Christmas In July

I’ve always hated that phrase when I see stores using it to advertise a mid-summer sale, but right now I’m experiencing my very own ‘Christmas In July’. After the lightening strike that took out all of my televisions, phones and computer, I’m finally being rewarded for paying all of my insurance premiums all these years! Every day this week, the UPS woman has come to see me! My trash men are going to think I’ve ripped of an electronic store. Either that or they’re going to come back and try to steal all the new stuff they know I just got (from all the boxes I’ve thrown out). Note to self: invest in security system.

My evenings have been spent moving old tv cabinets, re-arranging my home office, hooking up tv’s, computers and telephones and learning how to operate them. It’s exciting but tiring as well! Especially for a sight-impaired person like myself. It took me 2 and a half hours to hook up my computer last night. I’m sure most people would’ve had it done in under an hour. That task was made even more daunting because HP forgot to pack the mouse and one of the power cords! So I spent 30 minutes going through the boxes again making sure I didn’t overlook them with my bad eyes and then accusing Jax (my cat) of running off with them! After searching high and low, I’m positive hey are simply not there!

My reading has taken a back seat to all of this electronic installation, but I’m hoping that by the weekend I’ll be back on my regular, tedious schedule. I did have a surprise on my MySpace page the other day. Naida, from The Bookworm, posted a blog about the author of PAY IT FORWARD (the movie version starred Helen Hunt, Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment) and how she received a signed copy of the book from the author, Catherine Ryan Hyde. I did a search to look at other books by this author and noticed a MySpace page, so I checked it out. I left a comment praising PIF and soon after I received an email from Ms. Hyde asking if I’d like to receive a copy of CHASING WINDMILLS, her latest book released in March 2008. It’s the story about two people who meet on a New York City subway and form a relationship that changes both their lives forever. I’m really looking forward to reading it. Look for that review in the future. It really is nice that authors are so approachable and easy to communicate with. I’ve had some very pleasant experiences with authors and it makes me even happier that books are my passion. What have your experiences with authors been like? Any favorite moments or conversations? I’d love to hear about them.