Hanging With A 13 Year Old

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It's 5:30 AM and the cats are swarming around my ankles like a herd of great whites. They're lonely. My niece is in in town for her annual summer visit and the cats--antisocial beings that they are--refuse to be in the same room with a stranger. 

We've had a great visit with K----- but as always, I'm exhausted. It's been non-stop since she arrived. The two of us have a tradition of cooking when we get together which is a laugh because neither of us knows which end of the stove is up. But we poured over cookbooks Wednesday night, went grocery shopping early Thursday morning, and then literally spent almost 8 hours in the kitchen. We shredded carrots for carrot cake, shelled pistachios for stuffed mushrooms, made our own breadcrumbs, and sliced and diced anything that stood still. (Perhaps explaining why the cats won't stay in the same room with us.) The upshot is that we rocked the menu this year. Each and every dish was delectable and I'll spend the next month running off the damage I did with that carrot cake.

After that is was movies. Her Uncle Blair took her to see HellBoy II. He also introduced K--- to the wonderful world of discount books at Edward McKay (she's still talking about the Harry Potter sorcerer's dictionary she found) and they found the Vivaldi flute music she'd been looking for in a music store. K---- is an accomplished flutist for her age and practices, voluntarily, 1-3 hours each day. She sight read the music for us and it was amazing. 

Then it was bowling, eating out, board games, and a visit last night to The Idiot Box, Greensboro's Improv Comedy Club. Aunt Dena and Uncle Blair are pooped!

And the fun doesn't stop. I've got an agent interested in seeing a book proposal and sample chapters for a new cat book and I've been writing the proposal all week. Now I've got to pull out the funny and slam some top notch chapters down on paper. 

But first, I must pet the great whites at my feet. That's a good kitty!


Twitter Scat

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 Very upset at the Twitter folks this morning. I've spent the last month building up Lucy_Cat's Twitter profile only to awaken this morning to find all but one of my followers deleted. Not to mention the links to everyone I was following are gone as well. Some sort of system meltdown which I understand is not uncommon in the Twitter world.

Bad Twitter! You don't deserve tweets!

Can't Take the Heat?

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Our trainer cancelled our track workout tonight due to high heat and humidity. Oh yeah... we like her. In its place I did a quick air-conditioned treadmill workout, threw in some abs, and was showered before 7. Nice. 

Today was a great day. I was contacted for four different writing projects. Maybe that fairy dust I sprinkled in the air is finally taking effect. 

It's going to be a packed month. Our niece arrives tomorrow for a 4-day visit, as she does each summer.  I've got interviews to conduct for articles, a book proposal to get out, sample book chapters to write, a marketing plan to update and implement, and I'm just itching to rip the tired wallpaper off in the front bedroom and transform the space into my writing room. I'm thinking bright, cheerful colors, like a turquoise or an apple green. (Blair? Honey? Pick yourself up off the floor.) And I'll be putting self-esteem and two decades worth of dieting on the line as I attend my 20th high school reunion at the end of the month.

As I said, busy.

Running helps. While it is yet another thing to cross off the "to do" list, it's a focused task. One foot in front of the other. There is no multi-tasking, no checking e-mails, no scanning incoming calls. It's just breath and effort. 

I've got an early morning trail run with my name on it. Nighty-night.