6/18/2004

A Nice Way To Spend An Evening

Last night I spent a pleasant few hours at Z’s cousins house last night. She is my very favorite of all his MANY MANY relatives. All her 9 brothers and sisters are very loving and kind to me. Hell, I wish his immediate family was THIS great! I like spending time with them almost every Thursday evening. Last night was particularly nice though.

Last night I had 3 children hanging off me aged 4, 14 months, and 3 months(Girl. Boy. Girl.) . And I loved every cotton-pickin minute of it too!

The first two are brother and sister. The little one is their cousin. Brother and sister were stuck like glue to me. The little boy kept crawling in my lap, one hand on my breast and the other fisted gently in my hair, smiling at me making cooing noises. Typical male. Hair and boobs. Sometimes he would rest his head on my chest, hand still in my hair, patting my breast like a cat. Sorry honey, no milk there! He was just being happy though.

Meanwhile, his sister was almost surgically attached to my left hip playing with my hair, twisting and trying to braid it and brushing it back from my face with her hands and hugging me and kissing my face. I kept grabbing her to me and giving her kisses. She always tells me “I love you” in her little scratchy raspy Demi Moore voice. The baby girl was on her moms lap on my right staring transfixedly at me the whole time and grabbing my sleeve in her little chubby fist while drooling on her teething ring.

The whole time everyone kept remarking to each other-over and over: “Look at that! Look how children of all ages are with her!! Look how children love her. The baby doesn’t like ANYONE these days! Then my favorite cousin said, exasperated, “Of course they love her and are drawn to her. They sense that she loves them, and they love her right back! She draws children to her like bees to honey.” WOW! Thanks.

I wish I could draw one to my womb as easily.

When time came to leave, brother and sister were both not letting me go. After 5 minutes of hugs and kisses from me, they finally let me leave.

Truth be told, I was loath to go.

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Happy Comfort

Today I passed some time in the comfort of a local bookstore.

Yeah, comfort. I love books. I love the smell of a bookstore. Have you ever paid attention to the smell of a bookstore lately? The new paper.. the ink.. the combination of it. They don’t have “proper” bookstores like back home in America that is for SURE, but still, I get my “fix”. So I wandered around the bookstore... looking through the different kinds.. just inhaling the familiar smells and enjoying myself.

Don’t believe me? Well, when I moved here.. I shipped over 350 of my favorite books here. This was after I had to force myself to sell about 200 of the ones I had before the move at a garage sale.

I am a voracious reader. I have been from as long as I can remember. Both my parents encouraged me to read from very early. This could also be due to the fact that at the time my Dad worked for Random House in the child products development division (which encompassed the textbooks section too) and some other things. I got the best of the freebies and I guess I was a guinea pig for some of his projects too. God, the memories of the damn school textbooks he used to make me work through still make me shudder! Anyway, I had loads of books even then.

As I got older my love of books grew. My reading was so advanced that when I was in second grade they put me in a special class.. for speed reading..

From the time I was around 10… particularly during the summer while mom was at work and I was at home, I would get on my bike with my hoarded allowance and ride to my favorite bookstore. I would buy 2 or 3 books to last me for the next couple of days. I would ride home as fast as I could pedal... long (then) golden blond hair streaming in the breeze, happy as anything. Into the house and PLOP! on my bed in front of the cooling breeze of the oscillating fan. I would read one 200+ page book a day, so engrossed I couldn’t put it down. Sometimes two. My Nana had recently gone and gotten me hooked on Nancy Drew books by giving me my first one. That summer I bought and read every single Nancy Drew book in print. All 68 of them! Even then and in the following years … I would read all sorts of things: encyclopedias, medical and health books… history books… you name it!

Even now as an adult, I have been known to spend a few hours happily wandering in a bookstore. Heh. And not just wandering, either; filling my shopping basket as well! And. I. Mean. Filling. Hardcover, paperback. All genres. Particularly fiction, History (All early history from Early Medieval through to the Victorian era) Castle and hill-fort construction, Autobiographies and historical romance. Well-written Fiction really appeals to me because a person created it from thin air, and that is some accomplishment in my book. It takes real creativity. I’m a sucker for nice cookbooks too.

When I read… I am completely immersed in the story. It is still one of my favorite ways to pass time. I will still drag books around with me. To the doctor for my typical long waiting room wait (except for wand monkey & IVF appointements, cause I’m too antsy). In an airport, on a plane. When I go pick up Arianna from school and know there will be a wait in the parking lot until the gates are opened. In the late night hours when my insomnia hits me full force… I have my books. When I’m hospitalized so very frequently… books save me from cabin fever. One of my favorite reading spots though has to be in a nice bubble bath. I love relaxing in a bubble bath with a good book.

I prefer to read than to watch TV actually. Don't get me wrong.. I like TV and movies as much as the next person and am easily hooked on a good program. But if given a choice... a book, anytime.

The best thing? My child loves books too. When she says the infernal "I'm bored!" I tell her.. "you can never be bored when you have a book to pick up. Go read if you are bored and have time on your hands".

And you know what? She does. It's a great feeling when I find her stretched out on her daybed reading a book.(Usually Harry Potter books)

My dream is to have a study... with a wall of floor to ceiling bookshelves. PACKED TO THE GILLS, naturally. One day I will have it.

See if I don't!


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