Goodbye sun, hello Manchester

Well, ok, I mean, I actually found it a mix of brick and marble, but I had to have a quote by Caesar Augustus, right? And with that, I start off a short series of blog posts about my surprise birthday trip to Rome! Note: My husband told me that I couldn't brag about his surprise-building, gifting, or all-around greatness skills, so I'll try to keep it at a minimum.


In this episode of "Laura Amzingly Fantastic Weekend Getaway to Rome" (hmmm...I'll have to work on that title), I'll be talking about getting to and from Rome.

When planning a trip to Rome, one must be mindful of budget. If not, one could end up spending a small fortune on airline tickets, hotel rooms, and food before ever getting to the good stuff (not that the food isn't good...)! So, when Gavin planned this trip, he opted for a budget airline, because it was the most feasible thing to do. He knows I'm a total miser, so it just warms my heart that he thought to save us some money! Seriously, though, I was really impressed with the amount of research he put into this trip!

Our budget airline (which I won't name on this blog, because I'm not an ad or a complete meanie) had us leaving Manchester at a little before 7 AM. This worked out quite well, since I couldn't sleep with all the excitement. Plus, it got us to Rome in time to spend the whole day walking around! How awesome is that?

I was pretty impressed with boarding procedures, considering the horror stories I had heard about budget airlines, but this one had seat assignments! Unfortunately, it didn't assign us to seats next to each other. But, you know, by some miracle, I slept almost the entire flight, only coming awake to catch myself with my mouth wide open. I didn't hear all the advertisements they apparently made over the loudspeaker. Gavin didn't fair so well. His legs actually hit the back of the seat in front of him, and he couldn't move. So, tip to you: if you're 6'7", you might considering paying the 6 pounds to move to the seats that have what regular airlines call "economy" seats, but what budget airlines call "luxury" seats.

Since we flew the budget option, we had only a backpack and soft briefcase between us to avoid the checked baggage fee. It made landing and getting to the train and walking around Rome, MUCH easier. Speaking of getting the train, there was an express train from the airport to the center of town. Gavin did his research on this, too. So, we managed to avoid the lines for tickets by using the machines in the middle of the terminal. And, we made the train that was just about to leave.

When we got closer to town I was in awe at all the artwork that was just sitting around on the buildings! I mean, I was expecting Michaelangelo, Bernini, Caravaggio, and Raphael, but so much art already. I was blown away! I just wondered who the names referred to, and why the art seemed to be spouting obscenities at me. So, really, there was a lot of graffiti. Everything was covered in it, the train, the buildings, the underpasses, everything! BUT, rest assured, if you ever go to Rome, the rest of the city is much better (well, for the most part), and the graffiti tends to lessen in the more touristy parts of town. I was, in all truthfulness, impressed by some of the graffiti coming into town. It was very colorful!

Once there, we did a whole lot of fun stuff. Don't worry, I'll get to that in another post. But, now, what you've all been waiting for, our departure! We took the same train back and got to the airport in plenty of time to get to the gate. Only thing is, we followed the sign that said "To Gates". Apparently, that means "To Gates as long as you're not flying international...if so, you'll have to walk to the very end of the incredibly long building, past all the signs that read 'To gates' pointing you in the opposite direction to another sign at the very end that says 'To gates'" Now, if that's not confusing... Needless to say, I was tired after walking 2 lengths of the building after having walked for the last 3 days. But we made it to the gate. And, 30 minutes before they were supposed to board, they were boarding!!!

It makes perfect sense though, because the budget airline doesn't have you board at the jetway...you take a bus and climb stairs. So, it takes longer, see. All perfectly reasonable.

Then, we waited and waited and waited while the flight attendants tried to figure out how to reseat a family that had been assigned seats in different parts of the plane when they had 2 small children. After figuring that out, they couldn't get all the bags to fit in the overhead bins. I think at some point the captains just said they were leaving, because we were 20 minutes late, and they have a tight turnaround schedule. So, as we pulled back from the gates, the flight attendants made the mad dash to stuff the overhead bins. One bin broke...and how do we fix that?! Masking tape, people...masking tape.

I thought I was done laughing for the day, until the flight attendant came over the speaker talking about all the sales and deals they had to offer. Yes, not only do they have to keep us safe, put up with our bad attitudes, and try to get us to purchase the meal deal, but now they also have to be walking ads about perfume sales! If I haven't seen everything...

Ok, so I'll admit, this wasn't really about Rome...but rest assured...I'll get there...

In the next several posts, I'll talk about the trip by category (e.g., food, churches, and Roman stuff).

You can win a copy of Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick by going here. My friend, Steph, is doing a book giveaway this month--well, several, actually. This one ends tomorrow, 9 December at noon MDT. So, get over there and comment on her blog!

The StorySiren is hosting a book challenge for 2010. Basically, set a goal to read a certain number of Young Adult and/or Middle Grade books by debut authors in 2010. I decided, since I've been reading so darn much lately, I would take up the challenge! I'll probably concentrate on YA, since that's what I enjoy most. To find out more and sign up for the challenge, click the pretty picture below:


From the StorySiren:

What is the 2010 Debut Author Challenge?

• The objective is to read a set number of YA (Young Adult) or MG (Middle Grade) novels from debut authors published this year.* I'm going to challenge everyone to read at least 12 debut novels! I’m hoping to read at least 30! You don’t have to list your choices right away, but if you do feel free to change them throughout the year. I will also be focusing on mostly Young Adult novels.
• Anyone can join, you don’t need a blog to participate.  If you don’t have a blog you can always share your views by posting a review on Amazon.com/BarnesandNoble.com/GoodReads/Shelfari, or any other bookish site.  
• The challenge will run from January 1, 2010- December 31, 2010. You can join at anytime! 

* I would like to limit the novels to those released in 2010.

After my writing freak-out of the last two weeks, I forced myself to sit down and write. In doing so, an entirely unplanned character popped in to say hello. Not only that, she's forcing me to rework some of the locations I had planned before she showed up. But, I rather like her, so I think she'll stick around for a while. In this teaser, Hailey Sinclair is introduced to the reader. Anna has just arrived at a job site for a Habitat for Humanity house. As always, this is rough and unedited. It's what flowed from my head to my fingers in the first round of writing.

FYI: I'll be snipping the teaser on Wednesday or Thursday.

SNIPPED

Last week I was so excited, as I waited the two days between ordering our Christmas tree and its expected delivery. We don't have a car here, so going into to town to find that beautiful real tree just wasn't an option. So, instead, we went to the internet in search for that perfect tree.

I found it. Unfortunately for me, the hubby didn't agree. It was too big. We'd have to store it later. There would be no room to display or store it. As much as I hate to admit it, he was probably right. So, instead of the beautiful 6 foot fake, prelit black fir tree that ready to decorate with the 100+ purple and gold baubles, we got the 3ft tree with kid ornaments. I wasn't so sure about the ornaments or the twenty lights that came with the tree, so I ordered a pack of red baubles and a strip of eighty more fairy lights.

I sat at the table Friday, expectantly waiting between noon and 6 pm for the delivery (which was late, by the way). I even rearranged the table in the dining/living room and set up a display table so the cute little 3 ft tree could be seen over the other furniture in the room.

I kind of wish I hadn't.

It turns out, twenty lights made the tree even more pathetic than it was by itself. Eighty lights is a bit too much. Adding baubles to fill in the gaps in the branches only worked so much until the branches started getting weighed down with the massively heavy red foil.

Luckily, when you come through the door to the living area, you can barely see the tree over the couch. Or, at least I'll tell myself that until after Christmas when I can take it down.

So, it seems I have a problem. Whenever I get really excited to write more of SoMH, I sit down at the computer and find myself completely unable to think. Basically, everything comes out as gibberish. Because of this, I have nothing in the way of a teaser this week. I hope to remember that for next week. We shall see.


In lieu of a teaser, I am hoping you guys can help me out! I've done a little bit of Q&A with the main character, Anna whose POV I've been posting in the last several teasers. However, I think it would be interesting if you guys came up with some questions you'd like to ask Anna. I'll compile the questions and interview her, posting her answers to the questions on this blog at some later date! So, if you would be so kind, post a question (or a few) in the comments here or email me some questions. The more I get, the better acquainted we all get with Anna! Feel free to ask demographic, historical, deep philosphical, or any other kind of questions you want!


Here is a short character profile so you aren't completely flying blind:

So last Friday, my friend Hazel asked if I wanted to go to the Trafford Centre (it's a mall) with her. She needed to do some Christmas shopping, and I needed to get out of the flat for a while. I figured the mall would be a good idea based on two things: (1) I could actually get gifts early on this year and not have to worry about it later and (2) I would have self-control in my spending and not purchase non-gift items.

So, the goals were basically to get Christmas gifts without spending a crapload of money. I feel like my shopping trip was a HUGE success. You might ask, "Laura, how many gifts did you buy?" to which I would respond, "Zero. Nada. Zilch." You might then say, "Oh, then you must not have spent any money!" That would be a wrong assumption. In fact, I spent quite a bit, just not on Christmas gifts. Or at least, not on Christmas gifts for other people.

Here are some of the items I purchased: