Health and Weekend Report

Mason caught a cold over the weekend. He's home sick today.

So far, knocking on wood, I'm staying pretty healthy, though I did have a sneezing fit this morning (allergies?) followed by a lot of coughing (asthma?) Shawn goes to a neurolgoist this afternoon to hopefully begin to unravel the mystery of her random numbness.

The weekend was busy for me. A long time ago, I agreed to run an hour long workshop at the Bloomington Art Center's "Writers' Festival." Truthfully, I wasn't looking forward to it. I'd planned to do my usual song and dance routine, as I like to call it -- a workshop I've entitled "Mars Needs Writers." It's loosely based on all the zillions of classes I used to teach at the Loft, and I can do it with minimal prep.

There were only about a dozen people signed up and I didn't really think it was going to be my target audience.

Yet, I had an *awesome* class.

I don't know if you've had ocassion to visit the Bloomington Art Center, but it's surprisingly MASSIVE. I was following the directions the coordinator had sent and I was looking around for a building I thought might be the Center. I see this huge building -- like three blocks big, with a big public sculpture -- all glass and brick and I thought, "must be the civic center or city hall." I glanced down at my directions and saw "turn left and into the parking lot." I was like, "Wow, these people are big on the arts!"

Inside it was equally as impressive. The organizers had all sorts of venders lined up hawking their various publishing and book-related wares. After getting my instructor packet, I wandered around a little. I'd heard that some folks from the Midwest Fiction Writers (our local RWA chapter) were going to be there, but I never did find them if they were. Sisters in Crime had a nice display, complete with "do not cross" police tape.

The room I was meant to be in was called Auditorium 1 or something daunting, but the interior was less auditorium than basic meeting room (thank God). They had gotten me the white board I requested, which is good because I can't lecture if I can't jot down notes.

Anyway, when everyone settled in, they seemed pretty receptive. And, sure enough, we were all laughing and discussing by the end. It was a surprising success. A couple of people came up to me afterwards to express regret that the class wasn't longer and that I wasn't currently teaching at the Loft. They would have signed up for more on the spot.

That makes a girl feel pretty loved.

Sunday was Ostara, so I got up super-early (okay, only 7:00 am, but it was DARK out) to start the hot cross buns. I used the same reicipe that I used last year, and they turned out awesome. I helped the Ostara bunny hide a few colored eggs around the house and set out Mason's Ostara basket. Mason always really enjoys the egg hunt. (I was the same at Easter when I was a kid.) Then, just as we put the buns in the oven about 9:00 or so, the family trooped outside to do our usual Ostara ritual.

It's nice and simple and, frankly, one of my favorites. We go out to the back yard and find a spot in the herb garden to stick a couple of candles. Some years we actually put them in mud, but this year, we dug a small hole in the snow. There are melty parts all over our yard where you can actually see grass and bits of green beginning to push through, but thanks to the record snowfall the back yard is still one big pile of snow. So I shoveled out a spot and we lit the candles and said a little poem to gently wake Mother Earth. We breathe into our hands to warm them and place them as close to the earth as we can. Then we leave the candles going (as long as they're some place safe.) This year, I watched a curious squirrel run off with one after it had burned out (the candle, not the squirrel).

Then we feast on sticky buns. It's a really nice tradition.

Sunday night we had nephew Jonathan over for lasagna, which Shawn made. We ended up having to buy a brand-new noodle pot because I'd *cough* left ours outside next to the compost pile for almost a year *cough*. I don't want to talk about it, but suffice to say that no amount of scrubbing could convince Shawn that it was safe to use. Luckily, Target is only a few blocks down University from us.

Jon stayed and chatted well after midnight, so I'm a bit fried this morning. Still it was really great to get to hang out with him.

All and all a good weekend (except for the Mason getting sick part.) You?