Sad to say, but I'm back in Illinois now. It's good to be home, safe and sound, but I had SUCH a good time at Linnea's house. I didn't want to leave. Seriously. I wanted to just hole up in a closet somewhere, emerging only to write by the pool and drink watermelon Cosmos (Linnea's husband, Rob, makes the most DELICIOUS Cosmos ever--strong ones, too!) Somehow, though, I think they would have noticed. : ) Especially if Rob had to keep making watermelon Cosmos!
I know I'm a midwestern girl and have been for the vast majority of my life. But when I was really little, there were those few years there on the Carolina coast that must have made quite the impact on me. I love sunshine, palm trees and warm, sunny beaches--and Florida has all of that in spades!
We got into town late on Wednesday night, weary and salt covered. Literally. It was snowy and slushy when we left Chicago, so the back of my jeans were stiff with salt about 4 inches up my leg. Also, we were late by about two hours. Our plane was delayed for de-icing, which is a uniquely terrifying thing to have announced when you're already on the plane feeling rather vulnerable and trapped. Greg and I joked about watching for the guy to come clean off our window with a car scraper. It wasn't anything that funny or scary for those who have never been "de-iced." It's just a bunch of orange liquid they squirt all over the plane. But me being the disaster-freak that I am, I'd just watched a special on how some airline trained employees in de-icing by giving them the answers to the required multiple choice test...while said employees were actually taking the test! Yeah.
Linnea and Rob were waiting at the airport to meet us, which was awesome! It was so good to see her again. I don't get much opportunity to gab about books and writing here in my regular life, and I just knew we'd have a blast catching up and sharing news. We left the airport and I drank in my first gulp of air that was not frigid but humid. My hair immediately frizzed, but I didn't care. I was warm!
They have a fabulous house--of course--with the coolest swimming pool area I've ever seen. It's completely screened in and it's HUGE. So you can sit out there at the table, working on the laptop with no bugs or birds (*shudder*) flying by your head. It's awesome.
We hung out poolside (yeah, I know, don't bother hating me though because I'm back here with the rest of the people-sicles) on Wednesday night, drinking and talking and eating. Rob introduced us to Lemoncello, an Italian liqueur that he'd made at home. Very powerful stuff. Tastes like liquid lemons but sweet, not sour.
I also met Daquiri that night. He has the biggest tail I've ever seen and the clearest green eyes. He's a cat, by the way, not a drink. Actually, I'm pretty sure he's a person, masquerading as a cat. : ) As I was not someone he knew, he did not deign to pay me any attention that night. But by the end of my visit, he was taking treats from my hand. Though, I apparently committed a grave offense by only giving him two treats--I was thinking like a dog owner--and after that, I'm pretty sure he thought less of me. Though, he did let me scratch behind his ears.
The four of us stayed up incredibly late on Wednesday night--2:45 a.m., I think--talking about books, career plans, writing, everything. At least, that's what Linnea and I were talking about. We left Rob and Greg to their own devices by the pool!
Thursday was a work day, but it was great. I set myself up in Linnea's kitchen to work on EOB edits. Greg was out by the pool, wheeling and dealing as he is wont to do in the course of his real estate day. Linnea went to her office to get some work done, and Rob went to the golf course. (He's a professional golfer--isn't that so cool?) I seriously cranked on the edits, and Linnea was standing by when I had questions or was dithering between two word options--that was incredibly helpful to be able to get a second opinion. So many times, I'm too close to what I'm working on to see it clearly. Also, I'm apparently in love with the word "but," especially putting it at the beginning of the sentence.
After a quick break for lunch at the club house--no, seriously, they have a clubhouse in their subdivision where you can go for lunch and dinner everyday, I'd never cook again and I'd weigh like 5,000 pounds--we took a tour of the neighborhood, enjoying the sunshine and the palm trees. Oh, and I forgot, we met the Muscovie ducks that live in Linnea's back yard! Also, she has an egg she rescued and is incubating--duh--in an incubator in her office. It was so cool to be able to see the duckling moving around inside the shell. It's not a Muscovie duckling, though. I think it's Mallard.
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