Sometimes it just be's like that ... .

Over the past weeks there was the second installment on property taxes to meet; another round of surgery for Dorian, the much-needed replacement of my washing machine which suddenly died; auto insurance installment due; Triple-A needing renewal; annual auto registration and smog check needing attention or else; then my car was struck from the front by an unknown driver in a mall parking lot causing severe damage to the motor that allowed me to drive for a couple of weeks then it, too, died and is parked in my carport awaiting a mechanic who was suppose to pick it up last Monday and now it's Friday and still no action.

I've been driving a $40/day Kia from a car rental agency for the past five days in a jam-packed week that included guiding three 2-and-a-half-hour tours involving a busload of teachers from UCLA on Tuesday, two classes (45-50?) from Dominican University from Marin County last Friday, and 17 Board members and friends of the Eugene O'Neill Foundation in Danville.  These tours, plus a reception in San Francisco on Tuesday evening at the Girls Source Center made it an unusually heavy work week that called on whatever power I have to compartmentalize since the negative script was running on background right through the "interpretation" of the stories of the Home Front sites we visit.  In many ways, though, even the woes tend to diminish in the face of the telling of the stories, and provide escape when much-needed.

Phew!

If that paragraph is run-on, it's the "run-on" life that I've been living over the past few weeks, leaving little room for blogging.

Included in that list of mounting pressures is a drive to Berkeley to visit with Dorian every day to pick up and deliver her laundry and provide an unwavering center for her troubled universe until times get better.

Life does have a way of keeping a balance between the ups and downs, doesn't it?

I guess on May 7th when I'm being (again) honored along with two other "Women of Achievement" by Girls Source at the trendy Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, my morale will be well able to use the ego boost.  At first it felt awkward to submit a list of ten guests for my table at the luncheon -- how does one do that -- ask friends to come to pay homage to oneself?  But in light of happenings, I bravely turned in my list at the reception on Tuesday evening, firmly believing that by May 7th I'll be needing an infusion of love and affection to make up for this deadly run of negative karma that's been in force since Dorian's accident in late November.

For a few months there I felt in need of a humility transplant, but now that's hardly necessary.  I've been quite properly taken down a few pegs by the natural process called daily life; the Great Equalizer.

Photo:  Backstage at the recent production of Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues.  Photo by Ellen Gailing.