mary e. pearson

1. Spring!



2. Spring again!



3.  And more spring!



4.  And the boys are enjoying spring too.  Brody, our indoor, wannabe lap dog poses . . .



6.  And Hunter, our "real" dog, is on high alert for all those pesky birds who are gobbling up bird seed and having the nerve to invade his territory . . .



I worked out on the patio today with the laptop, and his antics--chasing the birds all over the yard--finally made me put the laptop down and snap a few shots.  That is the birdfeeder right above his head that he's guarding.  Boy if a dog could sprout wings . . .

Happy spring everyone!

edited to add: 
5.  Clearly spring has me so delirious, that I can't count.  Not that I ever could.

Back from San Francisco. I had a GREAT time. The schools were awesome. First stop was Capuchino High School. Librarian, Linda Henry, has an amazing book club there--around 70 students! I was WAY impressed. We're talking about 70 high schoolers in a high school that isn't that big, finding extra time for reading and books. And they were really excited about them too. They shared with me all the books they were reading and planning to read. They had TBR piles as high as mine! It was all very cool and energizing.


While I gave a talk, the president of the book club handled the techy power point stuff for me (thanks, Alex!) and then we had a long Q&A. It seems that part always gets cut short because of time and it is my favorite part of visiting schools. I love hearing what readers focus in on in stories. Everyone's perspective is so different.

Then I signed books! And I had a little surprise . . .


Some authors I knew were there! Sort of. See that spiral notebook just above my book? It was an autograph book that this student brought along for another student who couldn't make it. I briefly skimmed it and saw Jo Knowles (hi Jo!) and E. Lockhart (hi Emily!)--well, I saw their signatures at least--they were way more cool than mine. It was fun to "see" some friends there.

Thank you Linda and Capuchino High School book club for having me at your school!

Then it was off to Mountain View and the Girl's Middle School where librarian extraordinaire, Walter Mayes, presided.

Walter is a kick and he's great with the kids. And wow, what an intro he gave me--I wanted to just hand the floor over to him. But I didn't. The girls were terrific and so excited about books and reading. They have lots of authors who come to their school--sometimes one a week!--and that keeps the fires burning for sure. Their enthusiasm was contagious. Oh, and they were good sports when I got impatient with the computer and hit advance too many times (because I thought it wasn't working) and then the slides zipped by all at once. I can say that is officially the first time I did a song and dance in front of a group of students. (don't be so impatient, Mary!)


Anyway, I had a great time. Many thanks to Walter and Girl's Middle School!

Finally I was off to Books Inc in Palo Alto "home" of the famous literaticat . Thanks Jennifer and NYMBC!
The Palo Alto store is one of their newer locations--and dangerously close to an exquisite cupcake store. Luckily I was too stuffed from dinner to indulge. Next time. I was thrilled to see some LJ friends and authors at the signing! Thanks for coming d_michiko_f , seaheidi , beckylevine , and susanwrites and Cassie (her sweet dog who had to listen to me talk about books and writing! bah!) I got a picture with them and some new friends too, but one of the reasons we all have big smiles . . .


is that just before the picture above was taken, this one was taken . . .

Yep, originally Cassie and I were sitting together and just as the photo was taken she jumped up and laid a big one on me. I guess she liked my talk after all ; ) Yay, Cassie! I see a dog book in Cassie's future. Move over Carl . . .

1.
Stand up to cancer--tonight at 8pm--ALL THREE NETWORKS will be televising this benefit. Be a part of it. Make a difference. I'll "see" you there.

2. Happy Birthday Boys! The mongrels are five years old today. Bones for everyone!


3. I got a haircut. I love new haircuts. It's short--just to my shoulders. Well, that's short for me anyway.

4. Book Updates: A very nice review for the audio JENNA in the September/October issue of the Horn Book Magazine. I agree. I think Jenna Lamia, the reader, did an excellent job.
Other bookish news: My fall schedule is filling up fast. Lots of book club visits, then heading up to San Francisco for some school visits, and the Not Your Mother's Book Club (yay!), and more. Also, I will be the master of ceremonies for the SCIBA 2008 Authors Feast on October 18th, introducing authors, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dorothea Benton Frank, Brian Sanderson, and Loren Long. Should be a lot of fun. And right after that comes NCTE/ALAN . . . yes, somewhere in all of this, I will be writing my next book too . . .

Have a great weekend everyone--and don't forget tonight!

Well! That sure jolted me out of deep lurkdom. I have family who live in Chino Hills where the quake was centered and they are shaken but okay.

I feel bad because this morning Hunter was pacing and panting and wouldn't settle down which is very unusual for him--he's my mellow dog. I followed him all over the house trying to figure out what was wrong. I finally sternly told him to lay down and he did. Is it possible he "knew" what was coming?

Yes, summer is here. Brody and Hunter have been chilling on the kitchen floor where it is nice and cool. If I had to wear a big fur coat like them, I would lay there too.

I've been catching up on a few chores around here, which is why I have been quiet. We had a few whopper days of heat that had me moving at the pace of a slug, but now we are back to our normal temperatures--just in time for ALA.

Here is some of what I have scheduled. Hope I see you there.

Friday

I arrive and have dinner with my publisher and friends.

Saturday

10 am I will be signing The Adoration of Jenna Fox at the Henry Holt Booth #2516. Come say hi! Pleeeze!

Sunday

9 am YALSA Coffee Klatch where I will move from table to table. Have pastry--will travel.

7 pm Newbery Caldecott Banquet

Monday

8 pm Printz Reception
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And in between all this I will have several friend's signings I will be attending, and of course getting a few arcs of up and coming books.

Hope you are all staying cool and moving at a slower summer pace. Brody and Hunter are. At least it looks like it to me.

1. Holding the sun. My sister forwarded me some "sun" pictures that were fun and beautiful. Next time I am at the beach, I may try shooting one of my own.


2. Flying Lessons. Why does a mother bird think my backyard is a good place to teach baby to fly? My dog Hunter is aptly named. He is a retriever, after all. I have spent the past two days shooing this impossibly slow baby bird into the trees before I let Hunter outside. And of course, he is on the scent of this bird and now he always wants out.

3. ALA in two weeks. I received my itinerary yesterday. Busy, but some open times for browsing, chatting. Anyone else going?

Whew, it was only three days, but what a jam-packed whirlwind!

I arrived on Friday at my hotel, the Westin Bonaventure. It is a gorgeous hotel with fountains everywhere in the lobby, including this one where two fish are blowing a streamed arch of water to walk under. Cool, huh?


I grabbed my badge which was waiting for me and raced to the convention center so I could make it in time for marperez's signing for DEAD IS THE NEW BLACK. Unfortunately I got there just as they closed her line. But I could see her at her table packing up and I pleaded with the gate guard to let me by for a quick hello.

After a hug and getting a copy of DEAD (yay!) we were walking away chatting, and there among the 30,000 people at BEA, we ran into d_michiko_f! I was going to have to leave early Sunday morning so I would miss Debbi's signing, but I was so happy we got a few minutes to say hi before I had to leave to go get ready for the ABA Not A Dinner Dinner.

Back at my hotel, after a quick change, I hurried to the lobby where a whole bunch of us Macmillan authors, publishers, and such were meeting to drive to the dinner. Carl, and his human, Alexandra Day, were there too. Here is Carl, with his babysitter for the evening, and Laura Godwin. Usually he is unleashed, but he was about to hit the streets for a walk.

Carl is probably the most laid back, well-behaved dog I have ever seen. But we all know, that Carl is special. I wouldn't be surprised if he had an adventure with a baby or two while we were gone.


At the ABA Not A Dinner Dinner, I met up with too many authors, booksellers, and publishers to name. I was so busy yakking, I forgot to eat. Dumb. I wish I would have tried those mashed potato martinis. Check out lisayee's blog for a glimpse of the food. But the yakking was fun. Got to meet some new people, and catch up with old friends too. Oh, and I bid on a piece of art at the silent auction. I didn't win though. It was a pencil drawing of Library Lion. Beautiful.

The next morning I signedThe Adoration of Jenna Fox. It went by too fast! My agent, who sat next to me, said I was quite the gabber. Okay, I think we are seeing a theme here. Gab, yak, gab, yak. hm. But when you meet people in your line, you kind of actually want to MEET them. But I only had an hour to sign and the line was long so I had to curtail my chatting.

Afterwards I had a little free time and managed to snag a few arcs. My agent got THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins for me, and later I picked up IMPOSSIBLE by Nancy Werlin, and PAPER TOWNS by John Green. There were more I wanted to get, like THE POSSIBILITIES OF SAINTHOOD by Donna Frietas, and several others, but I was called for an impromtu interview and never finished my rounds! But I have plenty of reading material to keep me busy for a while anyway. And ALA is coming soon.

That night was the Macmillan Party at the LA Central Public Library, which is gorgeous. The party was in a room with marble floors and painted ceilings. I felt like I was in a museum. When I walked in I was surprised to see a big shiny poster of JENNA. Laura Godwin, the publisher at Holt, and I took a quick snapshot . . .


and then hit the dessert table which was magnificent. Meringues, chocolate dipped strawberries, crepes, and more. Yum. Several authors, including myself, gave brief talks, and I got to meet some booksellers who I knew online but had never met in person. It was a fun evening. The only downside was my shoes. They have a three hour limit and one minute past that and my toes turn to pumpkins. How do you spell relief? I walked barefoot back to my hotel.

Oh, and Carl was there. And he never begged for a single dessert. Good dog, Carl.

1. Some of you may remember my flower pot dilemma. Well I am happy to report that watering hasn't been a problem, and besides laying a fourth egg, we now have babies! They are so tiny they are not even poking their heads above the nest yet. Hunter has taken to being the "bird guardian" standing below the flower pot, which is fine with me because he keeps the ravens away.

2. Speaking of ravens, they are creating a racket outside even as I type and the kids in the neighborhood are cawing right back at them. Why do I find the kid's cawing cute and the raven's annoying?

3. A Publishers Weekly blog ran a piece that Erma Bombeck wrote years ago titled If I had My Life to Live Over. It concluded with: "Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the 'Titanic' who waved off the dessert cart."

Good advice, Erma.

This weekend, don't wave off your dessert. I'm not. I might even have two.

Going Green: Or maybe this should be titled Irony . Does anyone else think it is a tad ironic that those new curly bulbs that are supposed to help the environment by using less electricity, are always packaged in those evil hard molded plastic packs that aren’t even recyclable? What’s wrong with the cushy cardboard that regular bulbs come in?

The world at large: And in the same “Going Green” theme, I saw a segment about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the Today Show this morning, and also a bit posted on Gwenda Bond’s Shaken & Stirred blog. The main mission of the project is conservation. Very cool. Literally.

And my world at small: The steady amount of rain this year means spring has come early to So Cal. But because of the rain, the gardener couldn’t come last time. You should see my lawn. It is a lush green forest. Now since professornana already brought up the subject of poop this morning, I will just lay it out. Gardeners may not come because of rain but dogs just keep right on pooping, and since I am the designated Pooper Scooper, it has become an “interesting” task. I know, you don’t want to hear more, but you will. With two large dogs it is a verifiable mine field out there. Those little nuggets are like bombs in hiding, waiting for me to step on them before I can scoop them.

I appreciate the rain, but please, I am tired of feeling like Senor Caca doing a hat dance. Please no rain on Friday! The gardener comes to rescue me!

danced in their heads.





My daughter took these last night while the boys were asleep (yes, I was snoozing too.) That's my foot in the lower photo that Brody has his paw wrapped around. He's the insecure one. That's our nightly routine, me on one end of the couch, Brody snuggled on the other end and holding my foot.

Hunter, in the top photo, is the braver dog. He is probably not dreaming of sugar plums at all, but things like oneminutemonkey's, gypsyrobin's, and cawriter's kitties. In the best possible way of course.

Lots of exciting things going on with The Adoration of Jenna Fox, that I hope I will be able to talk more about soon, but in the meantime, I found out today that there will be a Discussion Guide. I really like the one my publisher did for A Room on Lorelei Street so I was happy to hear this. And I think it will be a good book for generating a lot of discussion and exploring various viewpoints.

Oh! And I am going to NY in a two weeks for a marketing meeting with my publisher. My husband is going too--not to the meeting, just NY--and we plan, er, um, planned, to take in some shows. The strike put a little dent in our plans, but the Rockettes are still kicking their heels, so we will at least get to see one show. And who knows, maybe the strike will be over by then.

In more mundane newsI've been making a barricade for my mutts today. We finally broke down and got new carpeting for the family room and the "boys" will be banned from said room when we aren't home, hence the removable barricade. Of course the carpeting is brand spanking new today and I am sure this resolve will not last past Christmas. The problem is, every time they have a queasy stomach they race to the carpeted family room to upchuck. The rest of the house, is of course, easy, cleanable tile. hmph. Do they think they are doing us a favor? Like, "look mom, right in front of the TV. You won't miss it here."
Remember my polka dot lawn I showed you a while back? Sigh. Yes, that was our family room--until today. There is nothing like new, polka dot free carpeting to get one thinking about barricades. (note to self: remember this fresh carpet feeling and be strong when they look at you with big sad eyes.)

I am having 21 coming over for Thanksgiving so I will probably not be posting again until after the holiday (only cooking and recovering) so I wish you all a blessed day with those you love.

Craziness has ensued ever since I returned from vacation.

Hunter's "tummy ache" turned out to be quite a bit more. A $1000 and much angst later, it turns out he has a bone spur at the end of his spine which was causing him much pain. He's on meds now and feeling much better, but the meds cause much drinking of water which also means much peeing, which means much letting him out to pee in the middle of the night. As you can see, our life has been filled with "muchness" of late.

Today I remembered a "little" something I forgot--just in the nick of time. Before we left on vacation I tacked my drivers license renewal to the bulletin board in my pantry so I wouldn't forget about it. Uh, didn't work. Still forgot. It expires on Tuesday. I've done renewals through the mail for years, but I guess now they actually want to see that I am a real live body, so I have to trek down to DMV. Oh, joy. And they want to take a new picture too. More joy.

Got the news that final pages of The Adoration of Jenna Fox will arrive on my doorstep tomorrow. My editor's assistant said they look really good. I can't wait to see them. They have to be returned by Tuesday. I guess I know what I will be doing this weekend.

An LJ friend emailed me this yesterday which was in Publisher's Marketplace:

"Author of A ROOM ON LORELEI STREET Mary Pearson's ROAD TRIP, in which a girl whose life has been turned upside down by one fateful coincidence, tries to turn the tide in her favor for a day and embarks upon an unauthorized road trip with three boarding school classmates, only to find that fantasy has a way of bleeding into reality, leaving the question of where one ends and the other begins, to Kate Farrell at Holt, in a good deal, in a two-book deal, by Rosemary Stimola at Stimola Literary Studio."

I hadn't seen the announcment yet so it was very cool to see in black and white. I am not certain the title will remain the same once I finish it. I always slap on a working title and often it becomes the final one, but not always. We'll see.

In other news, I've been reading all the posts about the SCBWI National conference. It sounds like everyone had a great time. I wish I could have gone. I mean, heck, even Lisa Yee's peep went. Next year.

After a day of worry and a trip to the vet, Hunter seems to be feeling better.



I have two goldens, Brody, who we call our "play" dog (that is all he wants to do) and Hunter, our "sweet" boy who we joke would take a bullet for us. Probably the most loyal dog we've ever had. And the one who seems to do the dumbest things. The vet said he may just have a tummy ache and I had to wonder if he ate something out in the backyard that he shouldn't have--like a five pound rock or something?

tufted had an interesting post about what unit you would use to measure happiness. There's a million things I can think of:

A flower . . . to a field of flowers
A hershey kiss . . . to a Nordstrom truffle
A giggle . . . to a whole chorus of laughter

But today I think I would measure it in tail wags, which Hunter is giving out again.

What unit would you use to measure happiness?

Yesterday I posted about spring victories, and in the interest of full disclosure, I would like to come clean about some losing battles. Sometimes in life you just have to resign yourself to the fact that you win some and you lose some.

So with that said, please meet my polka dot lawn:



And to be even more honest, right now it is looking good. You see, it is a victim of Pee Wars. It wasn’t always this way. Once it was a green carpet that you would happily lay down on–but that was when we only had one dog. Then we got two. Their greatest joy in life is over peeing each other. So one small spot in a vast yard to choose from becomes the chosen spot–over and over and over again. I know that the male species–from human to canine–has weird peeing habits, but why didn’t anyone ever tell me about Pee Wars?

Here are the culprits:



Yeah, they try to act innocent, but don’t be deceived. As soon as I snapped this shot they were off wizzing again.

But you have to choose your battles, right? And a polka dot lawn is well worth the sloppy kisses. I think.

Other losing battles:

1. That last five pounds
2. Sleeping through the night
3. Writing a book without agonizing over it (Office Depot “easy” button perhaps?)
4. Drifts of dog hair (hm, back to dogs again . . .)

What are yours?

I forgot to take my camera to ALA in Seattle so I had to use my cell phone camera and I finally got the pics off my cell phone and onto my computer. A little late but I thought I’d post a few.

Seattle is a wonderful town. I had a view of the Space Needle from my room. I ate lunch there once years ago, and the whole thing revolves at the top, so by the time you’ve finished your meal you’ve had a 360 degree view of the city. How cool is that?




My first night in Seattle I had dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant, Tulio Ristorante, with my agent and several of her clients. I did not take this picture (which is obvious by the quality of it) Not a blink in the crowd. From left to right, standing, are authors, Amber Kizer, Lawrence Mckay, Jr., Marcia Vaughn, and Kent Mochizuki. Seated are Trudi Strain Trueit (her husband is the fabulous photographer), Moi, our fun and wonderful agent, Rosemary Stimola, and the amazing Liz Gallagher, aka lizgallagher who rode her motorcycle there–wearing high heels! I kid you not.




Okay, this may seem like a weird shot, but did you know that Seattle is home to the original Nordstrom? It is a whopper–FIVE stories tall. I did pop in and buy a box of four truffles when I was having a major chocolate attack. Their double chocolate truffles are the best.




And of course at the Convention Center Exhibit Hall, I happened to run into Good Dog Carl. His human, Alexandra Day, asked him to pose for me against a white table. And when she asked him to smile, he happily obliged. What a sport.




The conference was fun. I had time to catch up with friends and meet new ones. One night I had dinner with fellow authors, Nancy Werlin, Jane Kurtz, Linda Johns (who is also the YA librarian at Seattle Public Library), Heather Vogel Frederick, Sara Ryan, Andrea Beaty, and LJ’s bgliterary. We ate at Wild Ginger and the food was fabulous (thanks to Barry and Sara's great choices.)

The nice thing about ALA midwinter is that it is smaller so you have the opportunity to meet and chat with more people. I had the pleasure of finally meeting Liz Burns and breaking bread with her (well, pizza out of our laps) and we strolled the exhibits for a while getting a few arcs. She is as lovely in person as she seems on her blog. Oh! And I strolled for a bit with librarians Melissa and cedarlibrarian Watch out with those two! They have eagle eyes when it comes to arcs (I bet they are wicked good shoppers, too) and in two minutes with them I had more arcs than I could carry and had to run to Fed Ex to mail them home.

There are lots of lines at any conference and this one was no exception, but one thing I have learned is that you can meet interesting people waiting in lines. Waiting to mail ARCS at Fed Ex, I met Diana Tixler Herald; waiting in line at Starbucks I met librarian, Ashley Flagherty; and waiting in line to go to the awards ceremony, I met librarian Rollie Welch, and he shared some interesting things about A Room on Lorelei Street with me. There were sightings and near misses, but I never did run into professornana Darn. I guess we didn’t frequent the same long lines.

And of course, strolling through the exhibits, I ran into too many people to mention them all, but I met a zillion. Some were folks who I had “met” online but never in person, so it was like meeting old friends. It took us forever to walk down just one aisle because of all the stopping and yakking. Boy, you let authors out of their caves and that is all they want to do.

One of the very best things to do at midwinter is to go to the BBYA talks where real bonafide teens get the opportunity to talk about the books they love (and sometimes hate.) I love listening to their comments. It is amazing how insightful, articulate, and passionate they are about the books they read. If you could go and do nothing else but listen to these teens, it would be well worth it. Makes you want to get right back to your keyboard and write (which I did.)

And last but not least, I want to say that the conference ended for me on a exquisite note. When I saw that our own cynthialord won the Schneider Award and then a Newbery Honor I could hardly contain myself. I loved RULES and I was so thrilled to see it get the recognition it deserved. I’ve already sent Cindy private congrats, but I will wave and holler here for her one more time because she more than deserves it.

YAHOO, Cyn!!

This morning on the news there was a segment about Zelda the bulldog, the one who appears on greeting cards, calendars and even has her own books of wisdom. I’ve bought a few of those greeting cards for my father-in-law because 1) they're cute, and 2) he loves bull dogs. In fact, over twenty years ago, I bought him his own bulldog. Meet Duke:



Duke is amazing. In twenty years he hasn’t changed a bit. My father-in-law is always bragging about how well behaved he is too (right, Dad?) Quite undemanding pooch he is, (whereas I am sure Zelda is always nagging to go shopping for a new outfit.) If you look closely, you may notice though, that Duke is, well, stone. That hasn’t kept him from earning his keep though. He stands guard by the front door and has truly scared off more than one UPS man.

Duke did try one little stint at acting. He made an appearance in my last book. (If you read AROLS, you may remember the stone bull dog in Zoe’s room? That’s Duke.) But he refuses to dress up like Zelda so I think his acting days are limited.

I see that Kerry Madden is here at LJ as mountainmist. Kerry is the author of Gentle’s Holler which I have been hearing fabulous things about. And if you haven’t been to her website, check it out. It is SO cool. Be sure you have your sound turned up.

YA Goddess, Teri Lesesne, aka as professornana had some very nice thoughts about A Room on Lorelei Street that really made my day.

Yesterday I had to get a little organized about my wip. You know when you get to that point where there is so much “stuff” you are trying to remember, that you feel like you are totally overwhelmed? So I went through it page by page, jotting notes, creating a loose map and I feel like I have a better handle now about what has happened and will happen. Onward.

For those of you who are wilting in the summer heat, I will leave you with this very “cool” picture:



Have a great–and too cool–weekend.

Here's my couch potato picture that I also call my groggy Monday morning picture. Yes, I know it's Tuesday, but if feels like a Monday to me. I went to a wedding on Sunday night and danced till I hurt and yesterday was a catch-up recover day.

The marine layer--which socks in at this time of year--doesn't help. The sky is dark and gray and I feel like I could go back to bed. Or curl up on the couch with Brody and Hunter--except they don't leave me any room.

More coffee! Hit the treadmill! Get that blood moving! That should break the fog : )

Tonight at the YA Authors Cafedlgarfinkle Debby Garfinkle is interviewing Gordon Korman. I can't wait. Between the two of them, I am sure there will be a laugh or two.

Cynthia Leitich Smith blogs today about the importance or reading if you want to write. I get a lot of letters from teens who want to know what to do in order to become a writer. First and foremost I tell them to read. A lot. It's the best way to prepare to write. And wow, does Cynthia do it in spades. I was blown away by all the reading she has done so far this year.

Even though I can read fast, with fiction I am a fairly slow reader. I will go back and reread sentences over and over and I will stop and think about what I am reading as I read. A book that takes most people three hours to read will take me six. I guess just as we all have different writing styles, we all have different reading styles too. Come to think of it, I am a slow writer too.

Hope to see you all at the YA Authors Cafe tonight.

I have these walking shoes. Big, ugly, toe scuffed walking shoes–but oh so comfortable. But the really important thing about them is TRACTION. You see, every day around 5:30 my husband and I walk our two 80+ pound golden retrievers. Young golden retrievers, so I need plenty of traction to hold my ground.

So yesterday we had a rare event–my husband and I were taking our two daughters out to dinner. My oldest daughter is married and my youngest, between college, work, volunteer work, and a boyfriend, is almost a myth around our house. My older daughter’s husband had work related duties, so he couldn’t go out with us so it was like old times with our little family of four. I was excited. I put on a dressy outfit to celebrate this rare occasion.(What does all this have to do with big, ugly, gross shoes? Hold on, I’ll get to that.)

We’re all set to go with adored daughters–but wait–the “boys” must be walked. At 5:20 a little alarm goes off in their heads and there is no peace until they get their trip around the block. I kicked off my cute little pumps (a sure death sentence when being pulled by bruiser #1) and slipped on Big Ugly Toe Scuffed Dog Walking Shoes (and let’s face it, they have seen a stream or two if you get my drift). Anyway, Mission Accomplished. Dogs walked. Off to dinner! Yippee!

We laugh in the car. Belt out rock songs in the car. Get silly in the car with each other’s company. We are almost to the restaurant when I look down at my feet and see . . . Yep. With my cute little glitttery capris, I am wearing THE SHOES. I forgot to change. My daughters laugh hystercially. My husband joins in. I notice for the first time GRUNGE I had never seen before. Shrug. Oh well. I am having too much fun to really care. Ugly shoes rule!

Now mind you, this isn't my worst clothing disaster. Someday I will tell you about the terry cloth bathing suit disaster . . .

What's your worst clothing story?