not again!

I just got a call from the school nurse. At least I got a walk in this morning.

okay?

So I get this voicemail on my cellphone today, and it's a song. Only a song. Not a song that particularly means anything to me either. Like, maybe if it was a *certain* song, I'd think some long lost friend was trying to reconnect or something (but if that were the case, and they had my cell phone number, I have a feeling they'd just leave me a message). Anyway, someone out there trying to send yourself an Aerosmith ringtone or whatever: you made a typo.

this november...

I'm not even attempting NaNoWriMo. Instead, I'm wrapping up the revision that doesn't want to die. If I can just get that all finished before December, I'll feel totally accomplished.

ny scbwi

It's official--I'm going! And I can't wait! Yeah, the price is exorbitant when you add up all the travel expenses plus the conference fees, but I'm tapping a few resources I've left unturned up to this point. Plus, I've never been the NYC SCBWI conference before, and I've heard good stories about it from friends, so it feels worth a shot. If not, I'll stick to the L.A. conference in the future.

How about you? Anyone else out there going?

fire week

If you live in San Diego, you know what I'm talking about. Twice recently, we were slammed with big fires in the week and a half before Halloween, leaving kids trick-or-treating down soot-coated sidewalks and tracking ash into the house at the end of the big night. The years we haven't had fires this week, my kids have been mega-sick between October 22nd and 31st. So sick, in fact, that they--gasp!--didn't even feel like trick-or-treating.

So how're things going so far this year? On Friday, we kicked off the season with a tardy trifecta. At least *someone* should have been on time, but no. Forgotten homework and the world's intentionally slowest walk into the school building ate up any slack we had in the three-school drop-off schedule. (And yes, I know we should be carpooling, but it's kind of hard when your kids are so rude to your neighbors in the car that the neighbors--rightfully!--decline from ever again sharing rides. Manipulative, that, since they're generally pretty amiable kids, but they've expressed dismay about carpooling.)

I thought perhaps the curse had been broken, that things might actually be looking up, when the place we're buying a tent trailer from gave us four times what I expected on our camper trade-in. The new toy looks pretty fun, too--sort of the Ultimate Behemoth of tent trailers, with pop-outs and everything. We were hoping to take it camping this last weekend, but I guess it takes them a few days to get it ready, filling the tanks, checking the lines, etc., so we took the old camper for one last stint at the beach. Good times, but when we got home, our middle child announced he wasn't feeling so well. Took his temp: 103.4. Today: still 102. And he's coughing. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I have to wonder if it's H1N1, the way he's lying around in bed like a zombie, since it's confirmed going around in our schools. At least he doesn't argue when I bring him juice to drink.

Whatever it is, something's going around. My oldest son said, at the middle school, it was quiet today. Quiet is not a word generally associated with CVMS, especially when all 1500 kids take lunch at the same time on their tiny campus. At any rate, there were only 20 of the usual 33 kids in his Spanish class, and in science, he was the only one at his four-person table, with all the adjacent tables completely empty.

Maybe I shouldn't have bought so much Halloween candy.

making every word count

I'm planning on going to the Winter 2010 SCBWI conference in New York. I've never been before, so of course, I can't wait. I'd like to take part in their Writers' Intensive workshop on Friday, as well, so I've been polishing my first 500 words, honing them down to make sure they're actually 500, and not 540. But I wanted to end at the 540 mark, so what to do? Self-edit. Ruthlessly. The way I should probably be approaching my whole manuscript. Adverbs, even if voicey and cute? First to go. Helping verbs? Nuh uh. Stronger one-word verbs suffice. Dialog tags? Ask yourself--are they *really* necessary, or will the reader get (as they should) who's speaking by what is said? Makes me think of Ari Lewin's revision workshop, and how she argued for stronger writing. Guess I'd better get busy.

yesterday vs. today

Yesterday:

* Got accused by one of my son's teachers of not feeding my children breakfast, despite making a loaf of homemade banana bread that he had snarfed down that morning before I got a single piece.

* Had to perform a modified Heimlich maneuver on my dog. It worked--he stopped choking and has been fine since.

* Made two separate journeys into Costco, since I couldn't fit the groceries we needed into one overloaded cart.

Today:

* Gave an "inspiration" presentation at the weight loss group I go to with my 92-year-old grandma.

* Have a field trip to the local graveyard planned for this afternoon with my Girl Scout troop.

* Saw the SCBWI NY conference schedule posted online, as well as the 2009 Sue Alexander award recipients. Way to go, Jean O'Neill!!!