Dear Friends,

I thought I would bring back my favorite title for these letters. When I first moved to California from Oklahoma, I use to send these strange little reports home to keep up with people. And since my life often feels like a really twisted soap opera... I guess I am feeling a bit retrospective. Probably because tomorrow is my 35th birthday. Odd to think that in two years I will be the same age my Dad was when he died. Makes me realize just how young her really was. Instead of making me feel older, this birthday just seems to underscore how much I still have to learn and how much I like my life. I am very lucky to have so much love in my life and so many things I want to learn and to do. Speaking of which...

Things are going pretty well, hectic, but well. We had a birthday party this last Saturday for myself and three other friends with birthdays in Feb. It is really fun to do the group parties like that. Nice to celebrate the birth of people you care for.

Been working pretty hard lately. Mostly getting caught up on the things that are behind. Working on reediting the anthology and catching up on mail. I also designed two course proposals and prepared my application for teaching assistantships in Women's Studies for next year. I really hope I get the position(s). My current assignment ends at the end of the semester. And I miss teaching. Meanwhile I continue my readings for my own research and the course in "Health and Cultural Diversity."

Have a lot of projects going on with the Pagan groups. We have a two day symposium called "Weaving Community" coming up in April. The facilities we had booked fell through and we had to scramble for a new one. Then we had to redo the flyers and get the bulk mailing out (800+). Meanwhile we amended the local group's bylaws (River City Pagan Community) and are in the process of formally writing the network constitution (Iowa Pagan Access Network). I am also planning to teach my introduction to Wicca course again this summer and have been redesigning it. And for my own training, I have registered for "Witch Camp" -- a week long intensive in June led by Starhawk.

Oh, I got another letter and check in the mail from "On the Issues." They sold my piece "I am the Daughter of a Fat Woman" again. That means a third time, folks. This time they tell me it was sold to the New York Times Syndicate. I will have to find out where it was printed. That one small articles keeps going and going and going. I wish my other works would do as well.

I have one anthology and four journal articles in progress, as well as a dissertation proposal to write. I really need to finish some of this work so I won't feel so overwhelmed by it all. It will be so nice to get it "out there" and get feed back. Meanwhile, I am planning to go to one conference this semester -- a regional women's studies conference, "No Limits: Transgenderism, Negotiating Gender Boundaries" held in March in Lincoln, Nebraska. I am planning to go to Washington, DC twice in the Fall. Hopefully I will have papers accepted for both the Lavender Languages and American Anthropology conferences held there.

Meanwhile on the home front, Rowan is learning to walk. He still really doesn't crawl -- though he can roll or turn around. But he holds on to furniture or hands and walks a bit. His favorite thing to do right now is hold on to the coffee table and play with toys on top of it, all while screeching happily. He will be nine months old this month. A more beautiful sight I have never seen.

Lon and Troy continue to do well in their classes. Lon is a bit tired doing full time school, part time job and crisis center training. The training takes about 12 hours a week throughout the month of Feb. When finished he will have three hours a week of volunteer time to put in. Tina still looks for a job. She has a part time temp job starting tomorrow for about a week. I hope she finds something permanent soon. Finances are not going well.

For those who have web access, we will soon have a web page with photos of all of us. We will send you the address when we get it installed. Meanwhile, since we now have web access, please send us your web addresses if you have them.

Well, I have to go. Please write and let me know what you are up to...

Dawn