Plot Monkeys

Wait! Where’s Leslie? It’s Monday, isn’t it? She’s without Internet and since I’m traveling Wednesday, we switched!

I did a crazy thing last week when I was too sick to do much of anything…I cleaned my office. Not a big cleaning, mind you…I only do that when I’m done with a book, not in the middle of one. But the mess had gotten so bad, I could hardly put my laptop on my desk…and I have a very small laptop.

While cleaning, I made a fabulous discovery of old pictures! In fact, since the Plotmonkeys have been waxing nostalgic for the past couple of weeks, I thought I’d share the pictures because this is the first conference where I met (in person), Carly and Janelle. I’m pretty sure Leslie and I had already gotten to know each other in Atlanta by this time, but my other friendships were all online and it was fabulous to hook up with all these new friends in my favorite city in the world…Chicago.

We look so young! And I look so skinny (this is the first conference after having my baby, so I’m very impressed with myself, LOL!) I also wasn’t a redhead yet…just a reddish wash in my naturally brunette hair. I was testing the waters, I suppose. This is me, our esteemed editor, Brenda Chin, Janelle and Carly outside the landmark where we agreed to meet–the Ghirardelli cafe just off Michigan Avenue. I don’t believe we ate there…in fact, I can’t really remember what we did that day. Shopping? I’m guessing shopping!

If memory serves, this is dinner before the Harlequin party. I seem to remember more people being there, but this may have been our half of the table. That’s Julie Kenner, me, Brenda, Janelle and Leslie. We went to this favorite Italian restaurant of mine on Ontario Street and the air conditioner wasn’t working. Ugh! Was it hot! There was a heatwave in Chicago that weekend and for a city more used to harsh winters, they didn’t deal with it very well.

This is a picture from the Harlequin party and I believe Janelle is behind the camera. I know this because I don’t take pictures and if I own them, it is because someone gave them to me…and it’s usually Janelle. This is Julie Kenner, Leslie, me, Carly in the front row and Temptation authors Donna Sterling and Jamie Denton in the back. The party was at the Planetarium. They had yummy desserts that were melting in the heat. This is also before I figured out how to effectively straighten my hair.

One night, a bunch of us went out for pizza. Before we made our way to Pizzeria Uno, we stopped to admire the cow exhibit that was all over this city. I can’t remember the theme of this particular one…but they were all fun and cute. This was, I believe, the original display of cows long before it became de rigeur for cities to pick an animal and have them decorated in various themes for charities. It was manatees here in Florida. But the cows were always the coolest, IMO.

I’m not quite sure when Julie Kenner, me and Janelle made it back to Ghirardelli for ice cream…but here’s the guilt-laden shot. Oh, those sundaes were so yummy! They always are. My daughter and I often go there after shopping at American Girl (right across the street) and count it as lunch. It counts, right? There’s dairy, protein, fruit, nuts…

This is from the RITAs. I remember well when I could fit into that dress! That’s Carly, Stephanie Bond, me, Kimberly Raye and Janelle…a part of the 1965 group! I don’t remember a thing from that night except that I had a great time.

Walking down memory lane was a blast…do you ever do that? Find old pictures and spend way too much time looking through them and trying to remember all the details? I guess that’s what pictures are for!