Tardy. And Heartfelt.

Oh look! I'm late posting, again! What a surprise. Or not.

Althought, given the topic of the week, it is somehow entirely appropriate. You see, my mother has been waiting for me for pretty much my entire life plus some. I've been told that I even took my sweet time being born and was days late for the event.

"Lesley Time" is a concept that Mom is all too familiar with. Apparently, I dawdle. When I was in junior high school, my mom would pick me up from school every day. We had moved to another part of town in-between elementary and junior high and I had bewailed my fate at having to leave behind my bestest pals SO piteously that my parents gave in and kept me registered in our old district. And then drove me there. Every day. I should probably take this opportunity to apologize to dear mumsy for being such a jerk back then. (Er... sorry... really really sorry...).

Now, on these daily pick-ups, my mom would patiently (heh) wait in the car for me to appear. All of the other kids would pour forth in a frenzied stream from the front double doors of the school, running pell mell, realeased from bondage and eager to get the hell away from the place.
The stream would slow to a trickle.
And then stop.
And then, some protracted length of time later, I would emerge.
I would amble dreamily in the general direction of the car, where I could already see my mother shaking her head in tragic frustration.

"Hi Mom."
"What took you so long?"
"Hunh?"
"I've been waiting out here for fifteen minutes. Everyone else is gone. Where were you?"
"What?"
"What TOOK you?"
"Um... I dunno. I had to get my stuff?"
"You don't have that much stuff."
"And... I had to go to my locker?"
"The school's not that big."
"Trans-dimensional time warp?..."
"Get in the car."

This week, I have a VALID excuse. No seriously. I have spent the last several days locked in a small, isolated room with padded walls. I know what you're thinking. It's not that.

I was actually recording the narration for the audio-book version of WONDROUS STRANGE!!! Over 400 script pages later and, man... am I exhausted. And a little hoarse (insert high-pitched whinny for bad-pun effect here). At the end of each day, I could barely crawl home - let alone string a coherent sentence together. I've done a fair bit of voice acting before but nothing anywhere NEAR as intense as this. But it was also really really cool!

Anyway, they finally let me out of the little room, just in time for me to say, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to my awesome, ridiculously patient mom, and to my fellow Novel Girls (moms or not - because they have also had to be wonderfully patient with me on occasion - xox, ladies!)