Thursday, September 12, 2013

Falling in Love: Books


Book love is much like any other love. We fall in love with them, sometimes immediately, sometimes it takes reading a few chapters, and sometimes it takes reading them more than once.

That last one is the kind of book love I have most recently experienced and it took me completely by surprise. As I was carefully working on one of our upcoming books, Annamanda, I realized I had fallen in love with it. Which was surprising because I did not like the book the first time I read it.

It was long. Like 600 pages long. And it took place in/around New Madrid around the time of the 1811-1812 earthquakes and was written as people would have talked back then. And there was a lot about religion (although the book itself is not about religion). I had a hard time relating to it. I had a hard time reading it in general because it was so long.

My boss and I have worked with this book a lot. It's not nearly as close to being done as I'd like, but I've gotten quite a bit of say in the page design and coming up with ideas for the cover. I feel as though this book has become a part of me. And every time I work on it, I fall in love with it a little more. I get excited every time I get to work on it. And I get anxious when there are other things I have to do instead of working on it. 

It's a beautiful book (which we have shortened some) and I just can't wait to see the finished project and hold it in my hands. I think my biggest fear right now is not getting to finish it before I leave. (I've decided that I'm going to leave at the end of the semester, whether I have another job or not.) While there are many things about my job that I don't really enjoy (mainly anything that deals with numbers or budgets or money), working on the books (even the ones I don't like very much) is the very best part. Seeing a book go from text on recycled paper with lots of editing marks and notes on it to the finished product is one of the best things in the world. There are quite a few other books we have scheduled for the spring and it makes me incredibly sad that I won't get to work on them (although since I'll still be going to school here, I'll at least get to see the finished product!). 

Book love is one of the best kinds of love for so many reasons and in so many ways. I think that actually working on books makes it even stronger. And I know that there are some books that I have worked on and fallen in love with that I probably wouldn't have if I hadn't worked on them...some I probably wouldn't even have considered reading at all. 

It's the reason I love books and the reason I love what I do and the reason I'm reluctant to leave. It makes me incredibly sad to know that I probably won't have a job in the near future that even deals with books at all, let alone helping to create them. 

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Never Forget: 9/11

A friend of mine posted on Facebook earlier today and she talked about how she remembered every detail of that day from where she was when she heard/saw the news to what she was wearing. It got me thinking. I really don't remember a lot from that day at all.

I remember I was in a science class (8th grade I think?). And I can remember the news station we were watching because my teacher always had it on before class started. I remember who I was in class with. And I remember not knowing what was going on--I didn't even know what those buildings were. We had never talked about them in a class before and I had never heard of or seen them on the news or anything like that either.

I was confused. I didn't know what those buildings were or who was in them. I'm not even sure I knew where those buildings were. My teacher didn't tell us. Maybe she assumed we knew what they were. Or maybe she was just too shocked to talk to us about it. I don't know.

That's really all I can remember from that day. I don't remember going to my other classes or if my parents talked to me about what had happened when I got home (although I'm sure they did). I didn't know what to think or how to feel.

It's interesting how some people don't remember much from days like that while others remember every little detail about it. And there are kids who were too young at the time to remember it at all. For them it's a "history lesson." They were talking about that on the radio today--we say "never forget" but there are kids who don't even remember it at all. I even titled this post "Never Forget" and yet there's so much from that day that I don't remember.

The whole point though is to remember the lives lost that day. The first responders who risked or sacrificed their lives to try to save others. The men and women who joined the military because of that day to defend our country. And the families of all of those people. Remember them.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Falling Off the Wagon

Last week I fell off the "30-Day Squat Challenge" wagon. Hard. Tuesday was my first day of classes and it went pretty well. I had a decent day over all even though I had gotten little sleep the night before: class was good, and I was looking forward to going home, doing my squats and then relaxing.

Instead, I came home to a house that smelled of poop. I had no clue which animal had done it or where, but I knew what it was the second I walked in. I wanted to cry. Of course, it was Copper. She had diarrhea. And she had managed to get it all over her kennel and herself. So I had to clear all of the cat's stuff out of the bathroom so I could give the dog a bath (still in my nice work clothes--didn't want to risk her getting her poop-covered self on any of the furniture). She was not happy about the bath, which she made quite clear when she got out and shook off, soaking everything in the bathroom.

I made a few attempts to dry her off then set out to clean her kennel. I wanted to puke. It smelled so, so bad. Meanwhile, she went and took a little nap on the couch. While she was still soaking wet. On top of all that, I couldn't even shower until later that night because Chris was working late.

Needless to say I did not get any sort of workout accomplished that night. The next day was my other class, Advanced Publishing, which is my night class. I had coffee twice that day because I was so exhausted. The class was good though. We watched Helvetica (if you're into typography and that sort of thing, you should watch it) which was pretty good. I'm pretty sure it's on Netflix, so once we move and have better internet, I might watch the whole thing. Since I work all day on Wednesdays and then have night class (not to mention the fact that I was exhausted), I didn't work out that day either.

By my afternoon class on Thursday I was completely off the wagon. I had given up hope of working out at all that week, or on catching back up on the squat challenge.

I spent the weekend doing homework, laundry, and napping. Copper's diarrhea slowly went away (thank God!!) and she's doing much better now.

Labor Day marked Year Two for me and Chris. We stopped at the Boat House in Forest Park for a beer and then went to the Zoo (mainly to see the sea lions!). After that we went to Pi for a late lunch and then headed home. Aside from burning my fingers with hot grease from our breakfast (much better now but hurt like hell at the time!), it was a really great day :)
Despite all the obnoxious kids that kept getting
in the way, I was able to get a couple good pics.

The Sea Lions/Underwater Tunnel is definitely
my new favorite place at the Zoo :)








Cute little elephant :)

View from one of our favorite spots.

Grizzly bear!


And last, but not least, the penguins!

I hope you all had a fun, safe Labor Day! Sorry that I also seem to have fallen off the "blogging wagon" as well. I promise I'll try to write more regularly ("try" being the key word there!).