spring break stories and writing group stuff

This afternoon I picked up my son, who has been spending the week more or less with my brother and his family. I was late but no big deal - I got there. We met in the parking lot at Wal-Mart and then went to Ryan's for lunch. My nephew was talking about the "po-po" and God I hate my brother for allowing him to be so disrespectful to others (po-po = police) - and the story is that the kids were bored yesterday, so Sharon tells them to go out for a walk. They live in a small town about an hour from the small town I live in, so all the roads are considered highways, byways, et cetera - they are all interchangeable in South Carolina small towns. Apparently the kids (ages 16, 12, and 6) had walked up to one of the major roads in the town and had even crossed the street (story is nephew was going to find a way to his girlfriend's house to ask her out on a date - hahaha - they've only been in the town for about a month and yes same boy who was smitten with daughter's friend on first meeting - that lasted about 2 weeks - so goes life). They were sitting off the road about 10 feet resting when a cop drove by them once, going the opposite direction they were. The cop comes back up the road, turns around and pulls over and asks them if they have a phone number. My nephew wasn't thinking and blurted out the number. So my brother who is home on his lunch break gets the call wanting to know if they have kids (Sharon actually took the number) and then the cop wants to know if she knows where the kids are. Not being able to answer, she finds out that the cop had the kids - Paul goes to get them - and so the big joke is that they got pulled for walking - (My son says his highlight was getting to ride in the back of a police car - lol) -

Writing group was interesting tonight. Of the ten stories read, three of them were actually set in the same area and it was funny to hear all three of them mention places and names similar (street names, places) and what's cool is I knew most of the places they referrenced because they all talked about Charleston, which is where my oldest is and my husband's mother lives in that area too.

We had a young lady who attends the Fine Arts Center (part of the art program in some of the local high schools) and wants to be a writer - so not sure she'll come because she was a bit young and we probably all seemed like a bunch of fuddy-duddies to her. Only time will tell.

After group - I actually got to enjoy the social time at one of the local restaurants which I don't get to do very often because either I have to get home because I have the kids with me or husband had to go to work. This week being spring break and husband not working his normal shifts (that crazy work 2 days, off 2 days, work 3 days, off 2 days, work 2 days, off 3 days - 12-hour shifts) was the perfect time for me to enjoy the social hour afterwards. Although I was informed by Susan, who is in charge of the conference and is really doing a great job of getting things together, that no matter what, every person has to be there - lol - but that conference is during band season and from my calendar of events plotted through the end of the year that is State competition and the husband's weekend to work. So the dilemma is this - miss a band competition (if they make it to State, which they should - they have the last two years) and figure out what to do with my kids for the weekend and go to Myrtle Beach to attend a conference OR miss the conference, hope they go to state and watch my kids participate. And we are talking something six months down the road and a lot can happen during those six months. (I can hope the kids don't make it to state and then take them with me but then what to do with them while I volunteer and work the conference in order to get my registration for free would be yet another dilemma - decisions, decisions, decisions) - I guess I'll have to keep you all posted on this situation as things come up -

see you all in the postings - E :)