Living Positive: April 2019

Those of you in the elementary education world recognize my title, Step Up to Writing as a writing instruction curriculum that is used by some schools. No, I'm not going to blog today about teaching writing to students but more about teaching myself to write.

In 5th grade, my teacher, Mrs. Madsen was so impressed with my story entitled, The Mother's Day Present, that she sent it to the Fun Publishing Company and it was printed in a 1974 edition of I Got An Idea!... Right then and there an author seed was planted. The seed as been slow to flourish so I decided that it was time to do some gardening to help it along and see how it grows.

My first step last year was to join the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators organization to get me motivated. Because of this, I found out about the Rocky Mountain Chapter's Spring Writing Conference which I attended yesterday. As I drove to Boulder, I felt uneasy about attending the conference and that I would be truly out of my element but was pleasantly surprised with the positivity and welcoming of the others who attended. It was a full day of seminars given by the conference faculty which was comprised of authors, agents and editors. I learned a tremendous amount about the process and was energized and motivated to continue to try to improve my writing ability. While there I ran into an old friend and met a new friend, both of whom live near me and we decided to form a critique group. This group will be important to keep me accountable and moving forward.

My second step is writing this blog to publicly announce my dream of publishing a book, cataloging it, slapping a call number on it and seeing it on my library shelf! A bonus would be seeing someone actually check it out and read it! Too many years have gone by with the seed laying dormant. Now is the time for me to garden. It is Spring after all!

Where it all began.....

Not the best school picture for my debut!

Great authors like Julie Danneberg were in attendance!

Las Vegas. I have been here at least 5 times previously, the first time in the early 80’s. My husband and I were newlyweds and living in Southern California. We decided to trek across the desert in his Datsun to visit this oasis in the desert. Since the air conditioning in the car was on the fritz, we drove with the windows down which also made it easier to propel the sunflower seed shells out along the way but also attracted a lot of desert sand. Needless to say, by the time we glided into the Bally’s circle drive,( one of the classier hotels at that time) you can only imagine the pleasure the valet felt as he settled into the sweaty, sandy, seed speckled driver’s seat to park the car for the new arrivals!

We had pre-purchased some kind of package with our hotel reservations which included tickets to the popular Jubilee show. Yep, jubilee is exactly what I felt as we realized that our tickets were first row center next to the stage. It was an eye opening performance for the two Las Vegas newbies that’s for sure. It was clear that the costume budgeting formula was this: if the girl had the small headdress, there was money for the dress but the girls who were issued the large headdresses could not be provided with dresses. Interesting.

We returned a few times while living in California for various conferences. When our son Alex was not even a year old, he and Don joined me for the Boy Scouts of America conference that I needed to attend. I was one of the few female Field Executives in the organization so Don was the only male on the spouse tours. He didn’t mind, especially when they went backstage of, you guessed it, the Jubliee show. A handsome twenty something male with a baby in the backpack was quite the attraction for the showgirls. (Don assured me he only talked to the ones with small headdresses!)

Actually, I think that was the same Las Vegas trip that Alex had his first haircut in the hotel room. A well meaning but at the time I thought to be heartless lady in the buffet line, called my beautiful boy a girl and then followed up with “he needs a haircut!” His locks are in a Las Vegas Hilton envelope somewhere.

After 20 some years we made our way back to Las Vegas again and were shocked at the growth in the number of hotels and buffet prices! It is no longer a cheap vacation. An Uber driver ( a somewhat legit source) explained that the change came with the arrival of the Bellagio. Now hotels make most of their money on the restaurants and entertainment. And there is money and places to spend your money everywhere. Designer boutiques are more common than Starbucks - names I never even knew that I was supposed to have in my closet. There are so many high end labels passing me in the hallway, I felt like going to Walmart just to be different!

Las Vegas is still it’s own over the top, glitzy, raunchy, wild, loud self where adults can leave their boring daily selves for awhile and have fun. Recess for big people. And like all recesses, they must come to an end. Thanks Las Vegas for the great time and now I have to go home and rest!