I’m a sucker for chance, an opportunity, the hope that I could easily fall into an obscene amount of riches, simply by luck.

Lottery Tickets–I don’t usually buy them. But if I happen to glance in their direction and start thinking about the fact that the winning scratchoff ticket simply has to be amongst the pile I’m staring at, well I’ll buy one. Somebody has to win. I might even go on a lottery ticket bender…one a time for a few days. Not blowing the mortgage, but not very smart either. Unless I win. That would make me smart.

Publishers clearing house/surveys with $$$ attached–Yesterday I got a household survey in the mail. It was going right in the garbage until the bolded words on the back caught my eye–YOU COULD WIN AN EXTRA $500…Not an obscene amount of money, but enough to get my “Somebody has to win,” mentality kicking…Same with publisher’s clearing house…there are moments when I’m filling those out that I truly believe old Ed will be standing on porch during the Super Bowl…

Slot machines–my first encounter with slots was when I was 20, visiting my college roommate in her home town of St. Helena, CA. We spent a week in Lake Tahoe, where, get this, there were slot machines in GROCERY STORES. Underage? No matter, it always took a few pulls before someone asked me for ID. After they saw my glazed eyes and the way I defended “my machine,” against a bossy ninety-year-old woman they would leave me alone.

While swimming in crystal clear Lake Tahoe, we caught a glimpse of a money clip–bulging with bills. We could barely rescue the thing and open it fast enough–you can imagine the images filling my mind…Reality was eleven dollars…that’s it. To us it wasn’t a bad take. Something for nothing…but I still think of that now. If only it had been stuffed with hundreds of hundred dollar bills…

We also took a trip to Las Vegas where for the first time I was made aware you could cash your pay checks in the casino–I knew then I would never trust myself to live in LasVegas. I’d literally lose my house…

Now, with the way publishing goes, I almost view getting my book published as winning the lottery. So much chance involved…yet, SO much work getting the book to the point it could ever be considered for publication. But still, as I fantasize about hearing the words “We sold your book to _______ publishing,” I can’t help thinking it will feel as though I’ve won the lottery. And I can’t wait.

Well,

Summer is officially over and for the first time in years I’m sad to see it go. Summer used to be my favorite time of year. But with MS being exasperated by heat and having toddlers who couldn’t be occupied with “activities” or trusted to listen at the pool, I have looked at summer as a thin sliver of hell.

But this year, things were different. Beth and Jake were old enough to follow directions, learn to swim, and experience the awe inspiring long summer days filled with nothing but sun and exploration of their environment.

And it felt like that for me again. Sitting at the pool (Okay, I rarely sat) watching them enjoy the water, playing imaginative games, and tuckering themselves out, took me back to when I was a kid. That summer sensation was back–it had been lurking inside my skin since childhood ended.

Because Bill travels a ton and is always gone at dinner time, we would have dinner at the pool, heading home with just enough time to read books and snuggle the kids off to dreamland. These were good days.

Not that the pool didn’t introduce a plethora of political parenting issues, but what’s life without people to ruffle your feathers? Nothing like ten different parenting styles clashing in two feet of water. All in all, knowing there was a place for the kids to run and eat and swim, and for me to have mothers around going through the same things as me, made for the best summer I’ve had in a long, long time.

Well, I pared out the extraneous crap that was hiding within the 413 page manuscript….And I added a subplot and more humor…I’m down 13,000 words, though I’m not sure I accomplished what I needed to (besides tightening things up–this I did do) . So I’m going to ignore the fresh hardcopy for a day or two and then dive back in. I love the straight creative part so much more than this…wait, this requires a lot more creativity, it just feels worse. It will be worth it in the end.

Sorry for the string of bad posts–I’m drowning in my revisions as I struggle to tighten things up and create a new small subplot…It’s coming along, but I’m in panic mode–If I don’t get through this–I’ll never be able to blog again–better to bear down and do it than drag it out…

Don’t forget to go to The Mommy Blog to help with donations…

Be back soon.

Kathie

Anyone interested in giving money to hurricane relief might want to look at what Mindi is doing at The Mommyblog…I know people are giving at lots of different places, but take a look.

More posts later…busy revising…must focus…must keep moving…

Hey there everyone–I have a photo up for all to see–yes that’s me with the aforementioned “bob.” More to come.

I don’t want an angry bitter blog, but I can’t listen to FEMA man on television say the people in the N.O. convention center are eating two meals a day while NBC cameras illuminate the filth and desperation of people who have lost everything that makes them who they are.

I don’t like Bush, and I don’t want to read like an insane liberal Bush hater, but it is his responsibility to lead his country and solve this problem. He should have demanded airlines haul the poor masses out of the city before the hurricane and housed them at all the empty bases. “Eighty percent got out,” yeah, those with money and families beyond the borders of N.O. Thank God he got his last bike ride in to ensure for a little longer we have the healthiest president ever.

He should with some kind of passionate angst (the kind he is hopefully feeling) demand these babies and their parents are taken to safety. Demand the elderly are given what they need.
I don’t sense at all he identifies with the people who are begging for their lives.
And I think it has less to do with race than it does with poverty.
It must be too frightening or simply too difficult for him to imagine he could ever be in that position.
If NBC can get in there and family members who are looking for their relations can get there, then there is no excuse.
And I don’t care that Bush called the way this is going “unacceptable,” he’s more fired up about steroids than he is about this…
Congress moved with lightening speed when the Terry Shiavo (sp?) stuff was gong on, but now they think getting aid to these people by Sunday is somehow “fine.”

I couldn’t be more disgusted. They are not “On Top” of anything except, I’m sure, W’s next planned hiatus.

Hey ladies,

I banned TV coverage of Katrina today.
My friend Michele and I were glued to it yesterday.
It left me saddened…
It should.
But a break from the viewing in lieu of some prayers is a fair trade-off, yes?
Not that the poor souls in LA can take a break…
So, what can I do?
I will donate money, but what else?
I see on other blogs all these people offering their homes…
That’s amazing, but I can’t help being a little suspicious of the offers…
that’s cynical and crappy of me,
If ever there was a reason for Federal gov. intervention, this is it.
Come on, get these people to all the bases that are supposed to close this year.
Bush and his silly dog…bike ride…month long vacation….I can’t take it. There must be something else we mothers can do. Clearly it can’t be left to the most powerful man in the world. (sorry to my conservative friends, but come on.)

I’m sure this will come as no great shakes for most moms out there, but I finally reached the end of my patience for getting no sleep every night and came up with a plan…got the kids new “character” pillow cases, hauled out Jake’s safety bed rail so to create a fort-like sleeping experience and announced that each one must stay in bed, no questions asked. They both nodded as though they understood perfectly what I was ordering them to do…we’ll see…deep in the night..think positive Kathie, think positive.
Balancing out my lack of sleep and complaints about life’s miniscule aggravations is the staggering Hurricane situation…all those babies and children and their horrified parents. Of course they’re running out of stores gripping all the pampers they can get their hands on. This is surprising?