Nov 7, 2006 | Life |
Almost out of here! Life has been crazy — the movers have come and gone, the house is empty, and we're counting down the days. Romancing Paradise is about to become Romancing the South, or some such thing. Not sure yet what to do with the title. I guess paradise is where you make it, so maybe I'll keep the name.
The writing has been non-existent lately. Too much to do and too much upheaval going on. But I will get back to it soon. I am ready for things to settle down again. I'm tired and cranky and irritated quite a bit lately, but it will pass.
Much aloha to you in the approaching season. I hope to be back to blogging soon. 🙂
Oct 16, 2006 | Life |
This is just a quick post to say we're okay here in Honolulu! We've had power outages, intermittent phone service, and a surreal experience here today. The Big Island got the worst of it, but we were definitely awakened by the quake. Felt like someone had picked up our bed and started shaking it. Services are slowly coming back, though I'm at a friend's house who has power to write this. We still do not have power, and we're about a quarter mile from his house.
It's amazing how much you rely on cell phones and electricity. You really realize it when it's gone.
Aloha nui loa and mahalo for asking about us!
Oct 13, 2006 | Uncategorized |
I don't expect I'll be posting much in the next month or so. Things are FAST coming to a boil here in the Aloha State. Soon, my reluctant behind will be ensconced in Northern Alabama, getting used to cooler temperatures and whining about the lack of an ocean view. I am not a happy camper. And I am a happy camper at the same time. Finally, we'll be with family again, and that's a good thing. And I'll acclimate. Such is life.
Tomorrow, I'm teaching a workshop on dialogue at the Bamboo Ridge Writers Institute conference in Honolulu. Should be fun! My co-presenter is Michael Little, a fellow RWA member and all around funny and talented guy.
I know I've not written anything about the booksigning. It was fun, and boring at the same time. Chatting with friends was fun. Trying to entice the Honolulu lunch rush into a short story anthology was not so fun. I have pictures, which I'll try to get uploaded soon.
Many things are getting ready to happen here. The movers are coming in a week. Mike's last day of work, we found out, is next week and not the end of Oct as we thought. He's been earning leave, which gets tacked onto the 90 days he already has, so now we'll have a few extra days to do some last minute sightseeing. We may fly to another island, or we may just stay on Oahu and enjoy all the things we love about this island.
I've still got much to do around here, so my online time is limited. Watch for drive-by blogging. Aloha nui loa.
Oct 4, 2006 | Uncategorized |
I just watched my first episode of The Unit. I really enjoyed the concept of the show! The tough guys, their tough wives, etc. I'll definitely watch more.
But something bugged me. Okay, a couple of somethings. First, when the fiance of the dead man was being forced to move out of base housing. Um, she wouldn't be allowed to LIVE there in the first place. She's not a wife, she's not authorized. She also wouldn't be authorized to go into the stores on base either. How did she shop? I take it she was a stay-at-home mom to her fiance's children. Did he go shopping for the family? I have known, way in the past, a mom whose kid had an ID card while she did not. She was able to shop for the child, using the ID card. But she was the legal guardian as well. As this show proceeded to demonstrate, this woman was NOT the legal guardian.
The dead man would have been authorized base housing because he had the two little girls. But his fiance couldn't live there. She could stay for 30 days, as a guest, but then she'd have to go. Of course the base housing office doesn't just come around and inspect on the spot (I had company for 5 weeks once). In fact, they never do. But if someone reported the situation, that man stood to lose his entitlement. He wouldn't have done it. No, he'd have married the woman a lot sooner. They were supposedly together for 4 years. If it'd been only a few months, sure, I could see where they might not have gotten around to the marriage yet. But when your colonel and all your buddies know what's going on, the chances they'd all keep mum about the housing issue (especially the colonel, whose job it is to enforce the rules) is pretty unlikely. If everyone was keeping mum about her being there, then why was the colonel so keen on getting her off base the instant her fiance died? If he'd been pretending not to know she was staying there illegally, he wouldn't have begrudged her the 90 days which dependents are entitled to. Made no sense.
The other big thing is the money issue. Yes, all that entitlement stuff, the death benefits, etc, is pretty accurate. But they forgot SGLI (Servicemen's Group Life Insurance). It's mandatory. The guy whose wife was upset and trying to force him to sign an insurance policy was not realistic because he ALREADY has $450K of life insurance that the military forces him to pay around $20 for every month. So did the dead guy, btw, and his children would probably have been the beneficiaries, though he could actually have named anyone he wanted (like his fiance). I am the beneficiary of my husband's policy, but he also has alternate beneficiaries in case something happened to both of us at the same time. The personnel flight doesn't let you ignore this stuff. You are forced to deal with it on a fairly regular basis (yearly to every 3 years or so, depending on branch). Again, not reflective of military reality.
Why is this important? Well, it's not really, I suppose. But it is to someone like me, who can't buy the plotline because I know at the root the causes are wrong. I don't know everything, and I certainly don't know everything about the things I write. I am terrified of getting the research wrong, but I figure it's inevitable at some point. I don't mind some things, like when someone makes a mistake about geography (say they put Maunakea Street in Waikiki when it really belongs in Chinatown), but if it's integral to the plot, it just bothers the heck out of me when the fundamentals are wrong.
So please, get your details right because someone, somewhere, is going to KNOW the truth. When it's a whole lotta someones, in the case of the military and how it functions, your work loses credibility. I doubt the military will tune out The Unit en masse. But they'll trust the show less the next time. I know I will.
Oct 3, 2006 | Uncategorized |
Here's Thumper, looking quite relaxed on my oriental carpet. The old boy has started getting a bit senile lately. 🙁 And he seems to be having the exact same kidney problems that my other cat had before she died. 🙁 Too weird, really.
Tomorrow is the booksigning in Honolulu! Several of my friends and fellow writers are getting together to sign copies of Strong Currents 2. It should be lots of fun, and it's my first booksigning so I'm looking forward to it.
Otherwise, my life is starting to go sideways (yep, stole that from the movie). The packers come in three weeks. Family will be here in four. There are things to sort, throw away, separate, etc. Cars to ship. And my husband has a ton of military appointments to slog through. So I expect, with all that's going on, that my blogging will get spotty very soon. Nor is it likely to be intelligent when it does occur. 🙂
Did I mention I'm a presenter at the Bamboo Ridge Writers' Institute conference in two weeks? Yep, so I've got that going on as well. And RWA this weekend. And I'm coordinating and taking care of the arrangements for the chapter luncheon, which is Nov. 4 in Waikiki. Whew!
But most of all — MOST of all — I am so going to MISS my friends here in the islands. My writer pals who've meant so much. My drinking buddies who crack me up. My priest, who is a friend first and priest second. I'm also going to miss the ‘aina and the feeling of ohana. I think we've made the right decision for a variety of reasons, but it saddens me too. I'm going to love being with family again, but I'm going to miss the ohana I leave behind. 🙁
Now, for fun, if you could live ANYWHERE in the world, where would it be and why? I don't mean permanently, unless you know that about yourself, but somewhere you'd like to be for a few years. I've lived in Asia very briefly, several states, and Europe. I think I'd choose Venice, Italy. Florence would be a close second. But neither one permanently. 🙂 (Both cities for the gorgeous art and sculpture, and for the Italian lifestyle: great food, great wine, la dolce vita, great coffee, fabulous clothes and style.)
