October | 2010 | Laurence Miall

The very, very good news is that I am engaged to be married to the girl of my dreams, Monika Sawka. After more than five years with someone I love more than I feel comfortable expressing on a blog, one morning in early September I gave her a diamond ring. We were in Hawrelak Park in Edmonton, the city where we met, and the plan is to return there next summer for an August 27th nuptial ceremony with oodles of friends and family.

I am among the luckiest men alive.

Further late-summer adventures included a brief trip to Los Angeles, where the matrimonial theme continued for the wedding of my dear friend Teena Apeles to the man of her dreams. It was a splendid long weekend; I enjoyed it and will in all honesty treasure my memories forever, even the memory of finding myself on L. Ron Hubbard Way!

The company of good friends gathered for a festive occasion is something that gladdens my heart every time.

The other news is that my blog is on hiatus. That all sounds pretentious and stupid, as if somehow the blog had been hard at work all this time! Or as if my blog were cool like Fugazi, and believe me, my blog is not even one iota as cool as they are. But it has entertained me writing this thing, and at least two people have stopped by on occasion to watch the tumbleweeds float by, or to hear me yak on about Karl Marx or some stupid idea I had about something. I will return with my Marxist project, I just do not know when.

I am currently up to my eyeballs in work; over the summer I successfully balanced shit, but now I just can’t anymore. Also, I have been working with increasing dedication on another novel. This here is sort of a sign of what is to come, although believe me, the finished product is going to read very differently from this scrap.

I think I might be able to get back to blogging next summer.

For now, here are some photos from the last few months. They capture a certain moment in time so it seems appropriate to leave them up here for posterity for a while. It is a nice opportunity to leave something positive instead of all my usual grumblings and cynical snarks!