Blog
Tuesday night my husband, the boys and I are going to see Eric Clapton in concert. Confession here: I know most of Clapton's hits, but I have zero clue which are recorded with The Yardbirds, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominoes or as solo works. I have been told that this IS important. The guys have this all nailed. I have no idea where Ginger Baker figures into this though I do know he is alive and they had to tape his drumsticks to his hands when he played when he was high. This has come up a few times.
When I write email I usually bang out whatever my question or message is and then go back and add nice things like "Hi" or "Hope this note finds you well." I am not sure what that says about me, but it's a reality. When I read emails from others I think, did they too plunk in the "Good Morning" or "Hi Carol" later or do they really think of that first? I bring this up since this week I have gone back and added "Happy New Year" at the start of each email, just as last month had a lot of "I hope your holidays are wonderful" at the end.
Soooo of course I have a funny turkey story, and it's one some of you readers may remember. A few years ago I bought a frozen turkey and following my husband's instructions I put it in the fridge to defrost. After all, he is an engineer while I am the writer; I figured he knew such things. Soooo it's late the night before Thanksgiving and I am IMing with a friend and she says, well, at least my turkey is defrosted. I get thinking about MY turkey.
When I am not reading, or when I want to vege out and multi-task I love watching movies and there are a few television shows I gravitate to as well. It's interesting how much my viewing mirrors my reading choices. I like smart, snappy writing and tight plots.
When readers left off with my August 24th Bookreporter.com newsletter I was all over my plan to have four suitcases for this trip. 1. Clothes 2. Books. 3. Knitting 4. Overnight bag for the hotel. I figured this system would compartmentalize my interests and assure me that I never would be asked again to have my "big suitcase" ready first. Well, I did pack the four bags and felt like Audrey Hepburn albeit in turquoise not black as I stood outside the car poised with my bags.
This week I feel like I have a third son whose name is Harry Potter. Around our house, around the office and well, just about everywhere you look, it's all about Harry. While the news was this week was all about leaks and early shipments, I wish the focus was where it should be --- on the fact that millions of people will be spending this weekend doing what my husband has titled, "Harrybernating," reading Harry Potter.
On thelast weekend of my vacation I read Jodi Picoult's book, NINETEEN MINUTES. I always like Jodi's writing and thus I was looking forward to seeing how she handled her subject matter about a shooting at a fictitious high school in New Hampshire.
I never seem to get fully away on vacations. Instead I usually just move work locations and reply to email a lot more slowly while getting more reading/knitting/relaxing in than usual. It's why I love going down to the Outer Banks. The beach is a short bike ride away, the deck is steps from the door and I can work for a couple of hours a day in a more relaxing setting. I love my work and thus really never feel a need to totally disconnect from it though pulling back is just heavenly. And having time to read without interruption is a total pleasure.
The Virginia Festival of the Book gets better and better every year. I just love it. This was my sixth year of attending this event and each time my trip gets longer and longer as I want to spend more time there. This year I arrived on Thursday in time to have dinner with some friends at one of the terrific restaurants on the Downtown Mall. Cuisine is an art form in Charlottesville, which always surprises me for some reason. There's great food at amazingly affordable prices at least by New York standards.
One of the nice things about attending book festivals is that I get to see parts of the country that I might otherwise not venture to. My trip two weeks ago to Columbia, South Carolina for the South Carolina Book Festival was an illustration of that. The event was held downtown at the convention center just a few blocks from the state capitol, the building that you may remember got a ton of press in recent years as it still flies the Confederate flag though these days it's positioned in front instead of atop the dome.
