Thursday, May 05, 2005

But who's watering my plants?

Yes, I'm blogging on my mini-vacation, but please don't trouble yourself to admire my work ethic. I'm doing only frivolous things online, answering e-mail from close friends and family members, and blogging light. It's hardly working.

My longsuffering husband is working, but for me this is going to be a fun-filled day. There's a sapphire sky over the Washington, D.C. area, and I'm blogging at you from a comfortable hotel room in Old Town Alexandria. A few minutes ago the chattering birds and a pretty courtyard view (which features several tubs overflowing with exuberant yellow pansies) beckoned me to take my coffee out to the balcony. But it's a chilly spring morning, so when my bare feet turned into Popsicles I hastened back inside.

After I post this I will enjoy a solitary stroll around Old Town. Maybe I'll head down to the Potomac. Then when my feet get tired I'll score a large latte from Starbucks to bring back here to the hotel, where I'll apply a little polish to my Monday column for Romancing the Blog and turn that in. Yeah, okay--go ahead and admire my work ethic if you want.

One of the highlights of this trip will be meeting Harlequin Historicals author Victoria Bylin for a long, chatty lunch. Vicki and I met in the summer of 2002 at the Romance Writers of America conference in Denver when we were both starry-eyed new authors, and we've been e-pals ever since. Today she's planning to shirk her myriad responsibilities and abandon her children to eat French food with me. What a good friend she is!

When my husband decides he's had enough architecting for the day, we'll probably browse a couple of his favorite antique stores before meeting some friends for dinner. Later, we'll head to the airport to pick up our Partners in Weekend Fun, a.k.a. my sister and her husband, both "oil men" from Dallas* who will be arriving on a 10:00 flight. We're planning to go out for desert and coffee or maybe drop by an Irish pub that features a live band (I'm a sucker for Celtic music). And in the morning I will stumble bleary-eyed to my computer and tell you how much fun I'm having.


*My sister is a petroleum land man. Seriously. It's one of the few job titles that has not been gender-neutralized, so she is actually called a "land man." That just knocks me out. What's a petroleum land man, you ask? Well, as far as I understand it (and we're not talking great distances here), it's someone who investigates ownership of mineral rights and then negotiates leases that allow oil companies to poke deep holes in the ground and suck things out. I think.


10 comments:

lindaruth said...

It sounds like you're having a wonderful time!
And your sister's job description reminds me of something funny: my youngest daughter kept stats for 4 years for the boys' basketball team in high school, so she lettered 4 years in boys' basketball. :)
Linda

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a wonderful holiday!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a wonderful relaxing time. I envy you. Hope you take lots of pictures to post.

Anonymous said...

Hey Brenda, I think we have found some music that we both like ;-D
celtic music. hope you are having a good time, have safe trip
janice

Heather Diane Tipton said...

Oh. sounds like you are having a great trip. hope it only gets better!

Brenda Coulter said...

It's Sunday night and we just got home. Thanks for the good wishes, everyone--it was a lovely five days, but I'm glad to be back.

For some reason, we didn't take very many pictures. But I'll try to post something tomorrow.

Brenda Coulter said...

By the way, Victoria Bylin says she and I met at the 2003 RWA Conference in New York City, not the 2002 one in Denver. I stand corrected.

I really enjoyed my lunch with her. And everyone, if you like historical romance, be sure to read her April release from Harlequin Historicals, Abbie's Outlaw. It's a wonderful book.

Anonymous said...

Actually, it's "Landman" with no space...and yes, we had fun in DC. It was good to see my favorite sister. <3

Brenda Coulter said...

Landman. Got it.

But I did good on the job description, right?

Anonymous said...

Yes, you did a good job on the description of what a landman does. And you did a good job showing us a great time in DC.

S