Happy Birthday America

I love to watch the Capitol Fourth from my hometown of D.C. with all the schmalzy patriotic music and fireworks. One year Ray Charles sang America the Beautiful; that was my favorite. This year though the temperatures were hotter than even here in Louisiana it was one of the most enthusiastically attended shows.

A what if question for you - where would we be now if we'd lost to the British? The realm would have probably sold us off to the French.

Happy Birthday to US!
May we grow in unity as our forefathers intended and learn in our souls that we are truly created equal, humbly accepting a position beside our fellow man, not above them.

Snow Days

MY HOME TOWN


One of my favorites of the White House. Click on the picture to see it full size.


We got five inches of snow this morning. No, it's not the 56" D.C. has had this year. Perspective people! Five inches is more than anyone in our are can remember in a long, long, long, long time. We usually get 3 inches of ice, lose lights for week, that kind of winter storm. So I'll share the pictures I took this morning. It was so pretty for a while.






Not too spectacular, eh? It was beautiful while it was coming down in big fat flakes. I waited too long to build a snowman. By ten in the morning it was raining snow, or snowing rain, dripping and melting everywhere. And too shallow for snow angels.

Heading Home

TRAVELERS AT DFW AIRPORT

My trip is over. It was fun but very uncreative. I'm sitting at BWI in the Southwest terminal waiting to board. One nice trend in airport travel I've noticed since last year is more free wireless. Makes sense. If you can occupy someone's time while they wait, they'll be happy campers. I know I am.

I'm so so so spoiled after being connected on high speed internet all week. It's unbelievable what one can accomplish when you don't have to wait on every page to load, reload, validate, revalidate, update, etc. I feel an internet rant coming on... after I catch up. I'm going to be so far behind. Ooops, they're calling my number. Hope you've had a great week!

Favorite Reads of 2009

Leah Braemel's blog reminded me that I have read some fantastic books this year, several that I'd like to mention here. First, the one that I am currently listening to on audiobook (and dragging it out as far as I can) is Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind, a fantasy about a storyteller told by a brilliant storyteller. I was captured from the first page. Honestly, I might not have ever found this book if Michael M hadn't suggested it. I absolutely hate for it to end. So much so that I'll probably go buy the hard back now and re-read it until book two comes out. Read an excerpt or find out more here

I simply cannot do this book justice so I'll give you a blurb from his publisher.

Told in classic high fantasy style, THE NAME OF THE WIND is a masterpiece that carries a fresh and earthy originality all its own. It transports the reader to the interior of a wizard's mind and to the world that helped create him. It is the story of a legendary hero and the truth that lies behind his legend. But Rothfuss also shows us how a hero can become ensnared in the very mythology he himself has brought to life.

To find a writer of great craft and breathtaking vitality is a rare occurrence. Patrick Rothfuss is that rarity. He will capture you with the power of Kvothe's story and the robust beauty of his writing. Join me in welcoming a writer who will rank with Tad Williams, George R. R. Martin, Terry Goodkind, Robert Jordan, and Terry Brooks. Exciting and rousing, intimate and personal, THE NAME OF THE WIND doesn't just describe what it is to be heroic, it is heroic.

Book Two - I hope - will be out before the August 2010 date on Borders. It's called The Wise Man's Fear.

I blogged last month about the fourth book in my favorite fantasy series, Queen of Song and Soul by C.L. Wilson. Please, if you love fantasy, pick up the first book - Lord of Fading Lands - and give it a go.

Last year I found several new authors - new to me.

Jim Butcher - I started with the latest which is still the best, then started back with number one. The Harry Dresden series.
Jeaniene Frost - Night Huntress, a different sort of vampire.
Charlaine Harris - the Sookie books and her Harper Connelly series

Bill Kirton - Material Evidence, really excellent crime fiction by a erudite Scot who knows alot about writing. If you don't believe it check out his blog I plan to look for book two in that series on my trip to D.C.
Keri Arthur the Riley Jensen books

I mentioned the trip. As soon as I'm done with work on Monday, I'll finish packing and Tuesday I'm off to my hometown, the burbs of D.C. I'm packing nothing but sweats since it's supposed to be cold the ten days of my visit.

So stay warm, stay safe, be a little bit ridiculous, and have a very good start to 2010!

Flying toward D.C.

As our plane left the tarmac one month ago today, and headed into the heavy clouds like a rocket, I could see container ships lined up, bumper to bumper rush hour traffic on the Mississippi. Much as I like to fly, I'm always uncomfortable on takeoffs into storm clouds until we break through to clearer sky.

Then the visual landscape changes into stark whites, darker grey shadows and muted pinks and blues of what looks like that other arctic landscape. If you didn't know you were in the sky 30000 feet above the earth, you'd think you could land, just over there on that flat stretch, or on that river running between those mountains of snow. I love the ever-changing panorama on display at that altitude and kick myself for not having my camera in my purse.



Not to self: Never try to save $100 again if it means having CFM deliver me to the airport in a CITY. He's okay on interstates on long stretches or around our rural community but when you get on a highway with more than one lane, 4 GET IT. I thought we were both going to have heart attacks before I could get me to the airport.

He jerks the steering wheel instead of turning it, passes cars and pulls in so close a couple times I thought we were going to hit them. He totally panics to the point of wrecking in an otherwise safe situation.

But he's nearly home and I'm 35000 feet up on my way to Orlando to change planes so we're both happy. Live and Learn.

Hometown Inauguration

It's awesome to see a site like this - reminds me of why it was so exciting to grow up here.

Being Home

Pretty picture of the cherry blossoms but not reality this trip. 10 degrees this morning..

Washington at Inauguration Time

Lots of stuff going on that make it inconvenient to get around but still I love being home. Love driving the streets where I grew up and worked. Love looking out over the balcony of my aunt's condo and seeing the Washington Monument in the distance.




I love watching the bumper to bumper traffic on the morning news report. And I even love the cold weather. As a matter of fact I pray for it and there it is. Yesterday, it was the first time since 1996 that it was a high of under 20 degrees. Last time I visited there was an unexpected three foot blizzard. My friend said, quit praying for cold, pray for money.

Tuesday morning I went to Einstein Bagel. Oh man, have I missed Einsteins. Like a kid purchasing his own candy for the first time with his own money, I stood at the counter looking for my favorite Asiago Cheese bagel and the ONLY cream cheese shmear - Jalapeno salsa. Then I sat outside at an iron table in my Careful or you'll Wind up in my Novel sweatshirt, garnering odd looks and thumbs up.

Just savoring being here. Sure, Washington's changed from the city of my youth with its influx of non English speaking citizens, even wider lanes of traffic, non-stop development of high rises and expensive homes. But it's also remarkably unchanged in its purpose and core reason for being - government.

No Washington is not perfect but it's my hometown as every one knows, there's no place like home.

Going home

Sitting in the hotel room in New Orleans trying to ignore the blaring sounds of the movie, Gladiator, while I type this blog.

You know, there's something intrinsically basic in men that goes back to the cave. You'd think that all these years of civilization would have tamed the species but whether its a shootem up western, a Dirty Harry, or a medieval war the more noise and blood and guts the deeper CFM is entrenched in the tale.

And I'm going, give me some quiet.

Anyway, we're here because I'm flying home to D.C. tomorrow for two weeks! I'm so excited. I haven't been home in four years. I'll be staying the first week with my 'Aunt' Chloe who gave me my first bath in a mixing bowl. She lives in a high rise that overlooks D.C. in Falls Church, Va. Four years ago I lived with her while I worked in the Herndon area after the hurricanes. I enjoyed the relationship we had, calling her 'Mom' having lost my mother 11 years ago to ovarian cancer. So, I'm really looking forward to seeing her again.

I hope to get to one of my favorite haunts, Panera Bread. The one I like is in old town, in an older building with a fireplace in the center of a room of overstuffed couches and chairs. One can enjoy free wireless while savoring their wonderful soups and sandwiches.

One night I hope to catch my friend CJ from northern Virginia and one day possibly meet out with Navy Guy's wife and kids.



Since there's a 'somewhat' special event happening in DC next week, I will travel south to Prince Frederick to see my dear friend, SheGeek (the Bill Gates of a large government agency) for a week of shopping and visiting. Then we'll drive up to Sherperdstown to see the new baby and I get to meet a fellow writer who lives up that way whom I met on our Goals loop.

I'm going to be collecting the sights and sounds of my hometown in the throes of change and the excitement of the inauguration.

SO I won't be posting regularly for the next couple weeks. Aunt Chloe has dialup. And you KNOW how I feel about dialup. I'll just have to stay off the internet to avoid tossing the computer through the high rise window.

Sounds like a good time to write, huh?

Friends who inspire

Did you ever have a friend who inspired you to go for it, to try things that you might have thought were out of reach.

I met Angela two years ago. We'd just had two hurricanes, I'd been laid off of my previous job, and had to leave home and go to D.C. for six months to work, far away from my husband and friends. It was one of the hardest things I'd ever done.

Angela was a mature, goal setting 23 yr old who had come from her native Oregon to live with her cousin near D.C. and get a government job. Her goal was to be the first CEO of a Fortune 500 company before the age of 45.

She knew how to move up the government ladder to reach her goals. She inspired me to reach for dreams that I'd thought buried and some I didn't discover until I came home.

It's hard to identify what your dreams might be when you're working 70-80 hours a week, year after year and just living day to day. You have to have time to contemplate, ruminate, and salivate. Ironically, during the only two periods of unemployment in my life, I began to realize my dream of writing.

Since then Angela has been steadily achieving one goal after another. This Sunday she'll become a grade 9. Just three or four years ago, she was a grade 3, and she'll be going to Georgetown University next year for her Masters in Business as well.

Thanks, my friend, for continuing to inspire me.

Christmas around the world

It's so neat, isn't it, seeing the way people celebrate Christmas around the globe. From tropical climes to mountain hideaways, from hometowns to faraway cities, we all celebrate a time of friends, family, and giving.

Here's a picture of my hometown at Christmas. Isn't that beautiful?

I won't get home for Christmas this year because of work and I'll miss the special Christmas with my friend, JoAnn, her brother's family, and mom. Then there's my other 'mom' Clara who lives nearby. Last year I lived with her in her condo overlooking D.C. while I was working up there. She cleared out a room and a closet and made me a little home away from home. A hometown home away from transplanted home - Louisiana. And though the temperatures got into the twenties and it snowed, I never got cold like I do here.

I miss it.

Often Christmas at our house means men visiting to hunt, camouflage piled up three feet deep, muddy boots, lots of 'missed the big one' tales. But this year it will be pretty quiet though I hope My Hero does manage to get to the woods and get some meat. And maybe I'll get to Natchez to hear Alcorn University's Choir perform at St. Mary's.

Whatever a peaceful, happy Christmas means to you, I hope it's yours this year.
Get out and Celebrate the Season!