Good things

There's so much good stuff coming up, I'm about to purely burst open from it.

Got my plane tickets for Melbourne, finally, this week, and even managed to make it work on frequent flyer (flier?) miles, yay!

Why Melbourne, you ask? Because in a bizarre but most excellent coordination of planets and stars (and maybe, just a little bit of talent), I actually managed to get a proposal accepted for a philosophy and martial arts workshop at the University of Melbourne. I've wanted to visit Australia all my adult life. I've dreamt of being in Australia often, and vividly. Every time I meet/hang with an Australian, I have a fabulous time that often - but not always, for I Have Learned - involves getting entirely too inebriated.

So when I saw an announcement in my inbox - what was it, Kris, 2 months ago? - about this event, and Kris, my good friend and martial arts teacher, agreeably went along with putting a proposal together for it, off we went. And it worked. So off I go, for what I expect to be an altogether terrific little adventure. If you happen to be able to work out the day/time zone differences, and have a few moments just before lunch on Tuesday July 13 (Melbourne time) to send off a positive vibe that I don't get so excited that my heart sticks in my throat and I forget how to talk during my presentation, I'd sure appreciate it.

And Melbourne - not a place I'd given much thought to before, but everyone I've mentioned it to has high praise for the city, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what it's all about. In my imaginations, I've been limited to picturing me either in Sydney or in the outback with the kangaroos and sheep and priests who look like a young Richard Chamberlain. But it'll be Melbourne instead, and a lovely friend in Julianne's yoga class who works in travel told me yesterday she has good tips to share with me for Melbourne, and in advance I'm already just so thankful to the universe and the wonderful people in it who've made this event possible.

Good thing the second: an upcoming altogether awesome party tomorrow night! I know I've posted an announcement to this event already, so I hope you'll indulge my tooting the horn one more time to say: come on out to Mark Morford's book launch party at Project One in San Francisco, 6:00-10:00! Come find me there - I'll be the 1940s-era candy-cigar-cigarette salesgirl carting around a tray full of The Daring Spectacle for folks to buy. No, wait, sorry - that was crossover from my imaginary world. But I will be the hand-stamping monkey, so come and say hi! Cool tunes, cool folks, drinks. And, as I see the FB announcement's been updated to include the new addition, I'll also point out: lube. Guess how much is in the giant jar, and win a free book! I put it that way intentionally, so okay, get the idea out of your head now that you'll need to be guessing in terms of fluid ounces; they're individual packs (and thank you, Good Vibrations, for the donation) so you just have to guess the number (and no, I don't know what it is). As an extra bonus, when the award is done, you can feel free to take some home with you. It's all about the love. You know you want it.