Home again

I'm home from Cincinnati. Tomorrow will be my first day back at the day job. and I'm dreading getting up early and getting back into the grind.

I'll be okay once I'm at work. I always am.

HOWEVER, I once was demoted right after I returned from vacation, even though shortly before that same vacation, I was praised for doing so well, so I have to admit it makes me very nervous to go on a long vacation. I tried not to let it spoil my vacation.

After I got home and took a long nap, I took the kids to see "Made of Honor". We loved it. Why couldn't I have come up with that idea? It's so cute. So my style - I think so anyway.

I hope to attend Lori Foster's Readers' 'N Writers' Get Together every year in future. However, I'll have to see about next year as my daughter will be graduating from high school, so I hope it won't conflict. If so, I may have to skip a year.

Can you really go home???

I'm happy to be in Cincinnati with Dad and my loved ones here, and yet I'm sad. Sad that my time here is almost at an end. And sad at some of the changes and differences between here and where I live now. I went to Borders at 9:15 pm the other night (in Cincinnati) and it was closed! I just had to have a certain book. MY borders in Florida is open every night until 11 pm except for Sunday. And then Barnes & Nobles is open every night until 11 pm. This is definitely the dark ages. Yet, Skyline Chili in Cincinnati stays open till the wee hours. Skyline Chili in Cincinnati closes at 9 pm and 8 pm on Sundays. How awful! (Florida's, I mean. For shame!) Walmart in Cincinnati is never crowded. At least not the one on Colerain Avenue near Struble Road. It's practically dead. At least the 3 or 4 times I've visited. In Florida, I wait in line for an hour to check out. Towns like Finneytown and parts of Fairfield and Norwood where I visited this trip didn't look too good. They're going downhill. I'm not too thrilled with Colerain Avenue, either. And yet, I'd love to be here to be near family and friends. That's what really makes or breaks a place. Our loved ones. I haven't had nearly enough time with them, and yet, I've been away from my loved ones in Florida a long time. When I walked into Walmart this afternoon, and the greeter greeted me, "Welcome to Walmart. Have a good day." it reminded me of "Idiocracy" where the greeter tells Luke Wilson, "Welcome to Costco. I love you." At work we used to have to say something similar on the switchboard. I think the operator still does. I had a very vivid dream a couple nights ago, fueled by my visit here, and I'm almost done with an erotic short story I'm going to submit to Harlequin Spice Briefs. Wish me luck. I'm really going to do it. I have so much writing and submitting to do when I get home. I know I'll be chafing at the day job, wanting to get to my night job. I'm already chomping at the bit. So much to do, so little time. I've also been trying to get more into my My Space. Will you be my friend if you're there? http://www.myspace.com/ashleyladdromancewriter

Home Again

I'm home - home as in Cincinnati, the place where I grew up.

Not just the town, but the house, with my dad.

It's so good but so weird. I don't get home often, unfortunately.

Anyway, the area's built up a lot, and not in a really good way, also unfortunately. It looks haphazard and there's no great master plan for a beautiful city - well, not in the Colerain area. I've not seen the rest of town yet.

Everything looks smaller.

Dad's woods are mostly gone and it looks like a golf course - he did that. He was afraid trees would fall on the house plus he loves golf.

There's a lot more traffic out on Colerain Ave all the way down to Old Colerain.

Oh well... There's bound to be change in 30 years.

I found these pics on Dad's computer of my last vacation with him four years ago. How do you like our snowman? The facial features, of course, are Dad's golf balls. If you knew him, it'd make perfect sense. It was such a pathetic little snowman, but because it was the first time I'd played in the snow for about 15 years and because Dad helped me make him, it was my favorite snowman of all time.

I'm spoiled because my small town in Florida is planned and so it's been kept very pretty and it's won the governor's award for best city in Florida several times. However, the city can be a pain as they have so many regulations and code enforcements.

I'm enjoying being with dad and because I'm here primarily to be with him, let me not stay on the computer any longer.

I'll pop on and off a lot, don't fret. Maybe more, maybe less than usual when I'm slave to the day job. I'll play it by ear. His internet connection's much slower than mine.

Oh! I had to stop in and get REAL White Castles on the way to Dad's house. They're not that much different than the frozen ones in the store. Maybe I should've stopped at Frisch's for a Buddy Boy. What I really need to do now is to hop on Dad's treadmill.

I'm definitely psyched to go to Lori Foster's Readers N Writers' event next weekend. I also need to let the rest of the family know I'm here.