Why I Can't Wait Till January!! A Cruise!

Yes, I am going on a four day cruise. I belong to the greatest local chapter of Romance Writers, The Florida Romance Writers, every year they have a fantastic conference called the Muse cruise. It is scheduled for January 20-24. I can't wait! I'm gonna buy my bonnine, just in case. I am not wearing any bikini so no expense there.


I am gonna watch the hot guys show off, I am gonna read all those stories I have put off reading. I'm getting there guys!


Not much of a dancer so I won't need the dancing shoes or the dress, but I don't mind watching!

Good walking shoes, some new clothes, my portable sound machine, (so if it's noisy I can fall asleep to the sound of a waterfall, rain, or maybe waves breaking on the shoreline), I have so many things to think about.

 Heck I don't have a suitcase that wouldn't embarrass me. I live with someone who never replaces a thing if it still works. I'm still hearing about his washer, (got attached to it after working on it so many darn times), and how I got rid of it.

My new washer.

 

Now it had to be 20, I know that's young for an item to be trashed from this house, so come on, it had to go!
Anyways, I will probably only take this cruise once. I will have to beg, borrow and steal to get on, but I am getting on I say! Even if it never happens again, it will happen this once. I am hoping that other writers I know are going. But I am thrilled to be rooming with Sharon Donovan, one of my fellow Author Roast And Toast hostess's. I can't believe it!
Cool huh?

Some new clothes will be necessary. Hmmmm. I can go to the Keys anytime, and I don't want to go to Mexico. So I can sit on the balcony and inhale salt spray, or do one of the many things there are to do!
I won't really gamble, I hate to lose, but I love to be with friends and watch them sing karaoke whilst I sip a virgin strawberry daiquiri and laugh at tipsy people having fun!



Yes, I am looking forward to it and I'll talk about it more later!!! I will need to bring lots of books and my laptop. Maybe I'll get inspired or learn something new? Maybe I'll take a workshop that will improve my writing and I'll be famous. Maybe I'll meet an editor who wants a story from me right away. Maybe I'll just have a good time and a lot of laughs and that...
That will be more then enough!
Sign up now go to the Florida Romance Writers website, and look for conference cruise!!! The Cruise With Your Muze, yeah!!!

Scenes from Vermont childhood

After my book was released on the first, I heard from a special close friend who I patterned a character in my book after. She reminded me of these two events

It must have been 1968 when we were on vacation in Vermont. Lake Champlain is one of the most beautiful places in the world. The VonTrapp family didn't go to Vermont for nothing. From Mount Mansfield, to Keeler's bay on the lake, there is nothing to compare to the scenery and the ambiance.

In the fifties and sixties there were lots of little gift shops everywhere. My mother and grandmother collected Fenton ware and tea cups galore. You know the kind of stuff they are calling shabby sheik and selling for a fortune to us boomers. It decorates tea rooms and little cafes. And we are buying it, it brings back memories, and it really is nice stuff.

Anyways, my whole family was there and my parents had allowed me to bring along my best friend Betsy from Canada. We had such a good time, water skiing in water so cold I wouldn't put my toe in it now. But to the young it is still a great lake for swimming, boating, fishing, you name it.

Well one night the whole family and several relatives were at camp and it was dark out. One of those nights on which you can see the milky way. And everyone started screaming, "there's a UFO outside right overhead." A massive scramble of people from the beach, the camp, out front sitting on the porch, or just anywhere, streamed out to the front lawn to get a glimpse.

They were all oohing and aahing. "Look at the lights, Oh my God, they might land." A myriad of yelling people massed a little closer together, and got quiet. And then it was gone, just like that. It was a huge ship in everyone's mind and to this day I have no idea what it was. And to this day I am pissed that I wasn't wearing my glasses and couldn't see a damn thing. I hated the way I looked in those horrible black foggles my parents had picked out. So I missed it.

The next day my friend and I decided to go for a rowboat ride. We hopped in the boat and started to leave. Then I heard it from my dad, "take your sisters with you." Just great, they wanted to be wherever I was and I wanted to have a little time to myself. So the two brats jumped in wobbling the boat horrible. And if I am not wrong, my other sister wanted in too.

So Betsy and I started to row, and we got quite a ways from shore. We might have tried to fish, I just don't remember. But after awhile in the hot sun, with no water, we decided to head back in. So we started to row, and row, and row, but we still drifted further from shore. Just then my parents and uncles and aunts drove by in a speedboat waving as they left. We started screaming for help, but I guess they thought we were waving and couldn't hear us over the motor.

I don't have to tell you what kind of mood we were all in when the cruiser's drove back by an hour or so later. They towed us in. To this day I have never set foot in a rowboat since and I never will.

Ah childhood how did we survive it?

Today Was One Of Those Days

The first thing this morning I got a phone call, in which I was told that our vacation was ruined. The poor fellow we rented a cabin in NC for years from had gotten a divorce and the vindictive significant other took it as part of her settlement. Just to break the poor mans heart. He'd worked for years to build it up.

I love NC and finding out that we were not going to be able to go in October broke my heart. I have waited for a year to go and see our property cleared and redyed for the septic system. I was hoping my book sales could help pay to have it put in. Now after scrimping to save the money, we paid and waited for the contractor to do it. Now cleared land must look so much better to be able to view where to put your home. And it would show us what views we might have.

So I'm starting the day pretty bummed already.

Then I go to the Cracker Barrel to exchange my lamp which was purchased in December as a gift for me. The friend who bought it was with me. I had the box, and the charge receipt. I had previously spoken to a manager who told me, "No problem, just bring it in."

So as soon as I walk in I hear an obnoxious voice tell me that that lamp didn't come from this store. They never sold that in the store. So showing her the box with large Cracker Barrel logos, didn't convince her. Simply because she wanted to mess with me. She had an 'attitude' of the worst kind I have ever seen and was so obnoxious, she eventually had me in tears. I'm not done with her.

Next my car. My 1995 Ford Taurus with less than 51,000 miles on it, is messing up again.
The air conditioner had just been repaired, new tires, brakes checked and fluids changed.
Now the check engine light has started to come on, and the engine is missing.

So let me tell you, I had a day. I'm gonna go take a pill and go to sleep.

May tomorrow be another day, only better.