On the Road Again

I'm in Atlanta today, and for the rest of the week, my internet access is uncertain. This is the week my sister Bev and I are taking our annual "Girl's Trip." We'd tried to schedule something earlier in the fall and talked about going to Vegas to catch some shows or maybe to San Antonio to see the Alamo before heading to a dude ranch. Those fizzled out. But last month when I was working on my novel for NaNoWriMo, I set it in Atlanta and kept asking my sister questions I thought she might know the answers to. Her son went to Georgia Tech and both she and her husband have to travel to Atlanta on business.

Well, she was a veritable fount of information and helped me with a down-home diner, an elegant hotel for my characters' honeymoon and a refurbished one with gorgeous ballrooms for a charity gala they attended. About mid-way through NaNo, when the stress levels were building and she could probably read the desperation in my emails, she suggested that as my reward for winning NaNo (she apparently had more faith in me at that point than I did) we meet today for two fun-filled days and nights in Hotlanta. We're going to eat dinner at Agnes & Muriel's, the diner I patterned the Rosebud Diner after. We're staying at the Georgian Terrace Hotel and hoping to visit the Biltmore Hotel for a glimpse at their ballrooms. Non-book related, we're going to see the Christmas lights at Stone Mountain, we plan to shop and then shop some more. We'll definitely be eating in good places and we're hoping to touch base with some women we met on our cruise last year. We'd hoped to catch the Christmas show at the Fox Theater but it was last week. :-( There's still plenty to do -- more than we have time for.

But we're gonna enjoy the holiday spirit in the big city. She lives on a small barrier island off the coast and I live in Huntspatch. We have no real schedule and we certainly aren't packing pantyhose.

This is a photo from our first road trip in 2003. We spent a few days in Nashville, Tennessee and took in the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame. Here we are with Sherry Lynn and Brenda Kay, the famous Jugg Sisters of Nash Trash Tours fame. If you're ever in Nashville, you have to do this tour. It's a couple hours of singing, gossip and sightseeing on the big pink bus, complete with fancy hors d'oeuvres (AKA squirt cheese and saltine crackers).

We skipped a few years and I'm not sure why but our next trip was actually a week at my sister's house in July 2006. I mentioned she lives on an island and since her husband and son were going to be gone for two weeks and she lives in a resort area, why not just go there? We slept late, watched chick flicks and if we wanted to eat tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner every night, there was no man asking,"Where's the rest of the meal?" Here's a photo of us at the Fourth of July fireworks display in the beachside park.

Later that year we took a second trip. She came to my house and from here we left out and headed toward the Natchez Trace. Again we had no real schedule and stopped when we felt the time was right. We spent the first night in Tupelo, Mississippi, in a B&B across the street from Elvis Presley's elementary school. Two nights in Natchez followed that, one in a B&B on the bluff overlooking the river. The owner was a retired psychologist who had renovated the old house himself. Here we are along a section of the Trace, which was an old trading route. We had a funny experience on that trip with a couple we met at breakfast at the Tupelo B&B and then ran into at virtually every place we stopped along the Trace.

In 2007 we decided to hit the high seas and took a four-day cruise to Cozumel. I'm not sure the cruise line will ever invite us back because we didn't order a single alcoholic beverage or even set foot in the casino. But we had a blast just chilling, taking in a few shows and spending a day shopping in Cozumel. We also met two sisters-in-law who were taking their first girl's trip together, and after hearing about our adventures, they decided to make their trip an annual event.

Here I am in the courtyard of a restaurant in Cozumel.

And here's Bev across the table from me. A nice mariachi band serenaded all the diners that day and created a nice, touristy atmosphere.

Do you have travel plans for Christmas? Ever done any semi-spontaneous travel like this? If you could drop everything today and go somewhere, where would you go?

See ya when I get back. I'll be home on Friday in time for #1 son, DIL and BabyGrand to come for Christmas. #2 son will be home on Saturday so we're going to have a full house!

P.S. Congrats to Lynn Raye Harris, Monday's winner from Anna Campbell's blog. Email Anna here with your snail mail info and she'll get the book to you.

P.P.S. Inevitably, when people find out about our sister's trip, we usually end up singing a few bars of this song. Sing along with us!

Sisters

So, this week we've been concentrating on our birthday and the amazing things that have happened to us over the past three years - thanks in huge part to you guys, our readers!! As we were sitting around a table on our retreat planning this week of celebration one of the Playfriends asked a rhetorical question, "What's the best thing that's happened in the last three years?" We kinda already knew what the answer would be for each of us, although as you can guess that experience varied. For me it was selling my first book and being able to share that moment with the friends I'd found here on the Playground - not just the Playfriends but the friends we'd made along the way.

But while that moment was amazing, I think the best thing about being a part of the Playground goes well beyond the actual things that have happened to each of us. It's something less tangible than getting a phone call, winning a contest or making a sale. It's the abstract thing called friendship.

The five of us often refer to each other as sisters of the heart and the term is so true. These women are part of my heart, my soul and my life. An integral part that I'm not sure I could function without anymore. When something happens - good, bad or indifferent - these are the women I call to cry with, laugh with, bitch with and strategize with. They're my first line of defense against anything that might hurt my family or my confidence and they're the first ones to tell me to get my head out of my ass when I'm being a prick.

I trust them with my life. I trust them with my kids. I trust them with my confidence and my sometimes fragile ego. I would not have sold my first book without them. And I wouldn't have made it through the process of selling my second - at least not with my sanity intact.

We can be extremely co-dependent and have no boundaries when it comes to information or sharing. These women know all my secrets and I know all of theirs (at least I better! :-)). We compliment each others strengths and weaknesses. I'm extrememly lucky and priviledged to have these women in my life.

So while the single best day of my life over the last three years is hands down the day I made my first sale, the most important thing in my life over the last three years is the friendships I've formed with these women.

What's the most important or uplifting thing that's happened in your life over the last three years?

Instigator

P.S. I've recently downloaded all these amazing Twilight publicity pictures which I have no idea what to do with. So, I'm going to randomly place them into blogs over the next few months. This one is of Kristen and Rob at a Vanity Fair shoot.

P.P.S I will be giving away a prize pack today to one commenter. It will include a signed copy of Whispers in the Dark along with whatever I grab out of my prize stash. Winners for the entire week will be announced this weekend.