Friday, December 25, 2015

2015 Highlights

I see I haven't posted since March, 2014, so I'll encapsulate 2015 in this blog.

I arrived in Prescott, Arizona, on January 1 for a two month vacation and to decide whether a move to Prescott was in my future. The next thing I knew I had signed a lease for an apartment at Alta Vista – one with a perfect floor plan for me and a nice view of the mountains to the east. So, I contacted a realtor in Traverse City. He said he would send me a listing agreement but he wanted to show the house that day because the sun was shining. I called for some reason late that day and he said he couldn’t talk to me. He was sitting at my dining room table writing up an agreement of sale.
I returned to Traverse City January 29 for a marathon session of cleaning out, downsizing, and arranging for the movers. Thanks to many of my nieces and nephews everything went smoothly except the weather. It snowed most of the time and made cleaning the condo a messy process. On February 14, in the middle of a white-out blizzard, I got to the airport (putting my rental in a snow bank there) and eventually, after a lot of maneuvering, the airplane took off and I barely made my delayed flight in Chicago. Everything went smoothly from then on and I made the move into my apartment on February 26.

I flew back to Michigan for great-nephew Ryan Cooper’s wedding in June and was able to connect with friends and family. I did another of my road trips later in June and July: every segment was a two day drive. I drove to Dallas, where my sister-in-law Saroj was visiting her son Monneth. Saroj and I took a side jaunt to Austin to see our nephew Neil and Jackie and meet their new daughter Madison. I then drove to Peoria, Illinois, for Narinder’s cousin Raj and Kris Bedi’s wedding anniversary, where I met up again with Saroj along with my brother-in-law Ravi and wife Madhu. After that, I drove to Houston, to my sister Bonnie’s. After a few days there, she joined me for the trip back to Prescott and stayed with me for a week before her daughter Darlene and family took her back to Houston.

I joined the Desert Sleuths chapter of Sisters in Crime and attended a conference in Phoenix. I also joined two groups called Suspicious Characters and the Professional Writers of Prescott. I took one other little side trip, to Silver City, NM, for a book festival. Sold a few books, but mostly enjoyed learning a little more about the extended environment into which I have moved. I’ve done enough presentations in Prescott to have people hounding me for the next book (some of you may be guilty of that, also. I hope you have found the sixth book in the series, “When Will the Secrets End?” either at Horizon or through Amazon). I connected with two other mystery writers here to form a group called “Triple Threat”. We did a very enjoyable presentation at Alta Vista and have plans to do others at the Prescott Library and a local book store.

I was able to breathe fairly normally at a mile high by the time the new choir season started in September, so joined two choirs at my new church, Prescott United Methodist, where the atmosphere and the community activity are remarkably similar Central UMC in TC. I also inherited leadership of a small Bible Study group at Alta Vista, which I am finding to be a rewarding challenge. Oh, my, my calendar is beginning to look as full as it was in Traverse City!

No comments: