Awesome Kiddies

Hey, folks!

How was your weekend? Mine was pretty good, had a one-day drill on Saturday, had a small Holiday Lunch that our FRG (Family Readiness Group) put together for us and it was phenomenal. those ladies do some remarkable work: it's comforting to know we have people like that at our backs. BTW: just want to say thank you to the lady who saw four soldiers sitting at a booth in Chili's this weekend and stopped by to say "Thanks for your service!" and dropped $30.00 on the table before she ran out. Ma'am, that was totally not necessary! The "thank you" was far more than we even need, but both are truly appreciated. There are some really wonderful folks out there, ya' know?

Yesterday was good too, went up to NYC with the family and spent the day seeing all the Christmas-type sights. Good company and good fun - plus good candied nuts from the street vendors (nom nom nom!) I was just there with my niece a few weeks ago to see "West Side Story" (yup, still a musicals geek!) and we had a great time then too. Always fun to spend time with the kids (kids? Hell, she's almost 16 now!) away from their parents. They open up a lot more and you can have some really interesting conversations with young folks if you can get them to tell you what they really think. This particular niece is in a music/drama type HS where she lives and lovvveessss the musicals too, so we went together (cuz The Wife hates that shit!) The Boy likes 'em too, but he was busy that day doing something or other.

Having been away for a  bit (what's a year or so between friends, eh?) I didn't have a chance to brag on The Boy! He's a Senior this year and still determined to do the Naval thing, so he applied -and has been accepted- to the United State Merchant Marine Academy! How's that for cool? Not only that, but he got an "early acceptance" letter which means he was one of a small handful of applicants they put at the very top of their list. I'm so proud of him I can't even begin to explain it. We did good with that kid! :-)

No writing this weekend, too busy having fun, as you can see! I have been working a little on my novel "First" which I want to finish because I really like the way it ends and I want to see how it gets there. I have this really epic, semi-tragic, ending planned but there is a massive battle that takes place across 16 days and told from two alternating points of view that I have to finish up before I get there. Complex, but kinda fun to write. Right now, that's what I'm looking for - stuff that interests me. I want to write because I want to see the story form, ya' know? Not because I "have to" in order to be published, and I certainly don't want to write what I think will sell, either. I want to have fun again with my writing; to do it because it feels good to me. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

I'm out!