Programming note

Ah, m’pals. What a vast ocean of silence this year has been! TURNS OUT running a one-person theatre department (teaching AND directing) is fairly all-consuming, and while I continue to work on getting my school to hire some additional faculty, I am presently just grateful to have survived the year, with a lot to be specifically grateful for and a lot that I want to improve on in the immediate and medium-term future.

That said, partly out of stubbornness, partly out of genuine desire, and partly out of it being a tremendously effective way to enforce my contractually guaranteed boundaries, I have once again run overseas for the summer! This might mean the blog gets a little less moribund, but we probably all know where the smart money is on that question… More rambles on this after the jump.

Anyhow, the good news is that I’ve left my laptop at home to specifically limit the kinds of work I can do this summer (the past year pushed me back into grad school levels of “should I always be working on something?” brain worms that need correction) and while there are some tasks that need doing (preproduction on next year’s shows, rubrics and lesson plans to create/update, hopefully an adjunct hire or two while I build the case for a lecturer) I am setting very clear “work only happens on these days during these hours” limits, which means more time for Pat Being Human, which (pathetically) includes blogging!

Now, no laptop means my updates this summer will not include films, but honestly, when have those last been fewer than 3-4 months behind schedule anyhow? Instead, look forward [sic] to a wrapup to LAST summer’s travels, a possible year-in-review reflection of sorts, some writeups and video/photo updates from Morocco at the end of 22/start of 23, and spring break in Luxembourg. That should get us through this summer, more or less…

And as for my current whereabouts: back in Europe! I dearly want to explore India/Nepal and Southeast Asia as well as some points in South America, but a combination of stupid summer weather patterns, my own inability to devote time to planning/cultural education before departing, and some personal connections pulled me back to the old haunts. This month, I’m back in Palermo (in an apartment that costs about half of my place back home) to dig deeper in a place I really took to last year; July I’ll be crashing with a friend in Barcelona; and in August I’m seeing beloved folk in Scotland while (as usual) exploring one new corner (this year: it’s Mull, baby!!)

I’ll be back a little earlier than last year’s “surely I can travel until approximately one hour before contractually required to return to campus” journeys (we are learning somewhat) so if I’ve actually caught up on work and achieve a reasonable balance in my life both abroad and when I return, I might even start posting about this summer’s travels by late August… who knows!

Til then, as always: stay gentle and loving (FOR THE MOST PART) and be good to your dang selves! It’s time to prioritize humans again! K bye!