It’s funny where the mind goes when you spend hours on your own. Yesterday I tidied, spoke with family by phone, including Sir Isaac Fig Newton, who had a hamburger for his Thanksgiving meal (they went out to a restaurant; I’m glad I’d made a more traditional meal for the two of us this past Sunday); became obsessed anew with Veracruz, to the point of honing in on a hacienda I’d love to rent for a week next summer, funds and schedule willing (it has a pool and, get this, a private cenote; this would be fitting as our last rental, a log cabin in Bath Country, Virginia, had a private water hole); emailed friends Thanksgiving wishes; read emails from friends; plotted out my writing for the weekend and next week; took note of the New York Times Notable Books list, of which there were 11 (or so, depending on how you categorized several) memoirs/personal histories, out of 50 titles on the nonfiction list, which prompted me to observe that reports of this genre’s demise are greatly exaggerated; made salmon cakes, with pink salmon from a can, and I pray it was dolphin-safe or I will get a tongue-lashing from his truly, that delightfully eco-sanctimonious Sir Isaac Fig Newton; became obsessed with making a three-column blog, like this one or this one, after I became frustrated with the look of this one, my latest, The Two of Us, to record trips with Sir Isaac Fig Newton. So, progress and possibility. Or so I thought. When I woke up this morning, I saw less progress, more possibility. Such is life.
I might start writing under the moniker The Absentminded Traveler. I can be such a space cadet, missing flights, picking up other people’s bags (okay, only once on both counts, but still). Of course that inattention to detail trickles down to entering travel sweeps. Take this one, from ChapStick, for four nights at Canyon Ranch. To enter, you’re supposed to enter a code from a ChapStick package. Silly me, what did I do when I saw that? I went out and bought ChapStick. Only not the right one! I grabbed a single pack, and the bar codes for the sweeps are on three-packs. I got the flavor wrong, too. Then I remembered that these sweeps are almost always “no purchase required.” But this sweeps doesn’t make that abundantly clear. No wonder Attorney Generals get so many consumer complains about sweepstakes.
Anyway, I figured it out. No purchase required. I entered HERE. The deadline, per the Official Rules, is November 30.