So I'm back to the Velvet Underground... Or, I Went Grocery Shopping and I Liked It

So I'm back to the velvet underground

Back to the floor, that I love
To a room with some lace and paper flowers,
Back to the gypsy
That I was
To the gypsy...
That I was.
Gypsy by Ms. Stephanie Lynn Nicks

Hello, everyone. I'm back! I'm not sure if the PA burbs qualify as the Velvet Underground, but, like Stevie meant in her song, I'm back to the place I love and feel most comfortable, and where I'm learning to live alone again.

Where am I back from? An amazing Caribbean cruise with my kids. Here are a few pics to prove my point.

This first pic is of the beautiful Magen's Bay in St. Thomas.

The second pic is me pointing at a female pirate's booby. Yup, you read that right. Apparently, this nice Irish gal, Anne Bonney, tracked down her runaway husband in the Virgin Islands and murdered him. She also slept with many ship captains and then killed them. She was quite the role model in her day.

Pic 3: Adam & I sharing our first cocktail before we set sail.

Pic 4: Movies Under the Stars on board the Ruby Princess. We watched more football than we did movies.

Pic 5: Ethan, me, and Adam after Ethan's birthday dinner at the Crown Grill - think Morton's Steakhouse at sea.

Pic 6: Ethan and Adam in the Michelangelo dining room.

Pic 7: Ethan - on his birthday! - swimming at St. Maarten after we went helmet diving.

The cruise was filled with many wonderful experiences, including a new book idea. Sitting in the library on board the ship, I watched the ocean pass by and scribbled the first five pages to a new women's fiction story. I'm very excited about it, however, I still have to finish editing my YA novel. According to my editor, this draft may well be "the one" - the final edit before AA takes the book out on submission. So, in order to finish YA Draft 7 and forge ahead on WF Draft 1, I need to get "discipline." Some people get religion, others get milk, I have to get discipline.

Where do I find this so-called "discipline?" Can I save up cereal box tops and send away for it? Buy it on Amazon.com? Find it on one of those late-night infomercials? Is it tucked away next to the gold in the California hills? I'm hoping it's located back in the calm, turquoise waters of the Caribbean, because that's a damn fine place to be. (Which is why, I've already booked my next cruise for later this year!!!)

Along with pondering self-discipline, I learned several important things about myself on this trip:

1) I need to eat breakfast.
I know this sounds like a big, fat "DUH!!!" but I've never been a breakfast eater. My normal schedule is to get up around 8AM and have a protein shake around 10AM. Then, maybe lunch, maybe not, and a big dinner. WHAT an idiot.

So, get this. (To those of you who know me well, you may want to sit down for this next part. Seriously. Consider yourself warned.) What's one of the first things I did after coming home from my trip? I went to the grocery store! (I hear a lot of thuds out there. I hope there are defibrillators nearby.) True story. I went to the grocery story and (same warning applies) I LIKED IT!!! Katy Perry, move over. Kissing girls is nothing. I went grocery shopping and I liked it...

For those of you who don't know me well, I'd rather walk naked in Antarctica or worse, go moose hunting with Sarah Palin in Alaska (where she can see Russia from her house!) than buy groceries.

But there I went. I bought fresh fruit (not the cut-up kind - actual whole melons!!! You can cut them yourself! Who knew?!), brown eggs (from cage-free, vegetarian-fed hens - yup, I'm a card-carrying, liberal tree-hugger), low-fat, whole-wheat English Muffins, and orange-pineapple juice. I also got green and red peppers, cheese, Rosemary crackers, and shrimp (peeled and de-veined) to go with my wonderful red wine habit. (Healthy in moderation, or so me and the Mayo Clinic believe.)

2) My bed should not double as my office. (Don't argue with me. I'm on a roll.)
So, I've chosen to move my lap top down to the kitchen and do my writing there instead of sitting like a lazy bum all day in bed. I also intend to make myself tea. Every day. That's right, you heard me - TEA! (Chai with skim milk and sugar, if you must know.)

For those of you who do know me well, you're probably thinking, "Who are you and what have you done with our spoiled, rotten, lazy, JAP, Debbie?"

Never fear, she's right here; just going through a major life transformation. I'm taking care of myself now. There's no one to blame but me if I'm not as healthy and happy as I can be. And I hate being wrong, so, I may as well try and get it right.

I'm finding taking care of myself is like kissing girls and going grocery shopping.

I like it. ;-)

Thanks to Stephen Powell for the inspiration for this post.

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Gonna Have to Face It I'm Addicted To...EDITING?

ADDICTED TO EDITING? IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?

My husband thinks I'm addicted to editing. But what the hell does he know?
"Why else would you spend ten hours a day doing something?" he asked. "Either you really like it, or you're addicted."
"Look, just because you're a doctor, doesn't mean you know everything, buster. For your information, I don't like it. Well OK maybe I like it a little. But I need to do it. It needs to get done. Why's that so hard to understand?"
"It's not."
"See?"
"It's simple to understand. You're addicted."

I hate the fact that he may be right. As rare as that is, it annoys me that it ever happens at all. Maybe I should join EA - Editing Anonymous. They must have a one-step program in my neighborhood. I'd go, really, I would. But I don't have the time. I'm much too busy editing.

HOWEVER... I did manage to e-mail my partial to Agent B today, and I'm sending a revised partial in the mail tomorrow to Agent A (no relation to Agent 99, at least not that I know of). So, that felt good. See, I don't spend all my spare time editing. And now I'm busy going over the rest of the book looking for changes/additions/deletions that need to be made (not to be confused with editing). And I've started compiling a list of other agents to query.

As you can see, my husband is way off base. There are many other things I do during my waking hours besides editing. I e-mail agents, snail mail things to agents, blog, look for agents to query, read other people's blogs, read agents blogs, check to see if anyone's made a comment on my blog, check to see if someone I commented to on their blog has replied back to me on their blog, and submit to on-line writer's contests. So it's not like I'm only immersed in my editing.

Oh yeah, and I eat chocolate chip muffins, play with my cats, and make sure to get plenty of minerals and nutrients in the form of red wine on the weekends. So, as you can see, I live a fully rounded, well-balanced life.

Editing schmediting.

Kudos to my friend, Amy Nathan http://amysuenathan.com/. She finished the first draft of her novel today! Yay, Amy!

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