"...be sure to wear some flowers in your hair."

"If you're going to San Francisco..."

This is, in part, an apology for absence. Every time I begin to keep a journal, whether on paper or in cyber-form, I always end up doing one of these.  I haven't updated this blog in over two years. So, you know, sorry for that.

This is also a brief overview of what I've been up to since then.

In May 2010, I graduated from St. Edward's University with a Bachelor of Arts in English Writing and Rhetoric with a Specialization in Creative Writing (In conversations with acquaintances, I usually just say I majored in English). Once the confetti cleared, I spent a mostly unproductive period trying to figure out what to do (well, that's basically the story of my life). That didn't work out too well this particular time, and I ended up moving back home with my parents. I found a job too, but that's all I have to say about that. I hate talking about it. Let's be honest: the only reason I care about being employed in the conventional sense is the avoidance of homelessness and starvation, and freedom to pursue truer passions. I'm sure plenty of you can relate. (If "plenty" of people even read this blog. Bless your heart if you do, and thank you!)

My eventual plan is to apply to MFA programs in creative writing. That has yet to happen for a number of reasons, but my writing is starting to move forward a bit. Some of my poetry got accepted by a literary journal, and I'm absolutely thrilled. It's a journal I greatly admire, published by an awesome press, and edited by one of the coolest people in the literary community. More on that as events unfold.

That brings me to this summer. AJ Reyes, my friend/partner-in-literary-crime, has been accepted as a Fellow to the 2012 Writers' Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices in Los Angeles. We've made it the excuse for an ambitious summer road trip. My tim'rous bestie, Emma Kalmbach is also scheduled to appear on the trip's manifest. I can't wait! For me, it won't be just a fun vacation with good friends, though it will certainly be that as well. It'll also be a great opportunity to gain some inspiration and reconnect with my writing. The details are still sort of up in the air. We are reasonably sure we're visiting southeast New Mexico, tiny bits of Colorado and Utah, the Grand Canyon, L.A., and, the place I might be the most excited about, San Francisco. I don't know how accessible the Internet will be on this trip, but I plan on describing the whole thing here eventually (photos too!). I can't overstate how much I'm looking forward to this. I'm also planning on visiting my family in Atlanta this summer, which I'm also thrilled about, and haven't done in far too long.

Also, a few weeks back, my friend, fellow writer, and just overall marvelous human being Chelsey Little alerted me to a really cool project called 31 Plays in 31 Days. I couldn't pass it up, so that's my August. Check it out, and join in the awesome workfest, if, as the project website challenges, you're "playwright enough". :)

Here's to what promises to be an interesting and productive summer, Universe willing. One of my new-season's resolutions is to update this blog more frequently. Feel free to hold me to that. And feel free to make my life absolutely miserable if I don't follow through.

I love you people, and thank you, as always, for reading.

Slàinte,
Timothy

Fig. 1: A rough sketch of what my amazing summer is going to look like.