Wednesday, May 20, 2015

I'm Back (and hopefully more disciplined about blogging)

I’ve been terrible at blogging lately mostly due to the fact that I keep thinking something really exciting will happen and then I’ll have something to write about. But life goes on pretty much like normal, so I’ll sum up the last month briefly.


Last weekend, I ran the Bay to Breakers run in San Francisco my friend, Heather. It was the slowest 12K I’ve ever run, but I had a great time. Bay to Breakers never disappoints. There’s just nothing like running through the streets (and hills) of San Francisco and then finishing on the beach. I can’t wait for the Wharf to Wharf run in July, which is similarly amazing. I feel bad for people who don’t get to run in such beautiful places.

I took a trip to Pasadena to visit a few friends and family. I realized that aside from missing people in Pasadena, I really only miss the Jacaranda trees and the Star Jasmine blooming. I’m so much happier living in Oakland than I ever was in Pasadena.

I joined a third critique group which met last week. I became acquainted with a few of its members at the Big Sur Writing Workshop that I attended. The group is really nice and it was great to get some feedback from different people.

I started tutoring a friend of my husband’s grandparents. She’s from Central America and does not speak English natively, although her spoken English is pretty good. I’m working with her on reading and writing in English and I’ve been really enjoying myself. I do still like teaching, just not in a public school setting.


What I’m reading: I finally finished The Emperor of All Maladies. It was excellent. I also read Story Engineering by Larry Brooks (good book, but I would only recommend it to fellow writers), Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande (excellent book about end of life issues), Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (somehow I had never read this), and Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon (the second book in the Outlander series). I’m now reading Voyager by Diana Gabaldon, which is the third Outlander book. I’m also reading Needlework by Bekah Berge (this is a young adult novel and it is not yet available to the general public).