beach

Unexpected Surprises

/ PaigeRandall / Leave a comment

Yesterday was a bizarre and amazing the day, probably worthy of a #Mondayblog share. Please forgive typos and ramblings. I’m on my phone, here…

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That’s my interpretation of the seemingly requisite legs and toes facing the surf pic. You’ll have to settle for a knee sliver.

Anyway so I arrived at the eastern shore of Md yesterday and noticed immediately the town was insane. It was like the day before Christmas at Tysons, combined with the night before Thanksgiving at Wegmans and the Mall on the 4th of July. (Too much local color?) Pulling up to my hotel I nearly ran off the road as a bright red bi-plane  (Is that a thing?) flew about 6 inches over my SUV (I’m serious) before nearly taking off the roof of my hotel and climbing vertically, then spiral diving the beach leaving an enormous contrail. Clearly a terrorist attack.

After I pulled myself off the floor of my car I started to notice signs and banners and a celebration under way. Oh… an air show. Huh.

An hour later I was sitting on the beach with a good friend and 4.2 billion other people. It was interesting, but a Xanax or 12 bourbons might have helped. I think I saw some very interesting planes that other people would have known. I did not, but this one was very interesting and terrifyingly fast and loud.

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And this helicopter rescue stuff was very cool…
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And then it happened. Unbeknownst to my dumb ass, I was front row center at the Beatles Show of aviation. “Next up, THE BLUE ANGELS.” Ummm what?

My Dad was a Blue Angels fanatic! I can’t remember how many times, or where I was, but all I know is that I was on my Dad’s shoulders watching. Watching The Blue Angels. These are some of my earliest childhood memories. My Dad would have LOVED sitting on this damn beach smelling the smoke.
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What a gift! It is impossible to watch the Blue Angels and feel anything but grateful. Here’s to unexpected surprises.

XO

Circling The Shadows — it happened!

/ PaigeRandall / 6 Comments

20150429_180211This is maybe the happiest blog I’ve ever blogged. Except the Brooklyn blog, Emotional Rescue. I really liked that one. Thank you to my twitter friend Mohamed.  We had an interesting discussion today. The question … what was the best day of your life?  Everyone immediately defaults to weddings, graduations, etc.  But are those really the best days of our lives?  Those orchestrated, choreographed, costumed events that cost an arm and a leg and require enormous stress. Births are of course wonderful, but they are certainly not the best day of parenting.

Mohamed wanted to know if releasing Circling The Shadows, now available on Kindle and paperback (typing that is actually really fun), was the best day of my life. It really got me thinking and truthfully I don’t have an answer. I’ve been thinking about the best ten days of my life to put the whole thing into perspective. It is really hard to boil your life down into the top ten days. This is going to take awhile.  To answer Mohamed, no, publishing Circling The Shadows, now available on Kindle and paperback, was not one of the best days of my life. Discovering I could write it in the first place, that was definitely one of the best days of my life.

Since the beginning, I was always afraid that writing would be a Flowers For Algernon scenario for me. Much like Charlie Gordon, I would suddenly have this ever increasing intellect, only to lose it in the end. Of course writing isn’t about intellect so much as it is about understanding… or desire to understand.  What makes people act and react?  In Circling The Shadows, now available on Kindle and paperback, Stephanie talks about understanding peoples Whys. Why do we think, say, do, don’t think, don’t say, don’t do? I love that.

I’m a little drunk.  I can feel the ramble coming on.  Let’s end it with a song. At this point, there really is no choice as to the song, of course. Did I mention that  Circling The Shadows is now available on Kindle and paperback?

Lots of love to you all!

And Mohamed – thank you for your friendship.

Coworker Love

/ PaigeRandall / Leave a comment

This one is a tribute to my coworkers (CW)…

When you have to go to that place, that damn building and sit at the damn desk 40, 50, who knows how many hours a week, coworkers are a lifeline. Very few coworkers know about my writing. It doesn’t mesh well with my job and I’m enjoying the separation of church and state as long as I can.

Friday I brought in the proof of Circling The Shadows. The support I feel from these people, has been extraordinary. And the joy they shared in seeing my book, warmed my heart.

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Truly, I tweet about IT CW incessantly. He is my perfect foil in every way… backgrounds, beliefs, etc. He likes to tell me to be more ladylike. I like to tell him I’ll kick him in the balls. It’s a nice friendship. Watching him hold my book, telling me how proud he was of my accomplishment, was lovely though, really genuine. There is another CW who gave me a huge smile with a beautiful text. Add to that everyone who literally breathed deeply the pages of my story, there was such kindness. How do these people, whose homes I’ve never seen, who have never eaten at my table, become like family? 

To these and many others, new friends and old friends, who shared my struggles with story and processes of publishing, I am so grateful to you. The daily grind is much less grindy with you in my life.