Photos I.O.U.

So I went to Book Expo America last Wednesday and took a couple of pictures, one I liked was this veritable sea of carry-on luggage, all tagged for pick up by their owners later in the day. I swear, if there were this many stored, why were my feet rolled over at least 50 times on the floor???!!! By the way, rolling carts? Not allowed on the floor. HA! She says. HA!

So then I was pushing my way through the crowd and I heard some girl say, "Jesse's Girl! He sang Jesse's Girl!" Now, if you're of a certain age, you watched Rick Springfield as Noah Drake on General Hospital, back in the original, younger days of Luke and Laura. And you wanted to BE Mrs. Springfield. You could picture yourself convincing Noah he no longer wanted to be the carefree, flirtatious bachelor he was. You could picture yourself redecorating that modern, spartan bachelor pad into a cozy lovenest for two. I turned my head, and there he was!!! The line was just too long for me; I'm too old to stand on a line for a picture of a slightly overweight me with the crush of my teen years... But I wasn't too old to lean in as close as I could to try for a photo or two!

Sorry this photo is sideways - I forgot to rotate it before I dropped it into this post. This is a piece of art I created for my art journal. It reads, "She decided to ENJOY more, and endure less." (Kobi Yamada, She)

A beautiful iris, or three, from the Presby Memorial Iris Gardens. I didn't miss them this year. These photos were the test pictures for my new point and shoot camera. I'm pretty happy with them. These were taken in the evening, without a flash, and with no sunlight on the flowers.

And a special note to Miss Hope, I'm reading Laura Bush's book right now - LOVE IT! And guess what I got for Mother's Day from my little sister! A signed Conservative Victory, by Sean Hannity. She had to pull some publishing strings to get it for me, but get it she did!!!

I'm a StepMom

Most of you reading this know I have two stepchildren. While I may not have "birthed no babies," they are the children of my heart.

Today I was reading a blog entry by Angie Lucas. She's a name in the scrapbooking industry, CEO of Ella Publishing. She really put it into words. I couldn't really add anything to what she says here: Advice for Stepmoms.

If anyone doesn't understand the difference between a mom and a stepmom, there it is.

Thanks, Angie, for the words.

Implant implanted...

So I had to be at the oral surgeon's by 7am, for a 7:30am implant.

They TOLD me I was going to be in the operating room but I didn't know it was really an operating room! All sterile and white, with two walls of windows - it was so bright in there!

And I'm a scrubs convert - not the TV show, the clothes! I had to put on a top and bottom and socks and a hair cover - scrubs are comfortable! I might have to buy me some at Walmart!

For the record, my bp was waaaay up, 146/89, pre-surgery. (My normal is between 120/70 and 120/80.). Post surgery, heading back to normalk 138/89. Now, sitting in bed with an ice pack on my jaw, TLC on TV, and a Dunkin' Donuts Caramel Coolatta on my nightstand - I KNOW it's back to normal!

The doctors gave me some extra novacaine, to make it through the morning. They suggested this procedure would be even easier than the extraction, so if I didn't take any Vicodin for THAT procedure, I'd most likely need none for this one.

I think I'm going to pack my ice pack and go get my hair highlighted (it needs it DESPERATELY!).

Back later!

Good news for a change...

No, GREAT news!

My nephew G got engaged yesterday! And we love R, his new fiancee! Don't know all the details yet, but apparently he won a vacation at some fundraising auction: penthouse suite somewhere in sunny Mexico, a terrace that runs along the entire side of the building, 1/2 covered, 1/2 open to the sun, lounges and chairs and pools, oh my!

They spent the afternoon in the pool yesterday, and came in to get ready. After they had dressed for dinner, he proposed. As I said, I don't have any details yet (they're still in Mexico!) but I hope he said something cute, something along the lines of "You look beautiful, but that dress needs something... something sparkly..." At which point I hope he dropped to his knees and swore his undying love and begged her to make him the luckiest man in the world!

Philly Next Week

So I'm attending a conference in Philly next week. It was supposed to be a one day visit, on Wednesday, down in the morning, back home at night. We (my manager and I) planned to meet at the office and leave from there, and he'd drop me either at home or J would meet us somewhere close to the Turnpike so W wouldn't have to go too far out of his way later at night...

But he suggested we take my buyer out to dinner. I already suggested not, since my customer is dropping 2/3 of our titles from their website due to a revamp. But he suggested it again. And again. So I got the feeling I should probably offer dinner to my buyer. (Not TOO dense, am I?!?)

And she took me up on our offer, and now we're taking her out to dinner, with her marketing guy and her 22-year-old daughter who's coming to conference with her.

And now we're staying over and leaving early on Thursday.

So what are the odds that I can be conferenced and dinnered by 9pm so I can be in my hotel room watching Criminal Minds by 9pm???

A New Territory

We've undergone another reorganization here at the publishing-house-which-shall-not-be-named. One of my colleagues has retired, effective last Friday, and they've realigned the territories.

Here's what happened to me:

I USED to have: ME, VT, NH, RI, NY, NJ, VA, MN, IA, AR, LA, NE, MO

I NOW have: ME, VT, NH, NY, CT, RI, MA, NJ, MA, WI, OH, IN

I'm SO disappointed that I no longer have MO - I was SO determined to build up a couple of accounts to justify a trip to the Show Me State so that I could visit Chris and his parents but not have to pay for the trip... Now, I can go visit... no one!

I really wish I'd been the one to win the MegaMillions. Of course, I didn't have a ticket for this past one so that wasn't ever going to happen... I'll have to start buying. It's not that I don't like my job, I do. But I'm not happy about the systems that are in place for these new customers of mine, and I don't know how happy they'll be to change over to the way I do things... Hopefully they'll be receptive to some changes...