The view from the farmhouse in the Italian Alps.
1. I feel fortunate and lucky to have been able to spend time in Italy. Even though I didn’t visit the towns where my grandparents were born, I still felt an intensely personal connection with the land, perhaps because I spent several days with a good friend at a farmhouse that has been in his family for five hundred years.
A built-to-last stone roof.
2. Tomorrow I start a new job as the English Language Learner Teacher/Facilitator at West Valley High School. It is a semester-long position and will be a great introduction into the ESL/ELL world. I’m a little anxious because I’ve been out of the classroom for a few years but I’m also totally psyched to dive in and do the best job that I can.
3. My middle grade novel, STRANDED, was awarded second place in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association’s Annual Contest. This news came to me via email a few minutes before starting the 21 hour trip home from Italy.
So yeah, I’m feeling jet-lagged from the 10 hour time change, I’m still digesting the Italy experience (which I’ll write about in the future), and I’m a bit preoccupied by the details of my new job that have been streaming in today, but I’m smiling!!!
That's me at the farmhouse with a stone barn in the background.
Thanks for stopping by.
Northwriter 