Sweet Hope

Has Fio told you about her second visit to Papi's Pies? It was a week or two later than she meant it to be, but last Saturday, she and Husband took off for Round Rock and had a lovely dessert lunch. Husband, of course, ventured into quiche florentine and flan while Fio put in an unimaginative order for croissants and chocolate cake.  The food was yummy great, of course, but what was going on across from Fio and Husband was even sweeter. Six of the most voluble people Fio has ever heard were crowded around one table figuring out whom they could hit up for funding a Hispanic arts program and how to go about it. They were all so committed, so emotional, so inspiring, that when Fio and Husband got up to leave, your girl walked over to their table, told them she had heard their every word and was thrilled that there were still such wonderful people in the world. Then she burst into tears, they hugged her, she hugged them, and everyone cried, even the guy who told her she had taken the last piece of chocolate cake which he himself had had his eye on.

Fio is still uplifted by the experience. With people like that on our side, we shall overcome.

Easy to Spot

Who is this Fiorella Plum, you ask? She's the one who smiles and nods at everyone she sees. Who does physical therapy exercises while waiting at a red light or in the post office line. Who sits in her car in the parking lot and jots down notes for a novel on the back of her supermarket register slips. Who pulls wagons of rocks up from the creek to line the driveway. Who always has a project in the works. WHO CANNOT KEEP STILL AND NEVER WILL

And that's her New Year's resolution.

Celebrate with Fio!

OMG, Fio finally has her lists organized!

Yes, those multiple paper tablets stuffed with ideas and comments and dialogue and poems and domestic to-dos and everything else under the sun.  It took her three hours, but she now has her conglomeration down to six sets of clipped pages--Phillipa, Lolly, Leah, Leah, Carolee, marketing, and notes--plus four sets of to-do lists she's taped to one side of the mantel and a reminder for tomorrow she's taped to the other side.

Now to dive in and accomplish everything she's committed herself to.

Overload

Why is Fiorella always so busy, with a continuing list of commitments and responsibilities?  Why aren't other people trapped in this web of constant activity?  What is their secret--elves, fairies, magic wands?  Where are Fiorella's little helpers?

Well, so much for the gritching.  Got to get back to work, which means finishing my laundry and sending out a chapter of one of my unsold masterpieces for critiquing.  But maybe those two are one and the same.