Meeting the Governor

It's not every day you get to meet the governor, but last week I did. I listened to him speak to a smallish group, wishing my daughter could be in the room. This is an important man.

He was very personable. I enjoyed his talk immensely and told him so. I got to shake his hand and have my picture taken with him. Right before the picture was snapped I wished I had worn something else, but was pleased just the same thinking about how I could say to my friends, "Guess what? I met the Governor!"

Here it is week later and I didn't mention it to a soul. It's been a hectic week. We are trying to get ready for a trip my daughter is taking. Performances are involved, so there are practices, costumes to get ready, hotel reservations to make, the list goes on. One of the boys is sick with some sort of virus again. It has been raining quite a bit lately and my car sprung a leak. A good six inches of water collected in the bottom of the trunk before we noticed it. There has been some upheaval in other areas of life as well. I think the most disrupting thing has been the addition of a new puppy to our family.

He is an eight week old mixed darling who came to us needing medical care and grooming. Now that he is feeling better we have discovered he obviously has some ADHD heritage. While our new pup Thunder is a joy, like some of the human boys in this family who also have ADHD heritage, he is an exhausting joy. He is going to be l a r g e. It is imperative that he learn commands like 'down' as soon as possible. Anyone who has ever had a pup knows there is a massive time investment in the cleaning and scooping areas as well. So I've been busy. Too busy to think about name dropping at all.

Yesterday my hands were in a sink of dirty dishes and I was day dreaming about being a famous novelist someday. Perhaps people would line up just to shake my hand and smile at me. That's when I remembered meeting the Governor. If I ever do get famous I will certainly not be as important or vital as he is, and I had forgotten all about my big moment of meeting the governor.

Should my day in the spotlight ever come and my head start to swell, I will remind myself that people might have other things on their minds besides thinking about how great I am. Like getting on back to the house in hopes there won't be extra puppy messes to clean up.

Point A to Point B

Recently, I attended a lecture about writing by Allison Pittman. It was morning. There came a time when we were asked to pick up a pen and write. I had my notebook. I had two pens. But it was morning. Besides, flash writing is not something I usually do well at. And it was still morning . . . or at least it wasn't lunch time yet.

I gathered my thoughts and was about to make a mark on my paper when, at that exact moment, she said, "Your three minutes are up."

Discussion followed. I did not contribute. When she resumed her speech I was struck by her statement, "to get your writing from point A to point R . . ."

I thought to myself, "I'd be happy to get from point A to point B."

Books I Might Write Someday

1. Confessions of a Craft Addict
2. Steak Ain't the Same Once It's Been Through the Babyfood Grinder
3. Bringing Up Boys, and Rabbits, and Cats, and Dogs
4. Camo is a Color
5. It Only Takes One Princess to Hold the Majority Vote
6. Waiting for the Paint to Dry
7. All Dogs Go to My House
8. Bangs or Botox?
9. Just Eat the Cheesecake
10. The Mad Red Hatter's Real Life Adventures

Today my little girl asks, "How's your book coming, Momma?"

"Not so good today."

She leans over the keyboard, squints at my monitor. "Chapter Five! That's very good, Momma."

"But I've been working on this chapter for almost two weeks," I whine.

"Well, " she pats my arm, "I usually take a month to finish a chapter when I write a book."

Pen Names

I've been working on a novel. It's hard work. I was staring at the computer keyboard yesterday and decided what I really needed was a pen name. When I was a little bitty girl, I was known by my family as DonnaMe. I thought, "Hey, I'll shorten it to D'me." At the time it looked kind of foreign and elegant to me. I was suffering from severe sleep deprivation and a headache.

I asked my family what they thought of the name. I had to write it out before they got it. My middle son read out loud, "Duh me."

I suddenly realized that if you live in Texas, only a dummy would name themselves D'me.