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Husband's mood improved by skipping the Art institute.

Journal your Frustrations, but don’t post.

Traveling is not all sweetness, clear skies and delicious food.  Striving for that kind of brochure perfection in every moment of a two-week trip is damn near impossible, and doomed.

The children will have a bad day at Disneyland, the husband will refuse to step foot in any more museums, possibly for the rest of his life, the wife threatens to murder anyone who suggests taking another drive to visit charming Italian hillside villages – it is possible to take the bad and the frustration in stride and allow for a timeout.

Don’t discuss it, don’t share because that will escalate the bad feelings, and you want to get back on track with the vacation, the adventure, the life.  But it helps to place frustration somewhere.  And the journal (not Facebook) is the best receptacle to dump all those feelings.

Before you say anything out loud, write down everything about the disappointment, in capital letters, in angry squiggles, unflattering portraits and sit with it for a day.  During a trip, it will work out.  You’ll have a better meal, you’ll find a more interesting museum.  The children will recover enough to demand an expensive breakable souvenir.

You will take photos of only the happy times, but in the interest of truth, journal about the bad times as well as the good.

CatharineBramkamp

Catharine Bramkamp is a successful writing coach and author. She has published over 300 newspaper and magazine articles in publications like Modern Maturity (AARP), SF Chronicle and Santa Rosa Magazine. She was a contributor to two Chicken Soup Books and has published anthologies of her work, non-fiction works and novels. Her work has also appeared in a number of poetry and fiction anthologies. She has experimented with the self-publishing world since 2001. She has published and self-published seven books through companies like Author House, author assist companies like 3L Publishing and through traditional publishers like Write Life. Her poetry collection, Ammonia Sunrise, will be released in August 2011 by Finishing Line Press and her mystery novel, In Good Faith will be released by Write Life in 2011. Catharine holds a BA in English from UCSB and a MA in English from Sonoma State University. She is a 25 year member of California Writer’s Club. She is an adjunct professor for the University of Phoenix. She works with authors of both fiction and non-fiction to make their dream of producing a book come true. For more information on that, visit her at www.YourBookStartsHere.com Catharine has lived in Sonoma County for 25 years and considers wine a food group. She is married to an adorable and very patient man who complains he’s never featured in any of her books. Her grown children who are featured in a few of her books have fled the county.

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