Poor Pitiful Pearl

That was me when I woke up yesterday morning—deep into a pity party. My local family was going out of town (hey, for a big four days!), more than half the people I rely on for companionship were everywhere from New Mexico to Spain, and I envisioned a long lonely week at my desk. I may love working at my computer, but I also thrive on people.

I know that old dictum: the only person who can make you happy is you. So I dug in: called my colleague Melinda to see if she could do lunch today; went to dinner at the Grill not sure who I’d have for company and had three lovely neighbors—Garrett and Bonnie Tucker and Sally Dalton. Today I had lunch with Melinda, which is always a happy occasion—we take little travel bottles of wine to our favorite tiny Italian restaurant where I always eat Braseola (beef version of prosciutto). Tonight I went with Mary V. and had a Caesar salad with scallops at Pacific Table.

My week is filling up—grocery and lunch plans tomorrow, plus that good supper I’ve been meaning to cook for myself for over a week; Friday, grocery and tentative lunch plans; Saturday the kids will be back and we’re talking about barbecue for supper; Sunday I’ll fix a welcome-home dish for Subie and Phil, something I’ve been wanting to try. Shh! Don’t tell.

Meantime I have work on my desk—got 2^nd edits on the Peacock Mansion and am over halfway through reading a manuscript for TCU Press.

This morning all the subcontractors for the bathroom redo were here to gather info for their estimates, so this really is becoming a reality. I groan a bit about the construction process, the cleaning I’ll have to do, etc. But I’m really excited.

Moral of my story: life is good. But only if you yourself determine to make it so. Pollyanna is now signing off and going to read that manuscript.

Busy days

Some in my family--one in particular whom I won't name--accuse me of leading too sedentary a life, indoors too much, because I spend so much time at my desk. In my own defense, I want to say that this morning I did an hour and a half at physical therapy, took an adventurous drive down a street I wanted to explore, went to the grocery, unpacked groceries, took out three loads of garbage, and fixed lunch--my low back was screaming at me, but, hey, I was in motion.
Today I officially began a hiatus from physical therapy. The therapist agreed that I had increased both my strength and balance, and he had no qualms about turning me loose. For me part, I want to see how I do in the outside world because I know I do all right in the therapy room. Also I felt I was focusing too much on how I felt, etc. I still have appointments to schedule, and I will go back occasionally but this is an experiment...and a respite from having to get up at six-thirty.
Yesterday I mailed the first edits of my Chicago novel back to the editor and am now ready to switch gears to the chili book--and that's a real gear switch. I also corresponded with the publicity person at the company that reprints my older novels--we were choosing cover art for the reprint of Jessie (Jessie Benton Fremont) which will appear as a digital book sometime this summer. So it's been a busy couple of days but I feel like I've really accomplished things.
Last night I was up several times with the dog and bathroom trips--Sophie was snuffling so that it woke me, and I got her a Benedryl. Then she wanted to go out. I went back to bed for an hour but then got up to see if she wanted to come in. She didn't. Looked at me like, "Really?" By then it was five, and I had to get up at six-thirty, so I left her. I do hope she gets over this middle of the night potty-call soon.
I plan to sleep soundly tonight. Sweet dreams, y'all.