Well, not sure that I make a very good recluse. It seems there is always something pulling me away. I do, however, have most of the transcripts now that I can work my way through writing beautiful, yet pithy prose on each of the guys.
I have been doing a lot, just none of it is writing.
I haven't actually begun the cleansing because I am quite nervous about how that will go, so I'm waiting until Saturday when I have no where to be. . . except at my desk . . . writing dutifully. sigh.
Poor Sabrina is a a sad little beast. She had her female bits removed this morning. She is still full of whatever it is she was filled with to put her under. They kindly gave me pills to help keep her calm the rest of the week. The lab boxer combo isn't one for being still for long.
The non-stop rain is getting on my nerves a bit, but I suppose it is helping to keep me inside and working.
I have one interview tomorrow, then back to the grindstone.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
New Me
Part I. The recluse. I have got to get very focused on writing the book. This means that I have to shut myself off from the world as much as possible. It isn't going to be easy, and I know I won't be able to totally do that, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I have to have 10 spreads by July 15th. Considering the fact that I don't have all the photos I need from almost any of them and that I'm still trying to schedule some final interviews, I think this is a tricky proposition at best.
I'm going to try to be good about blogging, so those actually keeping up with the blog can feel like they know what is going on in my sad little pitiful life. If it sounds like I'm starting to have any kind of fun, feel free to call me up and chastise me.
Part II. Since I am having to hole up, I thought it would be a good time to work on the eating healthy and getting exercise program. I bought a two week "cleansing system." Not sure what that will do to the bod, but I hear cleasing is good. I'm going to start that on Friday. I keep pushing the start date back, but I'm worried about starting when I have appts if you know what I mean.
Now the irony is that those wanting to keep up with me will want to read the blog, and those not interested in the bodily functions of a girl in a two week cleansing will want to run. I'll try to warn you before I start the gross parts.
I'm going to try to be good about blogging, so those actually keeping up with the blog can feel like they know what is going on in my sad little pitiful life. If it sounds like I'm starting to have any kind of fun, feel free to call me up and chastise me.
Part II. Since I am having to hole up, I thought it would be a good time to work on the eating healthy and getting exercise program. I bought a two week "cleansing system." Not sure what that will do to the bod, but I hear cleasing is good. I'm going to start that on Friday. I keep pushing the start date back, but I'm worried about starting when I have appts if you know what I mean.
Now the irony is that those wanting to keep up with me will want to read the blog, and those not interested in the bodily functions of a girl in a two week cleansing will want to run. I'll try to warn you before I start the gross parts.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Crikey
Soooooo, I had bedcheck duty last night. Of course there had to be a couple of rooms that were wide awake with no intentions of sleeping. I sat in one of the rooms talking to about 6 of them until after midnight. Yawn, yawn. Then I shoo-d them off to bed.
This morning Nikkie wakes me telling me it is 8am, which gave me enough of a start that I was WIDE AWAKE (kinda like the kids at midnight). My phone is stuck on the battery charged screen, and I'm messing with that as I get dressed and get downstairs so I can do the breakfast check.
I get downstairs and the restaurant is totally dark. Hmmm. I get my phone working, and it tells me it is 5:30am. I ask someone. Yes, that is correct 5:30. The wake-up call is supposed to be for 7am. I cannot begin to describe how annoyed I am. Sleep is already a high priced commodity. Loosing it unnecessarily makes me want to cry. It is 5:57 . . . so I still have another hour, but I am so tired I can hardly string enough thoughts together to make a complete sentence.
Have I mentioned yet that we are supposed to be loaded onto the bus for our trip to the airport tomorrow morning at 4:30am????
I can feel myself starting to switch gears and think about what I need to get done when I get back to Dallas. I am ready to be home. I miss my silly dog. and everyone else.
I did get to talk to MaryBeth last night. Yea!! She is in town and picking me up from the airport. Not sure she knows what she is getting!
Less than 24 hours left in London . . .
This morning Nikkie wakes me telling me it is 8am, which gave me enough of a start that I was WIDE AWAKE (kinda like the kids at midnight). My phone is stuck on the battery charged screen, and I'm messing with that as I get dressed and get downstairs so I can do the breakfast check.
I get downstairs and the restaurant is totally dark. Hmmm. I get my phone working, and it tells me it is 5:30am. I ask someone. Yes, that is correct 5:30. The wake-up call is supposed to be for 7am. I cannot begin to describe how annoyed I am. Sleep is already a high priced commodity. Loosing it unnecessarily makes me want to cry. It is 5:57 . . . so I still have another hour, but I am so tired I can hardly string enough thoughts together to make a complete sentence.
Have I mentioned yet that we are supposed to be loaded onto the bus for our trip to the airport tomorrow morning at 4:30am????
I can feel myself starting to switch gears and think about what I need to get done when I get back to Dallas. I am ready to be home. I miss my silly dog. and everyone else.
I did get to talk to MaryBeth last night. Yea!! She is in town and picking me up from the airport. Not sure she knows what she is getting!
Less than 24 hours left in London . . .
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
My feet are killing me.
I can't even keep up with everything we have been doing. Today we are in Florence walking, walking, walking. Actually I spent the first half of the day at the Embassy getting 2 emergency passports for kids that lost theirs. I did way too much shopping, but I love what I got. I spent about 20 minutes checking my email and now I don't have time to add to the blog. We are on a bus for 10 hours tomorrow. I will write madly and then put it on the blog.
sorry.
sorry.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Bad News
It looks like I forgot the cord to connect the camera to the computer, so I won't be able to show any of my fabulous pictures until I get back. Bummer.
OK, so first night we had dinner in the hotel then walked to the Coliseum at night. Beautiful.
Saturday we got up went to the Vatican. Great. Then we walked until I thought my feet would fall off. The weather was a little drizzly in the am but cleared up. Where did we walk? To tell you the truth I'm not sure I can remember. I need to be writing everything down. We walked across a very cool bridge, then to the Panthenon (sp) then to the Trevi Fountain, then the Spanish steps. Oh fun story.
So we leave the fountain and walk to the steps. I am not part of the counting process I want to make that clear. At any rate, our tour guide is talking to Skip and I walk up. Seems that one of the girls called her, hard to understand, left at the fountain. She's with a girl named Georgia . . . that's right, Georgia and Scholle some how stood waiting at the fountain, confident they were at the right place, they tried to call me, but that is how I discovered Cingular had not gotten to my phone properly set up to get-send calls. Soooo, I went back with Jimmy and we got them. You have never seen such happy faces as those girls when they saw us.
Dinner was at a lovely restaurant and then we went to Piazza Novona. Nikkie, my roommate, didn't because right before dinner she started feeling ill, so she went back to the hotel and went to bed. My intestines have had some trouble getting used to it here too. Same thing happened last time. Going to the bathroom more often if you know what I mean. Damn country needs softer toilet paper. Piazza Novoa is where I got paintings last time, but I controlled myself and spent nothing. Lovely. It was a nice night, and I think everyone had a great time.
I had bed check last night. Lordy, they were like gofers. I would pound one back into the hole and another would pop up. I finally got to bed at about 1:30am.
Georgia and I got up this morning and went to church at St. John's. Good story goes with this. Must be told in person to get the full effect. Needless to say, Georgia is probably scarred by the experience. oops. I love going to church because it is such a different experience than milling about with tons of other tourists. I can really feel God's presence. Hopefully it will go better in Paris.
It rained the first half of the day. We went to St Peter in Chains church. Beautiful. We went back to the Coliseum, which is great, but what a total misery. Freezing cold, I was wearing flip flops because I was unwilling to get any of my cute shoes dirty. Walked to the Forum. Still raining. Saw Kristen, one of my other editors on the trip and we headed out. Caught up with one of the boys and we went to an authentic Italian restaurant. We sat outdoors and watched the rain come down. Then we headed out. Brett felt confident he knew where we were and how to get us back, so Kristen and I shuffled along behind him in the rain. It was an adventure!
The plan was to go to the Tripoli Gardens (former Pope's) home with great water gardens about 45 minutes out of town. I swear half the kids came to me to try to whine about going. Didn't go to Skip, didn't go to anyone else. They all came to me. I told them no way was I taking that bullet. They wanted to talk to skip they could, I was keeping my mouth shut and going. The rain finally became a mist and we arrived with it just being damp. I think everyone was amazed and in love with the house and the gardens. Stupendious. The house was built on a hill, so the gardens are water gardens that use no electricity, but AMAZING fountains. On the way back to the bus we stopped for gelato because it is yummy in Italy, then walked past an outdoor market before hopping the bus back to town.
We have a small afternoon break before dinner at 7:30 and then off for what Marcus, one of the tour guides, refers to as the best ice cream ever. Hmm. We'll see. Normally I would abstain, but a challenge has been thrown out, so I must.
My phone is finally fixed, although I haven't gotten to talk to anyone yet. We go to Florence tomorrow via Assissi (sp) and Pisa. It will be a really long day on the bus, but I loved Assissi last time (please don't let it be raining).
Quick side note, as I sit typing with Skip at the internet shop, there is a man in the front SCREAMING. I think with a girl. I have NO CLUE of what they are talking about, but I have to tell you I am weirded out. Nikkie was waiting in the hallway for us, but decided the better part of valor was to slink back into our room. Good choice.
The kids have been really good. Some have issues with timeliness which makes me nutty, but the good news is that I'm not in charge. There is another trip, can't remember if I mentioned it, that between the ding dong teacher leading it and the list of kids, it will be a miracle if they all make it back without incident. Oh, don't be surprised, at least 3 yearbook kids on that trip. sigh.
Lots of love.
e
OK, so first night we had dinner in the hotel then walked to the Coliseum at night. Beautiful.
Saturday we got up went to the Vatican. Great. Then we walked until I thought my feet would fall off. The weather was a little drizzly in the am but cleared up. Where did we walk? To tell you the truth I'm not sure I can remember. I need to be writing everything down. We walked across a very cool bridge, then to the Panthenon (sp) then to the Trevi Fountain, then the Spanish steps. Oh fun story.
So we leave the fountain and walk to the steps. I am not part of the counting process I want to make that clear. At any rate, our tour guide is talking to Skip and I walk up. Seems that one of the girls called her, hard to understand, left at the fountain. She's with a girl named Georgia . . . that's right, Georgia and Scholle some how stood waiting at the fountain, confident they were at the right place, they tried to call me, but that is how I discovered Cingular had not gotten to my phone properly set up to get-send calls. Soooo, I went back with Jimmy and we got them. You have never seen such happy faces as those girls when they saw us.
Dinner was at a lovely restaurant and then we went to Piazza Novona. Nikkie, my roommate, didn't because right before dinner she started feeling ill, so she went back to the hotel and went to bed. My intestines have had some trouble getting used to it here too. Same thing happened last time. Going to the bathroom more often if you know what I mean. Damn country needs softer toilet paper. Piazza Novoa is where I got paintings last time, but I controlled myself and spent nothing. Lovely. It was a nice night, and I think everyone had a great time.
I had bed check last night. Lordy, they were like gofers. I would pound one back into the hole and another would pop up. I finally got to bed at about 1:30am.
Georgia and I got up this morning and went to church at St. John's. Good story goes with this. Must be told in person to get the full effect. Needless to say, Georgia is probably scarred by the experience. oops. I love going to church because it is such a different experience than milling about with tons of other tourists. I can really feel God's presence. Hopefully it will go better in Paris.
It rained the first half of the day. We went to St Peter in Chains church. Beautiful. We went back to the Coliseum, which is great, but what a total misery. Freezing cold, I was wearing flip flops because I was unwilling to get any of my cute shoes dirty. Walked to the Forum. Still raining. Saw Kristen, one of my other editors on the trip and we headed out. Caught up with one of the boys and we went to an authentic Italian restaurant. We sat outdoors and watched the rain come down. Then we headed out. Brett felt confident he knew where we were and how to get us back, so Kristen and I shuffled along behind him in the rain. It was an adventure!
The plan was to go to the Tripoli Gardens (former Pope's) home with great water gardens about 45 minutes out of town. I swear half the kids came to me to try to whine about going. Didn't go to Skip, didn't go to anyone else. They all came to me. I told them no way was I taking that bullet. They wanted to talk to skip they could, I was keeping my mouth shut and going. The rain finally became a mist and we arrived with it just being damp. I think everyone was amazed and in love with the house and the gardens. Stupendious. The house was built on a hill, so the gardens are water gardens that use no electricity, but AMAZING fountains. On the way back to the bus we stopped for gelato because it is yummy in Italy, then walked past an outdoor market before hopping the bus back to town.
We have a small afternoon break before dinner at 7:30 and then off for what Marcus, one of the tour guides, refers to as the best ice cream ever. Hmm. We'll see. Normally I would abstain, but a challenge has been thrown out, so I must.
My phone is finally fixed, although I haven't gotten to talk to anyone yet. We go to Florence tomorrow via Assissi (sp) and Pisa. It will be a really long day on the bus, but I loved Assissi last time (please don't let it be raining).
Quick side note, as I sit typing with Skip at the internet shop, there is a man in the front SCREAMING. I think with a girl. I have NO CLUE of what they are talking about, but I have to tell you I am weirded out. Nikkie was waiting in the hallway for us, but decided the better part of valor was to slink back into our room. Good choice.
The kids have been really good. Some have issues with timeliness which makes me nutty, but the good news is that I'm not in charge. There is another trip, can't remember if I mentioned it, that between the ding dong teacher leading it and the list of kids, it will be a miracle if they all make it back without incident. Oh, don't be surprised, at least 3 yearbook kids on that trip. sigh.
Lots of love.
e
Friday, June 1, 2007
We have arrived
The plane took off 30 minutes late, but never made up the time, so we arrived in Frankfurt late. The ride wasn't bad. Flight attendents were a little cranky, but it was a plane full of teenagers (45 just with us).
We changed planes in Frankfurt to fly into Rome. That was a little dicey since the landing involved a big bounce the passengers weren't counting on. Burgundy was fast asleep, one of the girls behind her gave a gusty scream, and Burgundy nearly had a heart attack.
One of the girls has already mislocated her passport. No idea of how or where. Guess we'll be working on that the next couple of days. My assignment is to go through her stuff again, just to be sure it isn't really there.
I have photos but I forgot to bring the cord connecting the camera to the computer. Rats. I'll try to do that tomorrow.
Went to St John's today, seat of the Bishop of Rome (aka the Pope when he is acting as Bishop). Went to the stairs that you kneel the whole way up because they are believed to be the stairs to Pontius Pilot with Jesus's blood on them. Probably have lots of other people's blood too at this point cause those stairs are a killer. Just eyeballed them this time.
Tonight we have dinner at the hotel and then walking to the Coloseum. I happen to be wearing very cute tennis shoes that I bought on Wednesday. Very cute although currently rubbing a hole into my left pinky toe.
We changed planes in Frankfurt to fly into Rome. That was a little dicey since the landing involved a big bounce the passengers weren't counting on. Burgundy was fast asleep, one of the girls behind her gave a gusty scream, and Burgundy nearly had a heart attack.
One of the girls has already mislocated her passport. No idea of how or where. Guess we'll be working on that the next couple of days. My assignment is to go through her stuff again, just to be sure it isn't really there.
I have photos but I forgot to bring the cord connecting the camera to the computer. Rats. I'll try to do that tomorrow.
Went to St John's today, seat of the Bishop of Rome (aka the Pope when he is acting as Bishop). Went to the stairs that you kneel the whole way up because they are believed to be the stairs to Pontius Pilot with Jesus's blood on them. Probably have lots of other people's blood too at this point cause those stairs are a killer. Just eyeballed them this time.
Tonight we have dinner at the hotel and then walking to the Coloseum. I happen to be wearing very cute tennis shoes that I bought on Wednesday. Very cute although currently rubbing a hole into my left pinky toe.
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