I don’t have words to say how much it meant to have so many of you join my celebration. Someday I hope to have a book launch, but in the meantime, that was some kind of send-off party! Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

I’m not going to check obsessively for submission responses, I swear it. Well, maybe just this once.

Seriously, I have better things to do. Don’t I? Like working on my next chapter. “Tomorrow,” said Scarlett. Or spending a balmy afternoon at the beach. Yes, please. Now.

Top, left to right: ripening lemons in Balboa; Laguna, looking toward Corona del Mar/Newport
Bottom, left to right: hibiscus and I dunno what that yellow flower is; ice plant, prickly pear, and Crescent Bay

We followed a smallish crowd shuffling past a multi-million-dollar home along the Balboa boardwalk. Two stroller-pushing, Roxy-wearing women averted their eyes and giggled, and a couple of board-shorted, stubble-bearded guys pointed and laughed out loud. What were they looking at, we wondered? 

Do not, I beseeech you, look under the cut. Seriously, you don’t want to know.

One of the few remaining men in The Known Universe who still wears a Speedo, blissed out by sounds no one else could hear.

At 12:26 this morning, I completed my proposal package for CAN I GET A WITNESS: A Memoir of a Tent Evangelist’s Daughter. It’s ready now to go out into Submission Land.

Do I hear an amen? How about an hallelujah echo?
   

(

papadan

, are you out there?)

Bubba goes to the tent revival and listens to the preacher. After a while, the preacher asks anyone with needs to come forward for the laying on of hands.

Bubba gets in line and when it’s his turn the preacher says, “Bubba, what you want me to pray about?” 

Bubba says, “Preacher, I need you to pray for my hearing.”

So the preacher puts one finger in Bubba’s ear and the other hand on top of his head and prays awhile.  After a few minutes, he removes his hands and says, “Bubba, how’s your hearing now?”

Bubba says, “I don’t know preacher, it’s not until next Wednesday.” 

And the congregation said…

My sister landed at John Wayne Airport on an overcast, misty morning. I was disappointed that she wasn’t welcomed by warm, sunny skies, but since she’s from Portland, she felt right at home. 

The first day, we lazed around the house…swapping secrets, (re)telling stories, and drinking endless cups of coffee. But by the following afternoon, Orange County was back up to 85 degrees, so we headed outdoors. 

Here, an autumn afternoon at Laguna, plus the “pumpkin patch” by my neighborhood coffee shop:

What does early October look like in your corner of the world?