Since I live in the Carolinas, I hear a lot about hurricanes. I don’t live on the coast, though. I’m two hours away. But hurricanes are huge storms and can affect the weather in my area. We’ve also had some storms that have come ashore far enough inland to cause us a lot of damage too.

Hurricane Hugo back in ‘89 was a monster storm that hit the South Carolina coast around Myrtle Beach and hung a left. Pine trees were mowed down like blades of grass. I walked the floors all night long. Had people knocking on my door by midnight who were terrified and not prepared for the possibility. EVEN THOUGH the news media had been warning people for twenty-four hours that the storm—no matter where it hit on the coast–was so big that it would span the state.

At my house the wind howled and electrical transformers exploding and lightning cracking rattled my nerves big time. No power in the house so we had to deal with candles. It was noisy and very scary. There was more damage inland from Hugo than there was on the coast. The storm made its way up into the mountains of North Carolina, spawning tornadoes and just generally destroying everything in its path.

The next year we had to deal with Hurricane Floyd. In Wilmington, North Carolina there is a big movie studio and lots of famous actors and actresses frequent the area. I remember watching a late night talk show not long after Floyd hit and hearing actor James Woods talking about how he had been in Wilmington filming a movie and was told everyone was evacuating due to the storm. So their crew moved to Raleigh–about two hours or so inland. Woods said that the next morning they woke up at the Raleigh Sheraton with water mocassins swimming in the hotel lobby. Yeah, the flooding was horrible from that storm. Wiped a couple of towns right off the maps.

Now we have Earl. It’s a powerful category 4 storm. Some weather models have it upgrading to a 5 but most say it will downgrade to a 3 in cooler waters. But storms have a mind of their own it seems. They can steer themselves and can actually move currents and pick up in strength. Right now the weather people are telling us that it is going to stay offshore.

I’m here to tell you that I, for one, never ever trust the weather dude. lol Nope. He’s steered me wrong lots of times. So I have always prepared for the worst and breathed a sigh of relief when it doesn’t happen. I’m not really worried about Earl. I do believe it will stay offshore and downgrade to a 3. I’m far enough inland that if it does happen to come ashore it will probably only bring us some strong gusts and lots of rain.

But ya never know.

I’m hoping everyone has evacuated the Outer Banks area. It’s such a beautiful place. I was down that way last summer. It’s such a fragile area with ocean on both sides of the land. Storms truly affect that area. And those wild ponies of Shackelford Banks. I wonder how they weather those storms. But somehow they do. Descended from Spanish mustangs brought over in the 1500s. They’ve survived a long time. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

Nature is amazing.

I read the article about Ann Rice “quitting Christianity” and all the comments that went along with it. It seemed that a lot of people are getting it all wrong. They can’t understand how she can still believe in Christ but not be a Christian.I was raised Southern Baptist. Sometimes that particular vein of Christianity can be a bit strict. As strict as Catholicism. And can be just plain wrong. So I’ve experienced parts of organized religion that I don’t agree with.

And it’s not just the religion itself that I’ve had trouble with but all the outside issues that seem to come with it. Growing up, I’d attend church every Sunday with my family, and I’d always wonder why everyone got all dressed up. Why did the man down the street get his shiny new car out of the garage and drive it to church rather than the old beat up truck he drove around the rest of the week. I’d walk into church and see everyone dressed in their finery. Corsages, hats with plumes and tassels, flowers and even fruit. It occurred to me at the young age of thirteen that everyone was just showing off.

Now I don’t see anything wrong with dressing up to go to church. I just felt like–and still do–that there was way too much emphasis placed on it. I’d look around the church parking lot and see all the fancy cars, look down at all the men’s fancy shoes that had been buffed just as hard as their cars and kind of feel, well, disgusted. It all had a Saturday-night-devil-Sunday-morning-angel kind of feel to me.

I won’t get into everything that I believe religion gets wrong–and there is plenty of it for sure–but I will agree with Ms. Rice on the issue of same-sex marriage. God made each and every one of us. And God doesn’t make mistakes. Churches are built by men/women and the religion a church follows–all the rules/policies–are made by men/women. NOT GOD. And sometimes those men/women, just plain get it wrong.

While I can’t speak for Ann Rice, what I think she meant is what I’ve always said–ever since I was old enough to reject going to church. “I am a person of faith, not religion.” What do I mean by that? There is no doubt in my mind that there is a being/energy out there in the cosmos that is bigger, smarter, more forgiving than any of us could possibly dream. All I have to do to know this is to simply ask: How did this world get here? The Big Bang Theory doesn’t do it for me. I believe that being/energy made us each and every one. And while God may not answer all our prayers, while God may not involve himself in our every day lives and simply looks down from on high and observes, I believe just knowing that he exists is enough. At least for me. And that’s why I have faith.

But I cannot belong to any organized religion. Simply put? They get it wrong too many times. It’s not our job to judge. Only God can truly judge us. I do my level best to follow the dictates of The Golden Rule and I talk to God daily. Sometimes several times a day. Usually, I pray for strength. And for the health and happiness of my family and friends. I send up prayers for the special needs of those I love–not that I ask God to grant wishes–but that God guide those in need on their paths and help them get to the place they need to be.

It may just be me, but I don’t think God gives a lot of listening time to selfish prayers. Just like I don’t think he cares a lot about how shiny the car you drive to church is or how many feathers you have in your hat. I think he only cares about what is in your heart.

I think I’ve got the summer-time blues or something. Or it may be because I twisted my knee and it doesn’t seem to want to heal very fast. I’ve also been neglecting things–like this blog. I was doing so well too. lol But I’ll just start again with the promise to myself that I’ll sit down several mornings a week and write down my thoughts. Some days I’ll feel like writing something worthwhile to others and some days I guess I’ll just write basically to myself. Sort of a diary blog, I guess.

As for those summer-time blues, I’ve got a kid with them as well. He turned off his X Box last night and declared himself bored. So it’s off to the lake this weekend. Poor kid has spent way too much time indoors this summer. It was his choice, though. I offered more movie outings, more visits with friends. But I guess you just have to be in the mood for all that.

So the lake this weekend and then a quick get away to the beach before school starts back. I’m thinking about heading down to the beach over Thanksgiving as well. That’s always a good break. I love my turkey, but for the last three years, I’ve loved it better when someone else cooked it. lol Damn, I must have the blues. It’s summer and I’m dreaming about Thanksgiving. lol

Gotta be the heat. I’ve had enough of it this year for sure. And as I live in the sunny South–trust me–we had enough heat in June in July to scorch the skin right off your body. And August is always our hottest month. I’ll just stay in the AC and dream about Thanksgiving.

Ooops! I’ve been so busy editing that I forgot to announce my winner. Shame on me. Somebody slap me, please. Yep, send me a great big ole CYBER SLAP!

Okay, enough self-chastisement I guess. lol

Thanks to all of you who stopped by and tried to guess which items were true and which were lies. As it turns out, there is only one lie just as I said. Not sure I want to reveal which one either. lol

I chose the winner by numbering all the commenters from one to nine. I then had my little boy pick a number. He chose lucky number two which belonged to Lisa Alexander-Griffin.

So Lisa, you are the winner of my $10.00 gift certificate to Pink Petal Books.

Congratulations! Hope you enjoy.

So what the heck am I? A creative writer or a big fat liar? You be the judge. I was tagged this morning for this cute blog idea by the very talented Lisa Alexander-Griffin. http://lisaalexandergriffin.com

Now here are the rules. Below I am going to post six truths and one lie or six lies and one truth about myself. This should make it much easier for you to pick out the lies from the truths. Well, it should. Let’s see if it really does.

See if you can decide which is the one truth or the one big fat lie.

Make sure you leave a comment, something silly or not so silly. Up to you. On May 26, all the big fat liars who are giving away prizes will put their individual commenters names in a hat and draw out a name. I’ll do this for all my commenters that evening somewhere around 9:00 EST. Then I’ll post here to the blog just who my contest winner is. So, what am I giving away? A $10.00 gift certificate to Pink Petal Books. http://pinkpetalbooks.com

In the meantime, I also have the responsiblity of tagging other creative…errr…big fat liar authors. LOL. For my tag team, I’ve chosen the following authors. Won’t they be happy when they find out they are in this mix? LOL I’m sure these authors can come up with some pretty big whoppers—and a truth or two here and there as well.

Here’s my list of Creative Writers…err…big fat liars:

Sandy Sullivan

Mahalia Levey

Kiyara Benoiti

Kissa Starling

Regina Carlisle

Destiny Blaine

Mary Suzanne

Now for my list of seven. Find the truth or the lie.

1.   Tess was born in the sunny South.

2.   Tess once had sex in the back seat of a State Patrol Trooper’s car.

3.   Tess tossed a four-carat diamond in the Potomac River.

4.   Tess is a big fan of ACC Basketball.

5.   Tess loves skinny dippin’.

6.   Tess has never had a speeding ticket.

7.   Tess wants to live at the beach.

Now figure out my lies or truths. Your comment puts you in the hat for that $10.00 Pink Petal Books gift certificate. http://pinkpetalbooks.com Lots of great story for sell on the site. Including my very own, Latin Rhythm. If you like it hot and very very romantic, Latin Rhythm is the book for you!

Have fun!

Why is it that Monday mornings are so damn blah? For those of you who work outside the home and you just spent the weekend relaxing from your job, I can understand it. But I operate my business out of my home and don’t have to go into work anywhere. I’m thinking mine is more about getting less sleep on the weekends cause I’m trying to cram my little boy’s good times into the weekend. I’m constantly running him up and down the roads.

And, of course, Mondays are horrible for him too. I think I’m going to start a new rule at our house. Nothing happens on Sunday after four or five p.m. Our weekends are going to start ending a bit earlier. That way, we can genuinely relax. In and out of the house in order to have a good time can be very stressful. Laughter and those good times are important, sure, but I think we all need time when we lie around like slugs. lol

Now, it’s off to work.

I’d like to direct everyone’s attention to the Gulf Oil Spill and the subsequent cleanup.

No, it hasn’t started yet, but there are groups gearing up to start. I have friends who will be heading down to Florida soon to participate in that clean up. In the meantime, another friend, Mary Winter–author and publisher/owner of Pink Petal Books is donating half the proceeds from the sales of her book, Ursa Major to the cause.

Stop by Pink Petal books and take a look. http://pinkpetalbooks.com

As a feature for my blog, I’ve decided to do something a little different. Every Friday I plan to post something a little FLAKY. Well, some of my posts may already be flaky–as a result of personality deficiencies possibly. lol But this Friday blog will be devoted to offbeat stuff. The far out, freaky, funky, just plain weird stuff in life.

For my first post I’m going to list some really strange food. And some of it might not be strange to you. Check it out.

Flaky Foods!

1)    Tuna Eyeball—Japan

2)    Catfish Sperm—Various parts of Asia

3)    Chittlins—(hog intestines) Eaten in the Southern U.S. –I’ve tried these AND smelled them cooking. ewwwww

4)    White Ant Eggs—Bangkok

5)    Deep Fried Monkey Toes—Indonesia

6)    Pig Blood and Eggs—Hungary (Apparently it’s a big deal to eat the blood of the first killed pig for that season and   you pour the blood into a pan, add eggs and scramble.)

7)    Squirrel Brain—Southern U.S.  (Cook the head–deep fry?–crack open the skull and spoon out the brain.  Supposedly it tastes like mushrooms.)

8)    Scrapple–U.S. (All the parts of a pig except the squeal. They sell it in my grocery store and my granny and daddy loved it. It’s a big yuk for me.)

9)    Jellied Cows Foot–Where? Who knows? lol (It’s said to stink while it cooks. If it stinks worse than those chittlin’s I smelled cooking when I was a little girl, well, ewwwwwwwwwwww.)

10)  Bull Penis–Supposedly this is an Asian treat. But they sell it here in the U.S. too. I’ve seen it in a Mexican grocery store I frequent. It’s about a foot and a half long. Not sure how you cook it, but I bet it’s rolled in some sort of flour recipe and deep fried.) But I found a video about it. Is it an aphrodisiac? Will it replace Viagra? Watch the video. Very illuminating. I think. lol

Had enough? I have. lol This has been good for my diet. I’m not hungry at all!