The Call

I got the call this morning.

The ring shrilled out in the silence, early enough to make my heart pound.

I checked the caller ID and got a little breathless. Quietly, I said "hello" and strained to listen:

"This is the A. Public Library, materials you have selected are now available."

Ahhhhhh-YEAH! Whoot-whoot... whoot-whoot!

If you're thinking it is the remaining two Twilight books, you would be right! And if you're thinking I put them both on hold at the same time, you would also be right. I'm a very speedy reader. :) I will fight off those waiting 14-year-olds any day of the week.

So... I'll be MIA for a while.

I'm thinking I can get a huge Costco pizza, and just leave it out. The kids can nibble on that all day, and they're getting better about not spilling when they pour their own drinks.

Sorry children of mine, I have an obsession, and his name is Edward. And klutzy Bella reminds me of myself. I have the perfect example.

Many years ago, as I was just about to leave for NYC, for my first professional modeling shoot, I had a small accident. The morning I was supposed to leave, I over-excitedly opened the front door - right on my face. Skinned my whole cheekbone. Doh. And was delighted to explain to all the make-up artists exactly *why* they had to cover up a scrape. Such is my luck with physical coordination.

I mean, really. Who opens a door on their face?? Surprisingly, my big foot did not stop the door.

You can see why I might have a soft spot for poor Bella. :)

So, until I have read the books a few good times, in all eager anticipation, I will be off the radar. Off the grid. And living large in my gifted imagination.

She has read too many books...

...and it has addled her brain. :)
I'm back on the subject of "Twilight" - or I should say I never left it, since I thought about that book all night while I whack-a-moled my boys. It must be a particular knack to get lost in a book, and I've possessed that knack for many a year. I remember adolescent days of my Mom having to come up to my room and rouse me out of a book, when she had been calling me to come for dinner. At that time it was The Black Stallion series, and anything else horsey, or anything Madeleine L'Engle/fantasy.

What you may find amusing, astounding, or downright impossible is the fact that I have retained that knack - even in the midst of the 5 o'clock mayhem, I can mentally transport. (Quite a useful skill, I might add! And you would agree, if you have ever stepped foot in a houseful of under-10's before dinner.)

It happened yesterday, in the late afternoon. "Twilight" was so riveting that as I sat in the den reading, with the kids noise in the background, I did not even notice that the 3 had migrated to form a semi-circle around my chair. They were taking turns calling my name and I barely noticed. Finally Cole, gave a louder shout and I looked up, startled. The three of them cackled at that, thinking I was playing with them, pretending to ignore them. I felt a little disoriented and actually agreed to immediate rounds of ice cream. I think. At any rate, I felt mildly disapproving toward myself.
Can a book be "forget-to-feed-your-kids" good? That should be on the rating scale, along with "forget-to-pull-ahead-in-the-carpool-line" good, "forget-to-go-to-bed" good and "forget-you-even-have-kids" good. My favorite fall books are the "forget-there's-a-football-game-on-and-we-won't be-going-anywhere-all-season" type. :-)
So, this book was all that good, so good in fact that as I got within 40 pages of the end, I reserved the next 3 in the series at the library. They had one available immediately, and I wanted it so badly, that I actually took the girls and Phoenix into the library first thing this morning. Whoa. Be still my heart! I know, it astounded me, too.
Alas, book 2 was MIA, despite the librarian's search. All that effort for nothing - now I have to wait for the transport truck to bring My Books from south of town. *evil eye at that other fan who is holding onto the book past the due date*

Here's to book-addled brains and mental transportation! ;-)

Friends, Romans, Countrymen...

OK, that's all the Shakespeare for now, it just sounded like a good intro. Could have just said friends, but the rest rolled out.
I'm here! Present and accounted for! When 3 friends wrote to ask where I was, all in the same day, I realized I had fallen off the face of the earth for a week. =)

I didn't think I could be humorous this week about this pack o' Lears, until I kept repeating a funny quote I read recently. This author, Stephenie Meyer, was describing her 3 small boys, and called them "chimpanzees on crack." :-) That's it! That's where I was all week, handling my cracked up chimps.

Then, because simply being crazy is not enough, I started a painting project. Our banister, which curves around with the stairs, and continues upstairs around the loft, looked boring to me. So I decided to paint it a deep espresso color. Only, I had to tape off 5,000 white spindles so they wouldn't get painted too. And that's only the beginning. The clever paint dude at Lowe's directed me to prime the banister first. I taped and primed for 20 minutes before Baby 4 woke up in an ornery mood, and I'm realizing this lovely project will be on-going... because when Jadyn aka Peelerina got home from school , she went around peeling off the painting tape. Ah.

So I decided to read instead, since I can do that while jostling said baby on one knee. And I got totally wrapped up in this book, Twilight. The aforementioned author, of chimpanzee on crack fame, is riveting! But on my way to reserve the next 2 books, through my library online, I saw emails that lead me here, and well, that's that.

I'm sure I can manage some project pics in the next few days! Or at least a book report on this really good book.... ;-)