SANELA AT HOME, BOYS, THE OUTDOORS
“Dear friend, it’s been a while since we last heard from each other. How have you been?”
Around here, we’ve got a routine going, and routines always keep me steadier. I’m writing away, and that always keeps me sane. Now I’m working on a prequel to Remember Me—and no! I’m not telling you anything about it yet, except that, It is Sabina and Ivan’s story and it takes place in, you guessed it, pre-and-during war in Yugoslavia. I am not letting the world forget about the genocide they let happen in the early 1990’s Balkans “and that’s all I have to say about that,” as Forest Gump would say.
Other than that, not much is happening in my corner of the world.
Weekends are for cleaning, cooking, baking. Not much gardening this year as herds—and I mean herds—of rabbits gobbled up most of my garden. Nothing stopped them this year. Twice I went out and chased about ten away. They didn’t leave me much except for some cherry tomatoes.
My apple tree, on the other hand, has given me so much produce this year, I’ve harvested, chopped and made all kinds of apple goodies and still there is more to share with squirrels, neighbors and friends.
Hanging out with my sons is always fun. Even the teenager’s been coming out of his hole more often to hang out with me, which makes me feel so good inside I can barely breathe.
Every time I see his tall figure emerge from his room, I hold my breath and hope for the best.
“Wanna watch a movie or something?” He said to me this Friday night, surprising me so much I almost chocked on a piece of pie I was eating.
“Sure,” I managed to answer calmly, while jumping up and down from joy inside.
We went to Rolling Stones store in Chicago the other day and he purchase a DVD of a movie called The Shining. He wanted to watch and compare it to the book he’s currently reading, The Shining by Stephen King.
Even thought I don’t really like horror movies, I agreed on watching it since he was the one to ask me and I’d do anything for him, even if it means sit down and watch a horror flick by Stephen King. And yes, he also talked me into watching IT with him one time to “face my fears” and cure my phobia of clowns. All I can say about that is that it was a very, very bad idea.
Anyway, we watched the movie and he wasn’t very impressed because, surprise-surprise, it wasn’t like the book, which he’s absolutely in love with.
On Saturday, Denny, my college kid, decided he wanted to cook. We’ve been talking about going to Louisiana on vacation. We wanted to visit various restaurants and try all kinds of exotic foods we never tried before. Denny, being a real foodie, decided not to wait to go to Louisiana to try gumbo, but to look up a recipe online and make it himself. After watching a few tons of videos on You Tube, he came up with his own recipe for a gumbo, which, I must admit, came out surprisingly great. Not one drop was left in that pot and we all wanted more. Maybe next weekend…
Other than that, we cleaned, mowed the loan, harvested some more apples and decorated for Halloween. I even baked an old fashioned apple cake while they found the time to work on an old Celica they’re not giving up on. Needed a jump and some gas, but it’s still going strong.
That’s really about it from my home front. I’m going to relax in my clean house for awhile now!
Love always,
Sanela
P.S.
I Forgot to mention how absolutely ecstatic I am about my book, Remember Me, coming out in audio soon. Here’s a short audio snippet for you. Enjoy!