the would-be writers guild

Here’s some highlights and low-lights from the last ten days or so:

*Highlight: Last week Ryan, Christian, Mr. Smith, and another of Ryan’s friends left for a six-day tour of Boston and New York, or what I refer to as Testosterone Tour 07 (Red Sox games, Boston Sports Museum, the Basketball Hall of Fame, and a Yankees game, among other male-centered activities.) Here’s Mr. Smith teaching Christian how to attract the ladies.

*Low-light: A few hours after their plane took off, I had a meeting at work. I learned that the catalog I wrote over the past month or so needed to be completely re-written within seven days. Ugh.

*Highlight: Christian had the best time, and called me frequently to give me updates. One day he called to say, “Mom, you won’t believe how thirsty I was after the game. By the time we finally got to the restaurant, I threw down THREE root beers!” Threw down?

*Low-light: I consumed a lot of Red Bull in order to endure the long hours that I was pulling. A lot. At one point, I poured it over some slices of watermelon, which turned out to be a poor and disappointing idea.

*Highlight: I felt like I sort of got to see Alyssa vicariously through the boys. As usual, she was an amazing tour guide and hang-out pal. She sent the most fabulous souvie home for me–an old book-cover-turned-journal for me to write all my scandalous stories in. (I’d scan the cover in for you, but it’s is too steamy for my reader/nephew, Josh, to behold.)

*Low-light: All those times I realized, “Hey! I’m not in New York right now!”

*Highlight: Another of Christian’s calls where he said, “I saw the most disgusting thing on the Brooklyn Bridge. It was horrible. There were a couple of old people MAKING OUT! They were like seventy-years-old, and it wasn’t like mwa-mwa-mwa kissing, it was like MWA-MWAAA-MWAAAAA. It was the most disgusting thing of my life!”

*Low-light: Not being able to blog in order to finish my work.

*Highlight: Realizing that the world does, in fact, keep spinning if I don’t blog, read all blogs, and comment on all blogs. (I did miss you all, though!)

*Low-light: All the Happy Meals and peanut butter sandwiches consumed last week.

*Highlight: Having the boys back home again.

*Low-light: Did I mention all that work I was trying to get done?

*Highlight: The jar of apricot jam my e-buddy Catherine sent me! It’s happiness in a little glass container!

*Low-light: We sort of lost Lucy the other night. We had the entire neighborhood out looking for her. We thought Max had taken her outside and let her get away, when she was actually in our bedroom, under the bed, chewing on an old sock.

*Highlight: Finding Lucy and realizing just how much we care about our dog!

*Low-light: Ryan’s grandma is not doing well. This is a hard reality to accept for all of us.

*Highlight: Ryan spent some good time with her last night. He is a gifted therapist, which comes in handy at times like these.

*Low-light: Thinking I was finished with my work, and realizing there was still one more page to go.

*Highlight: Finishing my work!

*Low-light: Realizing how far behind I am now on the next project.

*Highlight: Max. I forgot to mention how amazing he was as my oft-neglected office mate last week. He was an angel, and brought me band-aids every time I cried out in despair.