Weekends--what a whirl!

They go by fast, and suddenly it's Monday and we're heading back to work, wondering what hit us. The days are full, varied and intense, and I don't think we'd have it any other way.

Take last weekend (not this one just past, but the one before). It started on Friday night--I signed up for a free weekend writing seminar offered by the West Virginia State Archives and the WV Library Commission. Some of West Virginia's best writers were workshop leaders--Terry Lowry, author of West Virginia Civil War titles; Geoff Fuller, a freelance writer who is working on a true crime story of the WVU Co-Ed murders; Diane Gillam Fisher, a poet whose work Kettle Bottom is on the poetry best-seller list (who knew there was such a thing!); Denise Giardina, whose fiction titles Storming Heaven and others have won numerous awards and national recognition; and Kate Long, songwriter, singer and writer extraordinaire. She was joined by Pete Kosky who writes and sings historical ballads.

So Friday night I began an immersion into writing history. I returned for a second sunking on Saturday; the workshop by Diane Fisher and the songwriting session with Kate and Pete were moving and somehow oddly disturbing--I felt like they were telling me to reach deeper, tell more, feel more. The Vietnam song (McNamara's Tear) by Kate was beautiful, and yet for this wife of a Vietnam vet, depressing and incredibly sad.

I had to leave before the workshops were over to prepare for an evening performance at the Evergreen Arts and Humanities Series Storytelling Festival in Marietta, OH, at Washington State College. Before we drove to Marietta, we stopped by Derek's house to see how the big window replacement project was going. Despite the cold, rainy weather, sons Derek and Aaron were hard at work, and had most of the windows already in while Jaime rode herd on her two little ones and kept the food organized.

The Marietta performance was excellent--not mine, but the whole event. I felt at home there sonce I'd performed for the series last year. My stories and songs went very well, and I really enjoyed Michael Burnham's telling of the Jack tale Soldier Jack.

We got home around midnight, and were up and out early to fix breakfast at Derek's. Then back home with Jaime and the little ones to burn CDs of old family photos, clean house and put away storytelling stuff and cook dinner for the guys who came over later. When everyone left, I headed to my office to finish up our --ugh-- income taxes.

And that was the weekend--full of family, fun, stories and work.