Keeping Up With The LaLa

Madrid graffiti artists drop knowledge: "If you don't fight for your dreams, you will live in a nightmare."

Funny how the final line on my "About" page challenges you, my darling reader (who I have missed oh-so-much) to "try and keep up with me!" with an imagined minxish wink. Well surprise, surprise...guess who's had the hardest time keeping up? ME!

Not sure if you've noticed, but it's been a nice, round three damn months since I've so much as whispered a word over here. One could say I'm livin' la vida LaLa (couldn't help it)...too busy to blog! However, the whole point of the blog is to keep folks in the loop who would like to be loop'd, without answering the eternally awkward and impossible, "So, how's Spain?"

Now, if you will, drape your middle finger lightly over the tip of your index finger - fingers crossed for more blogs! Yeah!

This week has been...challenging. I have felt emotionally twisted, frustrated with my job, stressed about an impending deadline and down-right exhausted. But it hasn't been like last year, when I was emotionally twisting...well, the way women like me often do ;), frustrated at an unfulfilling career, stressed by group projects and exhausted by all-nighters writing papers. This week I felt the emotional twists of blossoming relationships, frustration toward my unruly 4th-graders, stress over the assignments due for my online songwriting class (Berklee, what?!) and exhausted because I was singing at a jam session until 3am on a school night. Now, I can take delight in all these challenges.

"Challenging" is sometimes a euphemism for "hard" or "difficult," and sure, it feels that way sometimes, but how would it feel in the absence of challenge? What would I be striving for? It's cheesy, but would I value the sunshine so much without the clouds? My time here is about reaching out and actually touching those things I want - and I've realized that the first step in actually owning those desires - something I kept myself from doing for a long time. Even on the crummy days, or endless weeks or the, ahem, months when I have felt too busy to write a blog, it's all been useful for me. So here's to sharing that with you!

And just for some extra bloggy goodness, one of my favorite quotes (though I haven't had success in verifying its source): "The difficulties of life are intended to make us better, not bitter."