Gosh. Where to start:
I’m still in negotiations with Openwave. They’re going to get me a revised offer letter today (I hope!) and I’ll sign and return it tomorrow. It’s cutting it close, but I think it’ll be OK. Otherwise they’ll have to fax my offer letter to Guatemala…and while that would be highly amusing, I’d just as soon skip the melodrama.
I’m running around doing various prep work for Guatemala. I am SO glad my reservations for Thursday didn’t work out and I’m leaving on Saturday. I’ve just finished my shopping, and thanking goodness that a lot of my stuff is still left over from Southeast Asia, and that I’m experienced enough at traveling to have a good idea what I’ll need.
It turns out I’m going for three weeks, not two. For various reasons, it turned out to be easier just to start at Openwave on May 16. Ooh, hurt me. 🙂
I’ve also just gotten a phrasebook and a crash course in tourist Spanish (Borders is so handy), and will be studying that over the next few days. It promises to teach the very bare-bones minimum of Spanish in about three hours–I hope to go through it once now and once on the plane. I may study a bit more once I’m there.
Along totally different lines, I had a great conversation with the owner of Lacis (the lacemaker’s shop, in Berkeley, and also Lacis Press, which publishes books on fine textile work–e.g. Margaret Stove’s book on lace design)! He is very interested in having me teach a workshop on Southeast Asian textiles, and teach classes on knitting lace. He also thinks my book idea is a good one, and that perhaps if I teach classes on lace knitting I’ll be able to develop the book from the syllabus. So that is a very very VERY wonderful thing!! It’s exactly everything I’d hoped for. Once I get back from Guatemala, I’ll put together course proposals and send them to him. It will be a lot of work, but I’ll be on the way to a future in teaching and writing about fiber arts.
Umm, what else? Oh! I was in a car crash on Monday. Esmeralda, my lovely Ford Ranger, was in the shop for some major work, and I got a rent-a-truck for the day. I got T-boned on the driver’s side (!), but fortunately neither of us were going very fast and I walked away unhurt (as did the other driver). I suppose I probably should be more shaken than I am, but I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time! Still, I’m feeling kinda lucky to be walking around.
Isis is doing much better, and the culture came back negative, which is a really good sign–she may have another “bug”, but it is NOT Pseudomonas, and that’s all I want. She had a really nasty Pseudomonas infection a few months ago and the vet was worried it might become chronic–well, now it’s pretty clear it’s not, and that makes me VERY happy.
I think that’s basically it–I’m going to try to set up a travel blog before I go, so the Guatemala trip is separate from the “daily life” blog.
Tien
