Welcome back!
I had an amazing February!
I gave blood at our drive on February 4th!
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I re-read the latest draft of my second novel, tentatively titled “Specialton,” to get back into the groove of editing it. I’m really excited about this one. This one has series potential, folks. I’m excited!
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I was able to take some time off work to meet up with a few friends early in the month. I had coffee with my former director at Riverside – Two hours went by like it was nothing, like we hadn’t seen each other since 2019. I enjoyed seeing Newport News again, shopping at 2nd and Charles, plus I looked for some gifts for friends at other nearby stores.
I still had time before I met with my college friend Amy for dinner at Panera, so I decided to drive along the Colonial Parkway for a while. I listen to a great podcast called Mind Over Murder. One of the hosts, Bill, is the brother of Cathy Thomas. Cathy was/is one of the victims of the now-called Colonial Parkway Murders. With Bill and Kristin’s excellent storytelling and deep dives into the Colonial Parkway Murders, I knew one of the places that’s been discussed is Cheatham Annex. I followed my GPS and headed that way, thinking I was heading to the public access part.
Nope. That’s definitely not what happened. I ended up at the entrance to the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station. I was incredibly embarrassed and handed over my ID to the military police (MP), explaining that all I needed to do was turn around and leave. The MP was very nice and sent me on my way, although I knew it had to have been annoying. Oops. I told Al about it when I got home from dinner with Amy. Al suggested that I message the podcast, and I did! Thanks, Bill and Kristin, for reading my tale and responding. I’m glad I wasn’t too suspicious, either.
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The other big news is that I successfully uploaded and launched my first novel! Check out the Books page here on the blog for more information. I’m in the process of creating a website for my pen name as well, so stay tuned for that. More to come soon.
I’m thrilled with the feedback I’ve received so far. Thank you all for your support over the years of me talking about it and dreaming about it. It’s finally happened. Bucket list item checked.
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I’ve also made a lot of progress with my office this month. I took several hours on a Saturday and went through all of my American Girl items. I had an empty box ready, and I started filling it for Trey’s Dolls. I love this charity, and the people behind it, so much.
The next step for my American Girl stuff is to do a complete inventory of what I have – Dolls, clothes, accessories. I started an Excel spreadsheet years ago, but I need to finish it and keep it updated.
I also caved and purchased quite a few items from the new collection – Nicki and Isabel Hoffman. They were released on February 22nd as part of the historical collection. The historical collection part hurt. Nick and Isabel’s story is set in December 1999. Yeah. I was 11 then. They are nine in their stories. Ouch!
I didn’t buy the two dolls, but I bought quite a few of the accessories and Nicki’s skateboarding outfit. I hope to get their meet outfits and their journals at some point. I may end up buying the dolls eventually and either selling them or donating them, but keeping the outfits and journals.
I’ll make a post here once my items arrive – I’m ridiculously stoked about the Pizza Hut BOOK IT! set and the computer that lights up and makes dial-up sounds.
What about you? Did you have any goals for this month?
Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂
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