two weekends ago, i was fortunate enough to have a reason to travel some place completely new…

NEW ORLEANS!

i was there for a bachelorette party and oh me oh my was it fun. the food! the weather! the friends! the cab drivers! the drinks! the bartenders! the food! the music! the house we stayed in! the scenery! the drinks you can consume outside of a bar!

of course, i can’t tell you any specific stories because what happened in new orleans stayed in new orleans so instead i’ll leave you with a picture that encapsulates the weekend.

have YOU ever been to new orleans? is there any place you’d love to visit but haven’t yet? have you been to all 50 states of the US? what countries worldwide have you visited? do you have anything else to share?

TALK TO ME.

who says you have to be crowded into the living room, kitchen, and/or dining room to hold a book club? we are ladies of the 21st century. we don’t need no stinkin’ couches. so pull up a blog and join in the conversation.

the members of the BOOK HUNGRY are (alphabetically): patty blount, kelly breakey, karla nellenbach, vanessa noble, alyson peterson, cynthia reese, elizabeth ryann, and myself. here’s the deal. we pick a book to read. we discuss via email. we post a review on our individual blogs on the same day (3rd thursday of the month). we link to each other. done. i know, genius. click on each one of their names (above) and it’ll take you to their review. browse. enjoy.

this month’s BOOK HUNGRY selection is: 

AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES by john green

what it’s about from amazon: When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washedup child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy–loving best friend riding shotgun—but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl. Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself.

my opinion: i’m glad i finished this book, but i have to admit, getting to the end took some work. i’ve read a couple of john green books, but the only one i liked so far was the one he wrote with david levithan (WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON). this story was interesting and colin was quirky in a very endearing way, but there was a lot of math in this book. i don’t like math and i’m certainly not a prodigy like colin is, so a lot of what he said was over my head.

it’s a good thing colin’s best friend hassan was a trip. the perfect foil for colin. he kept the story from getting too serious and yet, he was part of a scene that was one of the deepest in the book. AND I LIKED IT.

the pacing of the story was rather slow, but it was more that i wasn’t interested per say in the story. i could put the book down (and i did) and i wasn’t tempted to pick it back up. in fact, i read three books on my kindle app (ON MY PHONE) before i could bring myself to finish this story. however, as i said in the beginning, it was the end that made this book worth it. the transformations were well earned and even though i saw the ending from a mile away (and i rarely ever know what’s going to happen before it does), it still brought a smile to my face.

and this is why i love being part of a book group. even though i wasn’t in love with the book, it was challenging and knowing the other ladies were reading it too got me to finish this book, which ultimately, i did like.

p.s. i love the cover. just had to point that out.

i was sitting at the bar with two fellows who are kind of coworkers, but kind of not. the details of that don’t matter here. the point is, we were having a meeting to discuss an upcoming event which we are planning. because we were at the bar and because it was a thursday night, we got off topic.

coworker 1: i used to have season tickets to the patriots. *proceeds to talk about the glory days, which were full of as much glory and gore as you’d expect of 25 guys with football tickets.*

me: i’ve only been to one game, but it was an awesome one. actually, it was [another "coworker"] who invited me. i was probably the eighth person he asked, but that means seven people before me said no and i got the green light. [two other coworkers] went with me. so fun!

bartender: now there’s a positive attitude.

me: well, it’s true. i’m just happy i got to go. it’s the only football game i’ve been to and it was a complete blast.

coworker 2: with the motley crew you went with, i’m sure it was nothing but trouble.

me: you have a point there, sir.

the meeting eventually got back on track after further discussions of the other boston area sports teams, but what struck me was the bartender’s interjection. it was a quiet night at the bar and the three of us were a very random and lively crew, but it never occurred to me that he was listening in and that he might be the one to initiate a conversation or that i might be the one labeled as the stranger.

it’s that good.

now get out there and DO SOMETHING. ANYTHING. [creative.]

TODAY is brother G’s birthday.

he’s the eldest of us and he’s forged the path to adulthood (all the way across the country!) with maturity and class.

brother G as the big bad wolf

and it’s that humor and grace i try to emulate on a daily basis, because, i mean he stole all the math genes and i have to work with what i’ve got. i can only hope that i’m 1/4 as successful as he is because every day, he charms a smile out of those he interacts with whether it’s coworkers, friends, his wife, or his kids. they’re all happier when he walks into a room.

and THAT is one of the most important successes in life.

happy birthday, G. here’s hoping i get more real life smiles instead of :) (digital ones) this year. (here’s to june!)

watching a reader’s reaction while they’re reading my writing was new to me. people have commented to me post-read and i LOVE that, but it’s not quite the same as witnessing it firsthand. probably because the latter is more raw. the reader doesn’t have time to form a politically correct opinion or decide which words will soothe my writer’s ego. i am thankful for the chance not to have smoke blown up my arse even if the reaction wasn’t 100% what i wanted.

it means i have to work harder.

and then, later, i came across a reaction i wasn’t expecting, nor do i think i was supposed to see. i picked up sister E’s phone (to try out Siri) and was blown away when i saw her background picture. it was of a page from THE SCORPIO RACES, which is one of my favorite books from 2011. she had read it over the christmas break (because i gave it to her) and i gathered that she wasn’t in love with it like i was. that’s fine and dandy and that’s why there are a jillion books out there in the world, each for a separate kind of reader.

but i can’t help but think that she tried just a bit harder to like it because i did. that she took a picture of the page in an effort to find out what made it so irresistible to me. maybe it’s egotistical of me to think that. maybe she really did love it like i did. but maybe she just loves me, and that’s some kind of wonderful.

TODAY happens to be sister J’s birthday.

she’s two years older and light years wiser, so there’s no way for me to wish for her what i had on my 33rd birthday because i’m not 33 yet. i don’t know what that year will hold for me, nor do i know what this year will hold for her. sure, i can guess at a few of the big events, like say, introducing bubba mac to the family in march (or february or whenever he decides to make his appearance) or moving to a new location, but the small, daily events that shape the days that make up the year?

i don’t know what form those will take.

i certainly hope they’re full of laughter and love and baby steps and no allergies and cards and holding hands and hugs and phone calls and family dinners and siblings who get along and darla and patience and tough love and independence and snuggling and giggles and growing up and quiet moments and loud bursts and tears of joy and quick recoveries and prayers and books and sunshine and mommies and daddies and new faces and familiar voices and kisses and journeys and learning.

because those are the moments that force their way into your heart so that you are never the same, but better, bigger, stronger, and more capable.

i guess this year’s version of “happy birthday, sister J” is a wish that year 33 reshapes her heart.

for my final breakfast of my holiday vacation, i made sure to order from the best bagel place in the world. it’s so good i rarely eat bagels anymore because this place (in the town where i went to high school) has spoiled me. i always make sure to get my fill of bagels when i’m at my folks’ house.

guy: is that your sister?

he pointed at baby mac.

me: no, that’s my niece. *points at sister J* that’s my sister.

guy: i’ve seen you both in here from time to time.

me: oh, yes, i’m here visiting for the holidays.

guy: yeah, you were here earlier this week.

me: i was. the bagels are so good here. i can’t resist them.

after just two visits in a week, i’m practically a regular. is it any wonder why i love this place? this never happens to me in boston.

today’s topic: goals for 2012

something i get from my mother is my love of the even years, so i have a feeling 2012 is going to be good to me. because i’ve got that going for me, i’ve decided to limit my goals for 2012 so that i can really focus:

(1) have my current MS read and critiqued by 3 people.

(2) write a query letter for that MS.

(3) start contacting agents.

(4) sign with an agent.

that’s it. one step at a time. one revision at a time. one lifelong goal at a time.

on new year’s day, the water stopped running at my parents’ house.

it was due to the wire in the well or something technical like that. i, of course, missed the texts from both my mom and sister J warning me of this fact and that perhaps i should take a shower at the friend’s house i was staying at before heading home and so i showed up tired from a late night of new year’s revelry / an early morning wake up call and wanting nothing more than a hot shower.

there’s nothing like beginning the new year with an unclean start.

the power and the internet and the TVs and the fridge still worked, so we were only deprived of running water. it was sort of bizarre to have all amenities except water because usually it’s that the power gets knocked out, taking all forms of modern life with it.

with this water-less hurdle in front of us, mom and dad ran out to the grocery store to pick up more gallons of water and made use of the bathrooms at the grocery store. sister J and bro-in-law T took baby mac shopping and they made sure to use the bathrooms at the outlets. sister E and i traipsed to the neighbor’s house to use their facilities and to borrow two gallons of water (for flushing toilets) because who really borrows cups of sugar? water and working bathrooms are the way we roll.

and later that night, we went out to eat for an early birthday celebration and it was then that my mom revealed my birthday gift.

the 2.5 jug of water.

simple. clean. efficient. funny. timely.

that’s how we roll.

and the birthday cake tasted just as delicious served on paper plates and eaten with plastic utensils.

(in case you were worried, dear reader, the next day, about an hour before i left to return to boston, the well was fixed and so, on the second day of january in 2012, the mumford family experienced the marvel of running water.)