The past six weeks or so have been crazy. I’ve been adjusting to working full-time again, finishing with my first writing workshop, and gotten through my first reading. The past three weeks the work with the Bank has picked up steam, and the work for my high-tech client has been minimal. This coming week though I’ve got two new case studies scheduled for the high-tech client and the usual full slate of work for the Bank so I am going to be slammed for time to do anything else. Luckily I have more of the logistics worked out – including workspace downtown – so I’m not panicked about it. At least yet!

Last Saturday (seems like an eon ago now) the second edition of the Barbershop Reading Series took place. I was the second reader of the evening – calmer than I had feared and didn’t stumble too badly over the selection I was reading. I got to meet a number of local literati including Kemble Scott of the SoMa Literary review (and two novels – “SoMa” and “The Sower”, and Karl Soehnlein (“World of Normal Boys” and “You can say you knew me when”). The reading and the writing workshop which just concluded allowed me to build up my writing network as well as my experience. Both have been incredible opportunities. The workshop and the Reading Series are organized by Mike McAllister, who is currently working on a memoir. That reminds me that I owe him a survey response LOL. I meant to do that Friday when I found the survey and the SASE under a pile of mail on my desk, then got sidetracked by the process of tidying up the home office.

I’m also trying to keep up my physical exercise – and gone are the heady days when I could dash down whenever I felt like it to the gym for a class or just a cardio or lifting. I’ve had less time for it, of course, and so I have been doing more of the concentrated workouts like the Body Pump and Core Essentials classes where I get a cardio and resistance workout squeezed into an hour or so. And Yoga when I need to stop thinking about work. Now that I’m at the gym more at the peak hours after work, I get to catch up with friends more frequently, which is a nice side benefit. Working out in the middle of the afternoon or morning is convenient and less waiting is involved but I don’t run into many people.

Pride has come and gone in SF but today is the AIDS Walk. I’m sponsoring one of my friends who is walking – he’s also working on a novel and we get together to share our work-in-progress on a regular basis at Sweet Inspirations coffee and dessert shop in the Castro. Others are down in San Diego this weekend for Gay Pride – featuring the Zoo Party which is always fun. It usually provides a welcome break from the cold summer in San Francisco – but this weekend it is quite warm here. Earlier we were out on the sidewalk for breakfast at Squat and Gobble, in fact. One can rarely eat outside comfortably here, so we do it whenever we can.