I still haven’t packed one single thing yet.

I have so much to do by Wednesday morning. Ava and I are going on a road trip to the Romance Writers of America National Convention in Anaheim.

We are so excited we could pee ourselves. The only thing that would make it perfect would be if Kelli was coming with us. Although, to be frank, we’re not sure if the City of Anaheim is prepared to deal with the three of us at once.

Nationals is a huge event befitting the largest writer’s organization. Wednesday we leave as soon as I can get my kids to summer camp so we can get that to the convention in time for the Literacy Autographing. There is something like 440+ romance authors including some huge names – ladies like Jayne Ann Krentz, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, and Nora Roberts. There also going to many of the authors we’ve met through the Tucson Festival of Books – Julia Quinn (Squee!).

Thursday, Friday and Saturday is chock full of workshops and presentations and meeting people. I’m not a big schmoozer but I have an agenda in the next six months. I’m going to be shopping for an editor. More on that at a later date. That just means that Ava and I will have to be especially “on” this week. That means we’ll have to amp up the funny. Fortunately, we play off each other really well.

Thursday is a big luncheon with key-note speaker Stephanie Laurens. We’re big fans of Ms. Laurens, but we haven’t had a chance to meet her before because she’s Australian and lives in Australia like many Australians do.

Saturday is the awards dinner for the Golden Heart and Rita awards.

Besides all that stuff, there are parties abounding. Wednesday is a Christmas in July party with Sabrina Jeffries, Thursday a cocktail party sponsored by a vodka company, Friday cocktails with my agent. Oh, Lord, I’m sure there’s more – I’m just swimming with information.

So you know what this means, right? Packing. Lots of packing into as small of a suitcase as I can manage. Ava and I are roadtripping with two other ladies from our local RWA chapter. That’s four suitcases in the trunk of Ava’s Cadillac. Egads.

That’s a problem because there are lots of outfits required for the above events. Crap on a cracker! I foresee a massive shoe crisis happening here. I wonder how many outfits I can wear in the car to save the luggage space.

Additionally, I couldn’t very well go to this event, an event teeming with women, and not have a mani/pedi. Remember that gift certificate to the spa My Honey never used? Well, that came in damn handy, I’ll tell you. I love this spa. Back in the good old days, BC (before children) I used to go there all the time for massages and my hair. You’ll see why I stopped going there by the end of this story.

I went on Saturday to get my hooves scraped off. Then she used a sugar scrub and followed that up with goat butter lotion. My legs felt like baby feet from the knees down.  My hands were massaged and my nails painted. The whole experience was ideally pampering.

Here’s the problem. All of that came to $100.00. Don’t you think for that kind of money, they should carry you out to the car so you’re feet don’t have to touch the dirty pavement?