I thought I quit...

I have spent more time in my office, or at least the building in which it is located, more this week than all the time in the last two months combined.

Monday was finishing up the cleaning out. Of course it took me about an hour and a half to get to my office once I walked in the door---so many greetings, so many well wishers. Very nice, but I had HOPED to get out of there in under two hours. I spent an hour with my esteemed supervisor debriefing and setting parameters for some contractual work. I agreed to do a presentation next Tuesday night and so today I got this urgent message to review a particular slide set of mine that had been changed somewhat by another presenter. So there I was, back in my office, tuning up slides and cutting down my bio sketch to something more low-key. I get to follow the key-note speaker of the conference: the United States Surgeon General. It might be a tough act to follow. Thank god its no longer Donna Shalala (but only for this moment...) because I don't think I could make a formal presentation in front of her without peeing my pants. Dr. Shalala ROCKED the Surgeon General's office and I will always admire her.

So anyway, not too much work, but enough to keep a little income coming in, a little challenge for my brain to keep me out of trouble, keep my face and name out there so that when I'm ready to return to the working world people might still find me relevant.

But I don't think I'm going to the office any more this week. Especially since I don't really have one anymore.

Sad news of the day...
Wynton Marsalis is playing the Kennedy Center and I've been trying---without success---to find someone who needs to ditch their tickets. I'm going to make one last run through Craigs List to see if anything broke this afternoon. But for now, it really looks like no Wynton for me tonight.

But I do have tickets for Lyman Medeiros with Steve Tyrell, Dianne Reeves and Ravi Coltrane in the next 5 weeks... and I just saw on Tyrell's website that they'll be back in the area on March 23, playing the Ram's Head Tavern in Annapolis. Annapolis in spring is just fabulous. I might just go over to walk around the waterfront with boy wonder.

Really Weird Dream
Last night I dreamed I was hanging out with my Walker cousins---all three of the ones that live in Indiana. It was part delightful because John, who is normally very quiet, was being very engaged in the conversation and we were all having a great time. But then, all of a sudden, all three of those cousins were snorting coke as we were driving along in somebody's minivan. Keep in mind, I'm sure none of them have ever put anything other than tissues and fingers up their noses and I've no experience with it beyond what I've seen on television and in movies... but there you have it: every one of those Walkers, except George, snorting coke. How bizarre. And then we were all at a concert played by youths and was sort of a brass choir. Lyman was there looking on but he wasn't with us; he just kind of waved and said hey...