Living Life in the 80's

"What's Miami Vice?" asked my daughter, making a scrunched up face.

"Are you kidding me?" I asked, rolling my eyes. Then I actually thought about it and realized, she had no idea. Who could forget Don Johnson and his pimped out clothes? I remember all of the guys wishing they were Don Johnson and all of the girls dressing like they were in Miami.

There were some great things that came out of the 80's. Some I'd like to forget like wearing leg warmers over my jeans! Hey, I was quite in style at the time! And who can remember Madonna's jelly bands being all the rage? Between big hair bands, mullets... we thought we had great fashion sense. Ha!

Anyway, I have been on a mission to subject my daughter to all of the 80's movies we can get our hands on. She loves them! Do you remember any of these?

The Breakfast Club
Pretty in Pink
The Goonies
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
St. Elmo's Fire
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Dirty Dancing
War Games
Short Circuit
16 Candles
9 to 5
A Nightmare on Elm Street (We love horror movies and Johnny Depp!)
Back to the Future
Beetlejuice
Beverly Hills Cop
Caddyshack
Footloose
Fright Night
Gremlins
Mannequin
Overboard
Risky Business
Teen Wolf

Just to name a few! Care to admit anything that you donned in the 80's? Flashdance shirts maybe? ;)

Writing Romance

5:10a.m.  Alarm goes off. Big sigh. Ugh! It's Groundhog Day again. I am not one to hit the snooze. Once the alarm goes off, I'm up. Springing out of bed, I think of a reason why I should go to the day job today. The bills need paid! Grunting to self, I had to be logical. Dressed, check. Hair, check. Make-up, check. Wake daughter--not an easy task. Do her hair before school. Oh, crap. I forget my dress shoes. Back to the closet, get shoes.

6:00a.m. Downstairs. Throw lunch and shoes in my bag and grab my Alphasmart. Bye! Love you! Out the door by 6:05a.m. and drive to the Park and Ride.

6:25a.m. Cringing, I board public transportation. Editing the pages I wrote for the previous day, I sigh. Not my best work. It could be better. Fix this, fix that. That should work. Pull out the Alphasmart. Needing to get back into the groove, I read the last paragraph I wrote. Oh, that's it. It's flowing now. "This is the last stop." Great, I was really in a groove. Throw Alphasmart back into bag.

7:00a.m. Exit public transportation. Walk briskly to work, bypassing my favorite morning drink. Stick to your diet!

7:05a.m. Arrive at day job. Unpack bag and sigh. This is truly Groundhog Day. Put out fires until lunch.

12:15p.m. Heat up lunch and race back to cubicle. Let food cool and pull out Alphasmart. Read last paragraph and let the creative juices flow. "Can I ask you a question?" Ugh! Answer question, eat lunch, back to writing. Read last paragraph and continue. Crap, time is up! 

1:45p.m. Wow. Day job work is done and I have 15 minutes until a meeting. Read last paragraph and write, write, write. Hurry before the thought is lost! Time is up.

3:05p.m. Outta here.

3:15p.m. Board public transportation and pull out Alphasmart. Read last paragraph and write. Darn it! I need to stop and use the Thesaurus. What is another word for that? Oh, that's it. Continue. "This is the last stop."

4:00p.m. Entering car and driving to daycare to pick up son. Package received.

4:35p.m. Home. Place bags down and immediately help daughter with homework. She's done. OK. What does my son have today? Finish that. Done.

5:15p.m. Unpack bags. Run to computer and download work from Alphasmart. Print out work for editing tomorrow morning. DH starting dinner (again).

6:45p.m. Tonight is basketball. Run daughter to basketball and write during practice. 30 minutes up. Game time. Watch daughter play basketball.

7:15p.m. Home. Kids showered and in PJ's. Mom too!

8:30p.m. Put kids to bed.

9:00p.m. Write for an hour or so until my eyes burn and I can no longer see. Go to bed, check alarm and make sure it's set for 5:10a.m. Done. Head on pillow and sleep like the dead.

And they wonder why I write romance!

Greenan Castle

Greenan Castle sits alone on a cliff top near the Heads of Ayr overlooking the rocks and the beach far below.

This tall and slender tower house is a familiar landmark in the views of Ayr Bay. Standing four stories high at the summit, pretty crow-stepped gables project the corner turrets as was the fashion in the early 17th century. The above-ground entrance has the initials 'J K' embedded in them, confirming that this house belonged to a Kennedy, a powerful Ayrshire clan. Beside the initials, the date 1603 shows it was among the last tower houses built in Scotland.

John Kennedy (not our John F. Kennedy) was the last in a long line to build defensively on the exposed headland. A short distance inland from the tower is the remains of four concentric lines. They are the remains of unfilled ditches and have not been investigated archaeologically. Similar sites identify them as being the defenses of a prior fort--before the Romans invaded. Another example of this is Ayrshire Castle, the hill on which Robert II built his tower house around 1380. It was first defended in the Bronze-age over 2000 years earlier.

About a mile away from Greenan Castle is a large stone said to be a marker of where the Pics and Scots signed a peace treaty.