April 18, 2019A Note from Tracy: Thanks so much for joining me for another installment of A Beautiful Day Once. In Chapter 3, Eden arrives in downtown Woodstock, Illinois, and I couldn’t have been more jealous. She sits in the Starbucks you see in the far left of the image, which is next to the historic Opera House where Rita and Larry pretended to stay in Groundhog’s Day. And all along, I’d been planning for Eden, Abby, & Isla to stay in the Town Square Inn. You’ll have to read the chapter to find out how that works out, but it was ...
March 14, 2019A Note from Tracy: Thanks so much for joining me for another installment of A Beautiful Day Once. Through the magic of Google Earth, I had such a fun time walking the streets of Woodstock and exploring the Cherry Tree Inn. If you’d like a reservation at the Inn over Groundhog’s Day, let me warn you, they do it by a lottery system. A few thousand people request reservations each year, so they have a cut-off date, and then they draw names from those who entered to see who will get to stay at the Inn. Can you imagine winning ...
February 14, 2019Eden—Age 24“Button up your coats today because the Windy City is going to pack a punch with gusts of wind and temperatures well below freezing. But the real trouble is on its way first thing tomorrow morning. More on the blizzard after this.” Blizzard?!? Eden choked on the bite of frosted flakes that suddenly felt like gravel in her mouth. This could not be happening. Surely she’d heard wrong. The news station cut to a commercial about toilet paper while she tried to recover from an urge to weep. Extreme cold and snow went without saying in Chicago’s brutal winters, ...
February 14, 2019Eden—Age 14 “Eden, this movie is ancient! Why do we have to watch this one?” Abby and Isla were both pouting. They’d thought Eden meant a “real movie” when she invited them over for her a birthday/slumber party. And she had. Opening night in the theatre, bags of candy hidden in their purses, curled up in the luxurious reclining seats Eden had only experienced once before. The girls talked of nothing else all week. And then this morning happened. The lunch lady pulled Eden aside. Ms. Jenkins tried to be discreet about her empty lunch balance, but it didn’t stop ...