The trips to Italy sound wonderful. I haven’t been there yet…but hopefully soon.
oregon, sorry to hear about losing your friends. Too young.
S is back from his trip and exhausted. Some drama at the airport. When he got to customs they took his stuff and he had no idea why. He was texting us, but had no idea what was going on. Maybe a young guy travelling alone (his friend was on a different flight) who had been to Turkey fit some profile? Don’t know, just glad when he came out.
Per @oregon101’s suggestion, ShawWife and I are going to try to take advantage of time. She has a big show that went up over the last few days – something like 32 pieces that represent a real departure for her. I’ll put an invitation on the Facebook page. Opening is later this month though the show runs for 3 months. We are going to try to go someplace warm after the opening. My original plan was to do AirBnB for a week out near ShawSon. She’s now thinking of beach type places before I go back to Europe.
Beach type places sound lovely.
I’m actually one of those weirdos who loves snow, and I rather like the way it is right now with a nice blanket and some sun. But I have to admit I’m looking forward to the Caribbean cruise next month just to wear sandals, swim, and drink margaritas 
in fact, maybe the prospect of that is actually adding to my enjoyment of the snow…
Ooh! Fallgirl that is kind of scary.
My H’s name came up on one of those lists and he had his passport confiscated at JFK. He has an unbelievably white bread American name - but apparently so does some evil guy. B-)
I’m glad he’s back home!
Good luck with the show to shaw wife!
shaw – will look at our schedule to see if we can make the opening. Sounds like fun. (A beach someplace warm also sounds like fun.)
FallGirl – glad things turned out OK at the airport. What do you mean they took his stuff? TSA did a thorough search of his luggage, or they actually confiscated things?
A while back I latched onto an espionage/spy series of books – must have gotten the first one free in a Kindle deal – by Alex Lukeman. I read this type of novel, as well as mysteries, as “relief” from some of the “heavier” ones I usually have in various Book Clubs. Anyway, several months ago I emailed the author because I found a glaring error – a character was referred to by 2 different names a couple pages apart. He was very appreciative, and asked if I wanted to read pre-release versions of future books to check for errors. I said yes. Didn’t hear from him, and a couple weeks ago I got an email that the next book was out. I thought, “Oh well, whatever,” and read the book. I then emailed him about an error I found. Again, he was appreciative, and asked if I wanted to read beta versions of future books. Again I said yes, but figured I wouldn’t hear anything. Lo and behold he sent the latest manuscript on Saturday. I’m about half-way through and have found a bunch of things. It’s an interesting change of pace.
Meanwhile. puppy has NO desire to stay quiet. She can easily see squirrels in the back yard, and whines non-stop to be let out to chase them. (Not that she has any hope of actually catching one.)
I don’t mind snow either, what I dislike is the grayness of everything. I need some color. I don’t like driving to work in it either.
Fall girl that is scary
Warm weather would be nice. Refreshing.
Baby came home Sat. I think he’s going to give them a run for their money. He has taken to sleeping all day and you guessed it up all night. 
Pay back!
My D1 was like that, I was one psychotic mom, mom he flips around, perhaps wake him up during the day to eat
Shaw where is the FB page, I want to see if H and I can see the show
H and I was there yesterday for a couple of hours and this kid SLEEPS. We were making tons of noise and trying to get him to wake up and nothing. He was really out. S also was like that - once he was down there was no way to get that kid awake!
dte – The FB group is “CC '13.” I just tried to add you, but got this message: “You can’t add an old member of the group who hasn’t requested to join the group again.” Not sure what this means – were you a member of the group and then left it? If so, sounds like you have to initiate a request to rejoin.
Good morning.
Life in heartbreak hotel has got rather interesting rather quickly Mcson seems to have dusted himself off enough to go on a rebound date, much to my surprise - and his. Seems to have cheered him up. The funny part is how they met. He ghost wrote a profile for his friend on a dating site…you can guess the rest. Power of words, eh? Truth really is stranger than fiction sometimes.
At any rate, however brief the relief, it’s good to see him brighten up a bit. As soon as I cautioned him about the rebound effect, he pointed out that I married mine True dat.
RM- I feel for your S and DIL having had an “insomniac newborn” myself.
So after texting “they took all my stuff”, S now says they let him keep his bags, just took the passport and other documents. I was still very panicked, though…
kmc- glad to hear that Mcson is getting out there!
Omc, great to hear about positive steps. ShawSon didn’t sleep much so we are deeply sympathetic. I wonder if that is why I now sleep so little.
FallGirl, is it US Customs that has your son’s passport?
I’m barely keeping up on CC (or life). Work is so busy. One of my colleagues came in yesterday and told me that something I’m working on is very high profile. Yikes.
Kmcmom, your son sounds like a pistol!
FallGirl – Yikes. Do they still have his passport?
MissyPie – how much longer does this locum assignment go? It sounds like you’re getting to work on some new skills, and I think they are really lucky to have you.
Chill and overcast here today, but cozy inside. Lots of work, but that’s good.
Hey CB - What a fun thing to stumble into! Have you ever done editing professionally?
MP - that sounds great…I would be so intimidated! Just how high profile is it? Government stuff? :-S
They gave the passport back, but they held it (and detained him) for quite some time.
Thanks for checking in,MP - was wondering where you were. I hope you are enjoying your assignment.
MP, when you catch your breath we’ll have to send the bus to collect you and have drinks!
Fallgirl, glad your son is home and undaunted by customs
CBB, hope you enjoy your reading assignment, though its a sad testament to the publishing industry these days that such catches are left to be made I’ve noticed a real decline in the quality of editing over the years. I think having extra readers is very valuable.
I actually just emailed the author to be sure he received my edits, which I sent on Monday. I mean, don’t you think he’d at least acknowledge what I sent? Also, I believe he self-publishes for Kindle – which probably means there isn’t any editing by a publishing house, right?
Although our puppy seems to be recovering well from the spay surgery, she seems to have caught a cold or something – constant sneezing. Don’t ever remember this with our previous dog.
H & I seem to be at an impasse about going to FL to escape the cold here, even for a short time. He wants to drive, which would be fine with me, but he also wants to take the puppy – who HATES riding in the car. Why would we do this? It makes no sense to me. H says he doesn’t want to put the pup in a boarding place, event though we did this quite a bit with our previous dog. Plus, we’d be staying at BIL & SIL’s newly built house in FL, so I’d be constantly worried the puppy wasn’t destroying something. H reacted to my comments by saying, “OK, fine. We just won’t go.” At the moment I’m letting things be. I’ll see if this VERY cold weather makes him re-think his position.
Good to hear from you, mp. Hang in there. Where is Moda?
Hi folks… I have been MIA but not really in that I have been trying to keep up with the comings and goings, breakups and reunions, art shows, great jobs, promotions, and general life of all more or less. My own has been a real roller coaster since the fall. While I hesitate to put it all out there on a public website, suffice it to say that I remain at the nook as my only home with no plan for anything different in the near future. I love it here, no doubt, but the gray days are definitely not for the faint of heart. The freezing of the lakes (both ours and Erie) are supposed to help that, so I am told. But the big news is that I think my 25 year marriage may be over. My husband relapsed after 12 years of sobriety (but who am I kidding, I have no real idea which is the biggest issue as far as I can see). I just don’t know if I really WANT to always be guessing when the shoe will fall. As it is, he is now back home after a month in rehab. I can’t even tell you if he “gets” it because he more or less refused to allow any kind of family involvement despite it being offered and promoted. I went out for Christmas and ended up driving the 6 hours to my sister’s on Christmas night with the believe that it was definitely over. Mostly I just want it to be amicable with the hopes that we might remain on good terms for our grown adult children and hopefully, one day, grandchildren. But I just cant see continuing when the foundation of trust has been rocked beyond recovery in my mind. The holidays, in a word, sucked.
Mostly I am just getting over the reeling part and thinking about my options, and taking on a few small projects that mostly just allow some distraction. S hasn’t really been communicating with me since early December of which I am not entirely sure why. There was a point where neither H or I had heard from him, but apparently he spoke to his Dad over the weekend. H&I are talking but nothing about division of assets or anything like that. I do however have an attorney to call on, but am trying not to appear adversarial out of the gate.
I did, however, have a reprieve while in California of seeing my two girls, and was so glad the younger was with the oldest as her perspective seems far more balanced. Not sure why I get the blame (even a little bit) for things I have nothing to do with, and I see very clearly that being lied to and then the unraveling of the lies massively affects my sanity. I am greatly missing my therapist, and this isnt exactly the best area to find a competent and qualified one to replace her kindness and wisdom.
So happy for Oregon’s DIL on her medschool acceptance. Wishing the same for S although he is still on hold for both schools he interviewed with but haven’t heard if he has received any other invites for interviews since the holidays. Not sure what will happen if he doesn’t get in, but my heart breaks for him, even though he’s not exactly communicating, not with me anyway. All I know is that I will not be blamed for the behavior of my husband, especially when I am 1000 miles away! But that still doesn’t explain why he’s now talking to his Dad but not to me. It’s not as if he made some grand exit statement but he did have some very cutting things to say - and while I know he is very frustrated with where things were with Medical School - I just told him that - more or less - he is 24 and doesn’t have a clue about what my life has been much in the same way as I didn’t know my own Mother’s, and of course, that I love him even when he is angry with me with or without reason.
So… sigh. Hoping for an improved 2015 because for as great as 2013 was, 2014 was just a hard year almost from the beginning. I feel like all my empty nest plans have been tossed out the window and my H expects I will just sit here as if in “pause” while he figures things out for himself, for us, whatever. Mostly, I’ve become a little more used to the realization that without trust and partnership, it’s not much of a marriage. It’s very overwhelming in a lot of ways, a lot of humiliation and embarrassment as well, but mostly it’s just incredibly sad to see it come to this.