Edith/Maddie, who is alternately losing her mind, grinning, and pulling out her hair north of Boston.
Why, you might reasonably, ask, am I doing those things? Because I am leaving FRIDAY for two weeks in Japan!
The cruise is courtesy of my writer pal Tiger, who likes taking nice cruises and bringing a friend or relative to share her room and the experience. Thank you, Tiger! Check out the updated itinerary (changed from last year’s brochure):
Whee! More than a month ago I started a Japan To-Do list.
Yes, some of it is silly and personal. Toenails? Still, every item needed to be dealt with, including the pedicure. And see how many I’ve crossed off? But that list is only travel stuff.
The thing is, during the same time I’ve also been working super hard to finish the first draft of Scone Cold Dead , Country Store #13, so I can travel without needing to work. Then my editor wanted a synopsis and cover ideas for Cozy Capers Book Group mystery #7. Gulp, okay. Ah, and I am committed by May 1 to turn in a short story for an anthology, a story I wrote four pages on and then got stuck. And I had two recipe posts to do for Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen , my other group blog. And show up here for Wicked Wednesdays.
And did I mention I launched a new book last week?
I also have a family, with a new grandbaby. Because I’m leaving Friday, yesterday I hosted Easter for fourteen yesterday (well, two are little babies), a week early. I always host Easter, and I wanted to see everybody! Crazy, I know. (Shown below are the brunch dishes, plus we had sourdough bread, yummy appetizers, and two rich – and gluten- and dairy-free – desserts.)
Oh, yeah, it’s also tax season. I’m happy to report I sent it all off to my tax person last week, so glad to get that item off my to-do list.
So, yeah, I’m kind of tearing my hair out. Today the actual packing begins. We’ll see how much of the packing list makes it in.
I am bringing my laptop, hoping to finish that short story and maybe do some other creative work, but I don’t expect to be online as much as usual.
I’m both excited and nervous about the trip. I haven’t traveled internationally except to Canada in quite a while, but I’m all set for passport stuff, and I splurged on a business-class seat, so at least I’ll be comfortable. At this age, how I will cope with a thirteen-hour time difference is anybody’s guess.
Excited? Yes, because I lived in the greater Tokyo area in the mid-seventies teaching conversational English to businessmen and studying Japanese, which was fabulous, except I haven’t been back even once. As you can see, it’s been a few years…
I traveled a fair bit while I was there, but the cruise takes us to places I’ve already been as well as places I didn’t visit, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to Busan in South Korea. I love Japanese food, and am also looking forward to seeing how much Japanese I can fish up from the depths of my brain (speaking other languages is a teensy superpower of mine, and it makes me happy to stretch that muscle).
All righty. Enough blathering. That suitcase isn’t going to fill itself!
Readers : Share the most exotic place you have traveled to – or want to visit.
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