LA Time

No, that’s not LA Times, it’s LA Time… funny how just one letter can make the difference, right? This is the time I was in LA this past September for my son’s 30th birthday.

We surprised him. He had no idea that his two sisters, Rita and Jessica and his momma were coming. Can you tell?

Casey at Glitch - "What?"

It took him a while for the realization to sink in that we were going to be bombarding him for a week. I kept a journal for him and gave it to him after I got back and pasted all the goodies in it. I’ll see if I can condense it. I wrote close to 80 pages. Egads, I can ramble.

The first morning we walked to Venice Grind—a coffee house Casey frequents to do his daily drawings and writing.

 I was trying to be artsy with my camera and I told Casey to get entangled in the vines.

He was such a good sport to humor me.

 

We took a trip downtown—took the train, went to Grand Park, walked downtown.

 Casey, Jessica and Rita - "Oh Mom do you have to take another picture.

 At Grand Park looking at City Hall.

 Rita, Jessica, Casey - They thought if they had their back to me, I wouldn't snap a picture.

 Casey, Rita and Jessica - Can you see the excitement of yet another picture?

We made cupcakes for Casey’s birthday that look like him.

 These cupcakes got devoured along with the gooey butter cake. We shared with Casey's students 

and with the folks at Glitch City.

 

On his birthday we went to Tescayloa Canyon and took a hike. Nearly killed me, but it was worth the struggle. It was beautiful. I didn't have my camera for the canyon. But here are a few shots of Casey on this 30th.

 Casey on his birthday

 Casey cracking up seeing the gift Rita gave him. Marshmellow guy from Ghostbusters. 

When Casey was little, he LOVED Ghostbusters.

We went to Venice one day. Hung out at Cow’s End until the sun was setting. We then walked the pier. We tried to reach the water’s edge before the sun went completely down, but I went down instead. Tripped, and in slow motion I fell flat in the sand. Casey hollered, “Mom down!” We missed getting to the edge, but I snapped a photo for the boy who helped his mother rather than leaving me behind.

 Jessica, Casey, Rita - finally they cooperated a bit with the camera.

 Mom down

Sunset at Venice

 Casey

One evening, we went to Glitch City. A community space that my son and several other young men share… where they work on their future games. On certain Wednesday’s it’s game night. Open to the public. Everyone comes to play board games or video games. This evening two young gentlemen were trying out a new game and they needed 10 participants. I was one. Two people were vampires and eight were humans. No one knew who was who but the idea was if you were a vampire you wanted to infect the humans. If you were human, you wanted to gain points. In both instances, you “touched” someone. Long story, but I was a vampire. I convinced my daughter Jessica that I was human and then she did the rest… started infecting others, convincing them that positively she was safe because her momma wouldn’t lie to her. Bah. Lying was kind of what the game was all about… so the winner was whatever human received the most points (for every touch) or if the vampires were able to infect everyone. Eight out of ten became infected (not bad—thanks Jessica!), but some little human won! However, it was fun. Although the rest of the evening Jessica snarled at me like a vampire.

On another night we went to Otis College of Art & Design, where my son attended college and where he now teaches. It was open figure drawing. I never did this before. I have very little experience drawing, so trust me when I say I was completely intimated with all these fantastic artists. I’d look around and be floored by the talent. I gave it my best shot and had a fabulous time.

There I am with my figure drawings at Glitch

 

One night at Glitch City was “show and tell.” These young men hold themselves accountable by giving a five-minute presentation on what they accomplished for the week. Casey’s family was invited to join in so I presented my figure drawings. Let me tell you that was bold on my account and everyone there was way kind. I was blown away by seeing all the things these young men created. OMG.

We hit a lot of different eating establishments, went to a farmers market, and hung out together. It was a good time and I hope Casey will have fond memories of his 30th. I know I did.

 Mom and Casey the day we left.

All of us the day we left.

We Will Survive

For all you Kindle lovers out there, this month is your opportunity to get We Will Survive in your hot little hands. The book isn’t going to be released until December 1, 2013, but Amazon decided to start a new program by selecting four books each month for early release. Gloria Gaynor’s We Will Survive was the only non-fiction book chosen. You can get We Will Survive on Kindle First for $1.99 or if you are already a preferred member, you can get it free.

But don’t worry – all you folks who love to physically handle a book or if you don’t have a Kindle, you can still purchase a paper copy. You can pre-order or you can come to a book signing on Saturday, December 7, 1-3 at Barnes & Noble  at 320 Mid River Center Drive in St. Peters, MO. 

No, Gloria won’t be there, but four local writers (myself included) will be there. Yes, four of us (out of 40 from all over the world) have stories in this book. I think that says something for us Midwest writers… either that or we love the power of song and we know how to dig in our heels and survive… all kinds of situations.

Mark your calendars now as December is a busy time… and say hello to Cathi LaMarche, Alice Muschany, Linda O’Connell and me!

Don't Forget Elaine Viets Mystery Book Signing

I posted about Elaine Viets Mystery Book Signing that will help The Lupus Foundation of America. So go to the blog now and get the details... it's just next week, Thursday, November 7!

And here's no mystery.... Happy Halloween to all my readers!  Read Lisa's post about her Howl-O-Weenie experience.

And Happy Birthday Frank-enstein!!!! You know who you are!

It's All About Family

It’s official – my article, “It’s Genetic” will be featured in the upcoming Not Your Mother’s Book… On Family.

Publication release for this book is March 2014, so you’ll be hearing more about it as it gets closer.

I’m excited to share a story about my siblings. It began in 1994. My older sister, Sue invited her siblings (Warren, Ruth and me) to a St. Louis Cardinal’s baseball game. Just the four of us. We had such fun together that we decided to do something every year… just the siblings and we haven’t missed a “Sibling Day” since. You can read about an incident that occurred on one of those special days in this publication.

Don’t you just love the cover?

Elaine Viets Mystery Book Signing Helps Lupus

For all you readers and writers out there, or those looking to help support a good cause, I thought you might be interested in this book signing event with Elaine Viets -- native of St. Louis, Missouri where the event takes place. A portion of the proceeds goes to The Lupus Foundation of America. My brother went to high school with Elaine. (This is a St. Louis thing--"Where'd you go to high school?") I had the pleasure of listening to her at the Missouri Writers' Guild where she was the guest speaker and caused the audience to laugh silly. I'm honored to be in the same anthology with her, Storm Country, where Elaine was kind enough to help support that project for the Joplin Tornado victims. I was at another event Elaine did helping yet another cause. And those are the ones I know about! My cousin has Lupus, so I would love to be there, but I will be out of town. I will be purchasing a copy of her book. After all, it's signed and it helps a great cause. This is a win-win if you ask me.

"Pay With Your Attention."

“Pay with your attention.” was quoted by a friend in a spiritual discussion. 

Good food for thought.

Anyone else have some good food for thought?

Tripping

Sometimes I’m a bit clutsy. Hard to believe, I know, I mean with all that grace going on in me. Not. I carry more than humanly possible to keep from going up and down the steps. Not sure why because heaven knows I could use the exercise. I don’t remember anymore what I had in my hands, but before I got to the top of the steps, I tripped.

Everything I carried, flung across the hardwood floor at the top landing while my body morphed into the steps. I teetered between laughing and crying. The pain in my leg, arms and fingers throbbed—not just a teeny throb, but a broken-bone-kind-of-throb. I couldn’t look at the disfigurement, so I put my head on the steps and bawled like a baby. I thought I sounded rather pitiful, but the noise didn’t send hubby running.

I heard him through my wailing, “Did you fall?”

“Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.” A whiney-cry all in one.

It felt like hours before hubby mosey’d on over, picking up all the goods that were sprawled on the floor. He then says, “Do you have shoes on?”

If I could’ve gotten up and thrown something at him, I would’ve. I’m claiming it was the shoes that caused me to trip, thank you very much.

“Yes, I have shoes on.” But how about, Honey, are you okay? Let me help you. Did you hurt yourself?

His early Marine training days clearly keeps him in the “tough it up soldier” mode. I’m pretty sure that man’s arm could be dangling from his shoulder, but not the right way mind you, and he’d refuse to go to the doctor and he’d tell me it’ll be fine. Now that’s tripping.