It's been almost a week since my last blog. There really isn't much going on in my life at this moment. I am on spring break, which means staying in my house in Houston with my family. I have a minor surgery in my mouth this Wednesday. I have a mucocele about the size of a walnut. Exciting.. not.

CITYCENTRE, a $500-million, 37-acre mixed-use district in west Houston blossoms this spring, adding four new restaurants and additional retail to its already popular collection of eateries and boutiques.  The district encompasses 1.8-million square feet of retail, entertainment and Class A office space, several multifamily living options totaling nearly 700 units, a central plaza with fire and water features and recently debuted Hotel Sorellawww.hotelsorella-citycentre.com

What a week this has been.  My life is full of surprises.  Never say never might be my new seasonal motto.  When I think it's over and I'm ready to move on, a surprise pops up around the corner.  On Monday, I had another one bite the dust after this email argument.  Then I confide in another friend and we get into a text disagreement.  I got upset more and more after each email and text.  It was too much going on at the same time.  It was a terrible and emotional day.  Then later on that night, I speak to another friend and he brought many smiles to my face and make me forget about my bad day...until he said that he met a new female friend.  I was crushed.  He is my long distance guy friend that if I were in the same city we would be together.  So I have this hope way in the back of my mind that I will move back and we will be together.  So when someone else comes in the picture, my hope starts to fade away.  So Tuesday rolls around and I was ready to accept that I lost another friend and move on.  Out of no where I get this text from an ex saying "I know you may not reply but I want to see how you are doing and I've been thinking about you." What!

I'm starting this post with a Caveat lector - "Let the reader beware."

Let me just address the elephant in the room for you Oprah watchers. The question you probably ask yourself as much as I do. And because she's so powerful and impactful, you feel bad even wondering...and yet you do...

Ok, if she has more money than God, why is she fat?

And there it is.

The (literal) elephant in the room.

I said it.

Now, I know some of you are going to get so pissed that I could even dare to ask that. But, c'mon, let's not be so PC. What is going on there? She was skinny as all get out and running half-marathons and then...remember this O Magazine cover? 

And this photo was probably 40 or 50 lbs ago. She's a lot bigger than this now.

My friends and I were at dinner the other night and we couldn't help wondering, why doesn't she just pay for lipo? Or get back her personal chef and trainer?  What happened to Bob Greene for godssakes? 

There is nothing like a nice hot shower. You get home from work and all you want to do is relax. I can’t tell you how depressing it is to anticipate this wonderful moment only to realize that your water pressure sucks.  I always thought I had great water pressure at my apartment. This was until I took a shower with some really superb pressure.

To Kill a Mockingbird available on Amazon.com

I'm reading To Kill a Mockingbird again for the second time in my life, but it feels like it's the first. It's really weird because I always remember parts of a book, passages, conversations and such, but for some reason I don't remember very much about this one. I know I've read the words before, they aren't completely foreign to me, but I still don't remember specific lines or situations.

I'm reading it with my kids this time and that in itself is like reading it for the first time. They are really enraptured by Harper Lee's words and although they get things a little mixed up sometimes they stop and I explain what is happening.

I was being very careful not to say a certain N word that they have never heard in their eight and five years of life. I thought I was being very careful and then there it was, I read right over it. I was mortified and my daughter looked at me strangely. Before I even explained that it was a very bad word to use I knew that she had gotten the point. I told her I was using the word "negro" instead it its place. I tried not to make a big deal about it.

Photo of Kindle & other electronic device. amazon.com

I have made a very important decision this weekend. I am going to self-publish my novel. It's a great way to get my name out there and to show how much I believe in my novel. It is also going to get me off my butt to start editing it and to get someone to help me edit it. I'm excited!

I feel like I am finally moving forward on this 6+ year old project. This Spring will be six years since I completed the outline that would later become my novel.   I finished the entire first draft in December of 2006 and it has been sitting there torturing me, or maybe I'm torturing myself, for three years.

I'm really excited at the prospect of having a goal in front of me and a reason why it needs a copyright and to be edited. I am happy despite all the other things going on in my life right now. Forward on!  I will keep you all posted and you know I will be promoting the heck out of it when I'm done.

P.S. I'm reading To Kill a Mockingbird and I feel like I'm reading it for the first time in my life. It is such a beautiful book!  I'm sharing it with my kids and the five year old finds it hard to follow, but he's been sitting through the readings, although he often falls asleep.

"I love my past. I love my present. I'm not ashamed of what I've had, and I'm not sad because I have it no longer." --Colette

Yes, I am still here. Yes, I am still a skirt blogger. Life is just happening too fast and too furiously and I'm trying to keep up. I can hardly keep up with my Hips 'n Salsa blog either. My son was diagnosed with asthma, I haven't worked out in three weeks, and I myself had a horrible sore throat for about a week.

I've had all kinds of chaos both personally and professionally and I'm at that point where I'm saying, "Maybe it is time for a change!" Sometimes I don't know what to think and I'm really trying to make "a refreshing lemon cocktail" with the lemonades life is throwing at me, as one friend told me I would.

What is so hilarious about all of this is that FORTY is staring me right in the face at the very same time. I know age is just a number, but it's no lie that I'm also entering another phase of my life. The halfway point.

 A fav creative event for a cause, it’s that time of year again…Cancer Counseling’s annual one-of-a-kind smorgasbord of western wear is this Thursday, February 4! With the stylings of artists, designers, volunteers, cancer survivors and caregivers, everything from boots to hats, aprons, jewelry and vests are on the artistic agenda.

Co-chaired by Angelica Chapman & Cindi Rose, Kickin' Cancer Out of Texas will be held in the Upper Kirby Room, 3015 Richmond at Eastside. Raising both funds and awareness for Cancer Counseling’s free programs, the event is open to the public and admission is $25 per person and $10 for participating artists. Serving up wine and bites in support of the more than 3,000 patients the organization assists annually, swing in for some rodeo-inspired hospitality while enjoying the creative creations and bidding on your favorite entries. And, with a contest awarding such honors as the Most Kickin’ (Most Outrageous), Hardest Workin’ (Most Creative) and the Real McCoy (Best Message), the evening is sure to be kickin’ good time!

A few months ago I decided to jump on the bandwagon and start watching the hit television show "Lost"  on ABC. I didn't watch it on television though. Instead, a friend of mine has all the seasons on DVD and we created "Lost" Parties. We'd get together at least once a week and have a "Lost" marathon. Sometimes we'd make food or bake cookies, but we generally just enjoyed watching the show in the company of our closest friends.

Because the final season premiers on February 2nd, we wanted to be ready to watch it on ABC.  Many people from the group went ahead and finished watching the seasons online. They just couldn't take the suspense. Unfortunately, there is a core few of us that are only at the beginning of Season 4. We still have a season and a half to complete before February 2nd. Needless to say, we're a little behind.

The day was hot and muggy but fortunately we found an old maple tree that provided the refreshing shade.  A delicious breeze soon helped us ignore any remaining discomfort.  <!--StartFragment-->

In front of me lay a zipped clear plastic bag with wooden knitting needles, tan-colored yarn, a blue cell phone, a bottle of multivitamins, and a bottle of green hot sauce.  I smiled. This is the only place I’ve lived where people travel around town with their own bottle of hot sauce.

“I must admit,” said a soft voice in Spanish, “I’m a little nervous about this.  I’ve never been interviewed before.”

Tomorrow starts the one month countdown to my 40th birthday. Although I don't celebrate birthdays, it is a very significant milestone in my life. Forty. Me. Really?

I know that our age is just a number, but you have to understand how this age affects my psyche. I am the youngest of five girls. When I was born my mother was almost forty. My sisters were 17, 15, 11 and 9 years old and they have long gone past forty and the youngest will soon be fifty. Therefore for a long time I never thought of anyone in their forties as "older" like some of my younger friends did. When I married my husband 12 years ago and his parents were in their fifties, while my father was in his seventies and my mother was almost seventy, I didn't think of his parents as "older." Therefore, I really didn't expect to feel this way. I didn't expect to think of anything of it, but I do.

I've written before about goals and all the different times during the year that I set goals, review goals, etc. I set goals for the New Year, on my birthday in February, and at the beginning of the school year. These are all beginnings for me and a good time to take stock of what I've done.

This year something different happened. People started talking about what happened during the DECADE. I hadn't thought of it that way, believe it or not. So I stopped for a few minutes and thought about my decade. Wow! It was an amazing one, that's for sure. I started it off on January 3, 2000 losing my mom. I was only one month shy of my 30th birthday and it was three days before her 69th birthday.

That same year I went to Spain to my very good friend’s wedding. That was my last European trip before children and we had a wonderful time. But after that trip we  have had many wonderful trips together without children too to New York, Chicago, LA and Miami.

The other significant events this past decade were the births of my children. I had my daughter in 2001 and my son in 2004. Life and death. It’s amazing how those two events can alter our lives forever.

For me, resolutions are an effective way to look back on a year and wonder what the heck went wrong. My self-discipline leaves a lot to be desired, sabotaged mostly by my flighty attention span.

So this year, rather than elaborate resolutions, I've decided to focus on tweaking my bucket list. It's a very fluid and living document, sometimes changing but mostly growing.

Many are outrageous. But as I become more unfettered from the routines of daily life, hopefully all will become realities. 

For short-term excitement, there are two goals I hope for in 2010: complete a 30-day Bikram yoga challenge and visit Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for a volunteer. Items in bold are other potential goals for the coming year.

Happy New Year!