Chomping at the Bit to Depart!

At the risk of sounding ridiculous (not sure if there is ever not a risk of that) I must note that I am looking forward to my 5am departure tomorrow for Los Angeles. As I type up one last book review at my NYC desk, I am thinking about how nice it will be to not have to answer the phone or any emails while on a plane for six hours. What does that say about my week? Well I will just leave it at happy to be getting on a plane...which is something I never thought I would hear my un-sedated self say out loud. Good thing I'm typing!

Already having been up since the puppy yapped at 5:00 this morning, I think my sleep schedule will not only improve with jet lag but may actually be a non-issue since I am so used to having so little sleep these days that my eyeballs are burning. Literally, they hurt from being open too long by the time they get to close for way too short of a time.

As I travel to California, I am anticipating being really relaxed and really productive at the same time. Think that will actually work? I do. Because if I'm not at work physically, I can be online in pajamas and dial into my conference calls despite it being 6:00 in the morning my time and nobody will remember I am not present--that's quite a likely scenario. We are all looking forward to a break from the grind, and I grin at the thought of not having to teach again until July 2nd. Yeah I know, everyone else gets summers off. I am fully aware of this. I'll take the bigger paycheck though...thanks!

While in CA I plan on doing minimal activity besides swimming, sunning, savoring seafood by the sea and sipping cooling cocktails by the pool. Complementary to these lackadaisical acts, I just found out there is a gym in my hotel (for a small fee per day) which will provide the balance I need when I start missing my fanatical spinning tendencies that keep me in check. Last, and most fun for me, I get to check out a couple of indie bookstores while I'm there, so if anyone has recommendations let me know please! I have a few in mind that I will be writing about, but am open to adding one or two additional stops on the journey. So all of my needs are taken care of, now and the last thing I need to do is fold my clothes in my suitcase and be on the way before the sun comes up.

I did get an email from the airline today stating that the seat one of us was sitting in was malfunctioning (huh?) and we were moved around. Since we were moved to row 35, we fixed that by relocating again and achieved seating in the low 20s...whew! In addition, I lost my window seat, gained an aisle and am now going to be responsible for ripping the door off and rescuing everyone aboard through the escape hatch in my row if the plane goes down. Hmm. Not sure how I feel about that just yet.

Overall, I have traded stories with other faculty today to discover that I am in fact, thankfully not the only one who feels that there is an air of pure evil in the way that papers are being written shoddily as the semester comes to a close. I mean, I want to go on break too, but you don't see me coming to work with no pants on (analogy to an essay without a conclusion) do you? Sigh...almost there...breathing deep.

So as I caffeinate tomorrow and ascend to the clouds for six hours, I have a mob thriller, a dog related novel and Swamplandia, which I have been trying to dig into and keep getting distracted by this thing called work (the nerve of it!) Hopefully I will be able to emulate the crocodile that took a bite out of the cover and devour the title this week. In addition to all this bookish fun, I will be sending out various author interview questions this week, writing the jacket copy for two travel guides (NY and LA purely by happenstance. How's that for karma!) I will also have an upcoming interview (someone else asking me questions--woot woot!) posted on http://www.lkeditorial.com/ which I will link here for my awesome followers.

Basically this all comes down to yet another thank you for all the support and amazing feedback everyone has given me over the past months. I hope everyone has a wonderful week, and stay tuned as I will be blogging from the beach!

Peace & Pages,
Keri