Sunday Afternoon and I Can Breathe!!! (Or the happy ramblings of a crazy person…)

Okay, I know that doesn’t read like a title to anything, but that’s what’s been going through my mind all day—I CAN BREATHE! My daughter and I have fought with super human strength and determination since Christmas NOT to get sick. We’ve downed enough garlic to ward off the entire vampire population—even the sparkly ones. (Okay, I will admit right here in public—and accepting the risk that I’m going to be so ragged on by Pam—I am one of those not ashamed to admit I enjoyed the Twilight Saga, books and movies, enough to overlook the injustice to the vampire world that is glitter.) Courtney’s spring semester was interminable with ups and downs for her and lots of in-the-car or finding-a-quiet-place-to-do-my-edits time for me. Spring break included no downtime at all, but a flash trip to Jacksonville and back to surprise her ailing grandmother, only to return to a whirlwind of activity, magazine premier, finals, papers, etc. The day after her last day of classes, I collapsed with an evil case of bronchitis. She managed to hold it off until the last week of school when she had paper after paper due and all she wanted to do was sleep and be puny.  When she turned in her last paper, that was it. She succumbed to a bad chest cold and exhaustion. She, too, is slowly getting back to normal—faster, however , than her mama. And Dusty of the Endless Energy has been working like a mad man, tinkering with his Miata, and running non-stop. He was sick for two days. Oh, to be young again. Now, two entire weeks later and I’ve recovered quite a bit, and oxygen is making its way freely to my lungs, brain and blood. I’m almost caught up on sleep–still fighting fatigue enough that I have to force myself to take things in spurts, but the brain is clearer and the body is starting to cooperate again. I feel so much better, I’m considering writing to Mr. Webster and suggesting another definition for BLISS. So, now it’s time to get back to work, and work we have been doing. Mark is painting my living room and his office—read the place he claimed that would have been my formal dining room “if you were that kind of woman, honey.” It’s gorgeous! I’m so happy. Courtney has been working diligently to design my webpage for me. That’s gorgeous too, and I couldn’t be happier. I have been working on lists and lists and lists of things I have to do before SECRET INGREDIENT is released at the end of the month, and not succeeding in making the lists any shorter no matter how hard I work. Could be the fact that as I check things off the list, I make new lists at the end of the day. Sad but true. I have managed to update my Facebook page, create an author page, discovered, somehow, I already have one…deleted the old one..waiting for the whole system to break down because I hit a delete button. So far, so good. I’ll keep you posted. I worry about this kind of thing since mostly I look at my computer stupidly and ask…“huh?” So, the next thing on today’s list, my blog. Courtney has been good and not bugged me while I was sick, but I don’t give it too much longer before she starts giving me that LOOK. You know…the one she’s not supposed to be allowed to even know how to make until she has children but thinks she can use on me because she refuses to have children.  I rise, walk across the room, reach my hand into the blog topic jar she created, smile at her as her eyes widen incredulously and choose a red slip of paper. “Have you ever heard or seen a random word or phrase and instantly wanted to use it as a book title? What would it be about?” Hmmm…Okay. I love one word titles. Short, sweet and to the point. So far, I have two: ILLUSIONS which will come out later this year, and am currently working on AGENDAS. Those two titles came about because of the characters. They just fit. But hearing a word that strikes me to write, that’s only happened once. The word was REIMAGINE. Wow. Perfect word. A step above Imagine which Disney, John Lennon, Tolkien, and Roddenberry took to the nth degree and few others have even come close. RE imagine. Taking what you’ve imagined and expanding, recreating, reinventing, pushing yourself and your mind. Or perhaps taking what you think you know is real and finding out that it’s all a ruse. (Hello, Neo.) The word is full of possibilities and sets my mind on fire. What about you, Dear Reader? What random word or phrase has set your mind on fire lately? Until next time, as always, I wish you enough to make soup.