Welcome to My November

Jillian here. I hate to say my life is dull compared to some of you. Laurie with her cider making, Jane with her bike/car adventures, Lavada with her hidden state treasures visits, Kit’s gardening and Tricia’s trip all sound so much fun. I’m here trudging along with the day to day grind. Working the day job and writing on a new story for NaNoWriMo on my lunch hour and at home in the evenings. I was supposed to go to New York City in October but my traveling companion had an emergency arise with her mother in law so we postponed.

My older son is in for a visit this weekend so that’s a very nice thing. He’s always a pleasure to be around. We both have long been Liverpool football fans and usually both watch the matches and text each other while they are being played. This week, at 6:30 am central time, we’ll be up and watching in the same room for the first time in ages. Looking forward to it.

I have a new Christmas anthology out that was a lot of fun to write. I am working on this NaNo story that’s a pretty heavy subject matter and is much slower going as the level of angst is pretty deep. My inspiration for the story is the true experiences of Oney Judge. She was a slave owned by George Washington. She escaped and he never freed her -even after his death, so she technically died a slave even though she’d been living in a free state for years at the time she passed away.

The law in Pennsylvania at the time George was president was that if a slave lived there for six months, that slave became free. A lot of owners removed their slaves just before the time ran—even for a day or two—as that act would start the six months running again. George did the same thing.  It was a shameful time in our history and I’m tackling it in this story. It’s clearly not a romance though she does eventually find happiness as the true life lady did. It’s difficult to write how the slaves were treated as less than human. I can only hope I’m doing them justice.

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate. And bless the families who lost loved ones in WWI as we come up on Veterans Day and the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day. Would that their sacrifices in the War to end all Wars had been true.

July- Hoping for a Fun Month

My little corner of the world

Jillian here. May and June have not been my friends but now as we move into July, I am hopeful that things are going to get better and I will be on the road to adventure and fun. I fell on June 16 in the parking lot of a restaurant and broke my left foot and my right arm so the second half of June was full of pain and inactivity for me.

It goes to show you, as the poet Robert Burns wrote in his poem, “To a Mouse” and as John Steinbeck stole for the title to his book, “Of Mice and Men”, “The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry.”

BURNS: 

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

I had these grand plans to get in better shape for a trip to France in August- walking, getting my stamina up, etc and that is all down the tubes now since I have this craziness going on. BUT I am choosing to look on the brighter side and telling myself how much worse it could have been and that I am at least going to be all right. I will recover the full use of my arm and I will walk again with no pain and no cast. AND I hope to do it all before August!  LOL!

The fourth of July is in two days and I hope if you are American and celebrate this holiday that you have a wonderful time. For those of you in the Motherland, we fought for our freedom but it sure seems like we still love your country a lot- at least I know I do.

One of my ancestors was at Valley Forge with George Washington so if you ever think I may be a rebel in the making, guess what? I come by it honestly. I also have two ancestors who were Lord Mayor of London so I come by my love of all things British honestly as well.  I am lucky to have learned so much about my family history. I love, love that.

Have a great early part of the month and I hope to report good news on my next OTBF day- no more Debbie Downer posts from me, right? LOL

OOOOPS!

Jillian here- Well, well. Can’t give this girl a day off from the day job without her thinking she’s off the hook for everything! I am such a sloth. I actually had a note written to myself on Friday the 14th that today was my day to blog over here but guess what? I left it on my desk at the day job. Some brilliant lawyer am I, right?

Anyway! I’m here and the day isn’t over yet. I was a total bum today. I read a book and took a nap. I didn’t write a thing nor did I work on adding some things to a book I hope to self-publish with a little help from a friend/editor. I planned to get so much done but I didn’t. This is totally unlike me. Totally. Heck, I didn’t even take a shower until 1:30 pm. But you know what? I don’t feel guilty. At all. I think we all need days like this and I am so anal I don’t allow myself to do this very often at all.

I have had a rough year so far with things beyond my control. Things that affect me but I can’t control or change. It’s a tough place for me to be but I’m there. It’s hard for me because I freely admit that I’m a control freak. I like to have things neat and orderly around me and when they aren’t, it makes me a grouchy person. For the amount of issues I’ve had this year that aren’t in my power to change, it’s amazing I haven’t turned into a green puppet from Sesame Street. What was his name? Oh, yeah, Oscar.

Just call me Oscar. Hope you had a great President’s Day and remembered George and Abe in a fun way, not a lazy way like yours truly.

President’s Day

In the USA, today is President’s Day. Back when I was a kid, the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were each separate holidays. When Martin Luther King, Jr. day was declared a holiday, the powers that be combined the two presidents birthdays into one holiday called President’s Day. Sadly, our county government doesn’t celebrate this holiday. The Federal system does but not the local government. I’m curious as to whether other local governments close for this day. It chaps my hide that ours does not. I’m not trying to be controversial and I appreciate all that MLK, Jr. did but why is his holiday celebrated and the birthdays of two of our most important presidents aren’t? I mean, really, George helped found this country and Abe saved this country. What’s wrong with this picture?

Anyway, I close my office for this holiday and I give all three men the respect they are due. I will go back to work tomorrow to a lot of phone calls from people who will want to know where we were and I will proudly tell them. I plan to lift a glass of something in a toast to these two presidents.

Happy President’s day! Enjoy!