Category Archives: Miscellany

So I posted earlier about how I was going sugar-free for the summer (summer being June, July, and August for me – we’re not getting technical with equinoxes and stuff here).

It’s summer. Bummer.

Actually, this first week wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. On Day 1, I was cravy (my word for when you’re just craving something, even if you don’t know what) and a little grumpy. Fine. Day 2 I was a space cadet, and also highly on edge, in part because we got a flat tire while heading to the city an hour away in which we had an impossible-to-get appointment. Husband changed tire (woo hoo for sexy, capable men!), but dealing with upset kids and having to listen to the traffic whiz by RIGHT NEXT TO HIM at 70+ miles an hour made me want a donut. Or six. Incredibly, we were only five minutes late to the appointment. Also incredibly, I didn’t go off-track when we ate out that night. I guess that’s the benefit of firm resolve on Day 2.

Then came Day 3. I. Was. Exhausted. EXHAUSTED. I took TWO naps that day, and still just felt weary to the bone. Also on Day 3 I kicked my kids’ metal scooter with my naked toes while bringing out the garbage. It hurt. A lot. The middle toe is still black and blue from said adventure. Luckily the rest of the week went more smoothly. Day 4 I actually felt pretty darn good. I did eat an entire can of Pringles, but DIDN’T touch any of the sweets at a Girl Scout event that night, even though I was standing next to the food table most of the time. I actually wasn’t even tempted. Days 5-6 were pretty good. Not as cravy, not as tired, mostly just average days. Wahoo!

Today, Day 7, has been harder, though. I have that cravy feeling back again, big time, although ironically it’s for salt right now – probably because a) I ate 2 cans of Pringles this week and darn if I don’t want another, and b) I rewarded myself for making it through an entire week by letting myself have horrifically unhealthy but oh-so-delicious Velveeta macaroni and cheese. I don’t know if there was something in that conglomerate of chemicals that has me feeling as if someone’s poking at me from the inside, saying “EAT MORE!” even though I’m not really hungry, but I definitely want carbs.

I’m trying to remind myself of what my mother reminded me this week: You can only change one habit at a time. If I need to eat chips this week as I adjust, so be it. Being an all-or-nothing person, I want to drop the sugar AND all the bad foods and suddenly be 50 pounds lighter by yesterday. But that’s not how life works. It took 42 years to get me to where I am today; I guess it’s going to take longer than a week to make that me a little smaller. Oh well. The overall goal is health, anyway. Weight loss would be nice, but improved health is more important.

I’m still proud of myself. Yes, perhaps delving into salty snacks isn’t ideal, but frankly, considering how much sugar I HAD been eating, it’s a miracle I’m not neck-deep in the stuff.

Thank you to everyone on Facebook who’s encouraged me this week. I need it, people. Because the newness has worn off and I’m starting to have my first feelings of deprivation, my first thoughts of, “Why can’t I have that when everybody else can?” The answer, of course, is a) I can – in September – if I want to, and b) I don’t react to sugar like a “normal” person does, so maybe I just have to abstain. Like someone with food allergies. Yup yup.

Only 86 days until September.

Pay no attention to that woman behind the curtain, snarfing down the donuts and the chocolate. She doesn’t want you to know the extent of her sugar addiction.

Yeah, yeah, I’m talking about me. I know this is a writer’s blog, but bear with me, please. I’ve waged a life-long battle against the bulge. The bulge has been winning. Majorly so. Especially lately; since my kids are older and require less direct intervention and since I’m spending a lot more time writing/reading/in front of a screen, the amount of time I sit has vastly increased. So has the size of the tush.

Since novelty works best for me when I attempt to stem the poundage and get it flowing in the opposite direction, I decided to commit to something I’ve long known I need to do, but which I really, really don’t want to (I don’t have the tagline “inhaler of chocolate” for nothing.). I’m giving up sugar. At least I’m giving up obvious sugar foods: chocolate, pastries, ice cream, etc. I’m not yet willing to delve to the level of yogurt and ketchup.

Of course right now, when I’m still in the midst of sugar oblivion (hey, yesterday was my daughter’s 8th birthday, and we’ve had cake- and sweets-o-rama), it doesn’t sound so hard. It sounds exciting and fun.

It won’t be. People who know me in real life might want to avoid me the 1st week of June. But this is something I need to do. I’ve got to change it up somehow, as I’m not completely comfortable in my current shell. Not that I expect to get thin – that’s not going to happen, and I’m fine with that. I just want to feel…better.

In order to make this feel like an even remotely achievable goal, I’ve told myself it’s just for the months of June, July, and August. 92 days. Of course I’m hoping once I get there, I’ll feel so much better I’ll keep it up. But for now, 92 days sounds as Herculean to me as 92 years.

I have no idea if anyone here gives a fig, but I’m going public for accountability’s sake. I may update this blog from time to time with how I’m doing. Cheer me on, would you? (And for God’s sake, don’t make cookie dough if I’m around. ;))

I have a problem. It’s a good kind of problem to have, I’ll admit, and a very First World Problem, but a problem, nonetheless.

I cannot narrow down my London itinerary.

So I’m asking for help. Seriously. My husband is taking me to London the first week of November because he has a paper to give at a conference, and he knows I’ve always wanted to go, even more so now because of my interest in and desire to write about the Regency period. I kind of have this sneaking suspicion I’ll be able to write about it better once I’ve actually seen some of the historical buildings and artifacts and stood in the places where Regency people actually trod. I could be wrong, but hey, I’m not going to turn down a trip overseas.

The problem is, our trip is short: 4 days. I’ve already decided we are doing a day trip to Oxford, Stratford-Upon-Avon, and Warwick Castle, because I really, really want to. That decision was simple enough. But it leaves me with 3 days – 3 days – to pack in everything else I can. And keep in mind one of those days we are likely to be extremely tired, since we’re flying overnight, arriving in London at 7 a.m., and neither my husband nor I can sleep on a plane.

So, if YOU only had 3 days in London and you were trying to soak up as much Regency “stuff” as you could, what would be on your must-see list? 

I have a bit of a head start in planning, in that I have Louise Allen‘s two great books, Walks Through Regency London and Walking Jane Austen’s London. They are replete with info on many of the iconic places I have read about in romance novels, such as Tattersall’s and Almack’s and Grosvenor Square, and have already helped me visualize the areas and connections between these places better than I ever have before.

However, I don’t think I could even fit in all her walks in those 3 days – how am I going to also get in trips to the British Museum and Apsley House and the like? What’s a girl who loves history to do? Especially when I also want to see Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London and St. Paul’s and…and…and…

I’d love your input. Please comment and tell me your Top 3 Must See things in London, even if they’re not Regency-related. But if you ARE a Regency expert, I’d love to know what you think I need to know. Are there specific parts of museums I should tour? Places with Regency history that I might not know about? Spots I can definitely skip?

My husband thanks you. He’s hoping to actually rest and relax a bit while we’re there, and unless I manage to winnow this list down, that ain’t happening.

Oh my goodness, this is wonderful – pure eye candyish delight for those of us enamored of the Regency period and of the men we fantasize populated it. Click the above image to be taken to the video by DreamyViper on YouTube. Enjoy!

Oh my God. I’m going to London. I’M GOING TO LONDON!

This has been a dream for a few years now, ever since I decided to stop saying I was going to write romances and started actually writing them. Now it’s coming true; my husband told me this week he is attending a conference in London in early November, and that he’s gotten the grandparents to agree to watch our kids so that he and I can go over together. I am one lucky woman. He knows. He knows how much I’ve longed for this. He even told me I can plan our whole itinerary, since I’m the one dying to experience it all in person and gather information, impressions, sensations, feelings for research…

Because how, I’ve always thought, can I write a convincing Regency romance if I’ve never been to England? Yes, the internet is marvelous for research. Absolutely amazing, when you think about it; Pinterest has allowed me to gather numerous images of various places in London and England, as well as all sorts of Regency resources. Blog posts give me other people’s insights into certain areas, interests, time periods. Thanks to Google maps, I can now zoom in on streets in cities I will never visit, see images of famous buildings, fabulous cathedrals, even people’s houses in places I will never see in real life.  It’s awesome. I used this technique in describing my heroine’s visit to New York City in A Man of Character, and I think it came out fairly well. At least no beta readers have openly questioned it, and a few have said they assumed I’d been there! Score for me and my WIP.

But London? Regency London? Since time travel is not an option (except in my writing, of course!), the next best thing is to visit the London of today and see what I can learn about the London of the past. Yes, I can and have and will continue to spend hours gleaning all I can from books, from videos, from pictures on a screen. But nothing compares to being there. The sounds, the sights, the smells, the ability to touch – all of the senses come alive when I visit some place new.

I can’t wait.

I plan to mostly roam around Mayfair and the places I’ve read about in my favorite novels. I want to walk the streets, get an idea of distances, visit Hyde Park and fantasize what it would have been like to walk along Rotten Row among the peerage 200 years ago, see those gentlemen’s clubs like White’s and Brook’s in person (well, from the outside at least), find the spots where Tattersall’s and Almacks stood. I hope my iPhone can hold a zillion photos.

And yes, I will try to at least pay a little bit of attention to 21st century London. That London Eye looks amazing. Also, my husband will be accompanying me to see “Mojo“, the play in which Colin Morgan is currently starring, whether my husband wants to or not. Because Merlin remains a current obsession (hey, the stories may be medieval fantasy, but I can have a mini crush on a modern actor, right?).

So, dear readers, what are your “You Can’t Miss This” things to see/do in London? And if any of you know a good place for me to just casually bump into Mr. Morgan, could you let me know? I want to invite him to Virginia to see a play at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton with me. I’m sure he’d have no qualms accepting such a proposition from a happily married middle-aged stranger in the US, right?

Hey, a girl can dream.

And this all certainly feels like a dream. So if you happen to see a large blonde giddy American woman roaming the streets of London in a month, scrutinizing architecture and examining statues close up, hopping up and down with sheer glee on her face, give me a wave, will ya? Just don’t wake me up.