# 73 A weekend in review...

This weekend I was super lucky to get to go to the Daddy's Girl Weekend in Ocean Springs. For those of you not cool enough to be in the know, the term "Daddy's Girl" refers to a sorority-girl-type of woman who has her daddy's money and her momma's good looks and is the subject of many a piece of gossip! The books I've been reading recently, the Bones Series, by Carolyn Haines (see previous blog posts!) are all about Sarah Booth Delaney, a disgraced "Daddy's Girl" turned private investigator. And this weekend, Carolyn Haines, the author of the Bones series as well as numerous other books, threw a "Daddy's Girl Weekend" down in Ocean Springs for readers and writers alike. Several authors, including Haines herself, were there and we had all sorts of sessions about characters and writing and books and ideas, etc. It was amazing. I love to read. Love it. I could fall into a good book and not look up for hours. The last few years, especially since law school, I've done little to no reading. But, the last couple months, in direct response to everything that's been going on, I've picked up lots of books-- some old favorites (Anne of Green Gables) and some new favorites (anything Carolyn Haines!)-- in short, I've rediscovered my love of a good book.

And this weekend was an amazing exclamation point to my rediscovered love of reading! Do you know how awesome it is to sit in a room with other women (and a few men) and talk about books? Your favorites? Your childhood favorites? Books that changed your life and why? What you want to read? What you hated reading? To sit and talk about all these questions is just plain great. There aren't words to describe how wonderful it felt to be sitting in a room with total strangers and feel like these women were as close as sisters to me. I loved it.

Plus, there was a whole lot of crazy fun in between talking about all these books! There was a "Big Daddy" contest where three extremely brave men vied for the title of "Big Daddy"-- they gave toasts and wrote haikus, danced a jig and tried to bribe the "mascot" Schoochie, and generally groveled for our votes! I had a blast getting to know some really cool women, and spending time with my friend, Melinda, who was my partner-in-crime for the weekend! But the coolest woman of all was Carolyn herself-- she was so fun and so interesting and so accessible-- not many authors would throw together a weekend so they could meet their fans and have a great time! She was really cool, and I hope you will pick up one of her books-- in fact, call me- you can borrow some of mine when I get done-- I bought a bunch this weekend!!!

Here are some pictures of the weekend!

Two new friends- Renee and Sylvia (or should I saw Pursy Hominy and Scarlett Magnolia) at the Big Daddy Crowning-- wearing their piegnors. They looked so fabulous-- I'm ashamed to say I wore boring old pajamas. There once was a time when I would have been all up in this dressing up thing-- see any time in law school when I wore whatever I wanted-- but the past few months have been tough on me and I must say I just didn't have it in me to plan a cute wardrobe for the weekend (and it takes planning!). I believe a move to the Delta is exactly what I need to get me back into my old-self-lifestyle, so I do believe that next year, I will be all over wearing such a fabulous outfit!)

Scarlett's DIY fabulous shoes-- a Daddy's Girl makes do with what she's got!

The hotel where we stayed in Ocean Springs

One of the first sessions I went to-- I nearly turned 400 shades of red the first time I had to speak up about what books I was reading-- thoughts were racing through my mind-- thinking I wouldn't be reading anything interesting or literary enough for these people, wondering what these people would think of me, what they would think of my book choices, etc. But, it was so relaxed and inviting that those thoughts quickly faded away-- I'm working on not being so worried about what everyone else is thinking about me, and I tried to work on that this weekend-- I quickly realized that everyone has their own book choices and no one was judging me for mine! These ladies were open and inviting and I loved them!!!

Dean James, a Southern author, leading the discussions-- I'll post more about Dean another day-- he's written all kinds of books, two of which I bought this weekend and hope to start soon, and he was lots of fun! Also, he was crowned Big Daddy!

Our room-- also, another post on this particular room is forthcoming!!

Several of us ladies eating lunch Saturday-- you can see avid blog reader Melinda in the back right!

There was a huge kayak contest going on while we were there this weekend-- it actually started from our hotel, so there were lots of athletic kayakers around all weekend. It started off with a bang, literally, a cannon bang, and this is a picture I snapped while we were eating at a local restaurant-- these were some of the racers.