It's been a busy few days. Melinda, TCU Press production manager, and I spent two days in College Station at sales meeting. The meetings were productive, and I came away with a pile of papers to plow through, ideas to sort out, lots of challenges. Now, two days later, I've been so busy I haven't gotten to them. But we had fun too--had lunch at the Messina Hof winery in Bryan on the way down--good food, pretty good wine, fascinating place. And on-the-spot entertainment as we watched two young wait staff try to get an empty cask up a very steep staircase. They tried each carrying an end, then rolling it, then a dolly. Finally the guy flexed his muscles and carried it up. We clapped when he came back inside, but we really laughed at their antics. That night a whole bunch of us had a good dinner and great visit. Then Melinda and I spent the night with my good friend Gayla, marketing manager for A&M and conductor of the meetings. We sat up drinking wine, and then in the morning had oatmeal looking out over Gayla's lovely wooded property. Of course we visited with Eppi, the collie I found for Gayla and on whom she dotes.
Friday four of us did a walk-through at Katie Sherrod and Gayland Pool's lovely garden, where TCU Press will present "Books and Music in the Garden" on April 6. Sorted out where to put authors, wine stations, food stations, etc. And went to lunch, of course.
Today I did grocery stores and then had a "photo shoot" of me cooking. I love to say that--makes me feel like some sort of TV chef. Texas Coop magazine will do a bit piece about cooking with canned soups which I wrote and they altered a good bit, but they wanted pictures and a cover of my cookbook--which will now be rushed into design. So that was sort of exciting--and much easier than I anticipated.
Last weekend I had way too much of my own company, so I made sure that didn't happen this weekend. Had lunch with Jeannie today, and we made more plans about Scotland. Tomorrow I'll have brunch with Betty, and my neighbors Jay and Susan will come for supper. Meantime I have lots of work to do.
My 96-year-old aunt in Canada died last night. I am sad but mostly relieved. Her neighbor, who called me, said she's been "gone" for a year but was astute enough for the first six months to know she was losing her mind. Recently she broke her hip, and she never left the hospital after that, was on morphine. I have fond, fond memories, especially of the two weeks I spent at her lake cabin as a young teenager. When my children were little, she came to visit once or twice--she used to go to Florida every year. But then she declared her hip was so bad she couldn't travel, and we kept in touch by phone. Most recently, she didn't answer the phone or didn't know who I was when I called. So it was time. And her grandson tells me she was ready.
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