A Rose by Any Other Name...Stinks!

Haute Couturier Coco Chanel was once asked, "Where should one wear perfume?"

Chanel's answer? "Where ever you would like to be kissed...."

Mmm, now doesn't THAT conjure up some romantic images? Scent is the strongest inducement to memory. Pheremones drive us to passion, to hate, to attraction..... Humans have used it for centuries to entice, allure, and decorate the body, both for our own pleasure and to attract the opposite sex.

Yeah. I like perfume. Grins.

So it will surprise you that I did something this last week that I haven't done in about five years.

(No, not THAT...jeeez, this is a family blog!)

I bought perfume. Or Eau de Cologne or whatever the heck you call it when it comes in a spritzer rather than a five-hundred-dollar-an-ounce bottle. Grins.

Why, you may ask, did it take me five years to do it when it's so yummy, sexy and wonderful? Ahhhhh, now that's a personal question. Hahaha! But I'm going to tell you anyway.

Let me first make the disclaimer that I really, REALLY adore perfume only when it's correctly applied (that means dabbed not drenched, ladies, and same for you with the cologne, gents!)

Think SUBTLE, people!

I love when you have a scent you can layer with lotion, powder and or perfume. I love when people have a "signature scent" - something associated just with them.

My mother always wore a Coty perfume. I can bring it to mind and memory instantly when I smell it, and it means "Mama" to me. Same with a friend of mine who wears Issey-Miyaki. GORGEOUS scent and smells divine on her. Love that.

Now, to the point.

Perfume hates me. Or maybe it's perfumiers. They add stuff to perfume that makes me itch. I have fair skin, but I'm not allergic to much, nor do things usually irritate me or break me out. I've never considered myself "delicate" in any way when it comes to product or potions or any thing like that.

But perfume is different. There are some of them....ugh. Itchy. Haven't defined the ingredient, and really don't care, but I know which perfumes to avoid.

Then there's the problem of the actual smell. I cannot STAND to smell like a sweet little old lady wearing a strong-enough-to-fell-an-ox floral perfume. (And mind you, there are plenty of young women who are already 70 before they're 30, if you know what I mean. Matronly is a choice, people, not a life-sentence.)

Ahem.

Some perfumes also tend to be very musky and almost dank. Kind of like a crypt. SNORK! (You know me, I have to work a crypt in here SOMEWHERE!!! Besides, in my next book the hero and heroine get locked in a tomb at an abandoned archealogical dig....)

Seriously, there's one perfume I smelled - very popular, evidently - that smells like a musty basement to me.

I have a very sensitive nose and can differentiate a lot of scents. I can do that whole wine thing "..it has a note of saffron, and yet it's fruity, with notes of pear and pineapple..." if I choose to (I don't) because I CAN smell and taste it.

Then there's that personal problem. Yes, now we get to it.

For whatever reason, there are a TON of perfumes that smell fabulous in the bottle, but when I put them on?

Ugh. They smell like battery acid. Bleeeeech.

A very knowledgeable aromatherapist once told me the reason. She said my system was more alkaline rather than the more common, acidic system. There are some reasons for that - I eat my veggies! - but mostly, it's just the way I'm made. Grins. However, perfumes are formulated to appeal to the majority, and the majority have a more acidic system.

When someone with a more alkaline system puts on an acidic perfume? Eeek! You guessed it, it smells like Mr. Yuck Died ...or worse. Bleeech.

I used to wear a wonderful perfume called Victoria, by Victoria's Secret. Gold bottle, cobalt blue cap - wonderful perfume, pretty packaging. It was great. I bought the full line - powder, lotion, perfume. LOVED that stuff.

It was discontinued.

Then I wore a perfume from Tiffany. Wonderful stuff, but then they reformulated it and yes, you guessed it, battery acid. Bleeech!

There are several others I CAN wear, but WON'T:
- the perfume my ex-husband bought for his mistress (Opium);
- the perfume a coworker used to pour on (Obsession);
- and the perfume someone dropped onto my luggage or which burst in someone else's bag and contaminated mine, necessitating it's demise (Burberry). I really liked that luggage. Sigh.

But The Good News!? I nearly forgot! I found a new perfume, Coach Poppy, which actually smells GOOD on me! WOOHOOO!!! Alert the media! Buy Stock! Hide the children...wait, that's something else. Grins.

I tried it on in the store, letting it "wear" all day. It didn't turn musky, or smell bad. Excellent. I went back and tried it again on another day. Allllll good.

FINALLY! New perfume! WOOT! So, if you happen to meet me at a conference and I'm wearing a lovely scent, you can pretty much be sure it's Coach's Poppy. We'll see how it goes....

What about you? Do you like perfume?

Do you have a signature scent?

Do you have several that you like to change around? I have a friend who has 6 or 8 different perfumes and can wear them all with equal ease and delicious smells. (Obviously, I'm jealous of this!)

Do you wear it everyday? Just for special occasions? Or never?

And then there's the perfume ads....grins. Seen the new Bulgari one?

And what about the new trend to having celebrities "create" a fragrance? I don't buy it - if I'm wearing Vera Wang, by golly, it better be a DRESS! And I ain't touchin' Jennifer Lopez....

Give me your thoughts! BTW, I'll be giving away an ARC of the RT TOP PICK for September - my new book, DEADLY LITTLE LIES today, to one lucky perfumier...winner. Just because! It's not due out till Sept. 1, so you'll get it early!

Sniff!! Sniff, sniff, sniff? What perfume are YOU wearing?? Source URL: http://gbejadacosta.blogspot.com/search/label/Jeanne%20Adams
Visit Gbejada Costa for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

To Float or not to Float...

A Jeanne and Cassondra Food Fight....

Cassondra: I was in New York a couple of weeks ago, like many of the Bandits, and had a chance to spend just a bit of time with the one Bandit I sometimes refer to as “my evil twin.”

You might wonder why we would think of ourselves that way, since I’m short and dark haired, with a rather overpowering preference for black clothing, dark blue nail polish, and deep purple lipstick, while Jeanne is tall, stacked and blonde, with a tendency to wear *shudder* earth tones.

Jeanne: Hey! I resemble that remark! (Heehee. Actually, it's quite a nice description....thanks!)
Cassondra, rolling her eyes: Nevertheless, for you who might not have noticed this, we tend, often, to think alike about certain things. We’re both extremely analytical, come from strong marketing, art and design, and business backgrounds, and we both like things that go boom.

Jeanne: I love it when she calls me analytical. I SO don't think I am, but it's nice to know someone ELSE does!

Cassondra: Will you let me finish?

Jeanne: Pray, continue, my Evil Twin.

Cassondra: Thank you. We also both come from small country towns, love plants and gardening, and have a strong interest in a lot of similar things.

But when it comes to food, the similarities….well…I begin to doubt our twinhood.

Jeanne: Gasp! Say it isn't SO!!!

Cassondra: Yes! It's so! During the New York trip, a vast chasm opened between us. Yes, that’s right. We’re disagreeing about food again. And this time, it’s sacred.

Jeanne: (muffled laugh) It's a sacred cow-product! Oh, noes!!

Cassondra stifles a grin: This is serious! Y’all remember my ice cream blog, right? So you know I’m no stranger to cow-originated goodness. So it’s probably no surprise to you that I love floats.

Jeanne: Ugh.

Cassondra: Hey! I mean I don’t just like floats. I love floats. Being much like the Sally character in When Harry Met Sally, I like them made a certain particular way, of course. I do NOT want the ice cream all blended together with the soda. That’s just gross.

Y’all remember Koogle, right? Peanut butter and jelly blended together in one container? Like that. Blech. Grrrrross.

Jeanne: Oh, now that WAS disgusting. Bleech is right.

Cassondra: Thank you. But as to floats, the ice cream and the soda of choice should not become some amorphous, smooth substance. The ice cream and the soda must remain individual. It’s a marriage of two distinct and opposite individuals, one with a crisp, bright burn, and one with a sweet, soft, creaminess. It is NOT a genetic blending experiment, where everything ends up looking the same. Ew.

I want generous scoops of ice cream, with Coke or root beer poured over the top (allowing proper time for the foam to go down, of course), then poured over the top again, until the container is full to the top of soda, and then I want extra Coke or root beer on the side. While I realize there is a group of float lovers who prefer to have their Coke poured in first, then their ice cream scooped in, because, they say, it doesn’t foam nearly as badly that way, I say this is bowing to convenience. Maybe even bordering on laziness, this sacrifice of quality for speed of preparation. I am a Coke Over Ice Cream float girl.

I do not want chocolate ice cream, nor any other flavor except rich, natural vanilla. No swirls, no nuts, no candy additives. I want a bit of time for the ice cream to become malleable. Then I poke at it with the long-handled spoon so bits of it break off into the ambery liquid. So I can then slurp the glorious combination.
Yummmmm.

Now, brace yourselves, because I know you’ll be shocked. I was. But our beloved Duchesse, Jeanne, my otherwise evil Bandita twin….dare I even say it?

She does not like floats.

This, I do not understand. Instead, she likes malts.

Jeanne: Yes, yes I do.

Now let me be clear. It's not that I find a float abhorrent or anything, it's just....well...Let me put it this way. It's a million degrees here in DC this week. The humidity is about 110%, with blue skies, and no rain. I'm hibernating in the house. Hiding, actually. Do you know what that kind of humidity does to my hair? Eeeeek!

Coke, Diet Coke, Root Beer - they're all wonderful, but there is nothing, and I mean NOTHING that is as refreshing and "bring-down-the-core-temp-good" like a milkshake. In particular, a malt. You know, a mix of cold, gorgeous ice cream in vanilla, coffee, chocolate (pick a flavor, but it's got to be real ice cream), luscious milk, and malted flavoring. YUMMMMM!!!

Cassondra: Okay, we agree on the "real ice cream" part, but once you get flavors or - UGH! - MALT in there, we are at a very wide cravasse in our twinhood. I cannot understand this passion you have for malt. Malted milk balls--okay I can tolerate those. But malt in your ice cream? Yuck. Give me a good, old fashioned float any day. You know, an ice cream float - ice cream floating in a soft drink, like root beer.

Jeanne: Ohhhh no. No fizzy, fuzzy stuff messing up my ice cream, please and thank you. I'm planning to have a malt today in fact, and tomorrow, and probably the next day as a defense against the evil heat and humidity. (We have a code orange heat advisory - baaaaaad)

Cassondra: Truly, you astonish me. Why would you want to diss my perfect summer beverage? I will admit to one exception to my strict coke/vanilla combo.

Jeanne: Just the one?

Cassondra: Oh, be quiet. The one is the orange dreamsicle float, with vanilla ice cream and orange soda. Oh. My. Gosh. And when anyone has a sick stomach, I make them an orange sherbet with 7-up float. Goes down easy and stays down when nothing else will.

Jeanne: Remind me not to be sick around you. Hate to admit it but I'm SO not a dreamsicle fan. My DH - he'd LOVE for you to be around when he's sick. He's an huge fan of orange/vanilla combos, no matter what frozen form they take.

And going back to the point at hand, why would you want to ruin a perfectly good scoop of ice cream by submerging it in, or pouring Coke over it? Or Root Beer? Why, for that matter, would you ruin a perfectly good, ice cold root beer, by dumping ice cream in it?

Cassondra: Oh, please. I’m sorry, but what, precisely, IS malt? I’ve wondered this for a long while now. They never let you actually see it, and I find that deeply troubling. It doesn’t come from a “malt” plant. There is no “malt cow.” No “malt truck” drives up and unloads cans of it. They dump it into the cup when you’re not looking, then they keep their backs to you while they put in the ice cream and blend it all together.

Jeanne: *rubs hands in glee* Malt is made from grain, m'dear Twin! It's the food of the Gods, don't-cha-know. Snork!!! See, you get a grain AND a dairy serving when you get a malt!

(Nancy, that makes malted milk balls a grain food! We're saved!)

Cassondra: Maybe we should switch husbands since your husband, Ralph, likes floats and dreamsicles. My husband, Steve, likes floats, but alas, Jeanne, like you he LOVES malts. In fact he likes EXTRA malt in his vanilla malts. I have no idea how we ended up together.

He has a theory that floats, actually, are a regional thing. A few years ago, he worked for a big hospital corporation, and traveled all over the country visiting hospitals and helping with their scheduling software. He’s run across several places where floats are not served. At one point he was in Texas, (I think) when he stopped by an ice cream shop—one of the little glass-walled kind that I blogged about a couple of months ago—and asked for a float. They looked at him with a blank stare. Then they frowned.

“A what?” they asked.

“A float,” he said. “You know, ice cream with coke or root beer poured over it?”
The girl looked over at her ice-cream scoop-wielding companion. Scoop girl came over and stood near girl number one, making an impenetrable wall of “ya ain’t from here are ya” confusion. They’d never heard of a float.

I mean really! They don't know about floats! How can this be? After I’ve heard such nice things about Texas? I might start to believe that Texas really is a whole other country—an alien one where they don’t serve floats.

Jeanne: Now, I do find that hard to believe--the not knowing about floats. Or maybe it's that your region (Kentucky) and my original region (North Carolina) are so close and so similar that they DID know about floats.

However, your point about Texas being an alien country is also well taken. It IS where they filmed Cowboys and Aliens, so....coincidence? Perhaps not!

(Then again, anything that features Daniel Craig AND Harrison Ford? Rrrrrowwww!)

Cassondra, laughing: Could be, could be. Steve explained the concept, but they could not imagine pouring soda (pop, Coke, soft drink, whatever they call it down there) over ice cream.

You know what I think, though? I think they served him the malt he settled for (Bleh), then they closed the windows, and late that night, after dark, with the lights out, they scooped out some ice cream, poured root beer over it, and found their way to Nirvana. The question, of course, is whether they’ve kept it their special little secret, or whether they’ve shared it with others, spreading the float love across a barren, malt-infested land.

Jeanne: Malt infested? Oh, for Pete's sake! It's GRAIN, I tell ya'! So we're a grain infested land. Excellent. Amber waves, and all that. Snork! Tell Steve we'll fix him right up with a malt, and you and Ralph can go slurp down some carbonated milky goo drinks. I swear, I'm sending Steve a ginormous box of malted milk balls for Christmas, just to tweak you. Bwahahahahah!

Cassondra: Ya'll can have them. I'll studiously ignore them as I find Nirvana in ice cream and Coke. Oh, and your husband is too tall for me, and you're taller than Steve, so you keep Ralph, and I'll keep Steve. Kay?

Jeanne: Of course, because, hey, we chose them for other reasons than ice-cream-beverage preferences. *VEG* But when visiting all together, the four of us? Ya'll go to the other side of the table with those floats. Steve and I will keep our malts allll nice and soda-free.

Okay, so who's side are YOU on? Malt or Float?

Flavored ice cream, or pure, perfect vanilla?

Toppings, nuts, and fruits? (And here I AM in Twinhood again because I don't like cold nuts - SNORK! - nor do I like fruit goo on my ice cream)

Cassondra: Fruit goo. Ewwwww. Real fruit? That's different. Love me some bananas or strawberries....slurp...or chocolate....yummm..oh..ahem...



Jeanne: Back to being Twins - I'm there with you on real fruit on ice cream - or IN ice cream. Just not goo.
One scoop or two? Or four?

And last but not least, besides vanilla, what's your favorite flavor?
Source URL: http://gbejadacosta.blogspot.com/search/label/Jeanne%20Adams
Visit Gbejada Costa for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

A Revolutionary Bestseller....

By Jeanne Adams


First off, HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!! HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

If you get a chance, and it won't get you arrested, hug a soldier, sailor, marine, coast guard-er, cop or first-responder and say THANK YOU. Grins. (Here's John Cena playing a very, very hot Marine. Are your glasses fogged up yet?)

I had to wrack my brain to figure out what to write about for the Fourth. So many ways to play it...baseball (did that), fireworks (I think that's been done too)...and then I had it! Voila!

Bestsellers!

All the Romance Bandits are writers. And readers. So are the Bandita Buddies. Sven and the gang frequently stack up bestsellers and backlists on the counter of the local indie bookstore, order a box full from Amazon, or frequent Barnes and Noble, Borders, or Books-a-Million for a good read. The Lair is allllll about reading and writing great books.

Even Ermingarde the dragon likes to read. (Hence her glasses, which like Velma on Scooby Doo, she frequently loses. However, she can't wear contacts, so the glasses have to stay.)

We're not sure about the Golden Rooster. He claims to know seven languages, including pullet, but he's unwilling to be tested on any of them. Hmmmmm......

That brings up all sorts of interesting questions, doesn't it? But that's not my point, so I'll go back to the whole image of books, bookstores and teetering to-be-read piles. Or, in my case, to-be-read-mountains. Grins.

But what, you may ask, do Bestsellers have to do with the Fourth of July? Well read on!

So most readers going into a bookstore or picking a new read online first check out the front page or the gorgeous stack at the front of the store featuring this week's bestsellers. Any book selling 100,000 copies or more is considered a high-seller or bestseller, whether it hits a list or not. Nowadays that number is BIG, with the economy so slowly on the mend, so you're bound to hit a list selling 100,000 copies.

That makes what I'm about to tell you even MORE astounding! Prepare to be gobsmacked... Did you know that in 1776, there was an amazing bestseller which sold a then-unheard-of 500,000 copies? It sold out every printing of it which they could run.

It's STILL selling more than two HUNDRED years later. Nope, not the Declaration.....Have I got your attention yet?

Ready to know what it is???

It's Thomas Paine's well-reasonsed booklet on governance titled Common Sense. Published in January of 1776, it was THE hot topic in every meeting room, at every pub, stableblock, dinner table, wellpump, and silver shoppe. If they'd had water coolers back then, it would have been the top water-cooler-gossip item for weeks on end.

I'm betting it would have been an Oprah Book Club Read for SURE. Why? Ahh, young Jedi, because it was scandalous! Seditious! Treeeeeeeeeasonous!

Perfect Book Club material!

And then there was it's author the devilishly handsome, hot-headed speaker, writer and revolutionary, Thomas Paine. Could they have caught him at the time - easier to run and hide in 1776, by the way - Thomas Paine would have swung from the gallows for this pamphlet.

The ideas and concepts in Common Sense were partly a response to the first shots, "the shots heard round the world," fired at Lexington and Concord the previous year, and partly an ongoing response to the Coersive Acts of 1774. The Coercive Acts tightly regulated Boston shipping in favor of the monarchy, required colonists to billet troops in private homes and made British officials high and low immune to prosecution, regardless of the nature of their crimes.

Common Sense was about...well....Common Sense. For instance, it posited the brave notion that if a person commits acts otherwise heinous and prosecutable, they shouldn't be immune because of their legal position or the "height" of their birth. Nowadays, we kinda say "Well, duh!" to that, but at the time, if a King or Peer of the Realm killed, raped or generally picked on somebody, they won any contest of right-or-wrongdoing, and the common man lost. End of story.

This is the foundation of that "all men are created equal part" which Jefferson wrote into our Declaration.

(Although I wish TJ, our fair son of Virginia, had written All PERSONS are created equal - making sure we women were included. It would have made that whole getting-the-right-to-vote thing easier.)

Interestingly enough, this bestseller led to another bestseller, and yes, this time I DO mean The Delcaration of Independence. I've always thought that that one parchment - a simple, albeit large, piece of paper - is more of a shot heard round the world than anything ever fired from a gun.

That document is 235 years old. Today.

Happy Birthday, Declaration! WOOT!!! Let's have some fireworks on your behalf. Let Freedom Ring at YOUR house and celebrate that something a group of brilliant, dedicated men created, then preserved in writing and 56 of them bravely signed.

I say bravely because all the signers would have been executed forthwith had we LOST the war for Independence. (And several of the creative minds didn't sign because they died before they could get there to sign it....but that's another blog for another time. Grins)

We writers love our heroes and you have to admit...pretty heroic guys, those Founding Fathers.

Now, hum along with me to the Beatles tune..."You say you want a Revolution oh yeah, you know....we all want to change the world..."

They did change the world. Good for them. Thank you to all of them whether they signed that massive parchment or not, but most especially my husband's ancestors John and Samuel Adams, because it's my blog and I can thank whomsoever I want. Independently. 'Cause I live in the home of the free and the brave. Heehee.

Now, less seriously....are you going to see fireworks tonight? Taking a picnic or having a party first?

Have you ever read Common Sense? It's online now, since it's in the public domain. You can find it at:
http://www.ushistory.org/paine/commonsense/singlehtml.htm

It's long and quite tedious in places, but they were allowed more editorial leeway for exposition back then....

Have you ever been to Washington, DC to see the Declaration of Independence?

Bandita Anna Campbell and I went, two years ago when RWA was in DC, stood in line, and got a look at that famous document. It's totally cool, and yes, John Hancock's John Hancock is HUGE by comparison to the others.

Hancock had quite the sense of humor and said if he was going to hang for signing the damn thing, he wanted King George to be able to read John's signature without resorting to his spectacles.

Tell me your plans for the FOURTH!?!?! And for those of you in other countries, when is YOUR country's Independence day? and how do you celebrate it?Source URL: http://gbejadacosta.blogspot.com/search/label/Jeanne%20Adams
Visit Gbejada Costa for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Movies I Missed....

by Jeanne Adams

Hey gang! Sorry for the late blog today. I was under the weather a bit yesterday...feeling better today, thank you. One of the "good" things about being a bit less energetic than usual is that I got to clear out the TiVo and watch some movies I'd been meaning to watch.

I watched five episodes of my dear, darling Special Agent Gibbs and his NCIS agents then followed that up with an after lunch serving of NCIS:LA. LL Cool J is SUCH a treat for the eyes.

Here's my problem. I've got two kids, both of whom are sports-boys and have extracurricular activities. I'm writing books and managing a household and generally running like a crazy woman.


I have great plans to watch a movie with the hubster, settle back into the big chair and a half and snuggle up with him and some popcorn and watch some of those DVDs we bought one another for Christmas. (We do this - buy the latest one for one another, because we'd buy it anyway, but it gets a present for one of the boys to give to the parent for a relatively low cost. The 21st century version of buying dad a tie or pencil leads or handkerchiefs)

Sorry, I digressed. Anyway, the challenge for me is, that I seldom have time - or make time - to sit down and watch the chick flicks and fun movies full of explosions that my boys buy me for birthday or Christmas. I have good intentions...but there are books to read (which I can take with me into the car pool lane) and I've been listening to Despicable Me in the car over and over and over again, thanks to the built-into-the-van DVD player. I love it, and can now quote every line. But I can't watch it, so the DVD in the van is very little use for ME when it comes to watching those waiting DVDs.

It has to wait for a sick day.

So, long story short (or is it too late for that?), yesterday, I got in some movies. I watched The Blind Side. WOW! What a fabulous movie! Made me want to root for the Baltimore Ravens - somethign I've been resistant to because I don't like that the shall-not-be-named-owner pulled the team out of Cleveland and took them to Baltimore. Grrrr. Nothing against Baltimore but...

Again, I digress. But it was a GREAT movie. I missed seeing it in the theatre. I'm really sorry about that because it would have been great on the big screen. Sigh.

I also missed Batman Begins. And Master and Commander. And Tangled.

I had wanted to see ALL of them in the theatre, but with babysitting and movie costs so high, books due, baseball schedules, (...my country's 500th anniversary to plan, my wife to murder, Guilder to frame for it...I'm swamped!)....it's just been impossible.

What movies did you miss on the big screen? Any you bought on DVD and still haven't watched?

When's the next "sick day"?

Grins.Source URL: http://gbejadacosta.blogspot.com/search/label/Jeanne%20Adams
Visit Gbejada Costa for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Happy Mother's Day!!!!

By Jeanne Adams


Happy Mother's Day, Banditas and Bandita Buddies!!! Thanks for coming over to hang out with me on Mother's Day.

Whether you're a mom, or just have a mom, or are mom to a four-legged creature, you have an amazing talent to get things done. I do include myself in this, as I'm sometimes astounded at how much I do get done. Not much of it has anything to do with my actual WORK, but I do astound myself at how many endless loads of laundry I do, including making sure uniforms are washed, pressed, belted, and ready for baseball, basketball, more baseball, and even, in the fall, football.

Which brings me to my focus for today. I'm a baseball mom. (I'm also a basketball mom, but that plays a distant trumpet to baseball). I have notes in my daily calendar which read "be sure baseball uniform is ready" and "practice jersey!" and "tournament uniforms!" These notes help keep me abreast of the demands of a heavy-duty baseball schedule for my eldest son who, if I do say so myself, is one damn fine baseball player. Just so you know, I am a master at getting grass stains out of baseball pants - although I do confess that I've had to throw one mud-saturated, grass-stained, sopping wet mess of a pair of baseball pants into the trash.

My youngest is just beginning this baseball journey. He's not the absolute maniac for the sport his older brother is, but he's getting into it. He has baseball practice too, on Saturdays, which is frequently right in the middle of when his older brother is playing, which means we have to split up, and it already means more uniform washing, that goes without saying.

I also now know the names of a tremendous number of players in various major league positions. I know virtually all the players on the Chicago Cubs. Being fond of the Atlanta Braves myself, I know a lot of them. The local team, the Bethesda Big Train, is fun to watch. And thanks to being a baseball mom, I now know about stances, swings, defensive plays and just exactly what a catcher is responsible for.

Between you and me, I'd so much rather be watching football.

Seriously. I adore it. My eldest likes it in a pale, "that's niiiiice" kind of way, and can play it and like it, but really, it's alllllllll about the baseball. My youngest however, to my glee, seems to be interested. Ahhhh.....maybe ONE of my boys will follow in my sports-footsteps! (Although since my DH played football, basketball, baseball and rugby, they have a lot of footsteps, if you know what I mean!)

Stephen Covey, the master of management, was counseling a man once who wanted to grow closer to his young son from whom he'd been estranged. Covey advised, "you must come to love whatever your son loves, and as you appreciate and love that thing, your son will come to see you clearly, understand that you're trying to connect, and reach out to love you too."

I mulled that over for a long time as my boys came along. It was important to me to understand my boys, to be there for them. I quoted the Covey line several times to myself as my eldest grew: I must love this thing that my son loves.

Baseball.

I used to think that watching baseball was like watching paint dry. My husband also loves the game, but you know, spouses frequently like different things, so I thought I was off the hook.

Hey, I love dog shows and showed several of my dogs to champion status and one to a Best in Show. (And no, that's not me, but it is my breed!) My DH could really care less, kinda the way I felt about baseball. But he tried to understand it, and even to supprt my dog-show-habit, and like it. I could do no less, so we'd go to games and finally, my husband explained the strategy of the game, which elevated it to a more interesting event, but still....

Then the boy came along and from 5 years old on, he would almost obsessively watch The Game. I never needed cartoons-as-babysitter, I could just turn on a baseball game. Nine innings of work would then await me, because the boy was engrossed and didn't require my attention.

Grins.

When he got a bit older and began to play, I really HAD to pay attention. According to Covey, I had to learn about the game if I wanted to connect with him and understand him.

So, I became a baseball mom.

One day, I will probably be one of those moms, seated in some big-league stadium, grinning like a Cheshire Cat as my boy is introduced as the starting pitcher. Or the all-star outfielder. Or the catcher. I'll grin as they play the National Anthem - which he used to believe ALWAYS ended with PLAY BALL!!! - and I'll grin as they take the field. I can pretty much guarantee you, that win or lose, I'll still be grinning at the thought that my long lanky baseball boy has become a Big League Player.

And yes, I'll be the one yelling at the Umpire, cheering on his teammates, just like I do now, and whistling loud enough to be heard in the next county.

Whether he does or doesn't make it to "the Show", he's my boy. He and his brother are what make me a mom. They also make me a more well-rounded person (hey, I know from baseball!), and a better human being because they love me with their whole hearts.

If you are a mom of daughters, you may know a lot of this sports stuff too, thanks to Title Nine, but in addition you may have had to learn - *shudder* - about cheerleading, or Justin Bieber, or - *double shudder* - dance class.

Or if you're a pet-mom, you've had to learn about clean-up, hairballs, just how much fuzz is IN that chew toy, clipping nails, and the general maintenance that goes along with being a loving, responsible pet-mom.

Go you!

The question of the day is this:

What have you learned to do, or learned to love, because of your child/children/or pets?

What have you put up with, especially if you're a pet mom, that you thought you would NEVER tolerate?

What about being a mom of any variety, has made you better?


If your mom, as mine is, has passed on, what would you say to her about all she did for you? (I'd say thanks for the laundry, as I now know JUST how much work that really is! Hahahah!)
Source URL: http://gbejadacosta.blogspot.com/search/label/Jeanne%20Adams
Visit Gbejada Costa for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Welcome Maureen Betita, a BB, and a Pirate from The Writers Revenge!

By Jeanne Adams
Hey everyone! I'm so excited to have Maureen O. Betita as my guest today! I first met Maureen here on the blog when she swung over from the Good Ship Revenge to visit our deliciously decadent Lair. She and her mates on the Revenge have also been good enough to have me and a whole host of Romance Bandits over to the deck of the Revenge as guests as well, so it only seemed neighborly to return the favor. So, Maureen, we love a good Call Story here in the Lair. Tell us yours...

Maureen: Ah, my call story… Well, I was sitting on a barstool in Barbados, holding a frosty margarita glass when Fernando brought me the resort phone… *snort!* Actually, it was a windy day in Freedom, CA. At a Starbucks when my cell phone went off. I knew my agent, Saritza Hernadez, had sent my book off to several publishers but still stared blankly at my caller id, wondering why she was calling me. Had she changed her mind? Wanted to drop me? Was she calling to warn me of an asteroid heading for the coast of California? (A writer’s imagination…what can I say?) Luckily it wasn’t any of those things. She said she had an offer from Decadent Publishing for The Kraken’s Mirror…did I want her to say ‘yes?’ I was outside at this point, trying to find shelter from the wind (but this being the coastal town of California, it really wasn’t that cold to anyone who really knows wind but it was a bit noisy.) I think I shouted out “YES!” I asked her about Decadent first, then I asked her opinion and then I took it and said “YES!” (No regrets, I love this publishing house!)

Jeanne: Pretty cool! Well, I guess the news and the Starbucks were hot! What about the wonderful Revenge? How did you become a part of that good ship's crew?

Maureen: Well, Fernando suggested... You know, I don't know anyone named Fernando, but I wish I did!

Jeanne: There's Fernando over there, and I think he would like to know YOU....he's looking this way....

Maureen: Well, helllllooooo, Fernando! What was I talking about? Oh, The Revenge. Sorry Fernando, I'll get back to you. We'll talk... Where was I? Right, the Romance Writers Revenge. I picked up a postcard advertising the blog at the San Francisco RWA Nationals, where I was sliding about the walls, trying not to be noticed. (My first Nationals, I really did abysmally at socializing.) I took the card home and a few months later logged on and lurked for a while. Then someone posted a blog about musical influence and I commented. I commented a lot over the next few months. Then I set up a bar on the deck after someone blogged about the notorious glittery hooha, and I think they basically figured they might as well take advantage of my gift of blather and they invited me to blog regularly. It was that or throw me overboard. But once I won the staring contest with the undead monkey, I was accepted. (The secret is rotten bananas. Little sucker likes rotten bananas.)

Jeanne: Eeeuw! Rotten bananas? I think I'll let that one....lie. So, since we're talking about the ship (and those glittery hooha's ROCK!), tell us how you got your Pirate Nickname of 2nd Chance.

Maureen: Ah, 2nd Chance. Well in April of 2007 I nearly died. Went to bed, and woke up three days later in intensive care. My hear tried to commit suicide, but my husband was there to intercede. I spent ten days in two hospitals while they tried to figure out why I suffered sudden cardiac death. They never did find a definitive diagnosis. (SCD is a malfunction of the electrical currents in the heart.)

Jeanne: Whoa! Wow! This is amazing! Last week PJ admitted she'd been shot, once upon a time, and now you tell me you've nearly died? WOW! That's freaky!

Maureen: Whoa, that is freaky. So long story short, I came home. I wasn't sure why I was still around and I eventually was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome and began to see a therapist. Eventually, I realized I'd been given a second chance. When I needed a pirate persona, it seemed appropriate! It was also during therapy that I realized that after nearly dying, hearing an editor say "No!" wasn't really a big deal, and began seriously pursuing publication.

Jeanne: That does put things in perspective! So what made you want to write about pirates and the kraken?

Maureen: Ah, well, I were inspired by the Revenge and all me pirate mates! After numerous discussion about what the market was for older heroines (zilch was the answer, which pissed me off. So I had to go out and prove that was wrong) and a particular blog I wrote where I invited everyone to throw their inner critics to the kraken...well, me and the kraken struck up a friendship and the rest is history. Pirates come naturally to me, particularly the non-historically-accurate-fantasy-pirates. (I'm not a historian by any stretch of the imagination!) That and I always felt the kraken got a bad rap in movies, so it was time to turn him into a good guy, and prove that seasoned heroine who fell for a mature, and fabulous hero could sell and be exciting.

Jeanne: And you did it so well! So I know you just got back from RT, which means that you've gotten over your stage fright at national conferences, I guess. How was it and what was your favorite part?

Maureen: RT was insanely fun! I'm still totally exhausted and barely unpacked. People, people, people! And they all loved my pirate hat and I met my editors and my publisher and got to talk with my agent and help out the aspiring author workshops, and...and...and...I'm pooped! Favorite part? oh, wow. Doing a workshop with Katherine Ashe and Cherry Adair, called "he's A Pirate!" was a blast and has to be the highlight for me. I loved signing my book at the BookFaire and dressing up as the Kraken's Wife for the Fairy Ball, but that workshop was just so much fun! Seriously one fabulous thing about RT is how welcoming and supportive it is. Again and again, when I talked about my heroine being 53 and my hero being 65, eyes lit up with interest. I even had an older gentleman buy the book for his wife. Second chances aren't only about not dying, they are also about never giving up on yourself. Those of us in the babyboomer generation aren't done with living, or courting, or adventures or passion. So, I wrote the Kraken's Mirror to prove it.

Jeanne: Hear, hear! And prove it you did! How about an excerpt??

Maureen: Absolutely! In this bit, the heroine, Emily, has been temporarily blinded by waltzing vampires and rescued by the hero, Captain Alan. While appreciative, she's wearing a cloth over her eyes to protect them as they heal, and she has no confidence that a man would be interested in her. After all, she's fifty-three! She likes his voice, thinks it's kind that he helped her, but she's past all that, right? Ha! Oh, and did I mention that Emily is from the modern world? She fell through a magical portal and landed in a topsy-turvy pirate haven of Tortuga. At this point, she's tyring to be polite to Captain Alan, but he's just mentioned anticipating an evening of debauchery....

*** “Well, don’t let me keep you. I was at the Barmy Cock some nights ago, and there are plenty of sweet, young things to seduce there. I have the blindfold to protect my eyes, so why not see me there, and you can take your pick.” She tried to slide off the bench, but found a wooden barrier to her right. Damn. Oh, she liked the sound of his sudden chuckle. She liked it too much! She’d already scolded herself enough on the Quill, for staring at the young hunks who worked the lines. It didn’t make a difference to her that the rest of the crew enjoyed dallying with the boys. They were boys, and she couldn’t look at them without feeling like a dirty, old woman. Well, look at them that way! This Alan, well, he probably thought she possessed wealth or felt sorry for her. She’d grown accustomed to the blunt way the crew spoke of their sexual exploits. Jezzie would tease Mick while at dinner with ideas regarding their sexual play. Tink came striding out of her cabin one morning, rubbing her backside while complaining about Archer’s heavy hand the night before. The idea of seduction and debauchery seemed a bit tame compared to what she’d heard and seen on the ship! Alan turned her hand upside down and dallied with her palm, sliding his fingertips up and down the lines. She wanted to pull away, or maybe that wasn’t what she wanted. Damn! Her breasts ached, her nipples rising tighter than she’d ever known them to. Her belly clenched. Shit. Another chuckle set her pulse pounding. He probably knew it, too. His finger lingered at her pulse point. Damn. She had to be sitting in a puddle. “But why would I want to consider the sweet, young things, when what I want is here before me?” She jerked her hand away, suddenly angry. “You like teasing an old woman? Don’t try to bullshit me! You want my purse, fine! Here!” She struggled to haul the bag of coins Sam had given her free of her pack. Plopping it on the table, she pushed back, into the corner and tried to glare in his general direction. “Don’t fuck around with me! I’m not stupid. I felt your muscles, your broad chest…you don’t want me!” She heard nothing. Had he left? “You smell like apples. It’s quite intoxicating.” His voice came at her left side, close to her ears, and the hair at her jawline stirred when he exhaled. An arm settled across her shoulders. He nearly crooned, “I don’t need your purse. You’re not an old woman, and I have every intention of fucking you.” His hand cupped the back of her head as he finished the statement. Emily’s emotions veered between the fear of being trapped and the excitement of being wanted. Oh, God! Really wanted? Her lips parted, not sure what she was going to say, and he kissed her. ***

Jeanne: Whew! That's hot! Where's my funeral-home-fan? Goodness! Ahem. Well, any last words for today, Maureen?

Maureen: I'm a writer! There are no "last words"! There's always more where those came from. Grins. Seriously, life is for the living, dear readers. Emily doesn't know that Captain Alan isn't a young hunk, but a well-preserved man of experience. She's about to learn that life in this new world isn't at all what she's known. In the world of the Kraken's Carribbean, love has no age limit, nor does passion. And she'll discover that experience makes for the best adventures!

Jeanne: Oh, so true! It's Lair tradition to get our guests to pose a question for the day, do you have a question for our readers?

Maureen: But of course! Okay Banditas and Bandita Buddies, what's your most memorable second chance? Or third? Or fourth? Comment away, folks! Maureen will be giving one lucky reader a copy of The Kraken's Mirror!!Source URL: http://gbejadacosta.blogspot.com/search/label/Jeanne%20Adams
Visit Gbejada Costa for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

How Changeable!

It's Spring! Wooohooo..... Sort of. Yesterday it was 85 degrees in DC. A record-setter. The cherry blossoms are in bloom (gorgeous!) and it was a day for ice cream, short sleeves, and in some cases shorts. They're brave souls, I think, and optomists. Today? OMGosh. It's 47 degrees. It's raining, windy, chilly-cold that goes to the bone, and grey. All I want to do is hibernate and go back to bed. I love spring, I really do. It's full of possibilities and delicious smells - daffodils smell like spring to me, and hyacinths smell like Easter - as well as gorgeous sights as the trees bloom, the tulips rise, the saucer magnolias blossom in a riot of pink. In a week or so, we'll see azaleas start to bud and bloom, and it WILL get warmer. But not today. Today is for keeping your coat buttoned, running through the raindrops because the wind won't tolerate an open umbrella. I've already seen two turned inside out and I'm just home from dropping carpool. So what do you do on a raw, rainy day, if you've the day off? Read? Clean? (Really?) Write? Or do you light a fire, curl up and do nuthin at all? Me? I'm going to brew a good cup of Earl Gray, get out the stash of shortbread Girl Scout Cookies I've been hiding from my boys (they who are the devourers of cookies), and contemplate new beginnings. New books. New contracts. New ideas. I figure that's a lovely way to remember that Spring really IS here...it's just taking today off to decide how big a show to put on this year. Tell me about YOUR day.... what are you up to on this fine spring, or in Aus, NZ, etc, fall day? Oh, and by the way? IT'S BASEBALL SEASON!!! Go Braves! Go Cubs! (As long as you're not playing the Braves!) Let's Play BALL!!!Source URL: http://gbejadacosta.blogspot.com/search/label/Jeanne%20Adams
Visit Gbejada Costa for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection