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).