Too Much Sun!

Ouch! I totally got too much sun this weekend when I went to the beach. Do they make sunscreen that's waterproof? Because I had put on spf30, but it must have washed off when I went splashing in the ocean. My shoulders are now sore and a little tight and you can tell a got a little too much sun my face. Still it was a nice day at the beach which was not too crowded for a Saturday. I think that a lot of people are off on vacation other places.

My friend Lucia and I took the water taxi from the Wall Street pier which was a steal at $12.00 round trip. Not only did we get to see the waterfalls installation (which was not that impressive) but we got to see all of Brooklyn (God Brooklyn is one long borough). I love the water and it was really cool to stand on the top deck of the boat as we breezed on past Governor's Island and the Statue of Liberty.

After we got back to Manhattan, we stopped off at the Heartland Brewery for a drink because god forbid we should get back on the subway sober. While sipping our drinks, the drunk dude sitting next to me complimented me by saying that I was incredibly beautiful and a ray of sunshine.

Awww! Thanks drunk dude!

Seriously, at my age I take my compliments where I can get them.

Sunday, I met the lovely Leanna at the Met to see the J.M.W. Turner exhibit. Unfortunately we spent too much time yakking over coffee at the Met closed before we could see the entire exhibit, which just means that I will have to go back again to finish seeing it. Afterwards, we headed over to the Loeb Boathouse for wine in little plastic bottles and food. We discussed our plans for world domination and then went our seperate ways.

All in all, a pretty good weekend. Too bad its Monday!

Fun in the Sun

God, I can't believe that it is Monday morning once again. Where did the weekend go? One minute I was hanging out at Pershing Square with my friends Liz Maverick, Stacey Agdern, Leanna Hieber along with Barbara Vey who blogs for Publishers Weekly (and who kindly mentioned my blog Scandalous Women in her column) and Sheila Clover English (whose company creates some of those delightful book trailers that authors have now), and before I knew it, it was Monday again.

In between, I hit Coney Island for my chapter's annual July outing. The lovely Hope Tarr, who has the first Harlequin Blaze historical out this month, joined us. We rode the Cyclone which is one of the few wooden rollercoasters in the country. Needless to say it scared the crap out of me but I went on it anyway. It was jarring and fun and next time I'll remember my neck brace before I ride it again.

We hit Nathan's first for some greasy fries, hotdogs, and seafood and then headed for the beach. That's one of the great things about living in New York, you have a beach within 30 minutes of Manhattan. It was crowded and the water was freezing which was a good combination since it was hotter than hell on Saturday. Leanna actually went swimming and Hope and I just waded in to cool off until the waves kept getting higher and higher and we were in danger of getting soaking wet.

Afterwards, we hit the tiki bar because god forbid we should get on the train back to Manhattan sober. Leanna and Hope paid $15.00 for those long tubes of pina coladas which seemed to be a slushie with a little alcohol thrown in for good measure. The good news? They got a free refill so it actually came out to about $7.50 a piece. And these things were so big, it was about 2 drinks in each tube, so it was probably a good thing the alcohol was minimal, because I don't think I could have carried them both to the train. I would have to have gotten them there one at a time, and propped them up against a column. I stuck to sangria which tasted like grape juice with a kick.

I was knackered by the time I got home so I just vegged and watched 4 episodes of MI-5 and started reading Kalen Hughes Lord Scoundrel. Yesterday, I went out to the Bastille Day celebration on 60th Street, where I indulged in more fried food (pommes frites and mayonnaise), and hard cider from Alsace because once again sober/subway why? Watched Law & Order: SVU marathon.

Oh and I did do some work on my book. I blocked out the first scene for chapter 18, and then worked out what is going to happen in the rest of the chapter. Yeah!

EKM

Weekend Roundup

The weekend went by so fast and I don't feel like I accomplished a damn thing but I know I did stuff. Maybe the heat just fried my brain so badly, it short circuited!

It was hotter than Hades this weekend in New York, going from like 50 degrees early in the morning on Friday to over 90 on Saturday and Sunday. And I noticed a lot of people wearing black. Just an FYI, black absorbs heat, it doesn't reflect it, so wearing black is the equivalent of wearing tin foil when its hot. So next time you wonder why you are sweating like a pig, you might want to think about investing in wearing some lighter colors.




On Saturday, we had our monthly RWA NYC meeting, where we voted that our July Outing would take place in Coney Island, which is exciting but totally unexpected. I was sure that everyone was going to vote for The Cloisters or going to another museum, but nope, Coney Island it is. I can't wait to go on the Cyclone. I haven't been out that far in Brooklyn since I went to the Mermaid parade a few years ago. And since Coney Island is going to be changing what the new condo developments going up, this will be the last chance to see it in all its seedy glory.





I also went to a roundtable on Susan Sontag this weekend at The Philoctetes Center. I knew very little about Susan Sontag other than she wrote The Volcano Lover, she was the companion of photographer Annie Leibowitz, and she's mentioned in one of the most quoted speeches in Movie History. You know, in Bull Durham when Kevin Costner as Crash Davis says after telling Susan Sarandon the he believes in "Long slow wet kisses that last for three days." (Okay, who didn't melt when they heard that? A guy who really likes kissing? It's a miracle!). He then goes on to say that he believes that the novels of Susan Sontag are overrated. So that was my first introduction to her.





After hearing about her personal story, she may just end up on my list of Scandalous Women but way down on the list. Right now I have about 50 women ahead of her. Roger Copeland, who is A Professor of Theater and Dance at Oberlin was one of the panelists, and once again he made me wish that I had applied to Oberlin instead of Syracuse. I find him such an interesting man.






I also wrote 3 pages on my YA while I was listening to everyone talk and planned out the rest of chapter 15, so I was multi-tasking in a big way. I also went shopping for shoes. And I bought these on sale at Bandolino. I've never owned a pair of green sandals before but I felt that I haven't been taking any fashion risks, that I was buying the same things, so I thought what the heck. Since I buy my shoes first and then work my wardrobe around them, how awesome was it that I found at least 4 outfits at Ann Taylor and Ann Taylor Loft that go with my new shoes!


Now I just need to find a pair of red pumps, and also a pair of ankle-strap red sandals and my wardrobe will be complete. I have my eye on a pair of yellow pumps as well.



Yesterday, after I returned a skirt to Banana Republic, I headed on down to the Ziegfeld Theater to watch Indiana Jones. I figured if I was going to see this movie, I was going to see it right, and the Ziegfeld is one of the few movie theaters left in Manhattan that is only one screen. They turned the Astor Plaza, where I originally saw both Star Wars and Crouching Tiger into a concert venue the Nokia.



I really liked Indiana Jones, I loved the period details and I particularly loved the fact that after seeing this History Channel special on whether or not Indiana approximated what a real archealogist did, I recognized some of the information on Crystal Skulls that was in the program, in the movie. Yes, some of it was predictable, particularly the ending but that was part of the charm of the movie. Although watching the nuclear explosion and some of the other stuff that went on, I can know why we have global warming, it is not only because we used too much hairspray!



I finished Tasha Alexander's A Poisoned Season which I really enjoyed. It was very clever and it took me awhile to figure out who was the murderer. I look forward to reading the third book in the series. I also started reading Anna Godbersen's new book Rumors, which is part of the Luxe series set in 1899 in New York. I'm enjoying it but I've had to put it down for now while I am working on my manuscript. It did give me a good idea for something that I need to do in the most recent chapter that I'm writing. The rest of the weekend was spent reading research books.



Keep cool!


EKM