Jeff 1.0: First day of Spring Break

I posted 30 stories about Vitauts in a short amount of time, then life happened and I lost the head of steam that I had going. So here, I am, reviving my blog with a new post.

I write this while the New York Dolls are scringing (scream-singing) on my record player. I just bought the vinyl after seeing “them” perform in the pilot episode of Vinyl on HBO. I felt bad for not knowing who they were, so I made up for it by buying the record. It sound simply amazing.

This is just another example of how much great music there is in the world that I have never heard of. It also reminds me of how much incredible music was being produced between 1966-1974 or so… before disco destroyed everything.

Speaking of music, I am traveling to New Orleans this week for the Tennessee Williams Festival. This will be my fourth time visiting NOLA, and I am looking forward to finding familiarity as I wander through the quarter on a writing marathon. I am also excited to see what it’s like to be there when it’s not in the middle of the summer.

I just mailed in my paperwork to the Latvian Embassy in Washington D.C. to get my Latvian Citizenship. This has been a work in progress for the past six months or more. Everything has changed since then, but now Vitauts wants to travel to Latvia one last time. My sister Sue wants to go, so hopefully, we’ll all travel at the end of July to see the homeland one more time. I’ll be in debt, but what is the point of having money when you can travel to Latvia instead?

I plan to attend an AP Lang Comp seminar this summer. I’m just deciding where and when. The top choice, I think, is Minneapolis because it’s in early June, so I can get it out of the way. Then I’ll have a Ligo party, then the Grinvalds (most of us) are going to the Ozarks for a vacation. All in all, the world is right in front of me, and I feel like I need to lean back to see the whole thing.

Fantasy Brackets is about to be released. We still have some bugs to work out, but we’re excited and scared to see a little idea turn into a working app! I hope that everyone who reads this gives it a try and tells everyone who they know to give it a try!

You can read more about that at fantasybrackets.com.

Finally, at our family Easter Party, I started a new game called “The Egg of Truth.” I guess it’s a variation of Spin the Bottle. I had won two or three egg fights with this wonderful blue egg. I sat at the table with my nephew and gave it a spin. Then I said, “Okay, tell the truth…” then everyone sat down and we all took turns spinning, asking questions and giving honest answers. It was inspirational, revealing and frightening. What would you ask someone if you knew you would get an honest answer? What wouldn’t you ask?

It feels good to get something written. I’m going to post this, as random as it is. Then I’ll post daily updates from New Orleans with writing inspired by the Big Easy!