May This / May That

After the semester of teaching, advising, administrating and the like, I've taken a few days here to settle and rest my mind. I'm writing, getting back to a work of fiction begun not too long ago. I'm playing my guitar and watching movies. So, this is just an easy-going entry about this and that happening around me and in me these past few May days. . . .

• No blog entry has been written about this week's monthly meeting of the 4 O'Clock Club. Nobody brought a camera, so we got no photo of the handsome gents to post; maybe that's why no post this time. Anyway, we met on a beautiful afternoon (the 13th) and enjoyed our usual good time. All members were present--Dennis, John, Joe, Sam and yours truly. Unlike during the spring semester, when I had to leave to teach a class on those second Tuesdays, I was able to stay and stay, and so I was the last one to leave, hanging out with a colleague from the English department even after all the other 4 O'Clockers went home.


• The novel I seem to be settling in to work on this summer is tentatively titled A Summer Abroad. It will be based on my experiences traveling Europe in 1979, when I was 20 years old, but it will be told by a narrator looking back from, say, 50 years of age (like me) and thinking about those experiences in light of the changes that have taken place in the world since '79. Originally I conceived of this as a novella (a short novel) that with two other novellas would be collected in one book. I'd still like to consider that, but at this point I don't know how "short" A Summer Abroad will be.


• I have some "group" projects going on right now--besides the 4 O'Clock Club. I'm in a three-man writing group that got started back in January or February but struggled to get going through the busy spring semester. It's currently made up of my friends Reg, most recently from here in Johnson City, and Mike, most recently from Pigeon Forge.


• As for the other group, planning continues to move forward for the reunion of the White Water Band, band I was in during high school. We seem to be zeroing in on 21 June, but that's not for certain yet.


• To continue with the band thing, it's been--amazingly--at least 15 years since the Cody band was together. I think that also merits a reunion! Maybe when Mark has this NBTA move complete we can think about that for the fall of this year.


• The Praise band at Cherokee continues to do well in spite of its particular struggles.


• My wife has been in England since 7 May, having a great time. Right now she's somewhere over the western half of the Atlantic Ocean, and she'll be back home tonight!


• I ate at Buck's Pizza for the first time today. A little 6" pizza was my introducation, and it was good as I've heard it was.

We're smack in the middle of May. More to come!