Fledgling launched!

Victoria and Colleen, I can relate! I drove away leaving Ned at Cornell on Saturday - 11 hours straight back to Bloomington from Ithaca, returning to an empty house at 1:30 am. About 36 hours later, I returned to California for the week, but in the interim got a solid dose of empty nesting. It is totally weird. On the one hand, I feel much older - pushed into the expectant grandparent generation with no warning. On the other hand, I feel much younger - for the first time in 23 years I don't have to think of anyone else first. I am as free as I was at age 15 alone at my great-aunt Louise's cabin in the mountains of Idaho. As long as you don't look into the mirror, your age is what your head says it is. I don't have to be responsible anymore. I don't have to be anyone's role model. I don't have to worry about embarrassing adolescents in front of their friends in my very small town where their friends are everywhere. I can do whatever the hell I want to do, consistent with keeping my paid employment....This may actually be okay.

And I plan to play loud music whenever I want to, make as much noise as I feel like making, not cook unless I am in the mood, and travel even more insanely than I already do. So far, Missouri in October, Oregon, DC, and Wisconsin in November, Hong Kong in December and Indiana and California all the times in between.

The best part is Ned's status post on his Facebook Page:

Ned is at the BEST UNIVERSITY EVER where everyone is ABNORMALLY AMIABLE

What Do I Want To Do When I Grow Up?

I came back from Bloomington in July feeling challenged and championed. That's what you get when you hang out with some of the smartest, goodest girls on the planet. I brought Zach back to Bloomington, stayed with Jeff and Mimi, and let some more of that good Bloomington juju rub off on both of us. Zach is seriously going to apply to IU, which I think may be a match. Thank you, Dr. Z, for that. If he goes IU I swear I'm going to buy a house there. My midwest sensibilities have been revived.

Senior year is here and I am already grieving the loss of my last spawnling. I have vowed to work on disengaging from a happy co-dependency with this particular son. There are projects, concerts, retreats, college trips, one last mission to the DR...a monsterous amount of "last things" to walk through. But everything points to a winning year.

John will turn 21 in December and soon will jump from being a commuter student to his first apartment, so I'll be losing 2 pups around the same time. I am contemplating my retirement from the mom thing and am attempting to plan and cope by writing at least 300 words a day (a la Anne Lamont) and, no lie, have started seeing a therapist (but we like to call him a "life coach" cause it sounds oh so much nicer).

Anyhow, I've been writing. Thanks to Allison I'm trying to take myself seriously here and have been reading, reading, reading, reading and checking out writing options without tipping over the marital shopping cart. That's where the therapist comes in. For the first time in my life I am exploring the extent to which I may be ADD and whether I can organize my life outside my role as a mommy in a focused, productive way. Start praying, girls, it's gonna be a bumpy mid-life ride.

I am looking forward to a cycling trip in Maine in a few weeks. Have been working toward this all summer. Also will be taking the pup up north to check out more schools. The fall will be a zoomer. But I hope to be faithful in communicating and may send some drafts of my stuff your way. In the meantime, carpe diem.

On the Go

After our fabulous gathering in Bloomington I headed farther east for 3 weeks of friends and family. Most of the time was spent at the house on Cape Cod (hope we will be having one of our reunions there soon). John and I celebrated 31 years of marriage in Provincetown where we met Kristin's boat from Boston and had a delectable dinner; the advantage of working daughters is that Courtney and Kristin picked up the check! I did get some good pics so I will try to upload them here soon. Home now and regular routines have returned including bridge, paddle, yoga and walking with my little companion, Rocky.
This past week I shipped Cathryn back for year number 2 at Princeton and hopped on a plane to Denver. A friend of mine invited me to join her in Vail for 3 days of hiking and biking. I think I like it even better than winter; probably because the summer sports require less skill than skiing.
My bag is unpacked momentarily while I wash and iron and decide what to wear on my next junket. I leave Thursday for 2 more weeks on the road. I guess my goal is just to see how many airline miles I can rack up! After a big chill weekend in Essex with friends from my Chemical Bank days, John and I will head back to Cape Cod. He will not stay long,returning to put in some hours at his new firm. I will stay on through Labor Day followed by trips to Boston, Princeton for Cathryn's first game and Farmington for golf with my Dad and visit with my Mom.

Back to Indiana

Eventful summer. Announcing that I am going back to Indiana in the Fall to Bouchercon (http://www.bouchercon2009.com/) -- the largest convention of mystery/crime writers and fans. Last year it was in Baltimore, where we talked a lot about the wire. It's great fun and since I've been on Twitter (hey, come follow me @allisondavis531), I've met a lot of interesting writers. I may even "tweet up" with some in new orleans when I'm there in October.

I held a "coming out" party -- a house concert for myself really, and had Judy Butterfield (http://www.judybutterfield.com/) and Mindi Hadan (http://www.mindihadan.com/) accompanied by Ken Muir (http://www.kenmuir.com/) and a wonderful jazz trio (Brian Hill, Jeff Ardziejewski and Spence Murray). It was Saturday...I made all the food and arranged the room. I had friends set up the sound system and stage. Here's some more pics:

I made cerviche, boiled shrimp, potato salad with no mayo, guacamole and these fabulous skewers of heirloom cherry tomatoes, mozerella and basil...I made nearly 100 of them. All got eaten!

new era

Fog out my bedroom window at 7 a.m. this morning before I went to market. This is my "writing window."

Ok, I'm going to get better about the blog. I don't do facebook, but am totally stuck and sold on Twitter -- found a community of women writers and we support each other. Vicky, you need to get attached to the cobweb.

Friends have a great blog on writing tips: http://www.murderati.com/ -- my friend Louise Ure and Cornelia Read among others.

Tonight having dinner with new friend Alice and we are going to try and start a writing "group" -- just to have goals and deadlines. Otherwise I languish in dreams with little reality here.

Book is at Reece Halsey right now being looked at -- sometime in the next couple of months -- by Kimberley Cameron (http://www.kimerberleycameron.com/) so will have some solid feedback. Still fixing typos and the like in the complete manuscript (she has first 43 pages). It's all a process.

Since Indiana, did a book conference (where I gave Kim the book), a work conference, spent 4th of July at the old Mendocino property with the tribe and the ex husband (yes, it was totally weird).

Work is ok, but last week was like trudging through sludge. Spat of depression I suspect. So will work through it this weekend....tomato and avocado salad and gnocchi for dinner party tonight. Lots of wine. Should wash out all the bad juju.