A Quiet Weekend...

Exactly what I need.
We'll be going to the Endless Mountains in upper state Pennsylvania this weekend.
A weekend without TV, phones, computers...
I'm taking a book and a notebook (one with paper, not a screen).
We'll be taking walks in the woods, reading, writing, napping.
I'll practice shooting...and napping.
I'll watch the birds...and nap.
I'll relax...and nap.
Did I mention: napping. A thoroughly underrated activity that restores memory, energy and the soul.
Exactly what I need.

Used Book Sales

Like a gambler going to Atlantic City, Vegas or any number of Pennsylvania locations, I should not go to these. However, I do...willingly.

I went to the Oley Community Library Used Book sale Saturday with Morgan. There is no Oley Community Library - they want one - that's why they're having a used book sale. Sigh. Sort of like having a bake sale to fund the police department. I know how Oley used to do that, but that story's for a different post.

I love used book sales. I never know what I'll find. At this one I found the memorial edition of Profiles in Courage (immediately borrowed by Olivia as soon as she saw it). I bought two other books. One is a Josephine Tey mystery - she's been one of my favorites since she convinced me that Richard III wasn't all that evil in her book Daughter of Time.

Looking over all the books carefully packed in boxes with the boxes labeled and placed on tables under tents, I wondered what will happen to "used book sales" if the Kindle and the Nook become the most popular form of reading.

I handed The Little Stranger to my coworker, Kim yesterday. "I don't have to buy books with all that you give me to read."

"Enjoy it while it lasts," I said. "I get my Kindle in a couple of weeks."

Enjoy it while it lasts, used book sales...

A Taste of Retirement

Should I tell people I want to retire in two years or should I leave people guessing?
I think I need to plan and the company needs to plan for my future absence. Not that they will die without me. I would love to think I'm invaluable but I know I'm not.
And I need to know what it would be like to go from "full-speed" to "slow". Or would I?

I had Thursday and Friday off this week - with no travel plans. I usually spend my vacation days going somewhere - this year to Seattle to see Heather and then to England.

The results of two days with no travel plans:
Morgan and I spent Thursday at Musikfest - in the rain. We enjoyed it. We seem to enjoy anything we do together. Did I mention that Morgan is retired?
Friday was spent (sans Morgan), editing The Last Prophecy and reading.
Saturday was my RWA chapter meeting (Pocono Lehigh Romance Writers), errands, and then dinner, the Oley Peach Festival and book sale with Morgan.
Sunday?
Today's agenda: Writing, laundry and straightening up the apartment because Morgan, Olivia and Josh will be over before we go to a play in the evening.
I'm sure, if I were retired, not every day would be packed with activities.
For most days I would like to follow the Stephen King schedule: write in the morning, take a walk, read in the afternoon.
And I would have enough projects to keep me busy.
I have to finish editing another book, Moonstone Magic.
I have to work on The Change and Daffodil Season (both unfinished).
I have to finish another Macie Carter novella, When in Rome.
And that's not counting the short stories swirling around in my head...
Or our plans to travel.

Now that I've had a taste of retirement, I may want the whole pie.

Two Favorite Authors

Image from www,darkhorizons.com

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have become, together and separately, two of my favorite authors.

I just finished reading "Thunderhead" and was transfixed by the information on the Anasazi and archeology - not to mention the suspense.

I will continue to read anything they write together or individually. Their books are not just great escapes but educational.

Morgan's Disney and Harry Potter Pics

Jaden in "England" at Epcot

Hogwart's School

Cinderella's Castle

Bridezillas...

One of my many guilty pleasures.

I record the show and then fast forward through the stupid parts. I do a lot of fast forwarding.
But last night I was watching a train wreck named Maria who was decidedly not as perfect as she claimed to be. I heard this 20 year old know-everything say she was not going to work; she was going to stay home and do nothing, not even the housework or cooking.
WTF???

Sometimes I wonder where I went wrong:

Oh, yeah, now I remember: I went to nursing school and had a job when I got married. I never thought I would NOT work. I hoped for a part time job and eventually got that - however, I also had a full time job while working the part time one.

But not this Bridezilla - she's doing nothing.
Hmmmm...
Odds on how long this wonderful marriage will last?
Maybe not as long as mine.

All she wants to do is...

...read.

With Morgan sweltering in Disney World, I found I had a free weekend on my hands.
What to do?
What to do?
I could write...
But there was also that towering TBR stack of books.
So being the good procrastinator, I decided to pick one of them.
Aha! The new Agent Pendergast book, Fever Dream, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.
And for one weekend I immersed myself in the odd world of the eccentric Special Agent, a character I've loved since reading The Relic, the first book in the series.

I met Lincoln Child at a Deadly Ink writers conference and was pleased to tell him how much I loved the series and that I wanted to read his stand-alone works. I chose Utopia, trouble in a mega amusement park, ala Disney. I escaped into that book, too.

So that's what I did this weekend without my Morgan, I escaped. I ran away with Special Agent Pendergast and company. I met the series new villain. I lived an exciting, interesting two days, learning about Carolina Parakeets and Audubon along the way.

There are times when we all need to escape.
And sometimes all I want to do is...read.

Musikfest 2010

The yellow "Musikfest Parking" signs are everywhere.
If this was 15 years ago, I would be excited looking forward to my vacation.
I used to spend a week of my vacation at Musikfest, the decades long huge music festival that shuts down various sections of Bethlehem, PA.
I would carefully save money so I would have $20 to $25 a day to spend on food tickets and a CD if I liked the performer. I bought the shuttle/trolley pin as soon as they were on sale so I could ride the shuttle bus from the parking lots and the trolley around the platzes for one price. I also bought the book of schedules and carefully plotted my course between platzes to see the performers I thought were the best. Most of the time I would spend the better part of the day at one platz, usually Leiderplatz or Volksplatz, and then head home by dark to avoid Main Street and the drunks.
Yep there were drunken rowdies at Musikfest - still are.
Last year one of them sucker-punched the horse of a mounted cop.
No lie.

Musikfest was my vacation spot every year.
And I would get teased about it - by people who took vacations to Mexico, the Bahamas, etc.
I would just shrug. It was what I could afford.
I went every year - except the year Rich Korpics was in U of P Hospital waiting for a heart transplant.
I went when it stormed.
I went when there was a tornado warning.
I went when it was 100 degrees.
But times, any my salary, have changed.
And so have I and so has Musikfest.
It's still the best place to hear all different types of music and most of it for free.
But I don't spend a week's vacation to go.
Sometimes I don't go at all.
I'm older and spend my vacation $ and time going to other places: England, Seattle to see Heather, Gettysburg.
I'm older and I can't handle the crowds as well - even the afternoon crowds that are not so drunk and rowdy.
I'm older and I can't handle the heat as well - or the walking.
But this year, I have tickets to Cherish the Ladies. I love that group. Morgan and I may spend the afternoon at Leiderplatz or Volksplatz and then take the short stroll to the evening concert. We may go again on Friday, if the weather's not too hot and there's something we want to see/hear.
And that will be my Musikfesting for the year.
The festival is changing, getting larger with more ticketed venues and more drinking, and I don't seem to fit into it anymore; maybe I've changed, too.
Change is not always bad.
But sometimes it's not all good, either.