"I promise this, promise this, check this hand 'cause I'm marvelous"

Yup. I just titled this post with Lady Gaga lyrics. What.

Last week was a whirlwind of a vacation. I believe I didn't sleep past 7:00 or 8:00 once. It's like a new vacation record for sleep. Anyway, I'm going to tell you all about it - in three separate, fabulous photo-filled posts. But first, I have to edit all the video I took while I was in Seoul answering your questions from the last post. I actually didn't get to film the video until Saturday, so of course I'm way behind on the Wednesday deadline. And tomorrow there's another topic up for discussion. However, I think I'm going to bow out of this weeks vlogging, considering I don't even have last week's up on the computer and edited yet.

Honestly, I love editing, writing, designing fun banners and graphics. But I'm in one of those weird places where I'm off balance and I can't seem to find it no matter how I juggle my time. Sometimes the Internet becomes my top priority. And why not? It keeps me in touch with my family, it entertains me, and it introduces me to fabulous people like you, or all the people I met while vlogging. But sometimes, cooking all three meals for me and Kenny everyday becomes my priority. And that takes up most of my time and effort since I'm a horrible cook and a terrible meal planner. Or sometimes, having a not-disgusting almost-clean house becomes more important. Other times, it will be sending handmade letters and cards to my sister and my friends. This week, it's the cooking and the cleaning. Just looking at my computer begins to stress me out. I have so many ideas and things to say and things to share that it just overwhelms me.

So, this little post to say, "Hello." I'm trying to catch my balance. I hope to be back here and on YouTube very soon. I've got some really great things lined up that I'm excited about writing and talking about. But first, I've got to get the dishes cleaned, give my husband some well-deserved attention, get rid of this pounding headache, and get some photos and video edited. I don't know when that's going to happen, but it WILL happen.

I've got so many plans, and so little time to execute them. I've got things to do and hopefully sometime this week I'll have a few more posts up and my first We Blog We Vlog video up.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the Internet?

...And She's Back

I’ve been ill. That, and I’ve been thinking. Sometimes thinking makes me write. Sometimes thinking makes me wait. And these days, it’s the latter.

I have things to tell you, dear reader. I want to tell you about the people in my life (a forthcoming series in the making, debuting next week, or this weekend if I can’t wait, called Imagine All The People. Tell your friends. Seriously); I want to tell you how Kenny taught me to eat oranges in a hotel in Israel at Christmas; I want to tell you about “my” dogs in Korea; I want to list a few things I don’t understand and ask for your readerly wisdom; I’d like to talk to you about walking and falling in love with the sound of my feet against the sidewalk; and I'd particularly like to write some hate mail to a fellow expat on the train today. See? So many things to tell you. But right now, I’d like to share with you what I’ve been reading.

I find the weirdest, most wonderful books here. First, I found Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, which I am still copying out by hand, feeling the beauty of every adverb, every comma, every perfectly placed word. And now I’ve found more Rilke. I’ve read Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet more than once, as I’m sure all writers have. But I’m now reading some of his poems that have been collected as Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy. The German poems are printed across from the English translation. And this reminds me of my good friend Carmen, who is a pro translator and incredible woman who can speak German (and a buncha other languages too, for that matter).

Rilke is making me think. And leading me into deep places. I am taking my time wading in the dark waters here. And it’s pleasant, a little bit scary, and it’s stirring me up. Which all good poetry does.

I have uttered this poem and prayer for three days now. Speak this poem, please. It makes all the difference.

I, 12.

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for
may for once spring clear
without my contriving.

If this is arrogant, God, please forgive me,
but this is what I need to say.
May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has,
streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.

I'm Famous. Kinda.

So, my good friend Melanie over at Life is a Marathon asked me to do a guest blog for her while she was on vacation in Florida. And I was all, "Oh my God! I'm so excited! Let me write that right now and do 5 drafts and rewrite it and send it to her EARLY and still have time to revise before she leaves." So I did that. But it was a long time ago. Because, well, I had appendicitis. So, the day after the due date for my guest blog, I went into the hospital and a week later I'm returning to the Internets for real. So, I kind of missed my guest blog, and you did too!
But have no fear, dear readers! Just click here and it'll be like waking up from a bad dream. You'll read my lovely guest post, leave lots of comments on Melanie's blog saying how it's the best guest post you've ever read, and then you'll come back here and tell me how much you love me, how much you hated that I was away for so long, and how you hope I'm still the same person I was before, when I had an appendix. See? Everyone will be happy. Now, go click. For real.

You still haven't clicked?

I'll be back in a few days to give you a multiple-post update about having surgery in foreign countries and Korean hospital rooms. Also, there shall be a large section dedicated to the Noise Pollution Phenomenon in Korea. Oh yes, it shall be full of wrath and rage! All the things you've come to know and love and expect from Rage in the A.M.
So, although I have been gone for a while, I have a good excuse this time! AND, I'm totally having another comeback. Like the New Kids.