BookFest, Books, and, um, Books

Last weekend was The Book Festival and let me just dance a little jig of remembered delight. If you missed it: What the heck, people? This was good times. There was music. Food. (Wow, the food.) Activities about books, books to buy, author interviews, and Poe was even out greeting the people and reading some of his work.

The highlight, for me, was seeing Lois Lowry. (For those, sadly, not in the know: Lois Lowry is a children's fiction writer. Her books include Number the Stars, The Giver, The Gooney books, and much more awesomeness.) She has a new book, her first picture book, The Crow Call. Listening to her speak, read from her new book, and then answer questions was a goose-bump getting experience. She's smart, she's funny, and I want to be her when I grow up. Now, if I could only back track and spend part of my youth in exotic locales like Honolulu and Tokyo, maybe I could get there.


I also would like to congratulate myself, publicly and in print: I only bought one book. This is a major thing. I had to sell about fifty percent of my books so that I could have a bed in my apartment and not just sleep on paperbacks. While someone else on the blog mentioned she's addicted to social networking sites, mine is books, books, and, again, books. In fact, as a child my mother would often punish me by taking away my books and sending me outside. (This is not an exaggeration.)

Of course, on the other hand, my sister was frequently only given access to books--TV, radio, and phone privileges having been revoked--during a grounding. We lived in strange, parallel worlds, my sister and I. (When they collided, it was bad for me. So bad. One day, I'll tell the story about monsters, bunk beds, and a concussion. When I know you better.)


However, this book is going to change my life. It is going to teach me to Feng Shui, to build bunk beds, to read palms, and to create lamps out of anything! This is not too high an expectation for a book, is it? Nah, probably not.

In other news, there's so much to do and so little, little time: Tonight, the Wasteland at 8p.m.--if I can swing it and, tomorrow, Star Wars at 7:30 p.m.. Of course, I have class till 8, but afterwards I can hang out at the Gordon Center Plaza and geek-out.

Once again, I will leave you with a few true things.

Things I've learned: Cabbie drivers are scary; do not get in their way. If you are from out-of-state, with a similarly un-local checking account, you cannot write a check for over $100 at Safeway until you have 10 checks in their system. (This was a lesson that required an embarrassing amount of removing groceries from my cart in line.) And, finally, people can see in your window during the day. (I'd rather not talk about it.)

Things I still need to know: Which is a good local bank! Stat! Where to buy a cheap, but not-scary-and-has-bohemian-potential couch. And, finally, where to print in color on campus. (I lost a printer cable in my move and have yet to replace it.)