Adventures in April

So I took a month off from blogging, and it was…nice. Really nice. I definitely needed a blog vacation, and while I still haven’t decided how often I’m going to blog, I wanted to assure you I didn’t spend April sitting around on my laurels. I had some adventures, both good and not so fun.

First, a good. I spent April writing a new story, and it was exactly what I needed.

I’d been editing and revising another story for so long, and while that story is near and dear to my heart (not to mention now finally DONE!), I’d forgotten the pure joy of writing. The characters coming to life. The thrill of writing a perfect paragraph. The satisfaction of evoking an emotion. The excitement of budding romance between characters. Writing makes me happy, and in the drudgery of all the other stuff that’s involved with publishing, I’d forgotten. I vow never to forget again! BTW, I’ll be posting a Pinterest board soon on this story (and my Dreamcaster series too), so feel free to follow me here. My muse for the newest story is amazing. Sure, he’s easy on the eyes, but his violin skills are beyond unbelievable. You must check him out. Must.

Since we have to balance the good with the bad…I also spent a fine 2+ weeks recovering from my annual bout of poison oak exposure.

Every. Freakin’. Year. I was being so careful. As soon as I came in from gardening, I washed up with Tecnu (this stuff is made in Oregon, probably inspired by a fellow PO sensitive-sufferer), but alas. Later that day, I scooped up one of my indoor/outdoor kitties, smothered him with kisses, and BAM! Poison oak all over my lips and neck, and of course it spread to all sorts of interesting places. Bad kitty, kitty.

The stuff is pure misery, people. Pure misery. I’ve never found anything that prevents the unbearable itchiness for very long, and believe me, I’ve tried everything. Tecnu comes the closest to easing the torment, with the exception of just sitting in cold water. I’m pretty sure I’m being punished for some misdeed.

But, the horrors of poison oak departed, and April ended with a bang. Bungee jumping is something I’ve always wanted to do, but no one I knew expressed an interest in doing it, so I never seriously pursued it…until I learned one of our friends wanted to do it too. His wife set up a surprise birthday group road trip for him. Score! I’m terrified of heights, but I love roller-coasters and amusement park rides, so I admit while I was excited, my palms were sweating. The guys at Bungee Masters in Amboy, Washington were awesome, so if you’re in the area and looking for something to do, look no more. They have a privately owned 20-story bungee bridge over a river, all enclosed by forestland. And lemme tell ya, that bridge is *gulp* high.

And if you jump off twice (once forward and once backward), you get a Dangerous Sports Club T-shirt. Can’t beat that, huh? A couple of jumpers before our group got out onto the teeny-tiny ledge over the bridge railing and chickened out. Really, you can’t blame them. What sort of person climbs over the railing of a bridge nearly 200 feet high and doesn’t get the jitters? Don’t answer that. 🙂 But no way was I going to wimp out on this. The backward jump was scary-awesome. I’m smiling all the way down…

And yeah, I got the T-shirt too.

So that’s my April doings. Have any adventures to share?