Meet Linda, my illustrator

To continue the "journey of the book," we're now up to this morning (Friday) in time.  I met my illustrator, Linda Santell, halfway between our homes so I could do a handoff of the books to her.  Her town of Reidsville is having a festival this Saturday and Linda is setting up a display of the books in her shop.

Here I am handing the books to Linda, who, as you can see, if quite thrilled to receive them.  We joked it was like a covert drug operation.  Our cars pulled up alongside one another as we made the exchange.  We did actually make it out of our cars to hug and congratulate one another, but this is the actual first handoff of the books.

I signed all the books I gave to Linda and handwriting lessons are going to be in my near future. =)

The really fun news about the book is that last night the owner of The Fat Cat , an art gallery here in Madison, called and said she wanted me to do an author signing this weekend at her Fall Trunk & Fashion Show.  I dropped off 25 books there this morning and will be there at 100 W. Murphy Street in Madison tomorrow, Saturday the 8th, from 2-4 PM.

My excitement over the book is growing, the more people I run into.  I am extremely blessed to be surrounded, literally surrounded, with caring, supportive people.  Not just friends and family, but neighbors, store owners, editors...the list goes on.  People are so happy for me and I'm touched by that.  I wouldn't trade my life for anyone else's in the world.

Lessons In Stalking is in the HOUSE

I have the book.  Repeat, I have the book. 

I wasn't sure I was going to get it.  I was told delivery would be yesterday between 3-5 PM.  At 4:30, I called, just to make sure the books were on their way.  "Uh, will someone be there after five o'clock?" asked the voice on the other end of the phone.  I assured him I would be here all night.  "Good, because our driver can't make it there by five."

In a quick aside, I have no problem with the books coming late.  Back-ups happen, traffic, etc.  But what bothers me is that I'm the one calling the business to find this out.  Shouldn't they be calling me to give me the heads up?  The same thing happened with my book printing.  I sent an e-mail to my rep, confirming the book would be printed and shipped that week and only then did she e-mail back to say my order had been moved back a week.  I don't understand customer service at that level.

Anyway, at 6:30 with still no word I called again and was told the driver was stuck in traffic.  He called 15 minutes later to get final directions to my home, and pulled up in the mother of all semi's at exactly 7 PM.

This truck was HUGE.  Half a street block.  Which made it all the funnier when the driver flung open the rear door to reveal a long, narrow, empty hull.  Empty, that is, except for my stack of boxes in the very back of the truck.  I wish I'd taken a picture. 

The driver heaves and hauls the boxes to the lift and right as the boxes of books touch ground, the heavens open and it starts to rain.  Now, the books are wrapped in plastic inside the boxes.  But STILL.  I've been waiting how long for these books?  I grab 2 cartons and hustle up the stairs to my door.  The delivery guy grabs one (yea - my yoga  and weights are paying off!) and follows me.  Luckily, it stayed at a drizzle until we got the books inside and then five minutes later it really let loose.  We got lucky.

At that point, after the bees, the boards, the bathroom, and the rain, I was in no mood to enjoy the books.  And I didn't want my first experience of them to be a bad one, so I opened a carton to check them out but I really didn't look at them closely.  I just wanted a shower and bed.

Decorating Diaries: Bees & Rotted Boards Update

All is better in Harrisland.  I got lucky when I called Pest Control yesterday and the guy was at my door within 15 minutes to spray the bees.  I vacuumed up about 100+ dead bees bodies last night.  But better dead than alive, is my view.  The bees started appearing upstairs today in my office window which is directly above the downstairs window they were in yesterday, so I had the guy come back out today and spray upstairs.  I'd say the bees should be gone within the next 3 days.

Also good news with the rotted boards.  They don't appear to be from a plumbing link in the new bathroom. Rather, it appears they rotted from the inside out just due to exposure to the elements.  It's no lie to say I am thrilled by this news.  I had visions of both bathrooms being torn apart at once.  Our contractor will replace the boards by Monday, and all will be good in the decorating world.

Decorating Diaries - A New Hell Begins

I'm a prophet.  In my last entry, written approximately 5 hours ago, I wrote to stay tuned for more chaos.  Never has there been a more self-fulfilling prophecy.

I walk back in from a lovely writing session with my friend Bernie, and am greeted by Keith, our wonderful painter guy who comes once a year to touch up the outside of the house and do a quick inspection.

"Follow me," he said, waggling his finger. 

First he showed me the bees.  Yellow jackets, to be exact.  We knew there were a few in the walls of our exercise room and had asked Keith to spray outside.  He did, causing--at the moment, at least--approximately 50-100 bees to swarm inside the room.  Right now they're crawling over the window and light fixture.  I'm waiting for the exterminator to arrive as I write this and praying the cats don't get stung.

Then Keith showed me the back of the house. Specifically, the wet, rotted boards that oh-so-easily break off.  The new shower we installed last year apparently has a leak.  So, when our contractor gets here today it will not be to rip out our OLD bathroom, but more than likely to rip out our brand spanking new one to fix the leak.

For a bonus, I was also shown a rotted out door to our crawl space and some gutters hanging by a string.

I keep reminding myself...is this a problem or an inconvenience?  And really, it's just a huge inconvenience.  So I'll just hang out with my little bee friends and remind myself that it's all good.