Quick Trip to Portland

Tomorrow morning I fly out to Portland, Oregon for a very quick meeting with the editor of a vet magazine I'll be writing a humor column for. Once I get in on Tuesday, we'll tour the campus, meet everyone at the magazine, then sit down with the cartoonist for a brainstorming session. Dinner out, more meetings on Wednesday, then I fly out at 6:30 AM on Thursday.  Like I said, it's a quick trip.

I'm looking forward to it though. This column is the Pet Horoscopes piece I've mentioned earlier and it's a good bit of fun. I feel so "official" as a writer, being flown out to meet with everyone.  I'm more accustomed to the "our accountant ran off with our profits but we're combing the couch in the lounge for loose change to pay you with" kind of set up.

(Wow.   A quick aside--it is POURING here. Hail, thunder, black skies. I love a noisy storm. And we need it to get rid of the God-awful pollen that has coated our entire region in yellow. And just like that, it's almost done. While I typed the last two sentences the hail turned to a moderate rain. )

Usually I'm ambivalent about these type trips but rave about them afterward. The fact that I'm so looking forward to this one concerns me a bit--don't want to jinx it.

Here's an ambivalent part - I'm not so wild about getting up at 4 am tomorrow. My flight leaves at 6:30 AM, which means I'll leave the house at 5 (because I like to get to the airport early like they tell you to, that's why), which means I need to be up by 4 to shower and do last minute packing and goodbyes to the cats. I'm wearing business clothes on the plane which means heels which means a loooong flight day. My little tootsies just don't know what to do when confronted with anything over the height of your standard flip-flop. 

And of course I'm spending today doing all the "essential" things one does before a business trip - bank, gather important documents, paint the toenails, charge up the cell phone, laundry, laundry, laundry, pet the cats, go through the mail that's been sitting in the inbox for over a week now in case there's any ticking time bomb in there I forgot, e-mail everyone I know that I'll be gone for business for a whole day and a half, blog (of course), finish painting the final trim coat in the bathroom (I won't be able to enjoy my trip unless I know it's done) and myriad of other things. 

So I better get back to it. I'm not taking my laptop with me so probably no blog until Friday. I trust you'll all be able to move on with the shattered remnants of your life. ;)

Dena

Staying Humble

I belong to a dog writer's list-serv group.  Here's a posting that came through recently:

 "Do any of you have a friend/neighbor/contact whose dog eats poop (their own or another dog's) who might be willing to answer a few questions and be quoted for an article I'm doing?"

 
I love being part of a group that posts questions like this. Just lends a bit of perspective to one's place in the Universe.

Cheers,

Dena 

Patricia Ryan Madson

Look how cool this is.  Click HERE to see an entry I wrote last week where I copied a quote from a wonderful little book called Improv Wisdom by Patricia Ryan Madson. Yesterday I just happened to be going through some old blog entries and noticed there were 2 comments listed on this post when I only remembered there being one. So I clicked on it and found--to my surprise--that the author herself had chimed in on my blog.

 What a thrill! I'm guessing she Googled either her name or her book title and the blog entry popped up. But I'm overjoyed she took the time to log in and say hello. She's written an extraordinary little book which I recommend to anyone. I took an improv class last year and was horrible at it.  Really really really bad. (Which was a shock, as I thought I would be pretty good at it.) But the class was loads of fun and I wrote an article (not published) about applying the principles of improv to writing. Madson has taken these principles and expanded on them in her book and applied them to life.

So, now that I know authors will flock to my blog when I write about them I'm inspired to start reeling off lists of names.  Let's see, I'll do a shout-out to Stephen King, David Sedaris, Anne Lamont, J.K. Rowling, and Scott Adams (Dilbert cartoonist).  What's up, people!

Can't wait for the signatures to start rolling in. =)  Have a good day.

Follow-up on Elizabeth Berg

I've had a few people ask how the luncheon where I got to meet one of my all-time favorite authors Elizabeth Berg went. I've hesitated about blogging about it because I'm not sure what to say. But here goes...

The luncheon itself was beautiful. Held at High Point Country Club, it was like walking into a big 'ol Southern mansion with all the charm implied therein. Chandeliers, terraces, cotton towels in the ladies room instead of paper towels and complimentary lotion, hairspray, and lipstick--very nice.

 Elizabeth Berg read from many of her works which I enjoyed. But that's almost all she did.  I was hoping to hear more of a talk from her about her writing and her career. So I was a bit disappointed in that.  But I did get her to sign a book and also I had long ago dissected one of her novels, Joy School, to see how a novel is put together and I brought her all my notes and she was gracious enough to sign that as well.

The weird part of the day for me was the company kept. Very high society country club women all decked out in their finest spring line with matching hats, lipstick, pearls and diamonds.  I can't put my finger on what was wrong. But there was an underlying feeling I was uncomfortable with. After ruminating on it, I think what it was is that I didn't feel most of these women were here because they were interested in authors or writing or Elizabeth Berg. I more felt like they were there simply to have someone entertain them and to be seen. Only 3 questions were asked in the Q & A session. Most of the 300+ crowd simply scattered away after the luncheon and didn't wait in line to meet Ms. Berg. "People have a lot of commitments" I was told, when I commented on this while standing in line.

There was also no common conversation such as "So what do you do?" I suspect because most of them don't work. But I was asked who my husband was and if I was kin to the so-and-so Harris' because then I might know such and such's daughter-in-law? Ick.

Again, no one was rude in any way.  It was just an odd afternoon. But I'm still glad I went. I got to spend time with my friends Pam & Judy and Pam's upcoming book, Southern Fried Women was announced at the luncheon and Elizabeth Berg told Pam she would like a copy of it, which is wonderful. 

Apparently I'm just not the high-society type. Which is fine with me.