Just a heads-up. Tomorrow I’m the stop on screenwriter/filmmaker/novelist Lindy Hudis‘ Virtual Blog Tour. She’s promoting her debut novel Weekends, which has gotten rave reviews. I’ll have some questions for her, and if things work right, she should be here to answer your questions as well. So stop by!

I was tagged by the ever-feisty Stacy

What were you doing 10 years ago?

I was totally ensconced in work and married-without-kids life. I’d been working three years at that point, married the bulk of that, and my husband and I were living in Cedar Park (just outside Austin). I’m not sure why we moved there as hubby was horrendously allergic to cedars, which just happened to line the back side of our back fence–Cedar Park, go figure.

What were you doing 5 years ago?

Five years ago, I was a stay-at-home mom in charge of a six-month-old and a two-and-half year old. I was very busy. During their nap times, I worked on endless edits and revisions of what came to be my self-published, first book Unladylike Pursuits.

What were you doing 1 year ago?

Last year I was dealing with a six-and-a-half-year-old and a four-and-a-half-year-old for a long, hot, rowdy summer. I prefer not to think of it. Seriously though, we had plenty of fun and kept busy. In the writing world, I was working on my current book.

I’m still (obviously) working on my current book…this marquee could be up for a while.

What are 5 snacks you enjoy?

1. Chips and salsa–I can’t get enough
2. Popcorn, really any variety
3. Hot Tamales, which I’m trying to stay away from so as to avoid more dental work
4. MacIntosh Apples
5. Ice cream

What are 5 songs that you know the lyrics to by heart?

1. A ton of Shania Twain songs–my youngest loves all of them
2. Wide Open Spaces by the Dixie Chicks
3. Lost in Love by Air Supply (my sons are very fond of them now too)
4. Kokomo by the Beach Boys
5. Cupid by Sam Cooke

What are 5 things you would do if you were a millionaire?

1. Travel–particularly internationally–there are so many places I want to see.
2. I’d have a summer home to escape all this Texas heat.

Other that than, I don’t think I’d change all that much. I’d like to think that I’d do something wonderful. Maybe it’ll hit me when I’m actually a millionaire.

What are 5 bad habits?

1. Leaving stuff in little piles around my house that eventually must be cleaned up.
2. I hold a powerful grudge
3. Micro-managing (or so I’ve been told)
4. Letting exercise fall by the wayside
5. Second guessing home decor purchases–to the exasperation of my husband

What are 5 things you like doing?
1. Reading
2. Eating Out
3 Hiking/Walking
4. Shopping with mom and sister
5. Planting flowers

What are 5 things you would never wear again?

1. My husband chimed in with ‘a wedding dress’.
2. A thong
3. Jelly shoes
4. A full-length nightgown
5. ??? I’m pretty conservative, so I can’t claim to have ever worn many ‘out-there’ clothing items.

What are your 5 favorite toys?

1. Kitchen Aid mixer–I tend to bake a lot
2. AlphaSmart
3. Computer, although a laptop would be nice
4. My itty-bitty book light
5. My new camera that doesn’t take five attempts to power it on. And it’s light…and slim…and cute.

Who are the five people you’re tagging?
I’m gonna give everyone a break and not tag anyone, since I tagged a bunch–eight!–last week. So…if this meme looks fun, go for it.

I’m getting so lazy about posting. Not really the regularity, just the length of the posts. Maybe it’s because when I finally get a chance to sit down and work at the computer, I start thinking I should actually be writing. So…the blog suffers. But I have a good long story for you today.

There was tension at the lake. Frissions of tension between my sister-in-law and me. Usually the two of us get along pretty well. I tease alot (having grown up with it) and she doesn’t get it (having grown up with nobody ever really teasing her). So she takes it wrong, I feel slightly insensitive, we both get over it.

So this time, my family (husband and boys) got to the lake Friday before her and claimed the one guest room with a queen size bed versus a bi-level day bed. She had invited a guest to the lake, who was coming a couple of days later (Monday afternoon), with whom she wanted to sleep, so the day of the trip to the airport, she hinted that she’d like me and my husband to switch rooms with her. I basically told her to forget it.

So that evening, after my boys had gone to bed, she ‘suggested it’ again. I should mention here that after two days at the Lake, my husband had to go back to work Monday morning, to return Tuesday night. I told her I wasn’t interested in switching and these were my reasons:

1. She’d claimed dibs on the room with the double bed at Christmas, telling me it was first-come, first serve. Since I arrived first this time, I’d claimed it.

2. I’d been living in the room for two and a half days now, with my stuff scattered everywhere. Plus, we’d each slept on our respective sheets and used the towels in the adjacent bathroom. Switching at this point would mean a ton of laundry.

3. I had at least as much right to sleep on in the queen bed with my husband of eleven and a half years as she had to sleep on said bed with someone she’d been dating for two years, tops.

She dismissed all my reasons as ridiculous, told me she had much better reasons, and then refused to outline them. Told me she didn’t have to ‘stoop to my level’. As you can imagine, that got me all in a tizzy, and I started in with my ‘you’re a lunatic’ voice. She then informed me that she couldn’t respond to my comments because ‘we don’t talk to each other like that in my family’. To which I responded, ‘because your family kowtows to your every whim!’ She countered with the accusation that they actually kowtow to mine, and we were at an impasse. We didn’t speak until the next afternoon. She did, however, tell my mother-in-law that since she wasn’t getting the room, they’d just go to a motel.
Side note here: she did not have a vehicle to get to a motel.

At this point, my mother-in-law, trying to keep the peace, offered her room, with a king bed upstairs. My SIL said that it was ‘not an option’, that she wouldn’t ‘put her out’. Obviously she had no trouble putting me and my husband out. My MIL then changed the sheets in all the bedrooms, asked very graciously for hubby and I to move, and offered my SIL any room in the house. (This after my MIL admitted to me that she knew her daughter was having a tantrum, but she just wanted family accord.)

The following afternoon, I walked into the house to be confronted by my SIL. She said to me, “I want you do know that we’re going to stay in this room (bi-level bed room) because I don’t want to hurt my mom’s feelings” (I’m paraphrasing here) “But let me tell you what I expect next time I come: I expect to be able to sleep with my guest…something something something” I said, “You are doing that.” She said, “On a bed that’s all the same level” Of course this ultimatum irritated me anew, and I set off on my tirade, and she once again dismissed all my arguments.

She and her guest left today after spending virtually the entire visit by themselves. She and I are still only speaking as necessary. We will see where things go from here…