Life Just Keeps Happening

Why is it that a retired woman who enjoys writing can let nearly two weeks pass without posting on her blog? I can only say that even retired, I stay busy, and life just keeps happening.

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So what has kept me away from my blog?

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Last weekend I climbed into a car with two of my favorite writers and headed south to attend the SCBWI Houston Conference. I actually started to blog about it one day this week, but somehow my post sounded boring, so I abandoned it. The conference itself wasn’t boring. In fact, it was excellent. And my traveling companions are awesome women. I think I’ll keep our adventures a secret so that our sterling reputations with our SCBWI friends aren’t tarnished. We had fun!

I got to rest a bit before spending two more long days in a car. On Thursday we met Sweet Girl and The Writer in Louisiana to pick up their cat. We’re providing kitty foster care for Vivienne for a while. When you already have three cats, how much more trouble can another cat be? (Of course, that’s what we thought when we went from two kids to three, and we quickly discovered that three is significantly more work than two.) She is a beautiful cat and is adjusting well, although I can’t say that our other cats are happy to have her around. (It’s sort of like how Wild Child acted when Little Guy joined our family. There may be a lot of hissing for a while.)

Today is Dr. Lobo’s birthday, and we’re getting so old we hardly know how to celebrate. In fact, he’s so old, he’s now on Medicare. Seems like just a few years ago we were a young couple raising a family.

In between the trips and the milestones, I do the things we all do that keep us busy. I read (a lot), shop at thrift stores, hang out with Dr. Lobo, do laundry, cook as little as possible, clean the kitchen, do water aerobics, walk in the mall with my pastor/friend, go to church activities, clean the kitchen again, eat lunch and do talk therapy with my best friend, help with children’s programming at church, follow facebook, worship, email, clean the kitchen again, critique manuscripts, and talk with family members. In between those activities, I’m writing a novel. It’s a good thing I no longer have a job. I’d never have time for it.

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I’m grateful for this busy life, full of special people and interesting activities. I’m even grateful for the challenges that cause me to stretch and grow. I hope life keeps on happening for a long, long time.

Lucky Agent Contest

As part of my search for an agent, I'm entering The Lucky Agent Contest, sponsored by http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/. Contestants are asked to send the first 150-200 words of a middle grade or young adult novel plus a logline (a one sentence description of the work). It occurred to me that it might be fun for some of my non-writing friends to see a sample of my writing for kids, so I'm posting it here as well.

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Title: The Totally Weird Substitute

Logline: Ethan, a third grader who loves order and routine, must adjust to an eccentric, free-spirited substitute when his structured teacher leaves to have her baby.


Opening:

My sister said a third grader can’t drop out of school just because his teacher is leaving to have a baby.

My mother said she wouldn’t quit her job to home school me.

My father said I had to go to school even if I felt like throwing up.

“What if the substitute mixes up the order of the subjects?” I asked Dad on the way to school. “What if she never watches the clock and keeps teaching all through lunchtime and I faint from hunger? What if the teacher is a man who makes me play soccer at recess?”

“Stop worrying. You’ll be okay,” he said. He stopped the car in front of the school.

“What if she won’t let me take a bathroom break and I can’t hold it? What if we get a teacher who makes me miss recess if I don’t finish my work and I never—”

“Ethan!” he interrupted. “Calm down. Take a deep breath.”

I tried to breathe like he showed me, but it didn’t help. My breath came hard and fast as I got out of the car.

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So what do you think? Would you keep reading? If you have comments or suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

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If you or someone you know is interested in entering this contest, or if you want to know more about it, go here.

Rescued!

Once again, Dr. Lobo is my hero. Yesterday afternoon he was standing in the driveway when he heard yowling that sounded familiar.
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The house across the street has been empty for a while. Both Dr. Lobo and Little Guy looked there multiple times in the last week, but found no signs of Hektor. But apparently yesterday Hektor spotted Dr. Lobo and yowled for attention.
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Hektor had managed to get into the house, apparently from the basement, but then got trapped inside. Dr. Lobo followed the noise, discovered the cat, and rescued him. (Good job, Dr. Lobo!)
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Fortunately, Hektor is an excellent mouser, and water was available in the toilet. Although he was traumatized, he seems to be in great shape other than being a bit skittish. I don't think he'll be trying to get on any of those reality TV survivor shows. He's had enough of that nonsense.
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We called Little Guy at work and gave him the good news. A few hours later, this was the joyful reunion.

Take a look at that cute face. Isn't he wonderful? (And doesn't my kid have gorgeous hair?)

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We are so relieved! (And no, his sibling cats aren't so thrilled by his reappearance, but they'll adjust.)

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WHEW!

Still Missing

It's been a week since our sweet Hektor cat walked out our front door, like he has done thousands of times before, and simply disappeared. We've searched the neighborhood and alerted our neighbors, visited the animal shelter, and offered our other cats a salmon dinner for bringing Hektor back to us. We've had no leads, although we still suspect that our other cats are withholding pertinent information.

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A Catster poll from March 2009 asked cat owners, "Have you ever had a cat go missing or run away from home?" Look here if you want to go to the site. Otherwise, keep reading, and I'll give you the results:

No=34.41%

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Yes, for a couple of hours=18.61%

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Yes, for a couple of days=13.83%

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Yes, over a week=11.64%

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Yes, and was never found=21.52%

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The website indicated that they had 999 responses. Since Hektor has already been missing for a week, I'll consider the data for the 114 cats gone more than a week and the 221 cats never found. I won't bother to walk you through the math. (I've done enough of that with fourth graders to last me a lifetime.) So either do the math yourself, or trust me. (My math is probably right, since my dad was a math teacher. Then again, my sister got the math gene.)

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Anyway . . . of the cats that were missing for more than a week, according to my math, 34% returned. So at this point we have a 34% chance that Hektor will come home, and a 66% chance that he'll never be found. I'm pleasantly surprised to learn that our chances are as good as they are. Still, it's more likely that we won't find him. As one person commented on the Catster poll results, "Heartbreak with no end. Not knowing is the worst!"

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But today is sunny and beautiful, and we have a one in three chance that Hektor will waltz in here at any moment. In a scene similar to the prodigal son story, our faithful cats who stayed home and tolerated our cuddling will greet him with some resentment. They'll tire of his tales of adventure in exotic locales. They may even make plans to get rid of him, like Joseph's brothers.

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I can always hope, can't I?

Missing: One Adventure Cat

It’s been two and a half days since we've seen Hektor, our “Adventure Cat.” During bitterly cold weather, we keep the cats inside. On Tuesday morning, Hektor and Veto begged to go outside to play. The temperature had risen, so Little Guy released them from their enforced confinement. Hours later, Veto returned, but Hektor has not yet made an appearance.

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Hektor is Little Guy’s cat. I’ve written about him before. (See here.) We refer to him as our adventure cat because he loves to explore.

Cats demand independence, and it’s a cat’s nature to disappear. Sometimes he reappears days or even weeks later and refuses to tell where he’s been. Indeed, even as his (so-called) owners are rejoicing over his reappearance and showering him with affection, the cat looks at them with impatience. “Enough already,” he seems to be saying. “Where’s my dinner?”

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Several years ago, Veto went missing. We combed the neighborhood, but more than a week passed with no sign of him. Finally Dr. Lobo and Little Guy visited the animal shelter to see if he’d been picked up by Animal Control. Not finding him, they returned home, despondent. When they drove into the driveway, they spotted Veto sitting on the porch. He looked at them with disdain, communicating a definite message: “Where the heck have you been? I’ve been waiting and waiting to get inside.”

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Our neighbors’ cat disappeared about this time last year. He was gone for weeks. One day he sauntered in, and family members were ecstatic. He stayed for two days before taking off once more. They haven’t seen him since. Go figure.

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Hektor has gone AWOL before. Last time, after several days of searching the most likely places, Dr. Lobo and Little Guy began to look at more remote possibilities. Squirrels had chewed a hole in the eaves between the floors of our house. Little Guy was perched precariously on the extension ladder, peering into the hole, when he heard a faint meow. Dr. Lobo, who was near him on the upstairs deck, heard it too. Encouraged, they called to Hektor. Then the meow was louder, but it wasn't coming from the hole. It was coming from the missing Hektor, who was no longer missing. Hektor lay on the deck next to Dr. Lobo, straining to look at Little Guy hanging from the ladder. The expression on his face said, "Whatcha doing"? He was in great shape. He was not hungry, thirsty, or even dirty. We have no idea where he’d been, and he wouldn’t reveal the secret for all the canned salmon in the house.

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We hope the current episode has a similar ending. We hope Hektor is enjoying a grand adventure and will show up unscathed. We’re leaving the cat door open, listening for a familiar meow, and hoping our adventure cat will hurry home.