November 14, 2006

• Prayer Request

  My Nephew, Jordan, had an accident last month and broke his foot rather badly.  He's in a cast and has been making do with an awesome attitude.  Last night, he was helping to clear the table for supper when one of his crutches slipped.  He broke a glass when he fell and then fell on the broken glass.  He cut his left hand at the base of his thumb so badly that his mom says blood spurted across the room and splattered the wall. 

  He was sent to Little Rock to be evaluated by a team of experts at Arkansas Children's Hospital where they decided that it would be possible to sew the wound closed without additional surgery, although questions of ultimate nerve damage have yet to be answered. 

  Oh, and the kid is left-handed.  And his birthday is coming in 2 weeks.  He's not gonna be allowed anywhere NEAR a flaming birthday candle.

   

  Back at Work, and An Excerpt

  Okay, I'm back on track.  I've had encouraging things happen over the past 24 hours, no, they didn't catch the 'perp.'  But I can't put any more energy into the tantrum I've been having for the past week.  Conversation with US Bank leads me to believe that I'll be able to start paying bills again as early as tomorrow afternoon.  My word count is rising, and my boss is out of town for the rest of the week.

  Since all this schtuff over here is contributing to a horrible neglect of your Xanga sites, I offer my sincere apologies.  NaNo is always tough but this year is beyond tough.

  Did you catch that part about my boss being out of town?  We have a new guy on our team who'll be helping with website redesign.  Don't look now, but we're about two years out of date.  SO Chris, the new guy, calls my boss and our COO "the smart guys".  And I love that.  As in, "The Smart Guys" are going out of town, so what are WE gonna do all week.  Well, the smart guys answered that question yesterday with a resounding ... finish that web design so the site is ready to launch next Monday.  Suddenly we went from a leisurely looking week to an impossible looking week. 

  The COO handed us a compliment on his way out the door.  He said, "I am AMAZED by how much you guys get done in any given day.  I've never had a team that I could say, "how about ..." and before my thought as formed properly you've give it to me with options."  He went on to say that three weeks ago he'd have been blown away by us but anymore, he's a little leery of giving us an assignment because it seems that he's contributing to the creation of a monster. 

  Okay, whatever, you still have to pay a web developer cause I have other things keeping me up at night.  Just sayin'

  And I thought I'd post an excerpt from the book.  If you read the "Postcards" last summer, you have a rough idea of the story although it's changing as I'm writing it.  Becoming much much less true to my own life, but hopefully a better story.  Some parts I'm keeping the same.  My protagonist starts in a mythical Southern Indiana town, marriage is falling apart, files for divorce and now is in a U-haul truck headed to Colorado with a 7 yr old and an almost 10 year old. 

  Chapter 10

  “Can we stop at a McDonalds with a Play Place? I’m tired of being in the truck.” 

  Emma glanced over at Sawyer who was lying in his back with his feet in the air and his head hanging over the edge of the seat. 

  “Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”

  “I’m wearing my seatbelt.”  He grinned at his mom and made a point of entwining  his foot with the restraint. 

  “Oh, yeah, that’ll help a lot if we’re in an accident.”  He twisted around until he was kneeling in the seat, although he did loop the shoulder restraint around his body.

  “Would you be sad if I was never born?”

  “Sawyer, if you would never born there would have been an empty place in my heart for my whole life.  I’m very glad I have you, and Mason.  I love my boys.”

  He nodded.  “I thought so.”

  “I need to have a rest stop.”  Mason said.

  “Oh, Baby, now?  We just passed one and I don’t see anything coming up soon.”

              “I can try to hold it but, yeah, now.  Right now would be good.” 

              Emma looked across where Mason was twisting his legs across each other and made the command decision to use the side of the highway.  This part of Missouri was comprised of long miles of open field and she didn’t think it mattered whether she pulled over now to let him out, or two miles down the road to clean him up. 

              Mason stood in the shadow of the van and relieved himself.  Sawyer couldn’t resist joining the fun. Oh, the joys of traveling ‘cross country with boys.  Twenty three miles further and she put on the blinker for a travel stop.

              “How come we’re stopping now?”

              “Because, Sawyer, Mom needs a rest stop, too.”

              “You should have gone when we did.”

              “Sawyer,” Mason chimed in, “Girls don’t do that!  They’re like dogs, they only go in places where they can mark their territory.”

              “What?  Mason where did you get that?”  Emma asked.

              “Animal Planet, I saw a show all about how some animals, like dogs, like to mark territory.  And I figured that girls are animals too.”

              “Mason, that is amazingly wrong.”

              “No, Mom, he’s right.  Girls are animals.”  Sawyer said.

              “That’s not what I meant.  Of course, girls are animals.  All human beings are animals, but we’re also private, modest, and we aren’t all comfortable with peeing on the side of the road.”

              Mason and Sawyer gave each other a look that said as loudly as any words they might have spoken that they were awarding each other a medal for tolerating her obvious lack of intelligence. 

              “Okay, believe what you want.  I’m stopping.”

              While Emma indulged her eccentric taste for a clean restroom, the boys consulted the large map posted across the wall.  When she emerged they had it all figured out.

              “Here we are Mom, and look Colorado is only 18 bricks away from Columbia.  We should be there before dinner time.”

              “Boys, I think it’s gonna be a little further than that.”

              “Is the map wrong?”

              “No, the map is right, but each one of those bricks represents almost an hour of driving.  It’s gonna take us two more days to get to Colorado Springs.”

              “You’re kidding.”  Mason said, but not in a way that suggested he truly believed it was a joke.

              “No, that’s how far it is.”

              “You didn’t tell us it was on the other side of the world.”  Sawyer said.

              “It’s not that far.  It just takes a while to drive there.”

              “Is Daddy gonna be able to find us?”

              Emma sighed.  “He knows where we’re going; he can come and visit if he wants; and we have the cell phone plan that will let you talk to him every single day.”

              “There’s not that much to say so far.  We haven’t done anything except ride and ride and ride.”  Mason said.

              “I have something to say,”  Sawyer said.  “I’m gonna tell him that Mom says that she’s not a girl.  Cause girls are animals but Mom doesn’t do animal things so she’s not a girl.” 

              “Sawyer, your powers of logic are frightening.  You are going to be something else when you grow up.”

              “I’m gonna be an artist, cause then I won’t have to really work.”

   

  • 7:52 am
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