I’ve run away from home.

Mom just asked why that Lessa chick hasn’t written for a while and I went “uhhhh…” because I’m all kinds of brilliant like that. heh. Truth is I have been writing so much on Watching Survivor and Watching Rachael Ray that by the time i get done there I forget what I was going to say here and tada, no entry. So!

Yes, I am still alive. Yes, the kids are too. Yes, sometimes that state of being is iffy at best because OMG they are driving me INSANE. seriously. However!

Right now I am sitting in a hotel room with Nana, a couple hours south of home, WITHOUT THE KIDS who are back home with grandpa, where we are partaking in the Kachemak Bay Writers’ conference for FIVE GLORIOUS CHILD FREE DAYS!

And Mom paid!

Yes, you can be jealous. But if you aren’t jealous yet? Get this – the Keynote Speaker is Amy Tan. Yes, THAT Amy Tan, the writer of the Joy Luck Club, and also (news to me) Sagwa, the Chinese Simese Cat which was adapted into a PBS childrens cartoon that the pup ADORED when she was 3 and 4 years old. I bought her a copy of the book Sagwa, and Amy Tan signed it for her, as well as my copy of her newest work Saving fish from Drowning.

We heard Amy Tan (You know you’re jealous now) speak for the first time tonight and she is FUNNY! A very wonderful speaker with a deadpan dry wit with perfect timing and a genuine down to earth style. If you ever get the chance to hear her speak- do so! It’s well worth the trip and cost!

Mom and I will spend the next four days attending various workshops and panels and hopefully getting good ideas and inspiration for our writing. And occasionally stealing down to the bar where I’ll have another Blue Moon Margarita which is as pretty as it is tasty!

I’m on the Little League’s laptop which I brought along so that I could “finish the uploads for the league after you send me the info” and thus my typing is probably worse then ever – but I love the laptop and want one of my very own very badly! I’ve go all my writing saved on my memory stick so I can work on that while I’m here too as I don’t ever write by hand if I can help it – I have no hope of keeping up by hand, and at least a marginal hope of keeping up with my thoughts when typing. Heh.

So. Yes. Did I mention that we left the kids at home? Good. Cuz we did. And I’m oh so very relaxed about it right now. Because dude – I was gonna explode if I got one more glare from one more teenager or almost teenager or heard “I’m bored” one more time. Seriously. SRSLY!

So. That’s where I am – and yes, I’ll have pictures when  I get home  (can’t upload them here) and prove that I did indeed meet Amy Tan and her little dogs too. (Both renamed since seeing eagles here: Eagle Snack, and Future Eagle Poop. Yes, she really said that. hahaha!) (ETA: OMG – my mom and I are SO related… she actually said “and your little dogs too” JUST as I typed it. Some thing we’re a lot alike. Naaaaaaaaah…)

Alive, and I’ve run away. I might come back. Sometime. Maybe. Eventually. HAHAHAHHA! (Papa would track us down I’m sure. heh.) So how’re things with You?