I have the best luck ever. Two rainy Sundays in a row for my days off. Nothing better than lounging about, feeling perfectly justified in not leaving the house. Too cold! Too dreary! Must stay on the couch ALL DAY!
Today was dreamy. I slept in until 8:30, had a bowl of oatmeal with almonds, bananas, butter and maple syrup. Booked a room for the Elizabeth Gilbert book signing I’m going to in New Hope, PA. Then I hit the couch and read a book. An entire book. Just under 300 pages. It was divine. The process, not so much the book. The book was pretty good: “This is What Happened” by Jo Barrett. I found it at the library yesterday, using my tried and true book finding technique. I stand in front of the new fiction section, cock my head to the side, and read the titles off the spines. If the title catches my eye – either for the words themselves or just the color and font, I check it out and take it home. I have read some amazing books this way. I’ve hit some real duds, too, but the good news is that in the last few years I’ve been able to break free of the odd loyalty that compelled me to finish a book even if it was lousy. I’d feel horribly guilty if I didn’t finish a book. That’s in the past now, thank goodness, the only exception being Book Club books, the last two of which have been miserable. I finished this month’s last night, by literally turning the pages and scanning down the words hoping to find something interesting to connect to. It was “The Gravedigger’s Daughter” by Joyce Carol Oates, and I’m sure lots of people liked it, but I did not.
So today, the book was about a girl that got dumped and sought revenge. It had an eyecatching font on the spine and a subtitle “not a love story” . Then the cover has brownies on it, so you know it came right home with me. She tells a bit about what she did with herself while she was grieving the loss of the relationship, some of the ups and downs of the process, but mostly it was very light and funny. I won’t be giving too much away to let you know she finds love in the end. Don’t they always find love in the end. Made me very excited about my book again, which, barring a big surprise for me or some liberties on the part of the publisher, won’t involve me finding love in the end. I’ve been taking a break from writing it, actually the break is more around the work involved in writing a proposal and trying to get it published, so it was nice to get the creative juices about the story itself flowing again.
Speaking of creative, I had a fabulous lunch I made myself. Sweet Potatoes simmered in coconut milk with coriander, cayenne and cinnamon and a handful of kale thrown in at the end. It was delicious and very filling. And with just one can of coconut milk and one sweet potato I’ve got enough for two more meals.
Dinner was a bowl of gnocchi, which, after paying $6.99 for the box, I promised myself I would teach myself how to make and never pay that much again. I used to make them, in fact one year I aspired to give homemade gnocchi as Christmas presents to my friends, but I totally botched the batch and to cover ended up creating the “gnocchi-o”, which didn’t go over very well. I haven’t tried to make them since then, but I’m pretty sure I can get a potato, an egg and some flour for less than $6.99, so I’m in. Money I’m short on. Time and talent I’ve got.
