Parents Get to Have Fun, too!

Several years past, Disney spent their advertising dollars to entice the older age group (mature visitors) back to their parks.

Scene: Daughter driving off in VW Bug, headed to college.
Voice-over: “My parents will be so sad when I’m gone. I don’t know what they’ll do.”
Scene: Mom & dad, in full Mickey Mouse regalia, riding the roller coasters at Disney World.

So, when the 19.9 million students (projected student starting figure for 2018) finally leave for college, do mom & dad mourn their leaving?

The wallet probably does. According to this year’s figures, 25.5 Billion – yep, that’s with a ‘B’ will be spent to put kids into university for the first-time, or send those returning students back to the world of academia.

Perhaps a trip to Disney would be a strain on college-shocked budgets, but there must be things Moms & Dads can do to celebrate their freedom.

By this point, you know . . .
which movie genre makes your spouse nod off;
which restaurant serves a favorite dessert;
whether the clack of pool balls or the echo of toppling bowling pins is considered ideal fun.

Plan an evening, or afternoon, that’s a shared vision of adult entertainment.
Then spend the time talking about things beyond your kids.
This is a behavior to rediscover.

Caught up in the thousand and three tasks to get your kid ready for college and the oodles of everyday ‘life’ chores, you and the spouse have more than likely neglected a simple day-away adventure.



Even though my husband is a truck driver, and long road trips can turn into a busman’s holiday, a day jaunt is always a lovely mini-pleasure for him. When possible, I talk him into the navigator’s seat on these trips. It’s a completely different world view from the passenger seat. Try switching up driver/passenger. Listen to a different genre of music. Or a favorite audio book that you’ve both wanted to enjoy.

Keep the plan simple:
What city/destination/tourist spot is two hours from your home?
What’s within an hour’s drive?
What’s within thirty short minutes from your driveway?

*Pick a destination a couple of hours away. Perhaps lunch in a small rural café. Or brunch on the porch of winery. Perhaps a hiking trail that’s best explored in the morning hours.
*Then chose another, or two, mini-stop(s) on the way back. It could be the museum on the other side of town. A gallery that’s always caught your attention, but just seems too far for a one-way visit. Maybe a tour of the local ballpark, or even an afternoon game.
*The beauty of this plan is the several stop approach.
*And if you start at the furthest distance and work back toward home, there’s no long drive at the end.
*Day trips aren’t required to serve a grand purpose.
*Don’t be afraid to pack a simple overnight bag for the two of you. Stopping at a hotel that’s just cross town can be a lovely way to spend an evening.
*This is about exploring with your spouse and enjoying adulthood beyond children.

It was several years after my first child had left for college before my husband and I perfected this art-form. It certainly helps if you have ready vacation days that can be spread out during the year. Many of our fondest ‘couple’ vacation memories have been the 4-day weekend trips. It’s long enough that the sorting & packing can be contained in a couple of suitcases. Destinations can be chosen at random. I mean, it’s only 4-days. After raising kids, you and your spouse both know how to survive four days – fun or not. Throw a dart at a map; pick one city in the state never before visited; listen to water cooler advice on the ‘coolest’ spot to ever vacation. The point is make this an easy get-away and then GET-AWAY.





Your young adult is off in walking the halls of academic greatness. At least, that’s what they’re supposed to be doing.

Parents deserve their own magical moments.

Don’t worry if Disney is a little beyond the budget.
From Date Night, to Day-Tripping, to the mini-Vacation, parents can find plenty to keep occupied.

Now, you get to be the one to tell the kiddo to make certain they clear coming home against YOUR schedule.

Reality is a part of adulthood that is inescapable.
You and your spouse have earned a bit of down time, and your own moments in the sun.
Kids in college can be ‘freeing’ for all.

Texas Jewel Series: Book 1 by Melissa Alexia

Author, Melissa Alexia, sets her series: Texas Jewel, in the heart of West Texas.

Filled with snakes -- real and human-like -- Julia (Jewels) Starling navigates unknown terrain after returning to bury her grandfather.

A long estrangement between the two of them leaves Jewels with a whole heap of problems as she tries to determine why the old man left her the land.

Between her past history with the 'Big Douche', the local sheriff who wants to play hanky-spanky, the sleazy drug lord, and the current man who 'needs' her to say 'I do', Jewels has way too many men vying for her attention.

For a gal who just felt the need to show up for the reading of the will, life is suddenly filled with blistering complications.

Caught between the proverbial Texas rock and Hell's own hard place, Jewels needs to keep herself alive, figure out who ALL is lying to her, and escape the West Texas heat.

This fast-paced story leaves readers wanting to find out what happens next to Jewels and the men who want her.

The Language Garden: The Apostrophe Hummingbird

I have been re-reading ‘Eats, Shoots & Leaves’ by Lynne Truss.

Glutton for punishment?

Hardly.

Like the majority of authors, I constantly hone and refine my skills. There is no 'quick grow' method to sound writing. No short-cut or easy season. Study time, butt-in-chair effort to learn basic and advance grammar is still the most effective method for a good crop of sentences.

As to EATS, SHOOTS, AND LEAVES: if you haven’t read Lynne’s witty take on grammar and its sad decline, you are in for a treat. She entertains and educates – no easy feat.

If you’re new to writing, then best advice: learn the grammar rules.



A past critique partner, albeit a brilliant woman, continually brought her weekly pages with numerous grammatical errors. When we groused, as writers are want to do, about the continual mistakes, she informed us that learning all those pesky rules slowed her creativity and she knew we’d correct her anyway.

NEWSFLASH TO NEWBIES

**Your writing buddies, your critique partners, and heaven forbid, your readers don’t want to slog through your grammatical mistakes.**

FIRST - SINGLE IT OUT

Start simple: pick one aspect that you 'just' don't get and research that grammar rule. There are scads of grammar research sites.

GrammarBook.com

Your Dictionary

Grammar Girl (Quick & Dirty Tips)


My suggestion is check a couple of sites. Not all research sites are created equal -- true. But often when you study from more than (1) source, a real understanding of the rule will become clear.
Simply put: the rule will just make sense.

So, to Single it out: In this case, let's talk about the Apostrophe. NOT all aspects of its use: JUST ONE.

The tiny apostrophe is actually quite a work-horse in grammar. Perhaps, I should liken it to a hummingbird. Always around, busy, and cheerful if used correctly.

SECOND & THIRD: STUDY THE USAGE & STAY FOCUSED

Here's my exact point: there are hundreds of articles/blogs/grammar quips written about the Apostrophe and its multiple usages. It would be easy -- ridiculously so -- to become overwhelmed. You started with a purpose to learn more about the apostrophe so pick (1) aspect, study the usage, then stay focused on that aspect.

Don't cross your eyes and click off this blog. I have no intention of sending you into GRAMMAR doldrums with a list of apostrophe purposes.

One aspect: Plural Possessive (a plural word that needs to show it 'possesses' something.) The house of Cassey = Cassey's house; The pencil of the boy = the boy's pencil. Got it. Except in the case, we're talking about plural possession. ****

Very specifically –
A) men
B) women
C) children
D) oxen
E) brethren (general usage in today’s time to denote spiritual brothers. Depending on the religion or denomination, women can be brethren as well.)
F) neofen (newcomers to science fiction; fans who are extremely new and inexperienced with the genre.) Wiktionary
G) kneen (obsolete form of knees – plural) Your Dictionary

There is the school of thought that ‘chicken’ belongs in this list; that chicken is the plural for chick. However, Old English scholars believe that ‘. . . chicken, the –en ending isn’t a plural, but a diminutive, expressing small size or affection, which also turns up in kitten and maiden.’ World Wide Words


TO our lesson:

Is it Men’s Locker Room? Or Mens’ Locker Room?

As MEN is already plural, more than one man can go into that smelly, sock-infested locker room and hang out, doing whatever men do in that inner sanctum, and it’s all good. Therefore, Men’s Locker Room will nicely suffice.

Was it the Women’s Suffrage Movement? Or the Womens’ Suffrage Movement?

Again, WOMEN is already plural; the apostrophe goes BEFORE the ‘s’. Women’s history can be charted back to the early start of women’s rights when female abolitionist activists gathered and gave birth to the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Note where to place the apostrophe. The PLURAL of women stands quite nicely on its own.

Should we name the new play area: Children’s Playground or Childrens’ Playground?

By now, the pattern should be clear.

In your writing, if the word is already plural through the use of an ‘–en’ ending, then any possession must take place with an added apostrophe then s.

Some are blatantly common: MEN, WOMEN, and CHILDREN.

Some are dated, almost part of our quietly buried English language: KNEEN, BREATHEN, and OXEN.

Others are new to our language: NEOFEN.

FOURTH & FINALLY, SIMPLY SCRIBE SENTENCES (that means WRITE). Practice this Grammar Rule. Set aside 5 minutes a day, study the rule and practice a few sentences. Make the new Grammar Rule a HABIT.
Personally, if I find it's a rule that continually boggles my mind, I won't just research it, or practice, but I'll write it up in my 'HOW TO' folder. I'll include links, diagrams, and my OWN explanation of the rule. From my brain, through my fingertips, and onto page: the rule becomes mine. (Feel free to steal this trick if it will work for you. My HOW TO folder is massive with all sorts of tips and insights. Word of caution: dumb down naming your research. There's nothing worse than knowing that you saved tidbits and then can't find them.)

In the garden of language, new words sprout and bud; their usages, and meanings offering color to a black and white landscape. Grammar rules are the raised beds, the lattice work, bits of string and twine that allow our ever-evolving language to blossom.

Phrase . . . the true meaning behind the catch phrase: A fool’s paradise.

Pick a genre and you’ve probably read this catch phrase.

‘John thinks he’ll finally get the promotion, but then he lives in a fool’s paradise.’

‘Her fool’s paradise ended the day she caught her cheating lover in bed with her best friend."

Writing a historical and worried about the inception of this phrase?

Unless, your characters are pre-1462, you’ll be safe. This phrase first found its way on page in the Paston Letters, 1462.

But what exactly does a fool’s paradise mean?

Shakespeare embraced its usage in Romeo and Juliet, and certainly that was one couple that lived in happiness based on false hope.

Writing current fiction . . . or non-fiction?

The phrase – a fool’s paradise – is still as potent today.

Artist, Shohei Otomo, debuted his work in September 2012, entitling his exhibition: Fool’s Paradise.

The phrase shows its relevance in modern newspapers, as shown in The New York Times Opinion Section, October 6, 2008, article by Bob Herbert, A Fool’s Paradise, “We’ve been living for years in a fool’s paradise atop a mountain of debt.”

HolidayInsights.com has even determined that some wish to celebrate the day. July 13th is listed in their registry as Fool’s Paradise Day. Perhaps, it is just a day to
believe that anything is possible. Perhaps, a day not to worry about detrimental truth. And perhaps, it’s simply a day to assume that no matter the worst . . . it will all be over in a single day.

Whatever your take on the day, be careful not to live in a fool’s paradise.

Someday the truth will win out . . .
But then that’s a phrase explanation for another day.