Jollification*

My baby ain't a baby no more. Or something just as grammatically horrifying. Yep, we've reached yet another milestone. The Tall One is 18 years old today. She went out with an old friend of hers last night (how old can an "old friend" be to an 18-year-old?) to spend time with another friend they hadn't seen in several years. She called me around 9:30 or so and said she was going to stay with them until midnight so that they could say they hung out with her on her birthday. I thought that was kinda funny.

Hotter 'n blazes. I am sunburnt. We spent most of the day Saturday in town (our little town - where "uptown" is 1/2 mile up the road) for the annual Volunteer Fire Department Parade and Picnic. The Boy was in the parade with the marching band, of course, and for being so small (we're rebuilding, in the new director's second year) they sound great. The Boy has switched from bari sax to Sousaphone. For those of you who don't know what that is (and yes, there are those of you out there with furrowed brows - I can see you), it's the thing that looks like someone stretched out a big brass pipe and wrapped it around the guy playing it so that the bell sticks up over his head. Named for John Philip Sousa, of course, it's the marching band version of a tuba. Anyway, their band director is just tickled at how quickly The Boy has adapted to his new instrument. What can I say? Pure talent. It's genetic - and no, he didn't get it from me. The musicality is from the WGH's side of the family (from the WGH himself, mostly).

It was 90 degrees and mostly sunny all day Saturday, and we were right out in it. No sunblock (I know, stupid), but I did spend as much time in the shade as I could get. Watched some friends and other members of our community play softball, walked around and talked to a bunch of folks, and generally had a high old time. By five o'clock I was whupped (how's that for a Southern expression?).

Now, I told you all that to tell you this. Nowhere in the span of the last three days have I spent any time working on the book. Yikes! So, today is the day. Aside from figuring out what we're doing for The Tall One's birthday bash on Saturday, today is set aside for me to start finishing (is that an oxymoron?) the final edits on the manuscript.

I was glancing back through some of my old posts and came across one from November, when I was doing the NaNoWriMo thing and trying to polish up two manuscripts during that month. Do you realize that the one I'm working on now is one of those two books? Not that you'd recognize it, because the story's changed quite a bit, but most of the gist of it is still there, and it's so much better now. At least in my humble but accurate opinion.

Whatever is on your plate today, I hope you have a good time doing it. Life's too short not to enjoy it. Read a book. It's good for you.

=) JB


Word of the Day: *jollification \jol-ih-fuh-KAY-shuhn\ (noun) - Merrymaking; festivity; revelry. [source: ArcaMax Vocabulary 07.27.07]