Editor's note

I had a very fabulous day yesterday, which included a trip to the Embassy of Myanmar to get my tourist visa. I will write a post describing that experience when I have a little more time (I am up to my eyeballs in tasks at the moment). For now, I would just like to say that I edited the "Welcome" message in my sidebar so that it no longer contains that hideous run-on sentence at the very beginning. I admit that I am not always so perfect in the grammar department where commas and semicolons are concerned (and I've even been known to misuse a hyphen on occasion....that is why I so love the ellipse.....oh, they're like fork marks in the top of an apple pie!! Oh, these creators of the Dramatic Pause and the Thinking Pause and, my personal favorite, the Pregnant Pause!! They are so non-judgmental, unlike the haughty eyebrows of their comma cousins, constantly slanted in disapproval.....), but I generally try to avoid the run-on sentence, especially one that is as incredibly obvious as the one that had previously inhabited my Welcome statement. I would also like to take this moment to say that generally I am capable of fixing my own grammatical errors with a healthy dose or three of proofreading. I guess it goes without saying that I got more than a little tired of proofreading in grad school (which entailed prodding every single word and space between words with a linguistic toothpick) and I therefore no longer do it with any sort of real effort if I don't have to. While I may scan for spelling mistakes and word choice, I don't really get down and dirty with it all. So.....I apologize if I have offended any of your grammatical sensibilities with my egregious errors. Enjoy the new-and-improved Welcome statement, and thank you for your patience as you are the audience to my muddling through of experiences and trying to find words to make sense of it all. I'm happy you're here. Happy reading!