All Sara, All the Time (at least today)

I'm a regular reader of Crochet All Day, at least as regular as you can be with someone who seems to spend every school year on a blogging hiatus [kidding! except she knows it's true! and I'm guilty of it too!]

Point being, school's out and there's been a lot of Sara-related activity lately.

1. She's de-stashing/organizing/coming to grips with her pattern addiction and I'm the proud recipient of the first prize. It's a pattern for a very pretty short sleeve sweater that I can't find the picture for right now. I'll give more details when I get it.

2. Sara's having another contest, easily entered by leaving a comment at her blog. The prize is a felting book and three British knitting magazines. If you mention you heard about it from me, I get entered too though I'm not sure if, ethically, I should be. I guess that's for Sara to decide.

3. Sara has asked how I manage to read so many books and if I read more than one at a time. I'm a quick reader, always have been. And I usually have at least 2 books in process at any given time - one for the bus (picked for portability and font size) and one for the home. In addition, I often start a book and decide partway through that I'm not in the mood for it right then so it goes into the holding pattern pile. I am fickle in my reading desires but am rarely caught out without something to read (I even tend to bring a book to parties, in case they get dull. I'm not proud of this).

Right now, my bus book is the new Laurie Notaro, my home book is the sixth Harry Potter and the on-hold book is Bill Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything (it's good but too big for the bus and too dense to get through more than a few pages before bed, it's going to take a while.)

I'll probably finish the Potter book today and I'm not sure what will come next. I've got a stack of unread books, some loaners I need to get to and the perennial favorites that always seem to creep up the queue.

In short, I like to read and spend a good amount of time doing it. Also, I have no husband or kids to distract me and frequently put off going to sleep to read "just one more chapter." I accidentally read Stephen King's Delores Claiborne in one night because it didn't have any chapter breaks. True story.

4. A week or two ago, Sara tagged me for the 7 Unknown/Weird Things About Me meme. So here you have it

- If I'm reading a scary book I'll place it front cover side down, spine towards the bed, underneath at least one other book before I go to sleep. That way the monsters can't climb out of the book and get me.

- When I eat Frosted Mini Wheats (which happens frequently) the frosting side has to be in the milk and that same side has to be placed on my tongue.

- I'm addicted to Television Without Pity and sometimes watch a tv show just so I can understand the recap.

- Once, while en pointe, I managed to slice open one toe with the adjacent toenail. It hurt.

- In high school, while dating my first boyfriend he became Super Religious which lead to my breaking up with him and to the start of my distaste for organized religion.

- I like it when Lucy licks my feet.

- In 1996 I bought a ring at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. I was at a professional conference, the few people I knew had disappeared and it was my birthday. I picked up a MS magazine, went to a real restaurant and sat there alone, eating shrimp, being a outloud feminist and refusing to feel sorry for myself. I bought the ring as a birthday present for myself and have worn it almost every day since. It reminds me that I can be alone and still be happy, strong and self-sufficient.