Catch up

I’m so behind with posts.
I keep waiting for the ever elusive "more time" to appear.

It hasn’t. It’s been a good month, however. Full of transitions and reflection and inspiration.

A few months ago, Mark and I made plans to go to Philadelphia for the wedding party of Kyle Cassidy and

. It was going to be our first weekend away from the kids since our oldest was born, six years now. We didn’t realize then that it would fall on the weekend before our move into Casa del Lobos, or that the weekend would be surrounded by job/family/house chaos..

Mark had to cancel his ticket due to a work conference and house-related responsibilities, but we decided that I would go on alone. Trillian kindly found me lodging with a friend in the neighborhood and off I went to Philadelphia. The happy couple was so generous and gracious, and I felt completely at home surrounded by their friends and cats and art and photography and creative talk and and and…It was wonderful.

I was reminded how much I missed that kind of interaction while in Germany. Outside of the Frankfurt writers group, I had little contact with folks making art or discussing things creative.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera at home, and so I came armed only with a disposable camera. My camera cowered in the presence of all those powerful professional cameras (Kyle is an amazing photographer who has photographed the Dalai Lama, famous science fiction writers, flying girls, and early black and white film starlets reincarnated as cats.)

I was able to attend a special dress rehearsal of Trillian’s show The Weir, and it (and she) blew me away. It’s the kind of play that I couldn’t shake for days after. The characters and their stories lingered in my imagination; I wanted to join them in the pub for a pint to hear more of their stories and share some of my own. Trillian’s performance was tender and subtle, and when it came to her dramatic monologue toward the end, I completely choked up. I miss theater.

The wedding party was wonderful, a patchwork of friends and family there to celebrate the union of these two passionate, imaginative, thoughtful people. Kyle and Trillian have one of those partnerships that reminds you how much fun love can be. I was so happy to have met them, and I hope that even with the miles between our homes, we continue to find time and space to share food, laughter, and conversation. I met a few ladies on the trip, Trillian included, whom I connected with immediately, and I can foresee future breakfasts and adventures.

I returned home to finish packing up the apartment and then moved into Casa del Lobos (where we still do not have a kitchen or full baths). I’m working on creative crockpot cookery with the kids. So far, so good. Our friend Vince, a talented fine artist and painter, is in the process of painting and faux painting our downstairs. I LOVE it and will try to post pictures soon. He’s fabulous and brings such a good energy to the house.

The renovation is coming along, and I have hope that we’ll be finished with this phase by the winter holidays. In the meantime I am horribly behind with Conclave Journal, as well as my own writing. Hoping to catch up this week while Mark is away at a supercomputing conference and other geeky work shenanigans.

With that, I bid you good night. More to come…

xxo

Published by Valya

Valya Dudycz Lupescu has been making magic with food and words for more than 20 years, incorporating folklore from her Ukrainian heritage with practices that honor the Earth. She’s a writer, content developer, instructor, and mother of three teenagers. Valya is the author of MOTHER CHRISTMAS, THE SILENCE OF TREES, and the founding editor of CONCLAVE: A Journal of Character. Along with Stephen H. Segal, she is the co-author of FORKING GOOD: An Unofficial Cookbook for Fans of The Good Place and GEEK PARENTING: What Joffrey, Jor-El, Maleficent, and the McFlys Teach Us about Raising a Family (Quirk Books), and co-founder of the Wyrd Words storytelling laboratory. Valya earned her MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her poetry and prose have been published in anthologies and magazines that include, The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Kenyon Review, Culture, Gargoyle Magazine, Gone Lawn, Strange Horizons, Mythic Delirium. You can find her on Twitter @valya and on Mastodon.social @valya

One thought on “Catch up”

  1. Anonymous says:

    Thanks for the update. I’m glad that you snuck in a weekend away and that it was an inspirational and fun break.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *