Spooky Things

I did my annual spooktacular choir lesson last night, in which we made tissue ghost puppets so we could make them dance to spooky music. Only the kids got so enthusiastic about making ghost sounds that they drowned out "Night on Bald Mountain" playing at full blast. So instead we focused on making the ghost sounds up and down the scale, since that's what the choir does in warm-ups. We also went out to the fellowship hall to haunt the people getting dinner ready. I didn't get around to everything I had planned, but there were enough kids who were really crazy (apparently it's field trip week at school) that actual teaching wasn't going to happen. I was turning attempted lessons into activity games on the fly.

But I get a week off next week and am going on vacation. Have I mentioned that? :-) I think I need it.

If I'm going to take that trip to New York in December, I guess I'd better start planning it. I've certainly had enough reminders of the last trip on TV this week, as the hotel where I stayed this summer has shown up on both Gotham and Person of Interest. They used the main lobby as an image for the entrance to a swanky event on Gotham, and then the registration desk, elevator lobby and mezzanine were the site of a major shoot-out on Person of Interest. I must have stayed there the one day it wasn't being used as a filming location. In case you're wondering, that's the Roosevelt Hotel near Grand Central. The lobby is really gorgeous, but the rooms aren't any ritzier than the cheaper tourist-class hotel where I usually like to stay.

I may have to rewatch the Person of Interest episode because I was so busy spotting exactly where in the hotel they were that I missed a lot of the details of the climactic scene.

I'm about a third of the way through proofing this book, and then I need to revise the cover copy, and then I should be just about ready to turn my attention to vacation preparations. The plan is to switch into vacation mode at about 5 p.m. tomorrow and stay that way until 9 a.m. Nov. 3. I know, it's laughable, but I'm going to try. I'll probably have a brilliant idea for the next book while I'm gone, but that's okay. That's one reason for a vacation, to clear the brain so it can be refilled. If it sparks creativity, that's good. I'm just not going to be trying for it.