What I did On My Summer Vacation

I just got back from spending five days in San Diego. My parents live there, as does my younger sister, and I went out to visit them (and the ocean, which is my happy place). As a bonus, my daughter Jenn and her guy Ian (who I adore) came in from San Jose for a couple of days too. Ian's parents Maureen and Sean live in San Diego as well, and I met them when I was out there last September and we really hit it off. So seeing them was on the schedule too.

Unlike most of my trips, which are to conventions and conferences, and therefore mostly work, this one was just about spending time with the people I love and communing with Mama Ocean. I was really excited that Jenn and I would be together for the summer solstice, since she used to be a part of Blue Moon Circle when she lived here in Oneonta.

The flights were all long but uneventful, and my sister Becky very kindly picked me up at the airport when I arrived on Monday, and took a detour to bring me (briefly) to the beach on the way to my parents' house. So in the end, I actually made it to the ocean every day of my trip, which was great. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

I don't usually do "selfies," but I posted a picture every day of me with the sea behind me, just to prove I was really there!

Happy beach face

 Of course, I couldn't go to the beach without a good book...

Beach read!

 The day that Jenn, Ian, Maureen, Sean and I spent together happened to be both the Summer Solstice and Maureen's birthday, so we celebrated at my favorite restaurant, The Poseidon, which is right at my favorite beach in Del Mar. We shared lots of good food and all of it was delish!

Seafood feast!

 Then the guys snuck off and had the waiter bring out a giant piece of mud pie with a candle for Maureen (the glass was a trick to keep the ocean breeze from blowing the candle out before she could).

Birthday girl!

 Later, Maureen, Jenn, and I danced on the beach with cool colored flags Jenn brought, to celebrate the solstice. It was one of those rare perfect moments.

Solstice beach blessings!

 Three happy goddesses :-)

Jenn, me, and Maureen

 Here's Jenn and Ian at my parents' house. I'm probably prejudiced, but I think they're an adorable couple.

 This one is a terrible picture, but it captures how much fun we have together, so I'm putting it up here anyway. I think my sister said something to make us laugh just as she took the picture.

My parents took us out to Chili's one night. I'd never been to one, and there was way too much yummy food. Ribs. I love me some ribs. And onion rings...

Another one of the "happy at the beach" shots...

Ocean!

 On the last day, my dad and I went and hung out at the beach together, and like any good dad, he bought me an ice cream cone. It was just perfect. (Coffee, in case you were wondering.) Thanks, dad!

Beach + ice cream = happy

 You probably can't tell, but I really, really love the ocean. It's my happy place. And it has been a rough year so far, so I really needed it!

 There are no pictures of my parents or sister because they hate having their pictures taken. (I got a few, but only by PROMISING I wouldn't put them online.) But take my word for it, they are all glorious.

I was sorry to say goodbye, but happy to be heading back to my goofy cats and my own bed and my writing. Alicia, my fabulous cat sitter, went above and beyond by coming to fetch me at the Albany Airport (about an hour and a half from my house), and then it was back to reality. Hopefully the peace and joy of the ocean and spending time with family will linger a little longer than the jet lag...

For Jerry

Last week I had two uncles. This week I have one.

My Uncle Jerry lived in Stockton (with my mom's sister, my Aunt Sue), and it has been a long time since we were together. But I have fond memories of the entire family gathering at my grandmother's house in Schenectady, where Jerry would lecture and discuss and argue and joke with the rest of us, and let out that huge honking laugh of his.

Jerry with one of his grandchildren a few years back

A rare group family picture from about 20 years ago (the baby in the front is Athena, who is turning 22 next month!)

 That's my sister Sarah holding my niece Bri, my Aunt Susan holding my niece Addy, her husband Ross behind her, then my Aunt Sue with the red hair and glasses in the middle, Jerry, and my dad. In front is my beloved grandmother, and next to her my youngest sister Becky holding Athena. I was taking the picture. (I think my mom was off running errands or something.)

Sue and Jerry on their wedding day, from an old Polaroid

I was brought up Jewish, and Jerry was one of the few members of our family who stayed with the faith. So this is for him; the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. My world is a little smaller without you in it, Uncle Jerry. Rest in peace.

English Translation

Glorified and hallowed is God's name,
in the world that God created, according to God's will,
and may God's majesty be revealed
in the days of our lifetime
and in the lifetime of all the house of Israel,
speedily and soon. And let us say, amen.
May God's great name be blessed always and forever.
Blessed, praised, glorified, exalted, extolled,
honored, raised up, and acclaimed
be the name of the Holy one, blessed be He
beyond every blessing hymn, praise, and consolation
that is uttered in the world. And let us say, amen.
May abundant peace from heaven, and life
be upon us and upon all Israel. And let us say, amen.
May God who makes peace in high places
make peace upon us and upon all Israel,
and let us say, amen.

Transliteration

Yitgadal v'yitkadash, shemey rabah.
Be'almah di'verah chir'utey
V'yamlich malchutey
Bechai'yeychon u'veyo'meychon
U'vechayey d'chol beit Yisrael
Ba'agalah u'vizman karim v'imru, amein.
Y'hey sh'mey rabah m'vorach le'alam u'le'almey almaya.
Yitbarach ve'yishtabach ve'yitpa'ar ve'yitromam ve'yitnasey
Ve'yit'hadar ve'yit'aleh ve'yit'halal
Sh'mey d'kudesha b'rich hu
L'eyla min kol birchata ve'shirata tush'bechata ve'nechemata
D'amiran b'alma v'imru, amen.
Yehey sh'lama raba min shemaya, ve'chayim
Aleynu ve'al kol yisrael ve'imru, amen.
Oseh shalom bimromav,
Hu ya'aseh shalom. Aleynu ve'al kol yisrael
V'imru, amen.

A Belated Weekend Report with Pictures

I meant to post this on Monday, but, well, MONDAY.

This was my weekend:
SATURDAY

I did some spring cleaning, including moving the Minerva altar from the living room to the bedroom (I have altar shelves in both rooms, and the living room one tends to be focused on whatever is going on right now--often whichever book I'm working on--and I thought that since Minerva spent most of her time in the bedroom, she'd rather be there) and changing the comforter cover from the winter one to the spring one. This was actually a pretty emotional endeavor, because it meant washing the last of Minerva's fur and smell off of the other comforter cover. On the other hand, it really needed washing, because the last weeks of her life she had been spitting medicine all over it. (She was NOT happy about taking meds.)
Here's the altar now--that little wooden box with her picture on top of it has her ashes in it. A lovely sympathy card from my friend Karen Rose Smith is to the left.

Here is the gorgeous spring comforter (which was made especially for me, along with the wall hanging above it, by one of the artists at The Artisans' Guild)

The same bed, with cats a few hours later. If you look closely at Angus, the yellow cat, you can see that he is holding his right eye partially closed. He has something going on with it--probably viral, and returned from an occurrence a month ago--and I have to put antibiotic ointment in it twice a day. You can imagine how well THAT'S going.

Lest you think these guys are the only ones getting attention, I also spent some time playing with Luna. I need to do a post about her soon--did you realize I've had her for over a year?

I know the pictures are a little blurry...she rarely stops moving!






SUNDAY

On Sunday, my friends Ellen and Chris and I had a small birthday celebration for Jo, my step-daughter's mom. Some of you may be aware that Jo, as well as being sort-of family, came to Blue Moon Circle rituals for a couple of years before she had a massive heart attack a little more than a year ago. To be honest, no one expected her to be celebrating this birthday (she's since had another smaller heart attack, open-heart bypass surgery, and is in her 11th year of dialysis), but she's tougher than she looks. Or more stubborn. Either way, we broke her out of the nursing home for a few hours so we could celebrate her turning 54. She had a great time.

Chris made these great cupcakes

Jo asked for pizza, so that's what we had.

Blowing out the candle

Opening gifts

Of course, in with all of the cleaning and partying, I also did a lot of writing. Here's a picture from Saturday evening of Magic helping me.

The Red Writing Chair

So tell me, what did you do last weekend? Anything interesting planned for the one ahead?

Back from Vacation and Some Announcements!

Hi all! Sorry I haven't been around, but, well, I haven't been around. First I was off to RWA in NYC, and then I was back for less than two weeks before taking of for a long-awaited family reunion vacation in Cape Cod. It was my first real vacation in 34 years, so I was really looking forward to resting and relaxing on the beach, eating lots of seafood, reading books, taking a major family picture together, and hanging out with lots of family, some of whom, like by favorite cousin Peter and his charming wife Mariana, I hadn't seen in over ten years. (Their boys, Alex 11, and Misho 9, were a hoot!)

Of course, as is the way of these things, nothing went exactly the way I'd hoped... (seriously, what on earth made me think that a vacation with my family would be relaxing?!) But it was still a great trip, mostly because of the time spend with those I love, and my dad did an amazing job of finding a house big enough for all of us, only a mile away from this:

Harwich Port Beach

 No picture with the whole family, alas, because a number of folks refused to get their pictures taken, but here is one of me with my cousin and his family. Misho is pulling a goofy face, as usual.

Alex and Misho, Mariana, Peter, and me

One selfie with me and the glamorous Mariana

 I didn't get to eat all the seafood I wanted to, sadly, but I did have lobster a few times, including this amazing lobster BLT. Yum!

And on the one rainy day, we all trouped into nearby Chatham and had fun picking up souvenirs. Lots of this are going to friends and the cat sitters, but I did pick up one thing in particular with a giveaway in mind. Can you pick out which item it is?

Hint: look to the right side...

Mermaid!

Look, it's a towel with a mermaid on it, just like in the WICKEDLY WONDERFUL books! Which reminded me that I had been promising to give away the lapis mermaid necklace I made in honor of the book. So I guess we're having another giveaway, with Wickedly Wonderful prizes!

Of course, in order to have a giveaway, we should have something to celebrate, right? So how about the COVER REVEAL for the next novella, Wickedly Ever After! Tune in Monday, for both the cover reveal and the giveaway. In the meanwhile, happy Feline Friday, and here's another ocean picture just because.

Alex and Misho, clowning around on the rocks.

Cute Kitty in the Midst of A Horrid Week

Those of you who follow me on Facebook may already know that it has been a tough week here. Last Sunday night at 11:15 I got a call from my beloved step-daughter Jenn to tell me that her mom Jo had suffered a massive heart attack and gone into cardiac arrest at the local hospital. After seven minutes of CPR, they managed to stabilize her and send her to the Bassett Hospital in nearby Cooperstown, which is set up for cardiac patients. Jo has been in the ICU there ever since. Jenn flew out from San Jose late on Tuesday and we have been spending most of our days there since she got here. (Hence the radio silence here.)

Jo is also a friend of mine and a frequent guest at Blue Moon Circle events, as well as being my best friend Ellen's other best friend. (Basically, we are a strange modern family.) And of course, this has been especially rough for Jenn. Jo is slowly improving every day and we are hoping for the best, although it will be a long road to recovery.

But in the meanwhile...I decided I needed to do something to cheer Jenn up.

Again, if you follow me on Facebook (and clearly if you don't, you are missing out on all the News), you will know that as I was returning from my visit to San Jose in mid-February, my friend Ellen, who works as a dog groomer at our vets' office, called to tell me about a little cat someone brought in who reminded her of my recently lost Samhain.

This little cat, who they think is about six months old and only weighs 4 1/2 lbs, was found in a snowbank, almost dead. She's apparently pretty tough though, since she made a full recovery. They were looking for someone to adopt her. I fought it...I swear I did! But it kept feeling like Samhain had her paw in this, and eventually I caved and said I'd take her. But I had to wait for her to be spayed, and for a second feline leukemia test to come back negative.

When I called on Friday to see what they thought about me bringing her home temporarily, I was told that the second test had been done, she'd been given her booster shots, and was ready to go! So I brought her back home (I'd had to skip the hospital for the day to catch up with things at work, so Jenn was coming in later with a friend) and surprised Jenn with a buddy to hang out with in the upstairs bedroom at night. There may have been happy squealing :-)

Here's the newest member of the family: Luna (so called because it looks to me like she has a partial lunar eclipse on her face, and when I was trying to decide whether or not to take her, I pulled The Moon tarot card)

What do you think?

For the moment I am trying to keep her upstairs with the intention of introducing her to the other cats slowly. But she is affectionate and full of beans and has already made a break for it once, so something tells me that isn't going to work. I'll keep you posted.

In the meanwhile, I'd intended to do an overdue giveaway to celebrate the four book deal from Berkley, but it is going to have to be a little more overdue, since I'm pretty much on hospital duty until Jenn goes home on Thursday. (And then I'm going to be madly playing catch-up.) But don't worry, I haven't forgotten about it, and soon enough, there will be another fun batch of goodies up for grabs.

Did I mention I also had to replace my furnace unexpectedly? Oh, the joy.

Here is a fun picture from the wonderful Christmas Day we all had together in December.

Jo, Ellen in the back, Jenn, and me on a much happier day

So, that's life, really. Some good stuff, some bad stuff, and always, cats. Thanks to all those who sent their good wishes on Facebook--they were all much appreciated.

California Journeying: Family, Pantheacon, and the Ocean

I just returned this morning from a week-long trip to far-off California. (Well, it's far off from where I live in upstate NY, anyway.) It was a fabulous trip, starting with a visit with my parents, sister Becky, and nephew Stamo in San Diego...which very kindly decided to have a heatwave the couple of days I was there, thanks to the Santa Ana winds. On the two previous occasions I made this trip, it was about 65 degrees when I went out. Which is still pretty nice when you are coming from minus ten. This time, it was 81 even at the ocean. Quite a change from sub-zero temps and piles of snow. I wore shorts. *mind boggles*

Yes, the sky really was that color.

Yes, that handsome guy is my dad.

OCEAN!!!!!

My fabulous parents. Sand. Shorts. Beach. In short, heaven.

Any guesses which one of these arms belongs to the woman from upstate NY? 

Now that's a good-looking family.

I hadn't seen my nephew in two and a half years. He got TALL.

We had a great time--two days in a row at the ocean (which is my idea of heaven), my mom's homemade lasagna and apple pie, and laughing hysterically over a game of Apples to Apples.

Then I got on yet another plane to San Jose, where I spent three and a half days attending Pantheacon, one of the largest Pagan conventions in the country. Which would be fabulous enough all by itself, but I also got to spend time with my beloved step-daughter Jenn, my incredible Llewellyn editor Elysia Gallo, and my insanely wonderful critique partner/all-around-great pal Lisa. Plus all sorts of cool Llewellyn authors and Pagan friends. Plus I got to finally meet the top dude at Llewellyn, Bill, who was a sweetie.

That's Bill on the left.

Me and my beloved editor Elysia

Posters on the wall of the Llewellyn suite. Gee, those two to the right look familiar.

A LOT of Llewellyn authors, our publicist Kat, and a few innocent bystanders

Me and the amazing Selena Fox (who put on a fab Brigid healing ritual earlier in the day that Lisa and I loved)

Me and the luminous Lisa, one of my favorite people, and also a great roomie

It was pretty tough to leave all that sun and warmth (and my kid) behind and come back to the chilly Northeast. Although of course, I was pretty darned happy to get back to my cats and my own bed.

Here is last Tuesday:

The view from the patio of the restaurant where we ate lunch

 And here was this Tuesday:

Icicles, anyone?

 Still, it was nice to get away for a bit from the snow and the cold, and at least I have pictures like this to look back on...

Llewellyn publisher Bill photo-bombing me, Elysia, and Kat

Did you miss me while I was gone? Maybe just a little?

Don't wander off too far, because tomorrow (Wednesday) I'm going to have a Big Big Announcement. No, really, I mean it. BIG. HUGE BIG.

In the meanwhile, I'm going to go to bed, because I have no idea what day it is or what time zone I'm in.

I hope you're all staying warm!