Road Trip

I was supposed to be on my way to Chicago for a girls weekend today. We’d (three writer friends and myself) planned this trip months ago, but unfortunately the Chicago friend has been having some health problems lately, so we’re postponing our trip until sometime this fall. Which turned out okay…my husband has a big work weekend planned with people coming in from out of town etc., so I was feeling a little guilty about Junior High Kid being forced to either hang with them all weekend or be on his own.

But once my trip to Chicago got canceled, I remembered when I had school visits in Omaha this spring that I thought Omaha seemed like a fine weekend destination. I’d only been through Omaha once…as a kid…I’ve never really stopped and done anything there. So…change of plans! Junior High Kid and I are off to Omaha for the weekend. (Yeah, I know…I took the one kid to London and I’m taking this one to Omaha…it might appear as though one of the kids is getting ripped off, except this isn’t THE trip. THE trip is still coming…when Junior High Kid is older. This is just A trip. A mini-trip, if you will. Maybe it’s the other kid who got ripped off…I never took him to Omaha!)

I had hoped to have my picture book done before we left…I’m SO close. But there’s one little section that’s not quite right. And well, we want to get to Omaha by dinnertime. So rather than send it off not quite ready, I’ll wait until Monday. Maybe the perfect solution will occur to me on the drive over?

I’m hoping to make good progress on the series proposal during the drive there and back, too. Junior High Kid has not been real interested in the picture book (“you’re STILL working on that???” “Aren’t you done with that YET???”), but he’s interested in the series (even though it’s aimed at kids younger than he is). And he’s a good sounding board. So maybe we can plot all four books on the way? He’s a writer, too, so we’ll probably discuss his novel, too…

Or…we’ll listen to MONKEY TOWN on CD…or I’ll crank my Mamma Mia CD up real loud and sing along. (Junior High Kid will LOVE that!)