A bright new day

Can you belive it? I woke up to snow. It didn't last long, but my plants were outside (and have been for weeks) and I was worried they would be dead. I lost two tiny tomato plants, but I have seedlings in the house that are just the right size to transplant . They're tall and strong and not likely to die from shock. I have lots of seedlings I wanted to plant in the half whiskey barrels this weekend, but I'm not sure I should take the chance if it's going to continue to snow. I'll have to wheel the whiskey barrels into the house and grow my little garden inside.

I'm not sure what changed between yesterday morning and some time last night, but I feel wonderful. I feel light and airy and happy, which has been a foreigner in these parts for a couple weeks and very unlike my usual blithe nature. I'm not sure if it was severing ties with R&T or having a very sexy and young sounding Mexican gentleman flirting with me on the phone -- and thru email -- but something has changed for the better. Last night while I waited for elementalmuse to get back to me for the next Scrabble play, ideas started whirling around in my head--ideas for writing and stories and promotion. I feel positively rejuvenated and ready for action. Suddenly, all the work I needed to do in writing columns, articles, etc. has turned back into the writing I can't wait to do. Lately, it has seemed a chore, almost a burden with everything else I had to do, and now everything seems possible again. I can't wait to fire up the screens and put all these buzzing ideas down on virtual paper and send them out because I know they're winners and they are the answer to my financial distress.

I had the greatest idea for promoting my Jekyll & Hyde book, but I'm not telling it here because I'm afraid all you hungry and avaricious writers will want to borrow the idea before I can use it. I'm not sure it is something that can be used more than once, but it will definitely make a big splash when it works. Just think, I get to be the first one to devise a new marketing strategy -- finally. I've been the first before, but it has always been for someone else. This time, I get to be the first for me. Yippeeee!!

And I have a couple of really great article ideas, one of which I intend to pitch to Playboy magazine. Yes, drjeff, Playboy actually publishes articles as well as sex and cheesecake. It comes from past experience, but how many married or involved men do you know whose girlfriends/spouses have cut them off from their friends and families so the only friends and families they communicate or interact with are the spouse's/girlfriend's? This is a form of abuse. It's a silent form and I doubt it has received much press and no one has ever done a made-for-TV-movie about it either. I'm thinking about calling it Silent Eunuch or Silent War or something like that. Don't know for sure, but I think this is something that needs to come out of the closet. Besides the fact that Playboy pays a lot for feature articles, since men are the target audience, it's a great way to disseminate the information and reach the right people. Playboy may not go for it, but there are lots of men's magazines and, if nothing else, I can hit the major market magazines if that doesn't work. Somehow, I think Playboy will snap it up. I just have to find the data and interview some men, but I know where I can go for that, and it wouldn't hurt to get an expert opinion from, say, a sociologist or perhaps psychologist. Know any who might be interested?

The thing is that most men either don't recognize what has happened, that they've been systematically cut off from their supportive friends and family, or they do know and aren't going to come forward with the info because it's emasculating and demeaning. They have been turned into virtual eunuchs guarding a harem of one and it happened so slowly and methodically they didn't notice until it was too late.

I have lots of other ideas, but I'm not leaving them out for you vultures to work over, so you will just have to wait until they're posted as fait accomplis.

Did you know that you can translate words and phrases and sentences from English to French, Spanish, etc. and vice versa? I figured it out yesterday when I was trying to decipher my Mexican gentleman's quip about writers without pens, who, btw, is named Juan (that's John to all you gringos). He was nice enough to tell me about the best possible tequila on earth -- Don Julio -- and he told me I was witty and intelligent and someone he enjoyed talking with. I have been on a non-male diet for so long I forgot how good it felt to flirt and be flirted with. I don't think that is the sole reason for my emotional turn-around. I think there is magic in the air and I have finally put paid to R&T and walked away. It just took a while to take effect.

So, happy days to all and to all a goodbye -- for now.

You didn't think you were getting rid of me that easily, did you? Perish the thought.