Long Hiatus

I am back. I hope. I am recommitting to writing publicly for yes; you guessed it: The Public (Whoever That Might Be).

This year has been the year of do the things, carpe diem, memento mori.

In the last year (give or take a few months since my “year” always starts in August because I am an academic, and the academic year begins in August, not January), I have:

• Attended an Oasis concert at MetLife Stadium

• Been to Italy twice, during which time I

  • Took very intensive language classes in Italy

  • Spent a whole day walking around a very flooded Venice during Carnival

  • Toured the Vatican Museums, St. Peter’s Basilica (including climbing to the top of the Dome), the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Parthenon, and the Capuchin Crypt beneath Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini

  • Spent hours in the Capitoline Museums, where I got to see Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Bust of Medusa and the Capitoline She-wolf; what is left of the statue of the Colossus of Constantine, the Capitoline Venus; and saw the paintings of the Cumaean Sibyl by Domenichino, and the Persian Sibyl by Guercino

  • Visited Santa Maria Maggiore so that I could see where Pope Francis was buried (beautiful)

  • Took pictures at the Trevi Fountain

  • Toured the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (yes, that’s Brunelleschi’s Duomo), which included visiting the Baptistry, climbing to the top of Giotto’s Bell Tower, as well as to the top of Brunelleschi’s Duomo

  • Visited Cellini’s Perseus with the Head of Medusa

  • Took day trips to Bologna, Padua, Lake Garda, Cascia, Gubbio, and Verona, where I saw more beauty than I can put into words

  • Toured Pompeii

  • Toured Mount Vesuvius

  • Attended or otherwise got to experience multiple Good Friday processions near Sorrento

  • Survived losing my phone in a taxi in Forence

• Traveled to Spain where I

  • Completed the Camino de Santiago from Ferrol to Santiago de Compostela (the Camino Inglés) by myself carrying only a 28 litre backpack

  • Completed all the “Camino traditions”: Got both my Compostela and a Certificate of Distance; visited the remains of St. James and hugged the statue of St. James; attended mass at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela and got to see the legendary botafumeiro swinging with incense

  • Completed some of the not-so-traditional things to do in Santiago, like take a roof tour of the Cathedral where you—you guessed it—walk on the roof of the church (who approved this? How is this safe?), and

  • Visited Finisterre, the Cíes Islands, and all of the Costa da Morte

  • Managed getting my backpack back when I mistakenly left it in someone else’s pensión

And now—

drum roll—

there’s more.

I am starting an MFA program at St. Joseph’s University in Brooklyn, which means I’ll be spending a week in Brooklyn very soon.

Why did I save this detail for last?

I’m not sure. Maybe it’s because I have identified as a writer and especially as a poet since I was a small child. I have been writing since I was four or five. Even before I knew how to write, I would tell people I was writing when I was scribbling with crayons or pens. Yet, my dream of getting an MFA was thwarted when I was 18. Not having achieved that original dream a long ago is part of the reason I am writing a memoir. You’ll have to read that book to find out more. I’m still writing it, so hold your horses.

My point is that much can happen in a short period of time. And sometimes a long hiatus is just a sign that things are stirring or being stirred.

Watch this space for more.

In the meantime, send me good vibes and thanks for reading.

hiatus(n.)

1560s, “a break or opening” in a material object, especially in anatomy, from Latin hiatus “opening, aperture, rupture, gap,” from past-participle stem of hiare “to gape, stand open” (from PIE root *ghieh- “to yawn, gape, be wide open”).

The sense of “gap or interruption in events, etc.;” “space from which something requisite to completeness is absent” [Century Dictionary] is recorded from 1610s.