Epic pizza is epic

Office of deliciousness: my aunt took me out to dinner last night at a place called Good Earth, which is so redolent of freshness that they probably pluck their herbs from their window boxes, and we had a pizza with caramelized onions, gorgonzola cheese, apple slices and baked squash. SO GOOD SO GOOD SO GOOD.

The Book Fairy

You guys! I just had the best idea ever! I'm going to be a book fairy!

See, I was walking through the downtown and ran into the local used bookstore. In the window it advertised: "Children's book $1!"

And I thought: "I'm tutoring children in reading. WHAT BETTER THAN TO GIVE THEM BOOKS?"

(The summer after second grade, the teacher of my summer Spanish class gave me a copy of Number the Stars. I was already a reader, but the book triggered an interest in 'escaping the Nazis' books, so much that I actually wrote one in third grade. Except the heroine wasn't Jewish, because I realized I knew nothing about Jewish people, a flash of insight that somehow did not extend to "Dutch people," "Nazis," or "World War II." Oh well.)

So! I will be passing his kindly gesture onward to my own students! When they graduate from the program, or have a birthday, or at Christmastime, the second and third graders will get to pick a book from my overflowing shelves!

(Should I include the first graders? They can't actually read yet - well, I'm sure some of them can, but not the ones I'll be working with. But, on the other hand: giving away more books!)

It's the perfect age, too; second and third graders are just on the cusp of the age where books can become the center of the universe.

AND I GET TO BUY STACKS AND STACKS OF BELOVED FAVORITES TO SHARE. This is going to be so much fun!