Must Be Dallas

I woke up awhile ago. It was dark and hard to open my eyes as I slept in my contact lenses and forgot to pack the eye drops and glasses.

Last week on the road in California Surfer Ty surprised me with a little lense kit to hold everything and I’d meant to bring it to Dallas as I’m trying to wear my glasses more and more at night to give my eyes a break, but somehow in the rush yesterday to get son to soccer, to have my mother know everything she needed to know to watch my kids until Monday, I left drops and glasses on the boys bathroom counter when I put in my contacts yesterday morning. Damn.

It’s disorienting waking up in a hotel room with black out drapes because there’s no light and no sense of time. The gigantic bed doesn’t help. In California, despite having Ty to keep me company, the hotel rooms all had queen beds. Now that I’m alone I have a king size bed. Not sure I understand the rationale but there it is. And in this room, in the king size bed the clock is on the far side of the bed, the side I’m not sleeping on so I don’t know if it’s middle of the night or noon.

Crawling across king size bed with my dry, scratchy eyes I grab at clock on the far side. 8:30. 8:30…Texas time…which means its really only 6:30 am home and 3:30 am in Hawaii.

I always think about Hawaii time. Always think about Surfer Ty.

Without him here on the Dallas trip, I read, and I stayed up late last night reading, not turning out the light until 1:30 am Texas time as I had to finish JR Ward’s newest Brotherhood novel. I love love love JR Ward. I bawled as I read the book. It’s her best yet. Intense, emotional, tightly plotted, beautifully written. Her prose smacks of wit. Her relationships within the series so layered you feel like you’re part of the family. She’s one of the few writers that own my heart. I can’t resist her world, or her characters, or how she lays the words down on the page. I reread her dialogue just because I enjoy it so. I savor her language, thinking, damn girl you’re good.

Today, Sunday, is the Buns and Roses Tea, and then tonight I meet a lot of my Dallas/Plano Pi Phi alum friends for dinner. Tomorrow morning I’ll appear on Good Morning Texas and then it’s a day of stock signings before I catch a 6 pm flight home.

Being on the road for book tours and book business is hard. We writers have a tendency to over analyze. We worry that no one will come to events. We worry that book sellers will be disappointed in turn out. We worry we say the wrong thing at the microphone. We worry we didn’t sign enough books. We worry that the book seller didn’t order enough books. We worry when none of the back list is available at an event. We worry and worry and honestly, worrying accomplishes nothing and just creates misery but we do it anyway. Which is why its good when writers have company on the road. Company that pulls us out of our heads and back into the moment.

I loved having Ty with me last week in California. It was wonderful seeing him every night and morning. He’s so positive. He’s happy. Being with a happy person makes all the difference. This is why I write for women. I want more women to be happy. Our children deserve happy homes. Our mates deserve happy partners. Life just feels better when your heart isn’t heavy.

Speaking of happy, Friday I did two great events in the Seattle area. Friday morning I spoke at a Mukilteo School Foundation fundraiser breakfast and then signed books afterwards. Friday evening I had a reading, discussion and signing at Third Place Books and it was one of my best events yet. A great crowd, every seat filled, and we sold all books they’d ordered in (Flirting, Frog and Odd Mom) save for two copies of Odd Mom Out. Biggest surprise was how many had driven from Bellevue to hear me speak. Not everyone in Bellevue is mad at me. Yay!

Now I’m in Dallas. Well, actually at a Radisson Hotel in Richardson, Texas and procrastinating on showering and doing my hair because doing my hair is a big production. It takes twenty minutes to blow dry followed flat ironing, which takes another twenty minutes and that’s a lot of time standing in front of the mirror looking at myself. There’s lots of things I’d rather do in that time than play beauty stop. I’d rather read. Check my email. Watch a chick flick movie as I don’t get to see those unless I’m in a hotel room by myself. There’s also a Half-Price Books across the street and down the road and I’m so tempted to walk over there, after I hit the Starbucks that’s on the corner in front of the hotel.

It’s 9:17 am now. I haven’t even been awake for a full hour but I could use some company about now. Someone to go to breakfast with. I can’t eat pancakes alone. Pancakes are best consumed with lots of coffee and conversation and laughter. So come to Texas. Meet me for breakfast. We’ll hang out a long time. I’m in a good mood this morning and I really don’t want to do my hair.

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