Good Things

Here are some of the good things going on in my little life right now. I am doing them or thinking or writing about them instead of cleaning my house, because it is Slattern Day in the blog! Plus, while it went down to the 30s overnight, it is a beautiful day today, and I have been out walking!

My play opened! The Language Archive at Heartland Theatre Company! It's charming and funny and sweet, and people love it. There's a fancy schmancy reception after the play tonight, and I get to dress up, I think. Maybe a little black dress and a pink pashmina! The cast is doing a great job, and it's been a joy to work on. Here's a blog post about it by Julie Kistler of A Follow Spot, who is also interim artistic director at Heartland, and doing a fantastic job of that, and with the "curtain speech" in various languages!

Two of my poems got nominated for the Best of the Net anthology! "Nightfall" in Eclectica and "Making a Date" in The Museum of Americana. This is an honor and a joy, and very welcome alongside the usual ongoing rejections! "Nightfall" is based on...well, night falling, and a particular night of hide and seek in our yard. "Making a Date" is based on a photograph by Eudora Welty.

My husband has a wonderful painting in the Ecovisions exhibit of the McLean County Arts Center, and we attended the opening last night. Great variety of work in the main gallery and a concurrent show, Preserving Parklands, in the smaller gallery.Very organic and environmentally aware. Provocative, beautiful, and scary.

My daughter got me a bicycle helmet at the town's Light Up the Night bike event! She also took my new headshot for the theatre program and hall display. Yay!

Friends from Chicago are arriving today to see the art exhibit and the play. Uh oh. I should be cleaning the house. But I'm not. They will forgive me. And I will probably take them out on the Constitution Trail for some plein air art and folk music, anyhoo!