Happy Birthday!

I just realized that this blog is year old as of yesterday. I intended to blog yesterday to celebrate. But I also intended to blog the day before that and the day before that as well. I’ve clearly been having a difficult time with prioritizing blogging. I do have some legitimate excuses, like being pregnant and being out of town. But enough of the excuses. Here I am sitting my ass down on the couch to write. Finally.

I attended my second SCBWI conference last week in Los Angeles. It was fabulous once again. A highlight for me was meeting Jane O’Connor, the author of the Fancy Nancy books. While getting her autograph, I showed her a picture of me and my old teaching buddies dressed up as Fancy Nancy characters. She was charmed and asked for me to email it to her. So I emailed it and she wrote a brief note back to me. So unbelievably cool. I also got to speak to author/illustrator Peter Brown for a minute while he signed his book Mr. Tiger Goes Wild. He was super friendly and warm. I was so caught up with my chat that I forgot to get a picture with him, but I have no regrets.

I had some insights about writing picture books due to the break-out sessions that I attended. I realize I have my work cut out for me because I really need to go back and revise everything I’ve written to allow room for the illustrator to tell part of the story. This idea isn’t a new idea, but it finally started to make sense to me at the conference. I’m pretty excited about trying out some new ideas.

A few weeks ago I ran the Wharf to Wharf race in Santa Cruz with a dear friend. Well, we didn’t really run together because she actually runs while I jog at a snail’s pace. I succeeded in running the first five miles, but my knee gave out and I was forced to limp the last mile. I was a little sad that I couldn’t run across the finish line (I have never walked across a finish line before) but I was pretty happy that I was able to finish. In some ways it was a fun race, but it also sucked. I felt like I had to pee the entire time thanks to little dude bouncing on my bladder. I think I’m done with running until after he’s born because it just isn’t fun anymore.

Pregnancy has definitely changed my life. I haven’t had a solid night’s sleep since April. Most of my clothes don’t fit anymore. Running sucks. I can’t boulder anymore and no one wants to top rope with me. Everything that used to feel easy feels hard. I get emotional watching Charmed. I want to eat ice cream all the time (to be fair I wanted that before I was pregnant too). Being pregnant is like being on an amusement park ride. You’re all excited to get on the ride and parts are fun and exciting, but then things can get scary and you feel sick. And just like a ride, you can’t get off until it’s over. At least at the end of this ride, I’ll have a darling baby boy (which I’m getting pretty excited about, especially after my ultrasound this morning). But I’m not sure if I’ll be yelling, “Again! Again!” anytime soon.

What I’m reading: I finished reading Drums of Autumn and have started on the 5^th Outlander book A Breath of Snow and Ashes. I read the 11^th Maisie Dobbs book A Dangerous Place which was depressing, but good. I loved Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle so I read The Silver Star which was excellently written. I also read Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee. It was interesting, but just not a very good story in my opinion. The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd, was a great story. I didn’t realize until I read the afterward that it was based on the life of a real person. In college I took a writing class that featured the works of Toni Morrison, so I was excited to read her latest book, God Help the Child. It was interesting and totally bizarre, but that’s kind of her style. I’m currently reading Maya’s Notebook by Isabel Allende and two non-fiction books: Exercising Through Your Pregnancy by James Clapp and Catherine Cram and Parenting From the Inside Out by Daniel Siegel.