I've never been one to smash anything I didn't like, but I've never been one to seek it out either. Back when the first video gaming systems came out, the Pac-man things that attached to your TV, I asked what was wrong with the old pinball machines, like the ones my Uncle Joe had in his basement because he was an executive with Bally in Chicago. I never even liked 8-track tapes, but was astounded when their demise was caused by the popularity of cassette tapes, which were too newfangled for me. Then just when I was getting used to them, CDs exploded onto the scene. Suddenly all of my tapes that I had learned to fix using a pencil when they went "wonky", were muddy-sounding and needed to be replaced with yet a third copy of the same album! I liked my Led Zeppelin LP records, I was okay with the tapes my brother made for me so I could play them in my car...but then my husband gave me CDs, and told me we were getting rid of the other formats! WTF?!?
I resisted getting a cell phone until my oldest son, who has had type 2 diabetes since he was 8, moved from the elementary school across the street from our house to the middle school. And he told me in no uncertain terms I was not allowed to come into the school every day to check his blood sugar at lunchtime. I got a cell phone so that if he had a low blood sugar incident there I could arrive before the paramedics to treat him myself. When that phone died, husband had a hard time finding me another one that was as easy to use. What the salesman didn't understand was that to me a phone is for getting and making phone calls. If I want to go on-line, check my e-mails, or make purchases from on-line retailers, I'll use my computer back home. The only reason I don't have a stripped down "old-person" Jitterbug is that they don't do texting. And my youngest is a teen-aged girl who sends and receives thousands, nay, tens of thousands of texts each month! It took her 3 months to teach me how to do it. I used to beg random teens in stores or the schools I sub at to show me how to do something when my daughter wasn't there.
Noticing I was getting frustrated with my newer phone, my oldest son asked me what was wrong. I told him I was trying to put people's names into my phone list but I didn't know how to get to the second letter on the number. He rolled his eyes and told me to hit the number quickly twice. I asked him if he had read that in a manual. "There's a manual?"
When the kids decided I needed an I-Pod, I told them "no" When all 4 of my kids and my husband had one, they insisted on buying me one for my last year's Christmas and birthday present (I'm a December 26th baby). I was afraid to take it out of the box for 2 weeks because the touch-screen scared me. Finally one of my sons loaded his music into it and told me to listen to it. I did. Now I don't go anywhere without it! I even have an adapter to listen to it through my car-radio.
So this year when they asked me what I wanted for my gifts, I told them to give me a gift card so I could get myself an e-reader. There was a hushed, shocked silence for a moment, as it registered on them that Mom was asking for new technology. But they know I've been e-published for 2 years, so they figured I had worked myself up to it gradually. I dragged a girlfriend with me. We both bought Kindles. Because of my 2 jobs I didn't even get to take mine out of the box to play with it for 4 days. But now it's out, charged up, and has a book on it that I had wanted months ago, but promised myself that it would be the first thing I'd ever read on a reader, when I finally got one. I didn't order from Amazon because the book was published by a small indy. But it was funny and engaging and hot...and a quick read. I didn't download any programs to help me convert it because that was so confusing when I went to the various websites to see what I needed to do, that I almost gave up entirely and took it back! But the Mobi version I sent in an email to my Kindle is readable as it i
I still only use my phone for calls and texts...I don't understand why I would need to use it for anything else. I still have an alarm clock and I wear a watch. But I listen to music on my I-Pod. And now I can read on my e-reader. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?
*And speaking of
Set-up: Sheena spent her some time in-between assignments last year in Berlin; as usual, she chose an attractive man to amuse herself with. But something went wrong when she began to have real feelings for him. When she had to leave him without an explanation to go back to her job, it hurt her as much as s
The irony of having fallen for a man she could never have again washed over her with a vengeance, and she felt too stunned to even move. Having emotions of any kind was a liability in her world. Being too paralyzed with feelings to take any action was grounds for immediate termination…and not just from the job. Agents had been found dead after such disobedience made them careless. Lacing her fingers together, Sheena took deep, cleansing breaths and tried to get her racing pulse back under control.
She jumped at the sound of someone pounding on the bathroom door.
"It's occupied!" she shouted, hoping to get them to go away.
After a short pause, the pounding started again.
"Go away! Find another bathroom!" she yelled, starting to channel her emotional upheaval into the safety of controlled anger that instantly made her feel calmer and more in charge of herself.
The pounding only got more insistent. Anger is good. She stomped over to the door to fling it open.
"What the fuck is your problem?"
"You are," Hickory Woods said, as he pushed her back into the bathroom and locked the door behind him.
"What are you doing up here?"
She hated the panic suddenly threatening to overwhelm her as she felt his raw anger wash over her in waves.
"Why aren't you still on the stage? With the band?"
"Why the hell are you with him?" he yelled at her. "I thought you said you couldn't be seen in public with celebrities like me. So in you stroll with him, the current flavor of the month, and I had to watch him groping you?"
He loomed dangerously over her as she backed away from him to find herself trapped by the wall-to-wall counter of the sink behind her.
"That's none of your business," she replied weakly, aware of how vulnerable her voice sounded, but not able to get it under control yet.
"Just like your leaving me in Berlin was none of my business?"
His face was dark and his voice dripped with scorn and anger.
"You never told me what your business is. At this point, I'm guessing high-class hooker. Was I a freebie, or are you just behind in your billing?"
"Cory, just let me leave and forget about me, okay?"
She tried not to sound like she was pleading. She'd spent years perfecting how to order men around, but right at this moment, she would have begged if it would get her away from this man she still wanted so much, but had hurt so badly.
His eyes were wild as he pushed forward with his hips to trap her between the sink counter and the unmistakable bulge in his pants.
"I can't forget about you, damn it! That's the problem! You're in my blood! I want you so bad I can taste it!"
In honor of my new status as an e-reader owner, I'm going to offer one free eBook to a lucky reader! Just leave a comment below, and I'll collect your names until Sunday, February 6, then let my daughter choose the names out of a hat. Be the first to read about the spy who fell in love and the sexy actor she who caught her. Good luck!
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