Shibaraku Desu

The title above is a Japanese expression that means, "It's been a long time," and is the standard greeting when friends reunite after a lengthy separation. Since it's been almost 3 months since I last posted, I thought it was (sadly) appropriate. (For those who didn't know, I lived in Japan for two years half a lifetime ago, which is why I even know this. And in case you're interested, here's an earlier post about one of my experiences there.)

Let's just say life got in the way this year. But May seems like a great time to get back in the game, what with spring in full force and all. And I had the added incentive of a challenge that one of my writing colleagues, Michelle Rafter, has issued: A Post a Day for the Month of May!

That's definitely going to be a challenge, but one thing I'd like to do with this blog (to try to avoid any more long absences) is to write shorter posts more frequently, so this will be good practice for that.

For this post, I'll just list a few adventures I've had since the last one:

• Had an article about exercise-induced asthma (which I suffer from) published in Women's Adventure magazine
• Raised another set of orphaned squirrels for the Wildlife Center
• Attended a writer's conference in New York, where I was thrilled to meet a lot of the people I “know” from Freelance Success, my favourite community of professional writers
• Saw Paul Simon in concert with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, David Byrne, and other guests, who were performing songs from Paul's brilliant Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints albums—FANTASTIC!
• Rushed my cat Willow to the vet when I discovered a huge swelling on her face, which fortunately turned out to be simply an abscessed tooth (not all adventures are good ones...)
• Went to a seminar on nature photography that was awe-inspiring—and a little intimidating
• Entered some of my Antarctica pics in a photography contest (winners haven't been announced yet, so fingers remain crossed!)

And as usual, I'm always interested in hearing about YOUR adventures. So if you have any stories you'd like to share, just fill out this form or shoot me an e-mail and I'll be thrilled to post it for you.

Blog of the Day

As part of the May Blogathon, I'm going to call out one blog that I like each day. And since Michelle inspired this effort, I'll start with hers: WordCount.

Michelle blogs about freelance writing, but a lot of her posts can also benefit other types of business owners, especially with regards to promoting their products and services. For example, she writes a lot about Web 2.0 topics like search engine optimization and marketing (SEO/SEM) and social networking.

Comments

[Charmian Christie]

Great to see you back blogging, Elizabeth!

A blog a day? I'm going to be keeping tabs on you girl!

Let me know if any particular food inspires you. I might create a recipe in your honour (Just don't make it Japanese. I hate sushi!)

Charmian

[Elizabeth]

Thanks Charmian!

I'll give the food thing some thought. (I don't like Japanese food either -- I lost a LOT of weight during those two years!)

[Anne]

I'm glad to hear Willow's emergency didn't turn out to be too serious!

[Carla de Mos]

Yeah! She's back!

[thediusx]

Shibaraku means "tarry a moment." I believe the term you are looking for is "ohisashiburi."

[Elizabeth]

Maybe it's a regional thing, because someone else said that to me when I first wrote this post. But we used "shibaraku all the time when I lived in Japan (Ibaraki-ken). And I did a search and found lots of references to it being used this way. Here's one of them:

http://www.yesjapan.com/Phrase-1.html