Can I Change the Calendar?

Well, it’s happened again. You would think after all of these years I would realize when Wednesday was. I mean, for my entire life Wednesday has always followed Tuesday and before Thursday, but once again it’s Tuesday night and I sit here surprised at its arrival. And once again I have nothing to blog about. I know, come on Bailey, get with it! Okay, let’s see. Um, Bebo and I are going to the North Texas Irish Festival on Sunday – yes, its that time of year again. I’m really looking forward to it. The weatherguessers can’t decide whether it’s going to rain or not – but those that say it will have been indicating that it would be in the morning and only scattered. I can handle scattered. Other than that, it should be a nice day with temps around 70 degrees, which is perfect for this sort of outing where things are both indoor and out. I’ll try to take pictures.

So, I’ve found another on-line site to waste, er, spend time. It’s called Zootoo.com and it’s a pet site. Has a lot of useful information and when you register, your pets are automatically put in these things called pet wars. Not so sure how I feel about that. It’s where they pit a picture of your pet against that of another and then people can vote as to which is the cutest. So far, Bubba has been in one and has lost (who’s cuter than him??); so has Aidan – I don’t get that, Aidan is a beauty!! Bailey has been in it 4 times and has won 3 of them. Which means that some idiot doesn’t think that my little snowshoe is cute????? Come on, look at those eyes!










Okay, that’s pretty much all I have for today. I know, gee Bailey, you overwhelm us with your wonderful blog posts. I try folks, I really try. LOL


Oh, and Happy Birthday Dru!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Bebo

How do you tell a friend “thank you”? How do you let them know that their presence in your life means more than they can ever know? And when their birthday comes around, what can you give them when you have nothing to really give? I’ll tell you how …


Happy Birthday Beverly. I celebrate the day you were brought into this world. You are my rock, the support of much of who I am. Nothing anyone achieves in their lives is done in a vacuum, just as nothing that I myself achieve is done without the many things you bring to me. You nurture my soul, you ground me, and you bring me out of the darkness in which I often immerse myself. For that alone I call you friend. But you do more than that. You make me face realities when they are often too hard for me to endure. You make me laugh. You make me cry. I’m happy to call you my friend, but I’m even more proud to be able to call you sister.

I love you …..

When I first heard this song, I thought it could only refer to romantic love. But then I listened more closely and realized that it can also mean the kind of love that we share.

Happy Birthday ...



Oh, and Happy Birthday to you too JJ!!

Checking In

Not much to blog about. We'll be off for the festival Sunday morning, then a day of fun. So I'll leave you with this.

Lost and Found
As the bus pulled away, I realized I had left my purse under the seat. Later I called the company and was relieved that the driver had found my bag. When I went to pick it up, several off-duty bus drivers surrounded me. One man handed me my pocketbook, two typewritten pages and a box containing the contents of my purse. "We're required to inventory lost wallets and purses," he explained. "I think you'll find everything there." As I started to put my belongings back into the pocketbook, the man continued, "I hope you don't mind if we watch. Even though we all tried, none of us could fit everything into your purse. And we'd like to see just how you do it."

Oh, I forgot! Happy Birthday Dru! I hope you have a wonderful day!!!!

Eureka!

While laying here in bed I made an amazing discovery. When I watch TV I have to lie on my side facing both the TV and the door to the bathroom. One morning I was lying here and noticed Bubba playing on the rug below the bed. He was tossing something into the air and then smacking it down – sort of what I wanted to do to my last boyfriend. I watched for a few moments as he batted one of my black socks around. I have this habit of taking my shoes off there and tossing the socks on the rug, even though the hamper is a little over an arms length away. I never said I wasn’t lazy. I return to watching the TV while keeping a peripheral eye on Bubba. He tossed the sock towards the bathroom, stalked it, and then “killed” the monster (if you have cats, you’ll know what I mean). Now I must explain something about the bathroom. When we moved in here there was a little vanity area next to the sink – an open place where you could put one of those fancy bathroom chairs. The small room was lacking in storage space, so my father the carpenter enclosed that area with drawers. They don’t go all the way down to the floor though – there’s a small gap along the bottom. Got it? When I next looked at Bubba he was rolling around on the bathroom rug pulling one end up over him and then jumping out onto the sock – a real giggling moment. Then I saw him do something I’d never seen any of the cats do – he started stuffing the sock into that little slot and then reaching a paw under there to bat it around. I called him away and then went to get a broomstick to retrieve my sock. When I swept the handle underneath the cabinet not only did I retrieve one sock but three more. It’s not the washer/dryer that’s eating our socks, it’s our pets!

I almost forgot - Happy Birthday Ruby! I wish you a year of improved health, happiness and all of the books you want to read. You've been a great friend - remember you're never alone, we're all here.

February 27

I need to do a little catching up. Last Friday was Glenice’s birthday, but I was too sick to do anything, so here’s a Happy Belated Birthday! Glenice, you have been such a great friend. You’ve supported me through hard times, flying here after mom died to help me; painting my bedroom, re-caulking the bathtub, keeping me company. I can never thank you enough. I love you sweetie.

Now, guess what today is? What, you don’t know? It’s my first anniversary. Yep, 1 year ago today I started this blog. It’s been a long and winding road filled with ups and downs (although more downs than ups). I’ve made a lot of friends, had a bunch of giggles – you’ve touched my heart in many ways. Here’s to a lot more good times. I had planned to do a lot more about this, but not now – maybe later.

Went ahead and took Tuesday off, I won’t be returning to work until Thursday. I’m still struggling a bit for breath, and I’m still tired.

Happy Birthday Jana

Please allow me in indulge myself in a little personal moment.

Jana – I know you’re lurking out there and I wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday. The first birthday of yours that we celebrated was 31 years ago, but it was your birthday in 1978 that I remember the most. I waited 2 months for you to turn 17 so that we could go to our first R rated movie. Remember? Kentucky Fried Movie. Ah yes, that brilliant contribution to the list of classic movies. Not. We were carded at the ticket booth, by the usher before we went in, the usher while we were sitting in the theater. I was so scared we were going to get caught with our contraband of cans of soda and candy that we’d snuck in – you know I’m not that adventurous. I recently had the opportunity to see that movie again; it was boring. I can remember laughing hysterically, so it shows that sometimes you should avoid revisiting old memories – they won’t measure up. We were so innocent then.

It doesn’t matter how much time passes, our friendship is essential to my life. I hope you have a good day sweetie, I think about you everyday and I’ll love you forever.

Horrors of Horrors ... And a Happy Birthday too

(Cue Vincent Price type music)

So, we’re off to The House today. Can everyone say Yay? Thought not. This 2 – 3 hours every Sunday is going to take us forever. I think I have a little under a half of the kitchen packed, although if you ask me (which The Sister wouldn’t) all of that stuff will have to be disinfected before use. Everything. Altogether we probably have about 50% of the house packed. Then there’s the garage. Can everyone say Fun? Yeah, I saw that smirk. I’ve been told there’s a cabinet with a lot of their wedding gifts. Huh? Married for a little over 20 years, divorced for about 10 – when does one decide that wedding gifts should be used? Whoever buys this house (and it will be one of those “cash for homes” people) will have to do a lot of work. A.lot. Not to mention disinfecting.

Well, let’s see, what else is happening? Did I mention my toothache was back? Out with the cloves again. The writing has been sort of, well, um, it’s – OKAY I HAVEN’T BEEN WRITING. So there. I’ve realized what the problem is and I’ll be dealing with it hopefully this week. I haven’t done a storyboard on my characters. I’ve never written without one and in fact, didn’t have it on the last MS. Problems with it too. Anyway, I’ve also been doing some thinking about the WIP too. I’ve got a germ of an idea for Taylor’s story (my hero’s brother), and maybe for the series as a whole. I even have a small inkling of the first scene for Taylor. I’m also fighting an old demon. Yep, I’m thinking about dragging out The Devil You Know, which is the most completed MS I have. But that’s not quite true. It’s the most completed all right – it’s also the one that has to be reworked entirely. I fell in love with my secondary male character to the detriment of my hero, so I’ve got to go back and re-write it, or at least re-write my hero. And heroine. She ended up being a little wimpy, so she needs a backbone. And it’s not funny – I’m not sure if I’m going to leave it as a romantic suspense or entice it to the lighter side.

That’s it for awhile. I’m off to find a hazmat suit.

Oh, and ….

Happy Birthday Pam! I hope you have a great day. You’ve been a wonderful friend and deserve all the best there is.

A birthday and Random Thoughts

Happy Birthday Ruby!!!!!

I hope this birthday is an absolutely wonderful one. You've been a great friend. Have an awesome day! You deserve it.

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(hey, it was the only way I could think of to separate the two - whenever I published, they ran together - any suggestions?)

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So, just what is it with the title of this blog? The long and writing road (besides a play on one of my favorite Beatles songs) is a journey that many of us "un-published" writers travel every day. Its a quest for just THE book that will get our proverbial foot in the publishing world. It's a wild ride, sometimes lonely, sometimes so full that its hard to breathe, but never, never dull. Hard, frustrating, tragic, wrenching ... but never dull. For me the journey began in childhood with the fantasies and mystical worlds I created everywhere I turned. This fantasy world filled me, sustained me through some very tough times in my life. I'd spend my days in Collinsport, or on the bridge of the starship Enterprise (where I really was going to marry Chekhov). As I grew older I started to solve mysteries with a girl named Nancy, dumped Chekhov for Keith Partridge, Dave Starsky and Joe Hardy (wait, Keith Partridge and Joe Hardy? Isn't that kind of incestuous?) and continued to dream. Then my mother introduced me to some very fine ladies named Violet Winspear, Mary Burchell, Betty Neels and Mary Wibberley. I became hooked on this thing called romance and dumped Donny Osmond for aristocrats and doctors. And my dreams broadened. That's when the voices began ... you know those voices - the weavers of stories, the narrators of vivid tales of love, romance and adventure. I even tried writing a Presents once somewhere around the 9th grade (that was just 7 years ago - watch it!). But then something happened. I suddenly developed this fear of mistakes. I became obsessed with homework, agonizing over every word, every comma, every grammatical mistake I was making until, suddenly, I couldn't write anything down. Not a good sign for a writer. So I shelved that dream and went on with my life. But the daydreams continued, the voices still whispered to me, and the self-imposed exile to the land of no writing became a silent torment. About 13 years ago that began to change. Slowly my world started coming into focus and the voices became louder until they would no longer be silenced. So I began to write, to push those boundaries I had erected around me. I even joined a writer's group ... and for someone with agoraphobia that was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. And the words began forming, the ideas sprang from me sometimes so much, so fast that I couldn't keep up. It was if someone had opened the floodgates and I couldn't stop it. I wrote a book. Yep folks, I actually have one. Oh it needs a lot of editing, and the story is really ... mediocre at best. But that's not the point. It's written. So what's the problem? Well, other than the fact that I hate the book? That's about the time I began taking care of my parents, dropped out of the writer's group and pretty much gave up writing again. Until last year. Until I began blogging and the muses sprung up in me and all gave a shout of Hallelujah! That's when I decided that writing, for me, wasn't just a hobby. It was a passion, an all-consuming need to write down the stories of all the voices in my head. So this week I decided that I had wallowed in depression for long enough. That I was going to get my life back in some sort of order (hence the cleaning of the desk) and I was going to start back on that journey, back on that long and writing road. Wanna walk with me?