Story Ideas

It's a question that's been asked a million times but I always like to know where story ideas come from.

For me, so far anyway, there has always been a basis of fact in my ideas. For example, the story I'm working on now (a recent idea but I've been going to town on it, so to speak) came from an event that happened a week ago - at the baseball game. Since most everyone who reads this blog has access to my other one, I'll be brief in the description but it came from the kiss cam proposal that happened at the baseball game I went to. The woman had a deer-in-headlights look throughout the entire episode and the man was giddy with excitement. I never saw him ASK a question and I didn't see her give an ANSWER so what if there was a miscommunication there? Maybe the question is only implied and something she does (which actually happened), albeit inadvertently, causes him to jump to the conclusion that she's accepting the implied question. (Well, not so much implied since it was in big letters on the big screen but not actually verbalized.)

Aside from the fact that I witnessed a proposal like this recently, I've incorporated some other incidents from my personal life. Like, it's their third date and they haven't so much as kissed (or even held hands) and he's proposing. (That actually happened to me a few years back.)

But this brings me to my big question of the day. How much of your personal life / experiences do you bring to the table when forming your ideas? How much of your heroine is actually you?

Inquiring minds want to know. :-)

Work in Progress, otherwise known as Change is Good :-)

Last night I was wandering around online and to make a long story short, I decided my blog needed a face lift, so I went in search of a new look and this is what I decided on.

Now, being that I'm not a computer programmer, don't know computer codes, I'm pretty limited on what I can do without mucking up the page. In fact, last night when I was trying to deposit all my information/codes onto this new template I had a heck of a time. Things were overlapping at one point, which, sadly, wasn't the worst of it. Oh no! During one stage of the update process, the clock, current book, archives, favorite links, etc. appeared after every single blog entry. That's right folks, you didn't have to scroll to see what time it was in Rome because at each new entry, there was the clock, along with everything else now on the sidebar.

Fortunately, I had opted not to "save" my changes until I got it right because I never would have figured out how and what to pull out of the template to fix some of my mistakes. However, I was afraid to add too many extras not already on the template because of some of the snafus - which is why the page count feature is not currently displayed. I don't think this is the final - FINAL product but I think it's a good starting point - for now.

It seems to suit me. :-)

Take me out to the Ballgame...

Last night my group at work was treated to a night out a Minute Maid Park to see the Astros play. We'd worked out the details long before Roger Clemens announced he was coming back to the Astros and finding out he was going to be pitching his first game this season on the night we were scheduled to go was pretty cool. The stadium was completely sold out and it was standing room only but because we'd planned so far in advanced, we had good seats.

Now since Roger Clemens was pitching they turned out the lights and let the stadium be lit by the flash photography. Ha! (But let me tell you, cameras were flashing all over the place!) We had a company/department camera with our group and I had stressed that I did not want my picture taken because I hate the way I look in photos these days. As a result, there are more individual pictures of me than of anyone else in the group. The one to the left was the least offensive to me. LOL

One of the pictures of me was taken when I was tapped on my shoulder by one of those white tubes you see (posters of Roger Clemens) and I turned around. I saw the camera pointed at me, closed my eyes and said NO. What the camera captured was my eyes closed and my mouth WIDE open, as I looked over my shoulder. Not attractive at all. And if I hadn't suffered a moment of intense annoyance when I saw it, I wouldn't have deleted it and would have even posted it here for your viewing horror. LOL

Anyway, the most exciting thing about the game was the parking experience. I rode with someone from work and my "guest" for the evening met us at the game, having come alone. Now, the person I rode with is like me - not cheap but a single woman with bills to pay so she knew where we could find $5 parking "two blocks" from the stadium. When we got to her parking lot I was afraid to get out of the car the neighborhood was that bad - and it was daylight! (For the record, two blocks to my friend means "two blocks this way and two blocks that way" which means four blocks to me, but I digress.)

So, we realize that my friend is probably parked in a different $5 parking lot and since she's my guest, there is no way I am going to let her walk to her car alone after the game. I tell her we'll take her to her car. Her response was, "Or I can take y'all to yours." Nothing further was said on the matter and we head out of the stadium. We're walking and talking and walking and talking when my cell phone rings (gotta love "vibrate" when they're in your jeans pocket lol). It's a friend from work (actually the woman whose back you see in the picture) - she'd meant to walk my guest to her car but had forgotten. She's at her car and wants to know if her and her husband should wait for us. I said no, we were fine that we were going to take Tamara (my guest) to her car. Tamara stops and says, "I thought y'all were going to take me to my car." Kelly (my ride) says, "I thought we were going to your car."

Apparently we were wandering aimlessly through downtown Houston without a clue as to where we were headed. (Being that I was a passenger regardless, I'd left all decision making up to Kelly and Tamara...maybe not the best decision of the night. lol) I relay to Brenda (the friend from work who is waiting at her car for us) what is going on and change my thought about them waiting...I ask them to please wait for us. Please.

At this point, I have no idea where we are or where we're going and I'm not convinced that Kelly or Tamara know where they are either. The crowd that you walk out of a game with has thinned and it's just the three of us and Kelly's six year old son walking in the middle of no where. We finally find Tamara's car (she had been parked next to Brenda and her husband) and send her home. Brenda took us to Kelly's car and we all left.

Now, I already mentioned that I was not happy with the parking lot in the daylight but thought it could just be my imagination running away with me, right? (because I do, after all, have an active one at that) Come in this morning and Brenda was talking about how scary of an area it was that we parked in, what with all the homeless people hanging out there and all.

But hey, we only had to pay $5, right? LOL

Saved by the....t-shirt?

I'm all for helping someone who gets in a bind - through no fault of their own but someone who squanders their money and then wants someone else to bail them out??? Sorry. Not for me.

Have you seen the news that Dustin Diamond (aka Screech from Saved by the Bell) is about to lose his home to foreclosure so he wants to sell t-shirts to raise the money? He said that "If the public didn't care, I as an entertainer wouldn't have been a success."

Dude, you're asking for handouts. Obviously our definitions of "success" differ.

I don't know. Maybe it's just me but I wouldn't buy one of those shirts if the money was given to me to do so. To do so would only encourage this type of behavior in the future, by him and others who would either a) live beyond their means; or b) piss their money away and expect hard working people (who live within their means) to support them.

So not happening!

Second Chances

I'm not usually one to give an author a lot of chances to impress me. Occasionally I'll give an author a second chance but it has to be on a recommendation of someone I respect.

Which brings me to the book I read today, Kiss Me While I Sleep by Linda Howard. My last venture into Linda Howard's books was last summer and To Die For. It was told in first person with a strong heroine and a totally alpha male. If you don't know this already, I can't stand alpha males. I really liked the heroine in To Die for and I really liked the story but I kept hoping that whoever was gunning to kill the heroine would miss their mark and kill the hero instead. Of course that didn't happen. But it really put a bad taste in my mouth for Linda Howard's books.

So, Pam mentioned the suspense in Kiss Me While I Sleep in her blog and I had to buy it, giving Ms. Howard a second chance. I should probably throw in her that last night (or maybe this morning, time is a bit of a blur the last couple of days) I looked at the reviews of To Die For on B&N.com and I wasn't the only one, shall we say, less than thrilled by the book. Several people commented that it wasn't how she typically wrote and that it was enough to reconsider buying her again - despite the fact that she'd until now been an automatic buy. That says a lot.

Anyway, I started the book late in the afternoon today and finished it this evening. It was good. Told in third person so you have several points of view throughout. I really liked Swain. I thought Lily trusted Swain too easily, given the circumstances, but I really liked them together. I enjoyed the story and, despite Pam's chant (it’s a romance so they are going to live, it’s a romance so they are going to live, it’s a romance so they are going to live), there were points (and one in particular) where it wasn't clear that a romance fashioned ending was in the cards for all parties. I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

Next up is Lisa Kleypas' Someone to Watch Over Me. I bought it at my local chapter meeting for $1. It's an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) and the cover looks nothing like the cover on my side bar but I've heard it is a good story and that I'll enjoy it so..... :-)

Pride and Prejudice

I've finally finished Pride and Prejudice and I have to say, it was hard to read. And by hard, I mean it felt like it was taking forever. Not in a, "I hate it, when will it end" kind of way but I usually can gauge how long it will take me to read a book based on the number of pages I have to go. This was not the case with this book. Every page took longer than I would have thought - almost as if I was reading a textbook. I will say this though, about the pages, the typeset seemed to be smaller so it may be that more words were actually on the page than would have been in most books. But that's just speculation on my part.

In any event, I really liked the book. I loved the story of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy (did we ever learn his first name? I don't think we did, now that I think of it.) and the way it was told.

I also loved the story of Jane and Mr. Bingley. Jane reminded me of Melanie in Gone with the Wind with her loving, forgiving heart.

And Mr. Bennet, I loved him, even though he was barely mentioned in the book. His fondness for Elizabeth and his dealings with his wife were humorous - well to me, but then I'm easily amused. :-)

I think what I was struck with most though was the fact that I was reading a story that, when written, was a contemporary novel. It wasn't a written "historical" as we know them today. The author didn't attempt to "transport" the reader back in time because that was what was happening at that time. Few of the male characters were addressed, if ever mentioned, by their first names. And when women were married (Charlotte), they were then known/addressed as Mrs. whoever (Mrs. Collins), as would be appropriate for that time. Today's historicals would reflect more of a familiarity between people in that, while they might address each other as Mrs., Mr., Lady or Lord whoever, the reader almost always knows their first names.

Same goes for fashion. Wardrobe was once mentioned when Lydia married and her mother was concerned that she have a "wedding" wardrobe. Aside from that, no particular attention was given to the dress of the time. Today, pictures are painted with the words to show what everyone is wearing, presumably to transport us back in time.

Hair, once, to address that it was more important that Jane's hair be attended to than anyone else's since it was Mr. Bingley visiting.

So bottom line for me is this: I loved the story but I also loved the lesson in history it gave and the differing styles of today's writing vs. that time. It makes you wonder what generations from now will think of our writing.

But now that I've FINALLY read the book, I can finally watch the movie. I can hardly wait. :-)

I'm finally going to do it

I'm going to read Pride and Prejudice. Yes, I realize I'm the last person on earth that hasn't read it before now but I'm going to this weekend so I can check that off my list of things to do - presumably.

I don't know why I've waited so long to read it. I don't know of anyone who didn't like it. Heck, my friend is watching the movie over and over and over again (she watched it again last night - although that's not necessarily the same thing as reading the book but...). Maybe I'm afraid it's been built up too much and can't possibly live up to its hype. Of course, that never stopped me from seeing movies that were built up (but then, I've been disappointed in that area as well).

Maybe it's because it was written so long ago, how could it be any good? Yes, I know that makes no sense but what can I say? I don't know what it is that has made me reluctant to read it.

I will say this though, Nora Ephron has never steered me wrong before. After all, if Nora hadn't made Harry and Sally obsessed over Casablanca, I probably would have never watched it. Loved it by the way.

It was Nora who introduced me to An Affair to Remember in Sleepless in Seattle. Again, good movie.

And it was Nora who made Pride and Prejudice its own character in You've Got Mail.

She was right about Casablanca and An Affair to Remember so she has to be right about Pride and Prejudice - right?

Right!

Well, I'll let you know in a day or two if I still feel that way. :0)

Obsessions

I've blogged before about having a book buying obsession...in fact I may have alluded to that fact in my last post. :-) (By the way, I won six more books in Brenda Novak's auction and bought another book at the store today - Impulse (Thanks Pam! lol) by JoAnn Ross.)

Anyway, I get teased a lot about the number of books I buy and read. (Since my last blog - in addition to the auction and the "Impulse" buy - I ordered two more books off of amazon.com.) But, this one lady at work (who really gives me a bad time - all in fun) was telling me that she recently bought the movie Pride and Prejudice (the newest version). She was telling me how she watched it all weekend long - over and over and over again. And she was telling me what she liked about it and how every time she watches it, she sees something she missed in it before.

So today I was telling her that I won those books in the auction and she was giving me a bad time - again - and we were laughing about it. When she left my office...or should I say as she ducked out of my office, she says "I watched Pride and Prejudice again last night."

Which one of us has a worse problem do you think? I'd say her. At least I'm reading different books each time. lol

Book Bonanza

I love long lazy holiday weekends where you don't HAVE to do anything.

This was one such weekend and I spent it reading - and buying more books.

Friday I read Jessica Trapp's Master of Desire. Saturday I read Rachel Gibson's It Must Be Love. Yesterday I read Claire Cross' Third Time Lucky. And today, I read Julia Quinn's Romancing Mister Bridgerton.

As for buying books, I mentioned over at The Cupcake Police that although I'd resisted some recommended books, I couldn't resist when I saw someone had read something by a new favorite of mine...Erica Spindler. So, in four to twenty-one business days I should be receiving Erica Spindler's Killer Takes All, Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic and Sister, Jennifer Crusie's Faking It, and Janet Evanovich's Three to Get Deadly (yes, I know I'm way behind ;-) ).

That doesn't include the many books I have bids on in Brenda Novak's auction.

No, I don't have a problem. Not at all. LOL

Coming Soon....

In my currently reading section of my blog is a copy of Sandra K Moore's newest book cover - Dead Reckoning. It's what is next on my "to be read" list.

Here's the deal - it won't be released until July 2006. BUT, Sandra and I are both members of the Houston Bay Area Chapter of RWA and they recently instituted a program whereby a published writer (that would be Sandra) is paired with an unpublished writer (raising hand - that would be me!). We each have roles and responsibilities in this partnership.

For my part, I have to read all of her books before they are released (I know, tough job but somebody has to do it ;-) ) and then write a review of it. That review will go in/to the following places: 1) the HBARWA newsletter; 2) on the HBARWA webpage; 3) amazon.com; and 4) barnes & noble.com. For me THAT is the hard part. I want to do the book justice.

You see, I'm already worried about not saying enough good / nice things about this book. Thing is, I just got the ARC at last night's chapter meeting and all I've read is the excerpt that is posted on her webpage (which, by the way, you really should check out because it's good and will leave you wanting more - but I digress). So how do I know it's so good? Well, first of all, I read her first book and couldn't put it down and I have no reason to thing this one will be of any lesser quality.

Which brings up a question for me. I have the utmost respect for Sandra, as a writer and as a person. She was the first person I ever communicated with when I was looking into joining RWA and she's never been anything but supportive - not just to me but to all of our chaptermates. Sandra's the kind of person I want to be when I grow up.

But that's not really the question. The question is, are you influenced by someone's writing based on how you feel about that person personally? I'm wondering this because many moons ago (read two years ago - give or take) I "encountered" another published author. This author writes in at least two different genres.

Well, let's just say my first impression of her was not good. In fact it was quite bad. But okay, maybe she was having a bad day.

And, it's possible she was having another bad day the next time we met. And the time after that. And the time after that. And the time.....and so on.

Now, despite all the "rough" (I'm really being kind here) encounters we've had, I thought I would read a book of hers. I couldn't get through the first chapter. I made excuses and said the timing was off for me and I've planned (but never actually done it) to go back and try to read that book again.

Then I find that this author has a book out that was a Rita finalist. It's in a different genre than the first book I tried to read (and let me just say here, I'm a fan of both genres so that wasn't the problem) so I thought I'd give her another try - despite that I don't care for her as a person.

So, I finished the book but I didn't think it was that good. I'm wondering if I'm letting my personal opinion influence my "reading" opinion. Which leads me to my question...would your personal opinion of someone influence your opinion of their writing work? Could it if the author truly was a good writer but just a snot to deal with?

In any event, I'm really excited to be getting a sneak read of Sandra's book before it's available to the general public and I know it will be great - and that has nothing to do with the fact that she's just a great person. :-)

So keep your eyes out for the book in July - you won't want to miss it. :-)

Are you for sale?

Yesterday, as I was surfing the net (work avoidance thing) I went to the MSN homepage a number of times. Something that caught my eye was a picture of a man. Underneath the picture, in bold letters were the words Mr. Right. And below that, the tag line that read "World's Most Eligible Billionaires".

Now, I never actually opened the article to find out what it said because I was too annoyed at the message I was getting from the visuals.

Let's back up a few years. I'm a lot younger and only recently separated from my now ex-husband. I went out with a friend of mine to a Pub she frequented a lot. Enough to know the regulars. Non-alcoholic drinks were free (which was good because I was poor), and we could play pool and darts (both also free) to our hearts content.

Well, this man came up and put his arm around me. I'd never met him so I was immediately put off by that. He was drunk and openly undressing me with his eyes. It gave me the creeps. Anyway, he asked me how old I was so I told him sixteen. He didn't care, he tried groping me anyway. I told him I was jailbait, he needed to back off and it didn't even slow him down. We moved over to the bar and he followed us, forcing his way between me and my friend. I said rude, mean things to get him to back off but he didn't.

Now I should point out that my friend and I met in a sign language class so we both knew sign (her better than me because she was the deaf instructor's interpretor - but that's beside the point). She was behind this man, signing over his shoulder to me, telling me to be nice, he was a millionaire! Like that somehow excused his behavior and made it okay for him to be a total ass.

Eventually the owner of the Pub asked the man to leave. He did and we waited a while before we left - only to find that this man had waited for us outside. He became more aggressive towards me, trying to break out the car windows once we made it to the car. The owner of the Pub came and held him back so we could leave, all the while my friend was telling me I was stupid for not going for it with this guy - and it was HER car windows he was trying to bust out.

So fast forward to yesterday when I'm seeing that image. Why would anyone be attracted to a person simply because of the size of their bank account? Yes, money is nice - it's even necessary in life. But just because you have it doesn't mean you're a decent person, worthy of my attention.

It may be that you can fall in love with a rich man as easily as a poor man but honey, if that's all you have to attract me, you're dead in the water with me.

A picture's worth a thousand words...

When my mother passed away several years ago, the elderly single women in my step-father's community descended on him with a vengence. Seriously, he told me some stories and those women were aggressive!

Anyway, we were having a conversation about something that had happened and he told me this story about another man who had a similar situation....

It wasn't that the man wanted to live alone the rest of his life but he wanted the women to back off a bit. So he worked with his two hound dogs for a week or so to "perform" for him on cue. Then he invited one of the more aggressive women over for a home cooked meal.

He set the table and set out the food and they had a lovely dinner. Nice conversation - very pleasant evening.

At the end of the meal the lady stood up and started to pick up her dishes to carry over to the sink. "You don't have to do that," the man said. "I've got it covered." Then he whistled and called the dogs over.

The dogs promptly propped their front paws on the table and licked the dinner plates clean. The man then picked up the plates and put them in the cabinet.

She never bothered him again.

(Side note: My step-father said it took him a week to train the dogs to do that and six MONTHS to untrain them. ;-) )

So, when someone sent me this picture, it reminded me of that story.

Happy happy

Growing up there wasn't a lot that my family agreed on but one thing we did was, we all loved The Carol Burnett Show. It came on either Friday or Saturday nights (I think) and we would put aside any bad feelings we had about each other and all sit down in front of the TV and laugh for an hour, as a family. It was a sad day for us when it went off the air. It was like losing a family member - one we liked at that. ;-)

Years later I read her autobiography and I fell in love with her again. She has such a kind, gentle spirit about her. I'm just a big fan of hers - as a person and as an actress. She doesn't hold back.

So, happy birthday Carol. May you have many, many more.


And in honor of Secretary's week - enjoy a picture of Carol dressed as one of my favorite characters...secretary, Mrs. Wiggins. ;-)

A dog's life

I have several blogs that I check out every day and there's this one that hasn't been updated in a while. Every day when I go there and it hasn't been updated I'm disappointed because I like this blog. And then today I realized, she's updated hers since I've updated mine. *Oops* I thought, I might ought to update mine, otherwise I have no room to whine, right?

So anyway, I'm getting ready for RWA's National conference in Atlanta this summer. Last year the plan was to have someone come watch my dogs at my house. She was going to stop by twice a day and walk them, feed them and help them to forget that no one was with them at night. Only thing was, we were having awful weather during this time and my dog, Max, was knocking down the fence gate and running the neighborhood - scared, which is not a good thing. At the last minute I decided I should kennel my dogs, as much as I hated the thought.

Two friends recommended this place in League City. Both said the woman that ran it lacked people skills but was great with dogs. These two friends have never met so I took that as a very good sign for this kennel. I booked my dogs there.

When I dropped them off I asked to see where they were staying. I meant literally, she thought I wanted a tour of the place. So I got the tour.

It was your typical kennel type place and had a variety of environments for the animals. My favorite - which of course was not available on such short notice - was the "rooms". It's a room 3-1/2 feet by 8 feet (I know that from seeing it on the webpage) with a sliding patio door on it. I thought if I ever needed to kennel them again, that's what I wanted for the boys.

So, I'm planning early this year, right? I email the kennel and inquire as to the availability of the rooms. She replies back that I need to book before the end of April (I sent the inquiry about three weeks ago -when it was still March). I reply with an email that I wanted to book it, to please consider my email as confirmation of my intent to book and to please reply back with confirmation of the booking.

I got no response. So a week or so later, I forward the email and said I hadn't heard back from her, could she please confirm that I would get the room. She replies back and asks - get this - did I want the room with the sliding patio door or did I want the room with the bed and the TV.

TV??? For a dog's room? Ummm, okay.

I replied back that I wasn't aware that a room with a bed and TV were an option, that the room with the sliding patio door would probably be fine, would she please reply with confirmation of the booking and with the rates.

She replied back with the rates for the room with a bed and TV AND the room with the sliding patio door. But no confirmation of booking.

I went to their webpage today. The picture posted above is an actual picture from their webpage of the room with the bed and TV. Since the dog isn't looking at the camera I can only assume it's watching the TV. Scooby Doo is probably on.

I think I'm going to go with the Bed/TV room. Now all I need to know is, does it come with a VCR?

Sex, Lies and Online Dating

Rachel Gibson's Sex, Lies and Online Dating was nominated for the reading group at RWAOL. Even though it wasn't one of the three (yes three) books I nominated, I voted for it. (Hey, the books I nominated were already in my TBR stack and going to be read anyway and this one looked fun.)

It did not disappoint.

Rachel Gibson created characters that were human and likeable. She told a story that was fun and kept you guessing (it was a mystery, after all).

Lucy Rothschild is a mystery writer who is doing research for her next book titled dead.com. It's about a woman who makes dates with men she meets online. And then she kills them. Lucy is making dates with men she meets online so that she can be authentic with the "losers" one would meet online. As they pour out their hearts to her on their "dates" she's mentally thinking of all the ways she wants to "kill" them in her book.

Quinn McIntyre is a homicide detective assigned to a serial killer's case. Breathless, as the killer is called, appears to be setting up dates with her victims online. She meets up with them and kills them.

When Lucy and Quinn meet up the attraction is almost immediate. Lucy is disappointed because she can't see killing him off in one of her books. Quinn sees her as a potential murder suspect. His superiors force him to spend more time with her and the more time he spends with her, the more convinced he is that she is the killer. This tears him apart because he is drawn to her, even believing she will try to kill him.

On the other hand, Lucy is also drawn to Quinn and feels guilty about lying to him. Once she decides there could be something there, she comes clean about her profession but that doesn't clear her of murder in Quinn's mind.

This book was so much fun to read. It had humor, it had mystery and it had loveable characters. It's been a while since I've enjoyed a book this much (and I love books). Having never read her before, I wasn't a fan of Rachel Gibson's before I read this book but I certainly am now! :o)

Is this a good thing?

Never having seen the movie, I have no idea...

Your Famous Movie Kiss is from Spiderman

"I have always been standing in your doorway. Isn't it about time somebody saved your life?"

What Famous Movie Kiss Are You?

I've always wanted to procrastinate, but I keep putting it off

Last night I want to my local RWA chapter meeting. The topic was procrastination, writer's block and burn out. The speaker, Kara Lennox, also spoke about writer's fears (which she blogged about here).

Anyway, on the topic of procrastination she said many of us waste time on things, like computer games and surfing the net. Me, I don't do those things. And while I wasn't doing those things today, I happened upon a blog and something happened.

It really was quite innocent. Really. And if not, it was Kara's fault...let me explain...

See, Kara told us she'd blogged about this topic on Romancing the Blog so I wanted to check it out. I found it (see "here" link above). As I was scrolling to find the post, I noticed that they had a LOT of author blogs listed. Alyssa Goodnight's caught my attention, seeing as she's a chaptermate of mine and all. It's been a while since I stopped by so I was glad for the "encouragement" to do so.

So, I read Alyssa's posts and when I scrolled back to the top I noticed that she only had three links. Argh Ink caught my attention. Turns out it's Jennifer Crusie's blog (I know, I need to get out more).

Since I've decided I like Jennifer Crusie now, I read several of her posts, including the one entitled "Things I'm Not, Part II" (sorry, can't get it to link). At press time, it had 35 comments - which of course I had to read (so I'd have the full picture and all, you understand).

There was one from Sam, which I thought might be my Sam, so I had to check it out. Of course I was wrong BUT, I noticed this cool clock thing on her blog...you know when I was scrolling down because I was, um, reading her blog and all.

Anyway, underneath the clock it said "Paris, France". So I asked myself, was Sam really from Paris, France? Her picture looks like she's from the good ol' U.S. of A. I think she just likes to know what time it is in Paris. But anyway, so I click on it and find out I too can have a clock for my blog! I was so excited. So I had to play with it and enter code into my template and all so that I could get it just the way I wanted it. Then I went to The World Clock to get the time for Rome, Italy and set the clock. Not because I live in Rome but because I could live there.

So you see, I wasn't really procrastinating at all because, in Rome it's 4:00 in the morning and how can you be procrastinating when you should really be asleep? ;o)

What the heck?

Desperate Housewives is currently my favorite show. Last season it was the number one show in America. This season it's moved down but still in the top five. And I have to wonder, would it have moved down if it hadn't been preempted umpteen times since January 1 and then shown repeats when it actually does air? If I didn't know better, I would think the show was not doing well and the reason repeats were being shown was because they weren't filming new episodes. What the heck is going on? Grrrrrrrrrr!

Best Laid Plans...

Do you ever make plans only to see them go up in smoke before your eyes? That was kind of my day today. I'm not complaining because, all in all, it was a good day - just not the one I'd planned.

I've been waiting a long time for Failure to Launch to open. I sent an email to my girls a month or so ago to see who would be interested in going to see it with me. Two people said they wanted to go but that they couldn't go the weekend it opened - one of those said any time after the 15th. So, I scheduled it for the first Friday after the 15th so it would extend my weekend by a day (I took a vacation day). Then I asked if anyone would be interested in visiting before and/or after the movie. Everyone seemed to like this idea and one woman suggested a restaurant, that only she knew about. :o)

Okay, so we have a date, a restaurant and a movie time (1:40 p.m.). We're all set!

So yesterday, I mapped out my whole day for today. I was going to get up at my regular time, take the dogs for a walk, take a long, leisurely bath while reading a book or magazine, shave (I planned on wearing a sleeveless shirt / with jacket combo), dry my hair, french braid my hair, get dressed and go. That was the plan.

I got up at my regular time but that's where the plan and reality parted company. My mistake was in logging onto the internet when I got up. You know, I was thinking I could check my email quickly and be about my business. I know myself well enough to know that's not how things work but I did it anyway.

Meanwhile, some surfing and a couple of TV shows later (since I have SO much time before I have to leave [picture me rolling my eyes here]), I realize that not only do I not have time to walk the dogs anymore, a bath is out of the question too. All I have time for is a quick shower, blow dry and dressing (which is not optional). I consider not wearing what I planned because I don't think I have time to shave under my arms. I look in my closet and it's all I really have ready so I have this debate in my head. You have the jacket, no one will know you didn't shave. But what if it gets hot today? Doesn't matter, the jacket must stay on. Doesn't matter how hot it gets the jacket must stay on! But... No buts, the jacket stays on no matter what. If it gets so hot that you have to choose between removing the jacket or dying, you don't remove the jacket. Because if you do, you would die of embarrassment when your friends saw you wore a sleeveless shirt without shaving. We're just cutting out the middle man. The jacket stays on! Um, okay.

I get dressed.

I finally get out of the house at 9:50 or so (meeting at 11:00 but it's across town and I have to stop for cash), hoping I've allowed enough time because I don't know where the restaurant is. Well, I find it easily and arrive 20 minutes early.

What I forgot to mention is that I sent out a reminder email last night (in case anyone forgot). I heard back from two last night. One said they couldn't make it (they had a funeral to go to). One said she'd try now (she does this every time so this wasn't a big surprise). On the way (which, for the record, was further away from me than anyone else - not that I'm complaining, just explaining), my phone beeps, telling me I have a message (I didn't hear it ring). It's a third person saying she can't make it because she's sick.

I'm starting to think I'm completely on my own for the day. Which would be fine, I don't mind going to the movie alone but had it been planned that way, I would have taken last Friday off, when the movie opened. To make a long story short, I was the only one at lunch. I had two more emails when I got home. One was sick and the other had spent the night in the hospital with her father.

But there was still the movie to see. I went to the theater at the appointed time (well, actually way early because I'd allowed almost 3 hours for lunch - I spent some quality time at a book store after no one showed at the restaurant but still got to the theater way early) and waited for the lady who had said she couldn't make lunch but would be there for the movie. I debated buying a ticket before she showed and decided I was going to see the movie that day, with or without my friends. So I bought a ticket and waited. My friend did show up and it was just the two of us. It was funny because right before the movie started she turned to me and said, "I don't know if you've ever sat next to me when we do these things" (we get our group together a few times a year to go to the movie), "but I tend to comment on things during the movie. Is that going to be a problem for you?" I said it wouldn't but told her I tended to laugh uncontrollably at things and continue to laugh long after the scene is over. I asked if that would be a problem for her -did we need to separate "now". She said no, we'd be fine.

And we were.

So, it wasn't the day I'd planned but it wasn't a bad one. :o)

P.S. It was a fun movie. :o)

I must be psychic

I be-bopped over to Mel's blog and saw she was doing a blog tag - and I knew - knew that she had tagged me. Anyway, I'll play along:


Four movies you would watch over and over:
When Harry Met Sally
Titanic
Roman Holiday (Audrey Hepburn/Gregory Peck version)
It Happened One Night

Four places you have lived:
Pasadena, Texas
Houston, Texas
Katy, Texas
Baytown, Texas (I know, I get around)

Four TV shows you love to watch:
Desperate Housewives
Dancing with the Stars (when it's on)
Ellen Degeneres
Seinfeld re-runs

Four places you have been on vacation:
Hawaii
New York
Las Vegas
Los Angeles

Four websites you visit daily:
Cathy
Sandra K. Moore
Laura Drewry
The Cupcake Police

Four of your favorite foods:
Pizza
Tacos
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Sundae (Weight Watcher's 2 points)
Chicken Crispers (at Chili's)

Four places you would rather be right now:
Paris, France
Rome, Italy
New York
Las Vegas

Tag four friends you think will respond:
Okay, Mel tagged the two people who ever read my blog so...I'll just have to let these people know they've been tagged. hehehe
Honey
Laura Drewry
Jan Conwell
Pamela Hathaway