Tea and Zombies

Hey y'all,

   Omigosh, I had the best day. I went to a college girlfriend's house to have tea and sandwiches, with another friend. Those women are amazing. We all graduated with English/journalism degrees and went in different directions after graduation. Kayte works for Disney writing their technical manuals and assorted procedural manuals. She has the most insane stories about things that had to be fixed or organized in the Disney infrastructure. Right now, she is putting together a tech manual for the zookeepers at Epcot Center in Florida.

   At first, you're like "So?"

   Wait. Imagine that each manual has to be done for EACH animal. Protocols for entering and exiting cages, feeding, care, and treatment has to be written for every animal. Every zookeeper has full certification, and each animal has a specific set of words that relate to them. Which you'd know if you have a zoology degree, but if you have an English degree, you have to be awesome at research. And Kayte is awesome at research.

   Zoey runs her own web design business, and gets bizarre clients. Once, she worked for a quilting site, and a gun magazine. She has a weakness for Jane Austen, tea, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Art Deco. She teaches digital journalism at our alma mater Chapman. She's cheerful, and lady-like, but with a biting humor.

   Kayte got out her great grandmother's teapots and pearlescent tea cups. She made herb biscuits, curry chicken tea sandwiches, and strawberries and cream. I brought pastries. We spent three hours laughing and chatting. It's so wonderful to have such accomplished, worldly, elegant friends.

   Well, talking to them brought on a burst of creativity. I came up with a totally new book. It's not about the rats. It's timely, so I'm debating pausing between ROGP Books 2 & 3. It's awesome, but my husband cautioned me to keep it under my hat. One clue: ZOMBIES!!  

Well, it's late Saturday night, I have to work tomorrow until 6pm, and I haven't been doing my writing. I'm going to return to Rats 2 and do my best to catch up to where I want to be in my word count.

  Be bold. Be amazing. Life is worth showing up for!