published!

ok. here's a funny story for you. last may i wrote a piece titled "the abc's of packing" for a contest budget travel magazine was running. the prize was a free trip for two and i was motivated. well, i never heard anything back about the contest or my entry.

flash forward to last month when i received a budget travel magazine in the mail. i do not subscribe and i did not remember signing up but it was fun to get (i used many of the photos for journaling!) then, this past week, i received another issue. as i was looking through it on saturday, i happened to notice my name under one of the tips!

one of my packing tips, from my "abc's of packing", was picked out and published. i can't say it was my best tip or the one i would have chosen for the periodical to print, but i was thrilled to see my name, and see my words, on the page! and the writer of any tip printed in the magazine gets a free subscription for a year.

so i may never finish a novel or win a pulitzer but i can say i've been published. and i'm extremely grateful for that and the fact that, on any given day, i may be happily surprised.