Travel and Grandbabies

Hi everyone!

I hope you’ve had a wonderful week. I haven’t written anything for two weeks and the last thing was the post for this blog. I’ve had a harrowing two weeks which I’m sure all of you are dying to hear the details. LOL!

On March 1, I went to New Orleans to participate in one of my yearly conferences, EPICon. This conference is for authors specifically in the ebook field and as I have a lot of friends there, always have a great time. This time though, it started more auspiciously than I could imagine.

I boarded the plane here at 10 am and we took off in beautiful weather. I landed in horrible weather and had my first real moment of thinking that a plane I was on might actually crash. The wind sheer was so bad that two hundred feet from the ground, we were called off the landing. The bumpy climb back up was horrendous but when the pilot calmly quipped, “As you can see, we didn’t land” I knew I was in good hands. It took us another eight to ten minutes to get down to torrential rainfall. During that whole time all I could do was think about just how bumpy my characters on my spaceships had it. If I hadn’t done that I would have been sobbing. Sigh.

Once on the ground, I took a taxi to my hotel and not once could we see two hundred feet in front of us because the rain was coming down so hard. That coupled with the fact the ride cost eleven dollars more than had been posted on many NOLA websites didn’t make the trip begin well. This was all forgotten when I got to my first hotel, Chateau Bourbon, which was beautiful. I had one of the most expensive rooms for a very cheap price as hotels.com worked its magic again. And I did the lazy thing. I had room service and soaked in the huge tub to work out all the kinks.

The next day, I packed up and went to the conference hotel, the Sheraton on Canal Street. This was the same hotel I had gone to twice for RWA, so I knew it well. I had to actually wait three hours to check in, so I walked to the nearest spa and got their $99 special because heaven knew I needed a massage and facial. It actually calmed me down from the previous day’s happenings and I finally began to relax. And this day was sunny and a little warmer than the day before.

I should have realized I was being deceived when I had an allergy flair up. This flair up blossumed into a full case of bronchitus in less than 48 hours and other than my own talk, I was in bed a lot during the conference. Of course, the nearly 80% humidity factor didn’t help either. I got the chills, a fever and a horrible, horrible cough which I could have done without.

Still, all in all, I had a wonderful time with my friends and meeting new people. I also did the online announcements for the awards ceremony, letting everyone know just what was going on that special night. Congratulations to all those winners.

On Sunday, I called my family while they were doing the normal family day and my DIL informed me that she didn’t feel well either and she would be going to the doctor’s the next day. One of the major reasons I decided to go to EPICon this year was the fact that the boys weren’t supposed to be born until March 24 when the C-section had been scheduled.

The best laid plans...sigh...I should have known. My DIL calls me on Monday to say that she was already dialated and they were going to do an amino that day. The results came back late that night and suddenly the C-section was moved up to the very next day, March 10. I scrambled and discovered that there was no way I could catch and early plane home with the bad weather everywhere and every flight booked solid.

I was really bummed and being sick didn’t help at all. I left the hotel Tuesday to get one closer to the airport. Close to the time of the C-section, I began texting my friend Brenda and we talked the whole time. So here are the first pictures of my grandsons, Michael and Joseph...aren’t they adorable? Joseph is the first and Michael is second. Sorry about Joseph being out of focus.

True, they were small, Michael was seventeen inches and four pounds while Joseph was sixteen inches and four pounds eleven ounces but considering they were early, the doctors were very pleased. And they have continued to thrive since their birth. But they will stay in the hospital until they weigh a little more.

Now, I’ve been home over a week and am just getting better myself. I got one peek at the boys after I landed but haven’t been back since as I don’t want to get them ill. I finally went to the doctor myself on Monday and got a lot of medication which is finally making this crap go away. Like I said, today is the first day I’ve even wanted to sit at the computer and type at all.

And overall, the benefits far outweighed the negatives these past two weeks.

Still, as the old saying goes, there’s no place like home!

Hope you all have a great week!

Lynn

Me & My Big Fat Butt Update

Okay, I just had to give you all the updated scoop on just what I did with me and my bottom for my EPICon New Orleans trip. After all, it’s my duty as a writer to put down my experience on paper and let the world know just exactly what happened to me.

Well, just like I told you last week I was so freaked out that they might throw me off the plane I just had to come up with something to at least make me appear a little smaller. Like I had said, I am working on it and lost another 2 pounds this week I’m sure from stress. So I started scouring the internet with things to wear in my search for a more slim body albeit unnaturally so.

I finally decided to settle on a body suit from HSN. I mean, it couldn’t be any different than the corset I wear for doing the renaissance guild stuff I participate in…right? So I place my order and wait for it to arrive. It had taken me quite a while to decide on what I wanted to do that I had to ship the item priority thus making it a mere $56 and change to get it to my house on time. And this was a bargain as well because when searching the internet I found I could spend up to $200 for something to help shape my dilemma.

Heck, I could have purchased another airline ticket for that price! LOL! My bodysuit would be a bargain. So, I waited.

On Friday morning I received a message from HSN stating my item had been shipped. I had a momentary panic as I thought they had just shipped it and the darn thing would arrive after I was gone. Copying the shipping number into the UPS system, I was pleasantly surprised to find the item would indeed arrive that very day.

My office is in the front of my house and has a big picture window where I can watch the world go by without people ever knowing I sit seeing their every move. So when the UPS truck pulled up I waited until he rang the doorbell. Going outside, I was surprised that I had to sign for the small package. Surely this wasn’t right.

The UPS guy, who I’ve known for years, just smiled at me. “Small package.”

I smile back. “Lingerie.”

He lifted his head just like he knew what was in the package. “Oh.”

I signed the pad and handed it back. “Now don’t get any ideas and go telling everyone.”

“Not a problem. See you next time.”

If I had my way, there wouldn’t be a next time. I close the door and race back to my office, shutting the door behind me. The teenager just knew it was for him and asked through the door what the UPS man had brought. I told him it was mine and not to worry.

“But what is it?” he inquired, loud enough to make the puppy think it was play time. It didn’t take long to hear their exchange. “Jasper, stop it…I’m talking to Mom…quit barking.”

As I tore open the package, I answered him. “It’s for me…don’t worry about it…why don’t you play with the dog? Work out some of his energy for me.”

“You can’t tell me what you got?”

“No.”

“Oh.”

Geez, same answer as the UPS guy. Then again, it wasn’t their business. They didn’t need to know what I was doing to conceal my butt size from the world. But holding this new fangled contraption in front of me, I wondered what I had got myself into and waited for the dear husband to get home. As I sat there writing and waiting for him, I verified again that they hadn’t sent me the wrong size as it was so small. That was the only way to describe it as I held it up to my body.

It wasn’t long until my DH got home and came into my office, inquiring if my package had arrived. I nodded and held it up.

“Oh,” he said and held it up. By now it was getting dark and my shade no longer worked as everything was back lit.

“Do you have to hold it up for the world to see?” I asked.

He grinned. “Let’s go see how it fits.”

“Come on now. It’s obviously too small.”

He looks at the size. “Actually, it’s a size bigger than what you normally wear.”

I frown at him. “Yeah, it is. I wanted to make sure it fits.”

“It should…see it’s stretchy.” He pulled the side out and let go, only to be smacked in the face with the darn thing.

I tried hard to conceal my smile as I got up, grabbed the body suit and walked to the bedroom. I hear the DH yell at the teenager not to disturb us and shake my head as I could imagine just what was going through his mind. I pull off my clothes and stand there holding the body suit. This would be an adventure in itself. Putting in one leg, I was surprised to find it did stretch to accommodate me.

Now to make a long story short, you really don’t want to know everything we both said as I struggled to get into this thing. Hell, this was worse than the corsets I wore with my garb. As I finally get it up over the bottom, I realize I’m going to have to lie down to get all the hooks closed. Yeah, it had a zipper along with hooks and eyes. God, I want to know what sadist invented these things.

At this point, the DH stops laughing long enough to tell me he’ll help me but he’s wondering just how I will ever do this by myself. As he hovers over me, he talks about how fun it would be to get me out of this thing. All I can do is to growl at him. It takes him a few moments of trial and error before he finally gets it right. I just lay there knowing this is exactly how a beached whale feels.

Slowly, I stand with his help and found it wasn’t half bad. I could actually breathe and move and bend and walk. I put on the pants I would be wearing on the plane and was told the black material actually looked slimming on me. Matter of fact, the DH informed me, it looked damn good.

I proceeded to wear the thing that evening to get used to how it moved with me and how I felt. I wanted no surprises on the trip. The only thing wrong was it really pulled on the shoulders. I didn’t discover the adjustable part of the strap until I put the thing on again on Monday morning.

So, Monday comes and I dress in the contraption again. I smile as I get on the plane since no one says a thing to me. I make sure the seat belt can fit before I even sit down. I put everything in the overhead bins and slide into the window seat. Slowly, I sit, thinking I am going to have a hard time getting into the 17 inch space. I slide in with inches to spare. I sit there realizing I probably hadn’t needed the contraption at all because I have at least almost two on each side.

I sit there reveling in the feeling as the seat belt slides on very easy. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I mean, I really needed the extra support to squeeze it all in. I give a tentative smile to the older couple who sit beside me. I eventually tell my row mate my dilemma and she’s smiles, telling me I really didn’t have anything to worry about. She then points out at least five other people around me who had a little more girth than I did.

I then realized, the woman was right and I really shouldn’t have worried about a thing. Just like the DH had said in the beginning when I had started worrying in the first place. The whole trip passes quickly except the landing during a storm. But that’s a story for another day. Just suffice it to say, I landed in New Orleans a little wiser about my body size and thankful I hadn’t puked in the plane from the bumpy ride. It would have been a first.

Do you all have an experience with something which didn’t quite turn out like you imagined? Share it with me and your name will end up in the hat for a copy of one of my books this week. See you next…until then…have a great one!

Lynn