August 1, 2011

It's August. And I haven't posted a single thing in over two months.

Ahh...vacation!

 

 

Several recent summers have been consumed by writing deadlines, and last year I was preparing for the launch of two books.

 

 

And because I still have a "day job" (which I love), June was crazy-busy.

 

 

So although at first, I was feeling guilty and slacker-ish for not posting here, I eventually decided to make it a conscious blogging break (which, of course, immediately meant I discovered all sorts of amazing blog-worthy material).

 

 

I had a full - but relaxing - July. It all started with a wedding, where the power went out! The bride was the daughter of my very good friend, Laura, who was my roomate in Quebec during the summer of 1988.

 

 

Shortly thereafter, I headed out to Winnipeg to visit relatives. It had been a long time since I went on the kind of vacation where I was just the guest, with no real touring or sightseeing or anything to do, and it was fabulous. Even more fabulous was the chance to reconnect with my cousins and their children.

 

 

I came home to a cottage full of longtime friends and their families - all together, we were six adults, four kids, three dogs, some delicious food and a lot of laughs.

 

 

Then, I spent a hot, hot week at home in Ontario during the heat wave, swimming in the lake almost every day (sometimes alone, often with my friend Joanne), entertaining my mother and my honorary "aunt" Mary, and going to an outdoor theatre in record breaking temperatures.

 

 

Right about then, my friend and colleague Colleen called me from Nova Scotia, to invite me out to visit her at her summer place in Guysborough. I don't usually lean towards spontaneity, but I'm trying to, more and more. So I cashed in some Aeroplan points for a flight to Halifax, and surfed the internet for a decent rental car rate: FYI, Alamo was about 1/3 the price of all of the other major rental places, including unlimited mileage! "Veronica" (my GPS) got me out of parking garage, and pointed me East as the radio played - I kid you not - "Born to Be Wild". (It turns out that it's tough to actually be wild at 41 and 44, with a six-year-old in the cottage, but we did manage to talk our way out of ticket one night...). I spent the final afternoon kicking around Halifax Harbour where I bought the beautful Sea Glass Hunters Handbook,

featuring a photo of a pink heart-shaped piece of seaglass much like the one I have, and featured in the trailer for Maybe Never, Maybe Now! My flight was scheduled to leave Halifax at 10:50 p.m., and at 11, they announced that due to a mechanical issue, it was cancelled! Most people on the flight were, understandably, frustrated and upset, but I was in the fortunate position of not really having to be anywhere else right away, so with a little help from someone I love, I managed to secure a reservation in one of the only area hotels that still had a vacancy. The shuttle arrived within fifteen minutes, and I spent a lovely night in a beautiful hotel room before finally flying back to Toronto the next day, just before noon.

 

 

I had a day or two to do my laundry and remind my pets that I do actually live here, before packing up the boat and heading out for the long weekend with another large group of friends.

 

 

In and amongst the craziness that was my month, I have read some wonderful books (which I will share with you, here), and begun to write anew (mostly in my head, but that's where all of my ideas root before I transplant them to keyboard). Reading back through the highlights of July, I notice the common threads of family and friends, many of whom I have not seen in previous summers as I shut myself in to write. My books are all about relationships - how lucky I am to be celebrating my own.  

I look forward to renewing my blogging relationships, as well!

Yippee!

1. Another excellent review for Maybe Never, Maybe Now. Page Turner's Blog calls it a "fantastic follow-up to Painting Caitlyn" and "a wonderful read".

2. My book trailer took third place in the October contest over at You Gotta Read Videos.

3. Tomorrow is Halloween at school! (but no costume yet...)

4. Here is the picture of me and my friends at our alumni dinner!

Back to the Future!

Okay - so as promised, more info on the high school/university visits the other day!

On Friday, I went back to Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute. It's the high school I attended, and I haven't been back since I graduated in 1988. I went to play "alumni author", read to the group of girls who gave up their lunch hour to come meet me, and then chatted up the Writer's Craft class in the exact classroom that was my first homeroom. SO FUN! Back when I was taking Writer's Craft, we were promised an extra 3% on our grades if we could get published - in any form - during the year. I wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper complaining about some really rude, denigrating jokes about women and was THRILLED when I got my name in print. Not, as it turned out, because of the 3%, which didn't really excite me all that much, but because someone thought something I'd written was worth putting in print. (You have to bear with me and understand that this was WAAAY before the internet, blogging opportunities, etc. People had to actually pick up pens to write things, and you were really "high-tech" if you had an electric typewriter).

Anyway, it seems that not a lot has changed, physically, in that building. Some pics:

A mural that was painted (not by me) during my time there, and remains today:

One of these lockers is the last one I ever had. Still know what the combination was, and remember clearly that Mike Raletic's locker was on my right, and Christa Ptatschek's locker was on my left, but couldn't pick the actual locker out of the line-up (sniff!):

A locker decorated for someone's birthday, just as we used to do, and described in my book Painting Caitlyn:

After the high school visit, I headed over to the University of Waterloo for the 50th anniversary of it's Faculty of Arts, where I sat with some of the smartest women I know. My friend Wendi, Executive Director of the Foodbank of Waterloo Region. Theresa (my first roomate!) works for Kraft Foods, and is partially responsible for hilarity like this bit on chocolate. And the ever effervescent Sandy is now perfectly positioned as a Twitter goddess (@sassygirlcanada) and communications expert for Research In Motion (yes, the Blackberry people). I don't see them often. But when I do, it's super fun. And since this was an alumni event, we were younger than almost everyone else, easily making us still the hottest girls in the place! (will post pics of us when I get copies of the ones the photographer took).

Finally, here's what the high school and the university had in common:

THEY BOTH GAVE ME FANCY CHOCOLATE!!!