where did I go? well, what happened was, I kind of got distracted and next thing you know it's over 45 days without an e-mail. And now I've got to start doing this again. So here we go.  what i've been thinking about well, i'm thinking about how to stay in touch that's a big one, really, because the great thing about doing workshops and getaways is the face-to-face communication which online communication does not replicate.   what i would like to invite you to i would like to invite you to a party Well, as always, on the last Saturday workshop of a series we have a little potluck after the workshop and then people come over and sometimes we play music and sing and do the usual things people do at parties. So that will be Saturday, Feb. 26, 6:30 p.m. to like whenever it stops or so, 1966 48th Avenue, San Francisco, between pacheco and ortega, 415 731-2661, bring food or drink or musical instruments to play, or written pieces to perform, or all those things or none of these things, just yourself. what else i want to invite you to don't forget the free noon writing practice every friday at cafe la boheme We keep doing it. Apparently we can't stop. what i want to sell you how about refrigerator magnets? Just kidding. It's just, well, so many people print out columns and post them on their refrigerators, I should make little refrigerator magnets.    what is making me angry and confused one thing that is making me angry and confused is the shortsightedness of our national budget negotiations  what is making me happy one thing that is making me happy is youth uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Iran, Yemen and other places. Whatever the difficulties ahead, it seems a marvelous human thing what i think the problem is i think the problem is that we get used to being safe and we get used to living in fear and we forget how fragile life is, and how ideas are more precious than skin. We forget about the ecstatic. We worry about our washers and our dryers and their warranties.   what bothers me the most is the failure to grasp just how miraculous and fleeting and beautiful this short flash of life can be. And does that make me spoiled and Western and so very Californian and Pollyanna-ish and self-involved? I prefer to think it makes me somebody who is just trying to keep his eyes open. what there is to look forward to well, the days are getting longer and the Pacific waves in this great winter storm are sawtoothed on the horizon, and the moon is huge and at its perigee, and my cancer appears to be completely gone and I am getting stronger all the time and swimming a lot  how much i hope it doesn't take me this long again a lot. really a lot. The original idea was to do this every day but that is overly ambitious. I was inspired by what Stephen Elliott does with his Rumpus letter but have concluded that my other daily duties preclude it. But as often as I can! How's that? As often as I can, and fearlessly, and with good humor.   anything else? nah, i think that's it for today. but i'll be back. really. i promise.