Life = Risk

In Bloom!

It came and went as such a blur. At 9:18 CST, Saturday, I looked around the vacated conference room of the Hyatt Regency Riverwalk Hotel in downtown San Antonio. I inhaled sharply, exhaled slowly, and thought, "holy shit, that just happened."

Alright, guys, I did it. The nearly paralytic fear that gripped me for months as I built my presentation for my first national conference debut of my research... It's done. As I walked back to my hotel, Hotel Havana, I could feel the adrenaline and tension leave my body. I harnessed that fear and rode it like Pegasus. And, I can objectively say, I knocked that out! Without introducing hubris, I am so damn happy with what I managed to do. It was not perfect, by any means, but really was en pointe and relevant and specific... And I was articulate and ON.

After a night of quesadillas with Manchego cheese, tacos of el pastor, and ceviche and mango margaritas and prickly pear margaritas, my cousins and I went up to the Texas Hill Country. And I sat on a blanket of blue bonnets. It's as if they wanted to cheer me and chirp, "good job!"

Pourquoi?

First of all, do you know how damn difficult it is to auto type "pourquoi" into an iPhone? For the record, it's remarkably damned hard!! But, when looking at two languages I love/je t'aime, when I have to ask "why," (as I do, to the disdains of my everly-and-more-than-I-deserve-to-be-patient-directors), let's look at "pourquoi." It's the same word, for crying out loud.

But... Doesn't "pourquoi" just sound so much sweeter to your ears than "why?"

Liquid Courage

Just a little rest before hopping on the plane. A friend hugged me and prayed with me today for vision and success. AAHHE and San Antonio, game on! Ready or not, here I come! Yeehaw!!

Can you spot today's McCreepster Peepster?

Yep, Little Edie's a creepy creeper!!

Heartbeats - Jose Gonzalaez

My flight to San Antonio leaves Wednesday. I can't believe the time is here.... Last year, the week before what was supposed to be my first professional presentation for my preliminary dissertation research, I lost my dad. I'd be lying my face off if I denied that the association causes me paralytic grief with more than a little degree of self sabotage in my writing efforts for this year's presentation. By this time next Sunday, my plane will be crossing over the Texas/New Mexico border, bringing me back home from across the Chihuahuan Desert to the Sonoran Desert. My days by the Riverwalk will be over, and more notably, my conference presentation with AAHHE will be complete. I keep editing my presentation, and spending so much time adding to or taking away from it, wanting the slides to be so "relevant," and "valuable," that I haven't practiced it, once. I need to be confident that I've done good research, I know this subject, and I will be okay. 

CRAFTSMAN AND WOLVES

Yum. 

Delicious. 

YUM. 

I really am not in need of any more motivation to go back to San Francisco. Seeing as how it's St. Patty's Day and I've already been poolside this afternoon, in a few months I'll be desperate to escape the desert heat. 

Craftsman and Wolves. 

In the heart of the Mission. 

Yum. 

Delicious. 

I'm salivating.

Oh, and lest I forget, such visually beautiful videography from Eva Kolenko as she captures the essence of this artesian vision.