Today, I hate my job.

Ah, blog. It's been a while.

I've been busy lately. Working five days a week (and pining for the days when I was a student and had an excuse to only work fifteen hours a week), visiting Matt in Michigan (he had his junior recital and he was AMAZING! I'm so proud to be related to such a great artist/composer), reading and writing a lot.

Oh, the reading.../contented sigh. I'm reading a few classics, rereading Jane Eyre (one of my favorites)...but for the past week, I've been focused on The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. It just came out last month--book two in his Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy. (The first book is The Name of the Wind. Friends reading this, you should get in on this series. Seriously, it's incredible. I typically don't even read fantasy and I'm in love with these books.) It's about a thousand pages long, which I actually love. If it were normal novel length, I would have finished it in one or two days and then been depressed that it ended so fast. (Plus my beloved Kindle keeps me from having to deal with lugging around a cumbersome book the size of a bible.) Anyway...great book. It's been demanding several hours of my attention every day.

Now here's something wonderful and sad. Patrick Rothfuss is coming HERE, tonight, to read in a bookstore downtown. Like most authors, he typically plans his readings months in advance. This was more spur of the moment, though, only decided a week ago. He's coming here to have his brain photographed, apparently for a study of the way creative people's minds work. He decided to try to do a reading/book signing while in the area, since he has no idea when he might be coming back to Iowa for anything. I read this on his blog two days ago. I only look at his blog once or twice a month...obviously, I could have easily read that post this weekend, after he had come and gone. The timing seems like a minor miracle, right? So OF COURSE I would be scheduled to work tonight. And OF COURSE the cafe opener today couldn't possibly swap shifts with me. And OF COURSE there was no one else who could cover my shift because only 4 out of 180 team members know how to properly work at the cafe.

So while Patrick Rothfuss is reading and signing and being generally delightful downtown, I'll be at Target...popping popcorn.

The good news is that Spencer and Jordan are going. Spencer is the one who told me I HAD to read The Name of the Wind a couple years ago, that it was the best book ever, etc. He hadn't heard about the reading tonight, either. When Jordan called to tell him about it and see if he wanted to go, he wouldn't stop screaming on the phone. He's ecstatic. So I'm happy that he gets to go and enjoy it. Jordan is just going to buy copies of the books and have them signed for me. He also claims that he's going to start reading them, on his breaks at work. That would make me super happy, since he normally hates reading. Yes, I married a man who doesn't like to read. Shameful, isn't it?

Well, it's about time for me to go to work and sulk all night. Oh, on a random note, if you enjoy the spicy deliciousness of ginger, you have to try Tazo green ginger tea. I've been drinking it as I've been writing this entry, and it's quite good. I believe I would occasionally choose this over a cup of coffee, and that's saying something for me!