Day of Pi and the Lame Update

Happy Pi Day to everyone!!! I have been extremely remiss in my blogging of late. Truly have been in a funk and working like a dog. Not a “real” salaried job but they have both been doing wonders for my soul. They have been getting me out of the house, out of my head, and making me happy. I have been “working” 6 days a week. So I mos’def’ have been a busy girl.

Update on the weight loss: Slow but good. LOL. I am down 17 pounds not as much as I had hoped at this point but life seems to be hitting a stride so fingers crossed that the losing trend will continue and hopefully at a wee bit of a faster rate.

I have started working on the book. This is what I am extremely excited about. I have an outline of the first chapter and need to get the flow onto paper. It is all in my head. I dream about it. If I could just take that and project it onto paper that would be brilliant…so from this blog to God’s ears.

I made an awesome dinner tonight. Salmon with Mango Marsala Sea Salt with Browned Butter on a bed of Spinach accompanied by Jasmine Rice with Golden Raisins, Black Beans, Sauteed Onions, and a hint of Mango. Let us not forget the bottle of wine…well, half bottle.

Tonight I am drinking my way to happy.

Will Read for Money

I have read the fist 6 books in the Sweep series for a total of 1126 pages since Sunday. It is a teen paranormal series about witches. I have been reading a lot of teen books lately because I had a dream that I was writing a series myself. I love the idea that I dreamed about and decided that research was needed. I wanted to know if the idea had been done all ready so I started Google-ing and reading. So far it looks like it hasn’t. I think I’ll have to get to writing. I do have an awful lot of time on my hands. I may be spending a lot of time at Starbucks then…typing with my headphones on and drinking a chai latte. Well, not so much the latte…those cost money, which means I might be one of “those” people. You know, those people, the ones that take up a table and don’t buy anything. I wonder if it makes a difference that it is inside a Barnes and Noble. Hmmmmm.

Today I decided to keep a list from this point on of the books that I read. Wish I would have started this earlier. I can’t even imagine how long the list would be. It would probably boggle my mind and a few others. It would be so awesome if I could get paid for reading books. I would be happy and rich. I’ve had a secret longing, like forever or pretty much since I was a kid. I would love to own a book store. Not a big one but one that specialized in children’s books or had quirky books in it. I don’t think this is something that could be done nowadays because of box book stores or online bookstores. I always imagined it would be in an old building in a historic district with potted plants outside with window flower boxes and twinkle lights in the windows.

There was a brief period of time when I was a kid that my Dad worked in a book store. At least I think it was a bookstore…I need to confirm that memory but I do remember lots of books, boxes of books, and the smell of books. Anyway, the store was freezing and my Dad would always bring his red plaid thermos filled with coffee to the store. My Dad was a crazy coffee drinker. He used to take the lid cup from the thermos and make me a cup of coffee (mostly milk and sugar). This was Kathi and Dad time and boy did I thing that I was so grown up drinking that coffee with my Dad. The coffee thing never stuck but I still love the smell of it. It reminds me of my Dad. It gives me the warm fuzzies.

I still think it would be brilliant to get paid to read. Or maybe I will write that book series and get paid to do that.

Tea for an Elephant

Anyone that knows me even a wee bit knows that I heart Harry Potter…like a lot…like a lot a lot. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is now on my list of “go to” books. Also on that list are The Chronicles of Narnia, A Wrinkle in Time Series (or its proper name the “Time Quintet”), The Power of One, anything by Jane Austen, The Princess Bride, and a few others. See, I don’t mind rereading books that I love. It is like visiting an old friend. Books are a constant. The world that exists in them is always there when you pick them up. It’s one of the reasons I love the book The Neverending Story. I love the idea behind that. That the story still goes on after you close the book. You become the story within the story. That I can pick it back up and be flying on the back of Falkor fighting the Nothing. I am one of those quirky people that have read The Chronicles of Narnia in the order of publication and also in chronological order. I own three separate copies of those books. I’m such a dork.

When it comes to Harry Potter every time a new book was going to come out I would read the book before it leading up to the release of the new book. So that means, in theory, I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone seven times…um, yeah, in theory. In actuality, I read it many more times than that. For you see I also reread the books when each of the movies came out. Not to mention the times that it was a slow month for new book releases and I read them again. There is something so magical about those books.

When it came to the movies, of course, they will never be the same. I mean how could they be?  But you know what? I loved them. I think they are pretty awesome. Some were better than others but still I love them. The first one is my favorite and I know a LOT of people will disagree with me on that. Here is why. There is the great reveal of a whole new world, not just to Harry but to me too. It’s the first time Harry finds out he is different in a whole other way. He finds out about magic. Diagon Alley…just the way I pictured it. It’s all a wonder and still innocent. New friends are being made and they are the people who become his family…people who love him.

When I went to Edinburgh, Scotland in January of 2010, I went with a single purpose in mind. Ok, I went because it was part of my job but I knew exactly what I was going to do when I got there and I wasn’t interviewing college students. I was going to go The Elephant House café. It is one of the cafés that J. K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter in. In the back of the café there is a sitting room with a wall of windows. This room has an amazing view of Edinburgh Castle. I wanted to go sit, drink tea, eat a shortbread cookie the shape of an elephant, and write. Lucky for me, I got to do that. I went twice. The first time was with people from work who were also HUGE Harry Potter fans just like me. We even decided to assign characters from HP to ourselves and our co-workers back home…and that is all I am going to say about that activity. I managed to sneak back to the café later in the trip. Both times I got to drink tea (Darjeeling/Oolong), eat a most delicious elephant cookie, and look out at Edinburgh Castle. Dipping that Elephant cookie into my tea thinking maybe I should read the tea leaves at the end but why borrow trouble just in case I had the grim. I tried to picture myself as J.K. wondering if she ever would have imagined that she would go from unemployment to unimagined riches while sitting in that café. Magic. It is hard to explain the euphoria that existed for me at that moment even if it was the second time I had that feeling while in Scotland. A sense of rightness, of home, and déjà vu for it is a magical country.

So here I sit in Elkton, VA, drinking tea, eating a Walker’s shortbread cookie, and writing about J. K. Rowling…funny, right?

Write side of happy tonight.

So Many Books, So Little Time

I heart books. If, heaven forbid, my house ever caught on fire I quite possible would die because I would be trying to save my books after I saved my animals. During the very early years of my life my family lived two doors away from the public library. The only thing separating me from Valhalla was our neighbor’s yard. Our neighbors name was “Neighbor”. Well, that is what I called them. Family lore is that after hearing my Mom say “Hi neighbor”, I, being a wicked smart kid thought that was their name and dubbed them as such forever more. I couldn’t tell you their real name to save my life. The border between our houses wasn’t a fence but a row of Peony bushes. I would spend endless hours smelling those Peonies and watching the ants crawl all over them. To this day Peonies are still one of my all time favorite flowers. Neighbor had a dog and it was a Lhasa Apso from Tibet. Well not actually from Tibet but that was where the breed originated from and its name was…wait for it…it was named Tibet. They also had a fish tank with a live starfish in it. Totally random and I digress.

Any hoo…back to books. On the other side of Neighbor was our town’s public library. Whenever I would go to the library I didn’t go out the front door and walk down the side walk to the library. We lived on a busy four lane highway. Much too dangerous for Mom to even contemplate letting me do. So, I would go out the back door and cross through our and Neighbor’s backyard, “Hi Neighbor”, on my way to the back door of the library. A lot of times the librarian would be on the back steps as I walked over. To this day I suspect that my Mom probably called to tell them I was on my way over. So the librarian would be keeping an eye out for me.

Walking into the building was magical. It was an older, kind of historical building that was dimly lit, nothing like the libraries of today. It wasn’t bright or sleek and certainly didn’t have computers…well, ok, in all fairness it was the 70’s. When the light shined through the older upper windows, the dust motes would float and play in the rays of sunshine. There were cubbies or sitting areas to sit in while you read. The chairs were old and had cracks in the leather but so comfy. In the children’s section, there were beat up, well used bean bags. Sometimes, while I was reading, I would lie on those bean bags with my legs up and my feet resting on the shelves or the wall or I would sit in the chairs with my back on one arm and my legs dangling over the other one. The building smelled musty and the books even more so. I love that smell. I should since my nose was always in a book.

One of the very first books I ever checked out of the library was “Harold and the Purple Crayon” by Crocket Johnson. Harold could create his adventures by drawing them. He created other worlds. From this book I realized that I could have adventures too…by reading them. I was hooked. My love affair began. I became a pioneer who traveled by wagon with my family out to the prairie. I walked through a wardrobe into a land with talking animals. I moved into a giant peach pit after leaving my evil aunties behind. I put on my emerald colored glasses and followed a yellow brick road. I rode sideways, long ways, and short ways in a glass elevator.  I lamented having a younger brother because it is hard being a fourth grade nothing. I contemplated what a Tesseract was and who the three Mrs. W’s really were. Books were and continue to be my passport to far off places.

I like the weight of a book. I love the feeling of older books that have fabric like covers. I like the sound the spine of a brand new book makes when you open it for the first time. I love the smell of books. I love the feel of the paper. I like the sound the pages make when you turn them or flip through them. I have stayed up all night for books. Books have caused me to lose track of time so losing myself in one is an easy thing to do. I have been late to events because I need to read just one more chapter.

I love spending time in bookstores. I have received gift cards to bookstores and have been known to take several hours picking out the books I want to get with that gift card. I want to make sure it has been spent on the right books. My friends will walk around the mall for a couple of hours and know that they can come back and find me still perusing the selection or copping a squat on the floor reading. I have one friend who won’t go with me because they know it could be a while. When I buy books I like them to match. What I mean by that is that if I buy the first book in a series and it is a paperback the rest of the series has to be paperback and vice versa. I am a weirdo. I know this and I am ok with it.

I heart books, they are people too.

Writing myself happy.