Category: Inside Lane

B and I are heading to Vegas for our 10th anniversary this year.  We’re going to have the Elvis ceremony of my dreams, which pretty much just means we’re having an Elvis ceremony.  I love me some Elvis.

In part, this is just a huge fabrication of excuse to get to wear my wedding gown again.  I didn’t have enough of it the first time, so I fully intend to wear it* around Las Vegas until I can’t stand it anymore.  What I did get enough of the first time were my shoes.

I honestly can’t even remember how it started, at this point, but my shoes became the focal point of my decorating ten years ago.  I wore pink marabou slippers from Frederick’s of Hollywood.  I wore them in our engagement photos.  I made graphics of them (along with B’s boot) to go on the invitations and thank you cards.  I bought pink, shoe-shaped handsoaps for favors**.  The day of the wedding, I’d worn those high-heeled slippers for much longer than a boudoir shoe is meant to be worn, and I was having trouble walking by the time we made it through our wee-church nazi regulated-cake & punch reception.

I will not be wearing those shoes again.

I will be keeping those shoes in the closet, wrapped up in their box.

Last night, I started looking for new shoes.  I’ve been casually eyeballing footwear for the past year, since I booked our vacation in February, 2013.

I looked at Shoes of Prey, where you can make your own shoe.  I looked in stores.  I looked online.  I wanted something similar to what I’d worn before, but more comfortable.  You know what that means?  That means (if I want a pink, marabou shoe) stripper heels.

Stripper heels have excellent padding for the ball of the foot, and good arch support.  Otherwise, you couldn’t stand in them for very long, much less dance.  Your tips probably go down if you are grimacing and limping, though I’m sure there’s an audience for that, too.

But it’s 10 years later.  I will have Elvis.  I decided to let Elvis be my marabou shoe.  I ordered a very cute T-Strap pump–much more sedate.  Looks to be much more comfortable.  Here’s hoping it fits.

*10 years and a big headed baby later, I’m feeling pretty good about not only fitting into my dress, but fitting into it beautifully.  Yes, I’m bragging.  

**A very bad idea, in retrospect.  A lot of people thought they were candies. Oops.

I’ll be honest:  I’ve had a really hard time dropping my kid off at school these past few days.  I was watching all those little legs running into the building this morning, and it was particularly acute.  It’s pajama day, and all the kids were in a variety of candy colored, or merchandise branded flannels, with half of them wearing fuzzy slippers.  They all looked brilliantly happy and cute.

The one year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting is Saturday, and as the day approaches, I’ve just wanted to keep Thor with me.  Part of it is because I can’t help thinking about how badly those parents and families must want to have their children (and adults) with them.

I’m not going to write a lot about it.  I just wanted to acknowledge it–and I want to acknowledge the pain of any parent who loses a child.

When I got to the school to pick up my son on December 14, 2012, he was draped over a classmate’s dog, hugging it, loving it, talking into its jowly face (Boxer–the best dogs in the world) and I thought, “We cannot deny this child a dog any longer.  If I lost that child, I would never forgive myself for having denied him a dog.”  And, I really wouldn’t have.  That would have eaten me alive.

So, we have Hoo.  We’re coming up on our year anniversary of his joining our family.   For better, or worse–and there’s been a lot of worse with this dog–he is ours.  I feel like he filled a void, and I know I sleep a little better at night with him around.

When Thor drapes himself over Hoo, loves on him and coos, “Who is the best Hooberry Boy in the whole world?  You are!  You are the best Hooberry Boy in the whole world!” I feel really good about the choice to bring him home.  (When Hoo is making a nuisance of himself, I feel really good about the idea of sending him to live on a farm.)

If you’re reading this, I hope that all your people are safe and sound.  I hope your family is whole, and your kids are happy and healthy.

If it stands otherwise, my hope for you is peace.

We’ve got a snow day here!  Ice day, actually.  Texas doesn’t get nice, fluffy snow.  We get thunder-sleet storms that drop inches of ice on the roads.  Cold weather people laugh at us for how everything shuts down when we get one of these storms, but trust me: You don’t want a Texan driving on ice.

So, I’m sitting here on the sofa with my best bud beside me, Mom on the other end, and B in his office working (when you work from home, there are no snow days.)  Even Hoo is inside in his indoor crate.  I’ve felt sorry for him, so he’s gotten all kinds of treats, including half my breakfast.

I’m about to hunker down to writing on MISS MAYHEM, but before that, I’d like to remind you that when you purchase TIARA TROUBLE this month, all my eBook royalties are going directly to The Senior Source.  If you buy a print copy of the book in December, send me a picture of the receipt, and I’ll match my eBook royalty to that sale.

Now.  The headphones are going on and I’m tuning out the world so I can wake up the Destinee Faith Miller side of my brain.  She’s got a mystery to solve.

Along with all the usual gratitude, I have a LOT to be thankful for this year, not the least of which is my mother’s improving health.  It’s really funny how even just out of surgery, her color already looked better than it had in months.  I am very thankful for the team at her hospital, her doctors, her surgeon, and everyone involved in her recovery.

I am also thankful for Cozy Cat Press, and all the readers of TIARA TROUBLE, who have made it such a success.  You have no idea how much I appreciate you, and on December 1, I am going to tell you how we are going to use TIARA TROUBLE to help out some people in need.

It’s also very exciting to tell you that I have a new book deal with Omnific Publishing.  I was thrilled to get their offer while Mom was in the hospital, and just got the executed contract back this week.  I’ll be publishing a romance novel with Omnific under the pen name Nicole Lane.  That’s a happy nod to the writing partnership with Nicole Vlachos that launched the concept for PLAYING ALL THE ANGLES.

Hopefully, I can get back to a regular blogging schedule in the next couple of weeks.  And finish MISS MAYHEM.  Does it seem like my world is revolving around writing just now?  Yeah.

Happy Turkey Day, everyone.  Gobble!

p.s., these Michael Bolton Honda commercials bug me.