Let’s get the cyclical stuff out of the way, first.

1. Lost weight but then gained weight, trying to lose weight, yo-yo-dieting is not good, Gilad, Sharon Mann, CathE, Shimmy, I mean I still like myself no matter what size I am so don’t worry, but I don’t wanna buy new pants, blah blah blah. Carrot cake.

2. Something happened and then I felt sorry for myself and then I told myself not to and now I’m moving on.

3. Publicity. Writing. Day job. Stress. Pause for gratitude and acknowledgment of good fortune. Publicity. Writing. Day job. Stress.

We went to the book store today.

My boyfriend (fiance) was really excited and he took a picture of my novel on the Noteworthy Paperbacks table. But I wasn’t excited about the books on the table, because I had a lot on my mind. I’m finishing up my second novel right now. My editor sent my agent and me a mock-up of the cover for this second novel, and it looks way more beautiful than I could have imagined it. Whoever does my covers and picks the fonts — I love y’all. Thanks for being awesome.

So I was thinking about that and thinking about sales figures and thinking about scheduling. And then we got home and guess what came in the mail. An advanced copy of my next children’s book! So now I’m thinking about that, too.

We might get laid off soon.

And it’ll be okay, as long as they hurry up and let us know, as soon as they know. The not-knowing is worse than the knowing, I always feel.

I get to read some poems tomorrow.

And I’m kind of excited about that. I haven’t read poems out loud in a while, and it’s a slightly different mindset from the fiction or the prose.

Thinking about it makes me want to make another chapbook. This time, I want to make one in Kindle format, because

Oh, my god, forget whatever else I was saying…

I got a Kindle for Christmas! A Kindle!

My boyfriend, Tad, said he had a lot of trouble acquiring my gift this year. And I was puzzled, and hoped he hadn’t gone through too much trouble.

And then I called Tad’s friend Mark (psuedonym) to see if Mark thought that Tad would like the gift that I bought him. (Nintendo DS Lite, Pokemon edition.) And Mark said yes, that he, oops he means Tad would like that very much.

Then Mark said, “It’s so funny that you called about that, because Tad asked me if I thought you’d like your gift, too.”

And I was like, “Really?” And then I realized that Mark was being an info-hoarder and a tease, and potentially a spoiler, too, so I said, “Mark, don’t tell me what Tad got me, or I’ll drive to your house and kill you.”

And he promised not to tell me and ruin my surprise. Then, right before he hung up, he blurted, “I just have to tell you that all my friends who have what Tad got you, play it all the time!!!”

And I yelled “Damn youuuuuu!!!!!” but he’d already hung up, so I had nothing left to do but spend the next 52 hours wondering what in god’s name Tad could have bought. Something to play. Something that Mark’s friends would play all the time. Hmm. A Rock Band thing? No, because we have all that. A Nintendo DS Lite, Pokemon edition? No, because I’d spent weeks pretending I didn’t even know what that was (to throw Tad off track).

An electric guitar? No.
A PSP? No.
A… board game? Maybe.

Tad got me a board game. But a board game that was hard to get. Hmm. An old Parker Brothers ouija board? A special-edition Trivial Pursuit?

I couldn’t guess. I gave up trying.

And then, Christmas morning (Okay, I’m lying, it was Christmas Eve, well before midnight, but), Tad handed me my gift and said, “This is something you’ve been deserving for a long time, baby.”

A vacation? No.
A vacation day that I don’t spend working? No.
A set of 800-thread-count sheets?

No! I opened my gift and it was a freaking Kindle!

Seriously, I almost cried. I think I did cry, a little. Because that’s the kind of thing that, if Jay Leno walked up on the street and said, “Would you like a Kindle?” I would of course accept, but that, at the same time, I’d never ever expect someone to buy me, or ever imagine buying for myself.

So he gave it to me, and I won’t get into a long explanation of how it works, because you can just click the link or google it and find out, but, long story short, it worked so beautifully that I immediately downloaded and read 5 books. Within, like, 3 days. It was so insane. I was taking it everywhere and just tearing up the reading. And the only reason I’m not reading more books on it right now is because I’m supposed to be finishing my own book, so I forceably took the Kindle away from myself. I mean, I took it out of my purse. But, as soon as I finish this book I’m writing, the Kindle goes back into my purse and I’ll read 8,000 more books on it.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “OMG, Tad is the nicest boyfriend in the world.” Either that, or you’re thinking, “Buffalo wings would taste so sexy right now, I’d even eat them cold.” But, either way, you’re only partially right.

A week after Christmas, we were commuting to work. Tad was driving, and I was reading the hell out of my Kindle. After 40 minutes of that, I turned to Tad and said, “Baby, do you mind that I’m reading instead of talking to you while you drive?”

He said, “Baby, why do you think I bought you the Kindle?”

Rim shot, people yelling “BURN!” But then he said just kidding. But I knew he was only mostly just kidding.

But, best of all? I didn’t even care. I went back to reading my YA sci-fi novel, and I was happy.

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Posted in Christmas, domestic, obessions on 01/15/2009 03:42 am
 
 

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