It feels like decades since my last post. I’ve been sick and it wiped me out for quite a while. A lot has happened in the last few weeks though.

Sicko.

After a month with a cough, I finally went to the doctor after Miss Sassy, the 16 year-old, said, “Mom, if I sounded like that, you would make me go to the doctor.” X-rays confirmed the beginning stages of pneumonia and a Z-Pak (antibiotics) was prescribed. Did you know? Those powerful antibiotics will clear up any other infections you may have floating around in your body, including that stubborn zit that has been hanging around, hard and painful for the past month.

Trouble Catches Up

A friend has been called to account for some poor choices and for the first time in my life I’ve been writing to someone in jail. I think she is learning some valuable lessons from this experience and it’s the right place for her to be right now. Still, I want her to know she’s loved and that someone is thinking of her every day. I hope she can pay the penalty for her past choices and move forward from where she is now. One thing I love about America is that it is the land of second chances. Mess up, learn from it, and move on.

What Have I Done Now?

I joined my local chapter of the Writers’ League. My first opportunity to attend a meeting is next Wednesday. Nervous? Me? Nah.  I’m Scared Spitless. I have no clue what I’m doing beyond following an impression that it’s what I’m supposed to do next, and now I’ve made a declaration, “I am a writer”, by signing up. Yikes.

Is My Tattoo Showing?

I also signed up for a writers’ conference. It’s not until June, so I hope that the bold, “CLULESS” tattoo that I feel like I’m wearing on my forehead will lighten up a little by then.

NaNoWriMo Revisited

I’ve started on revision work with the NaNoWriMo project I did in November. It’s a bad novel now, but maybe there is some good stuff there. It doesn’t seem as bad as it did when I first wrote it, but it does need a lot of work.

Iodoral, Yay!

Iodine supplements are my new friends. I learned that it can help chelate mercury from the body and make the thyroid receptors do their jobs better. After China, this body of mine needs all the help it can get.

My Stupid Moment:

I was in a store paying cash for something when suddenly I had a flashback of using Chinese money and I couldn’t remember the visual difference between a nickel and a quarter. Luckily, I got a nickel back in change so now I know. DUH.

Valentine’s Retreat – How Did Your Feet Get So COLD!?

So the Valentine’s get-away to the bed and breakfast in the teensy town near Kamas was fun in spite of some glitches.

Glitch #1- We got there and parked in the free public parking. By the time we’d walked down the stairs from the lot, I realized what I’d forgotten… my hat. I thought my ears were going to fall off.

Recovery #1- After realizing that my scarf was not going to be adequate to keep my head and ears warm, I bought a cool (toasty warm) hat in one of the shops.

Better Yet for #1- (Don’t you love when there’s a “better yet”?) Later in the evening I found an even cooler (toasty warm) hat, made and imported from Nepal and I bought it too! 🙂

Glitch #2- The incredibly expensive, overpriced restaurant we ate at did not have such amazing food. Some of it was good, but I’ve eaten better Italian food at Ottavio’s locally (which I hear has closed – I’m so depressed).

Recovery #2– hmm… well it filled us up anyway.

Glitch #3- The melodrama play, “Someone Save My Baby Ruth”, that we went to at the Egyptian Theater in Park City was cringingly bad. I’ve seen high schools do a better job and it didn’t come anywhere near to what you get at the Desert Star Theater in SLC.

Recovery #3- We got to stroll through some really great art galleries. I actually saw a very detailed stone etching that was so amazing, it moved me to tears. I wish I had words to describe it for you.

Glitch #4- The “Cottage Room” we stayed in at the bed and breakfast inn, had almost no insulation, and rather inadequate heating. This made the stone tile floor in the bathroom really cold! (No, I don’t think you can actually suck your breath in that fast without the motivation of a freezing floor.) There was no way in h^** I was going to take a shower in there. I got enough of that in China, thank you very much.

Recovery #4- I got some quaint photos of the bathroom’s amenities. 

This was the shower.

I thought the milk-jug sink-base was very creative.

winner-winner, chicken dinner 🙂