Friday, April 28, 2006

Away I go

I didn't know if I'd make it to the conference afterall. My mama had a turn for the worst and has been a bit ill for the past few days. I brought her home to stay with me all week and decided to hold off on leaving until noon. That way, I will take her to my sister's and know that she will be fine.

I had originally planned on leaving by 7 a.m. and enjoying a day in the city. I had wanted to drop in on an art museum or perhaps do a little sightseeing/shopping in the garment district of Los Angeles. It has been years since I've been there.

But I guess everything turns out in the end. I should get to Los Angeles by 4 to 5 p.m. -- I know, right in the middle of 5 p.m. traffic on a Friday evening..... yuk! But that should give me plenty of time to check into the Fullerton Marriott and enjoy a nice dinner, maybe take in a movie and be ready for tomorrow.

:) Of course, my mother thinks this is awful! She does not believe that women should travel alone. I reminded her I've been all over the country, to Canada and to Europe ALONE.... she still said she wished I could take someone.

Truth is, I love traveling alone. When I've invited a sister, I feel so trapped. I enjoy their company but we are so different. I am too independent and move too fast. They linger too long at the "wrong" place (one store department, for example) I zoom in and out of stores, and my lingering is over coffee, reading a paper, or at museums (and they hate all that) LOL


I'll be back next week and will write about my experience -- barring any disaster from earthquakes (my one big fear) I should be fine. That is the only thing I am dreading. I hate being near tall buildings. Going to San Francisco or Los Angeles scares me for that one reason alone.

Until then,
:)

4 comments:

  1. Sorry your mom is ill.

    I hope you are having a great time, and learning much. The one thing I learned at my first writers conference that I could not have learned any other way was that agents and editors were human, and that they had their own challenges to face -

    I hope you'll tell us what you learned when you return.

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  2. Anonymous8:53 PM

    Sorry to hear about your mom.

    I'm also going to my first writers' conference, in June. I hope you're still able to attend yours.

    Anyway, just wanted to pop by and tell you I enjoyed your story.

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  3. Thank you, Mark and Jamie. I came home a day early but I still went. It was awesome and one of the best things I've ever done for my writing career. It really fired me up. I don't know why I had never gone before. This one was more newspaper related but there was a bit I could pull towards regular writing. I'll come back and blog about it. Now I'm really excited about attending a more conventional (novel related) conference.

    As to my short story, thanks. I just found out about it winning second place. I screamed! I was so excited! It's the first contest I've ever entered.

    So, it's been a great week.

    I'm on my way to my mom's to pick her up and have her stay with me the week again. Thank you both for your thoughts.

    Esther

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  4. I'm glad you had a good time, Esther. Congratulations on your story, I really liked it. :)

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