The Week in Review


For the past two weeks, I’ve been too busy to blog. I’m still busy, but the bug I picked up at a conference last week in Charlotte has prevented me from running or going to the gym. Consequently, I have a bit more free time.

The conference went well–better than I expected. The hotel staff did a good job of taking care of us, the food was good, and I didn’t encounter any problems. Without seeing the final bill, my only complaint is that we had to pay $360 to use two little extension cords for two days. I’m not kidding.

Thursday night, I went out to dinner with colleagues I’ve known for nearly thirty years to a fancy all organic local foods place for a Top Chef-like meal. The restaurant featured home-grown pork, free of antibiotics and hormones. We shared a large smoked trout appetizer (pretty good), and I had a trio of legume croquettes (I’d call them heavy beany pancakes) with the pork roulade (rolled up pork with apple and sweet potato stuffing). For dessert we shared vanilla beignets with chocolate and caramel sauce. If I had it to do over, I’d order the beignets for all three courses.

You may recall an earlier post where I talked about this organization having just one officer–me. That changed Friday when the membership elected a six-person steering committee to help me out. I’m so happy about the change I may even withdraw my resignation. The new structure solves a lot of problems and will help our little association to keep moving forward.

I got home on Friday and skipped the UGA gymnastics meet that night to rest in hopes of warding off this bug. Obviously it didn’t work.This is the third time I’ve come home from this conference with a bug. I suspect stress has something to do with it.

I woke up feeling bad Saturday and skipped my Group Power and Zumba classes. You know I must have been sick to miss Zumba. Since then I’ve missed two more–one on Sunday and another on Monday. I’ve also missed another Group Power class, a session with my trainer, and I haven’t run since Thursday morning when I put in fifty minutes on an elliptical trainer in the hotel exercise center.

On the plus side, despite having been out of town, not exercising, and eating whatever I wanted, I lost two pounds this week. You know me–always looking for that silver lining. Part of me hopes I stay sick long enough to lose maybe five more.

Most of Saturday I worked on revisions to Glass Houses. Since all we do is sit around and talk, I decided I wasn’t too sick to go to my writer’s group meeting Saturday night. Even though I haven’t been submitting anything, I always enjoy hooking up with my writer pals.

Sunday I finished revising Glass Houses. The final draft is divided into five sections with a prologue and an afterwards. It has about half as many chapters as the first draft, and is nearly 15,000 words shorter. Some of the writers in my group are looking it over, and then I’ll send it back to my editor one more time. After that, it will be ready to send out to some publishers.

Monday was my 54th birthday. I remember when I thought 40 was old. These days, sixty looks mighty young to me. One of several highlights was receiving more than a hundred greetings on my Facebook page. What a gift.

I still feel a bit under the weather–definitely too puny to run or go to the gym. I’m hoping to get back into my routine on Saturday. Between now and then, I plan on drinking plenty of fluids and laying around in…

My Glass House


5 responses to “The Week in Review”

  1. Hope you feel better soon. Somebody be tryin’ to steal your ZK title if you don’t get on back there pronto!!!

  2. Feel better and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU :). Congrats on revising the book and on the six person committee. All in all, it seems like quite a bit of progress, more than I get done during the weeks when I’m feeling in tip top shape. My addiction to The Real Housewives on Bravo might have something to do with that but let’s discuss that later…when you’re feeling better. Take Care!

    • Feeling much better, thanks! I completely understand about Real Housewives, though I’ve managed to whittle my interest down to just the Atlanta babes. I think it’s because they’re the most likely to erupt into really classy violent behavior!

    • Not sure if you’ll see this or not but didn’t want to post it on your blog. The closest thing I’ve had to a panic attack is heart palpitations when I thought I’d locked my keys in the car (but hadn’t). So I really can’t relate but sympathize and hope you find “a cure” for them. I saw the comment before you deleted it. I wanted so badly to say something but didn’t, because I knew it would just make things worse. I thought the comment was extremely revealing and can say I feel your pain. Perhaps if she didn’t make everything about her….