about it!

The rest of my family and friends are 100% enthusiastic - some even express a yearning, but so far only 2 have come. The support and love, even when I'm out of contact except by email, are wonderful. I can love everyone back for however we relate to each other. As is commonly said: "it's all good!"

 

Grabbingthewave@gmail.com