We Are Adorably Engaged, no?

Back from a fun-filled Engagement Party and Passover trip to the East Coast. Wonderful to see family and friends and former co-workers. Outstanding to be back at home, in my own bed. I think we overstayed by a day or two — one week is a good limit for sleeping at other people's homes.

You may have heard about this Pope fella visiting DC and New York. Not being Catholic, it made barely a blip in my attention sphere. However, my father said to me, "Are you going to be saving the Pope again?" And, in wholly separate cell phone conversation, my sister said to me, "You should dust off and update that Pope story you wrote."

In 1993 or so, I wrote a bunch of short stories. I believed them to be extraordinarily clever and meaningful, so I sent the whole shebang off to my family members and close friends. And a couple of publishing agents, who never responded, but they were obviously overwhelmed with unsolicited manuscripts and simply didn't see or read them. Obviously.

Anyway, one of those stories involved a bus-riding temporary secretary who accidentally saves the life of the Pope. It was during the previous Pope's visit to Denver that prompted me to use the Pontiff as a character in my story. The lead character in the story borrowed a lot of basic data from me but remains a fictional character. No amount of this type of explanation convinces my father that the character is anyone but me.

I guess that both remembered my stupid short story after 15 years should be a source of pride. Perhaps a re-write, update, or Part Deux of "The Pope and the Temp" is in order, I don't know. What I do know is that re-reading stuff I wrote 15 years ago fills me with a sharp and pungent sense of shame.

The only thing worse than that short story from 1993 is the contrived and cliche-clogged action movie screenplay from the same uselessly productive year. Argh.

The best part of being engaged is not necessarily the gifts (although they are welcome and drooled-over): it's actually the excuse of wedding planning that distracts you from everything else in your life and causes people to treat you sweetly and kindly everywhere we go.

Oh, and here's a buried lede for you: I'm teaching a class on web editing in May!

I plan to use the whole wedding thing to bail me out when they get bored or irate during my presentations.