The last few days have thrown my summer into a tizzy. Not in a bad way. Just the way that my life, unattached to things, is sometimes tizzied.
On my way to Austin, I received word that my presentation on “The Living Learning Classroom”, a fancy name for deploying social technologies in a way that allows previous knowledge to be aggregated for future classes (and for former students to participate in current classes), was accepted at a conference in Anaheim. In June.
When I was supposed to be in London.
That’s okay. No plans were set yet so changes can be made. (And I can hustle up the cash to do this, I guess. Anaheim isn’t that far from Redlands and my friend Kris said her house was empty after I left.) Anyway, The Soho Theater is in flux (good flux mind you, but flux nonetheless) so switching things here and there isn’t a problem.
Anyway, it gives me an excuse to spend a good, solid month in Austin. Something I haven’t done in a few years. Something I desperately need to do more often. I’m getting closer to shutting down the travel caravan for awhile and this might help me with that decision.
But we’re not there yet.
South by Southwest always brings new opportunities. I met so many amazing people, but the coolest part is hanging with folks I met the year before. After 17 years, you can imagine that’s quite a few folks.
This year I spent quite a bit of time with Stephanie Frost-Rocha and the Atlanta crew, which led to a discussion about swinging through the ATL this summer. Since my plans for Europe were pushed back, I have a few extra days to fill I decided to hang in the city for a bit.
I haven’t been there in a few years (when I was working on a book about anime, which never saw the light of day) but I’ll stay in the same place I stayed the last time I was in town.
Literally as I started planning out my route (which would take me through New Orleans) to Austin from Atlanta, my writing partner John asks me if I’m going to be in Indiana at the beginning of May. Turns out he and Aimee will be in Chicago and wanted to spend a bit in farm country. (Or, you know, visit me.)
Now I’ll have a chance to host my best pal and his girl for a few days in my neck of the woods. Not quite Appalachia, but not too bad either.
And then just a month later, I’ll be flying to Berlin to hang with them again. Because our yearly ritual now includes a too-extended visit. Then again, you know you are friends when it’s hard to tell what is too long.
So in the matter of just a few days, I went from spending most of my summer in Europe to sprawling across the globe once again: Muncie to Atlanta to Austin to Anaheim to Berlin to London to Austin to Muncie. (And let’s not forget the St. Louis and New York trips coming up. Plus a Cleveland visit here soon as well.)
Nice and relaxing. The way life should be.
A big, giant playground.
