[If You're Not Into the Whole Brevity Thing...] Story Times
The bad news is that I haven't written a proper amount on the novel this week. The good news is that I've been sticking to my running schedule, and have actually gotten out of the house and DONE things.
On Tuesday Luke and I went to baby story time at the library. Baby story time is for babies six weeks to two years old, and I've been wanting to take him pretty much since he was six weeks old. But, story time at our local branch was at 10:30. When I first joined the gym, 10:30 was the BEST time to go, and then when Luke was too old to sleep in his car seat, 10:30 was nap time. Then I saw that a different branch had story time at 9:30. So, we finally went this week.
There were about a dozen babies with their moms/grandmas/token dad. We sang some songs that everyone but me knew the words to, the leader read a book, and then there was free play with balls and a tunnel and musical instruments. I have no idea if Luke enjoyed it any more than he enjoys just going to the library and playing with their toys. We'll go back next week and see how it goes.
Speaking of the library, I found a graphic memoir there a few weeks ago called CALLING DR. LAURA by Nicole J. Georges. I usually don't go to the library knowing what I want to check out--I just wander around and see what jumps out at me. I enjoyed the book so I looked the author up online, and saw that she was on tour and coming to Atomic Books on Thursday with three other authors/artists. I've been wanting to actually leave the house and DO things, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity.
I've never been to Atomic Books before, and I actually hate driving in the city. Since this was only a week after Valentine's Day, I figured I could drag Brian along and we could make a date out of it and go out to dinner at Joe Squared. When I'm hungry but shouldn't really be eating, I like to read about food online or watch Food Network. Joe Squared was on a list of the best pizza in America and was featured on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Also, I ran past it during the Baltimore Half-Marathon back in October, so I already knew where it was!
We found parking around the corner from the restaurant at a meter that said "FAT PEOPLE EXIST."
The menu includes a list of signature pizzas (bonus: the "meats" and "vegetarian" sections are equally long!) or you can select from a list of ingredients and make your own pizza. Brian initially told me he was getting pepperoni...then he ordered pineapple and bacon. I already knew what I wanted--the flag pizza. Tell me this doesn't sound good: "Split in thirds with a variety of sauces: Red sauce with mozzarella, provolone, romano, parmigiano and asiago; White sauce with mozzarella, cheddar and ricotta; Pesto sauce with fresh mozzarella."
I refused to eat anything green until I was about 22 years old, and I feel terrible that pesto and I missed out on all that time together. The four-cheese pesto pizza from Wolfgang Puck is one of my favorite pizzas ever, so I was super excited to try the pesto at Joe Squared. Surprisingly, it was my least favorite slice. I really enjoyed the rest of it, though.
The food was definitely good but it was pricey, and I would go back only if I happened to be in the area already (like maybe if I run the Baltimore Marathon and need a break).
I'm not sure why but I was under the impression that eating here would take awhile, and it was actually super quick. We had almost an hour until the event started and we were only a five minute drive from Atomic Books.
Since I've never been there before, I killed a lot of time just looking around. There's a record shop inside and Brian apparently is old friends with the guy who owns it, so he had a great time talking to him. We were there forever because we got there super early AND the event started super late because Nicole and Cassie were driving from North Carolina and got stuck on I-95. After working in Rockville for two years and dealing with that hellacious commute, I have so much empathy for anyone stuck in traffic on 95 and I felt terrible for them.
I'd assumed there was going to be a panel discussion, but each of the writers/artists did a reading/presentation. Sally Madden was first. She wrote a comic called GRAY IS NOT A COLOR about her time working at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. I kind of wanted to visit the Mutter Museum when Brian and I were in Philly that one time, but we didn't have a chance. She read one part of the book about her co-worker who had a jar on her desk full of baby heads. I'm discovering that I find a lot of things completely humorless now that I have a kid, and dead babies in a jar is definitely one of those things. I probably couldn't handle the Mutter Museum.
Monica Gallagher was next. She's done web comics and just published a graphic novel called GLITTER KISS written by Adrianne Ambrose. She used to be in the roller derby and one of her web comics BONNIE N. COLLIDE, NINE TO FIVE is about a derby girl. I'm still sad that I never tried out for the roller derby back when I was young and had good health insurance. I dream about publishing a graphic novel one day, but I am the least artistic person I have ever met, so I wanted to know more about her collaboration on Glitter Kiss, but I couldn't figure out how to phrase that as an intelligent question. Then no one else had any questions, so I missed my chance.
Cassie J. Sneider read from her memoir FINE FINE MUSIC, and I just loved everything about it. I loved the writing and I loved her voice and presentation and her whole look. I was so close to buying a copy of the book, but I didn't have the money to buy a book from EVERYONE so I didn't get anything. I don't know why I feel awkward about that, because I have actually done book signings before so I KNOW that a reader buying a book from every author in attendance would be the weird exception and not the norm. But I still feel awkward about it. So now I'm just going to have to go back to Atomic Books or see if I can order it online.
Nicole J. Georges went last. There are a lot of things happening in her memoir, but the big hook is that she always thought her father was dead, then a palm reader tells her that he's alive, which turns out to be true, and she finds out her whole family had been lying to her. She said that when she had the opportunity to publish the graphic memoir, she hesitated because her family is still alive. So she went to a psychic to ask for help, and she couldn't afford to pay the psychic so she traded her a pet portrait for a reading. I love that.
So that was our night. It was fun. I should definitely get out more.
On Tuesday Luke and I went to baby story time at the library. Baby story time is for babies six weeks to two years old, and I've been wanting to take him pretty much since he was six weeks old. But, story time at our local branch was at 10:30. When I first joined the gym, 10:30 was the BEST time to go, and then when Luke was too old to sleep in his car seat, 10:30 was nap time. Then I saw that a different branch had story time at 9:30. So, we finally went this week.
There were about a dozen babies with their moms/grandmas/token dad. We sang some songs that everyone but me knew the words to, the leader read a book, and then there was free play with balls and a tunnel and musical instruments. I have no idea if Luke enjoyed it any more than he enjoys just going to the library and playing with their toys. We'll go back next week and see how it goes.
Speaking of the library, I found a graphic memoir there a few weeks ago called CALLING DR. LAURA by Nicole J. Georges. I usually don't go to the library knowing what I want to check out--I just wander around and see what jumps out at me. I enjoyed the book so I looked the author up online, and saw that she was on tour and coming to Atomic Books on Thursday with three other authors/artists. I've been wanting to actually leave the house and DO things, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity.
I've never been to Atomic Books before, and I actually hate driving in the city. Since this was only a week after Valentine's Day, I figured I could drag Brian along and we could make a date out of it and go out to dinner at Joe Squared. When I'm hungry but shouldn't really be eating, I like to read about food online or watch Food Network. Joe Squared was on a list of the best pizza in America and was featured on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Also, I ran past it during the Baltimore Half-Marathon back in October, so I already knew where it was!
We found parking around the corner from the restaurant at a meter that said "FAT PEOPLE EXIST."
The menu includes a list of signature pizzas (bonus: the "meats" and "vegetarian" sections are equally long!) or you can select from a list of ingredients and make your own pizza. Brian initially told me he was getting pepperoni...then he ordered pineapple and bacon. I already knew what I wanted--the flag pizza. Tell me this doesn't sound good: "Split in thirds with a variety of sauces: Red sauce with mozzarella, provolone, romano, parmigiano and asiago; White sauce with mozzarella, cheddar and ricotta; Pesto sauce with fresh mozzarella."
I refused to eat anything green until I was about 22 years old, and I feel terrible that pesto and I missed out on all that time together. The four-cheese pesto pizza from Wolfgang Puck is one of my favorite pizzas ever, so I was super excited to try the pesto at Joe Squared. Surprisingly, it was my least favorite slice. I really enjoyed the rest of it, though.
The food was definitely good but it was pricey, and I would go back only if I happened to be in the area already (like maybe if I run the Baltimore Marathon and need a break).
I'm not sure why but I was under the impression that eating here would take awhile, and it was actually super quick. We had almost an hour until the event started and we were only a five minute drive from Atomic Books.
Since I've never been there before, I killed a lot of time just looking around. There's a record shop inside and Brian apparently is old friends with the guy who owns it, so he had a great time talking to him. We were there forever because we got there super early AND the event started super late because Nicole and Cassie were driving from North Carolina and got stuck on I-95. After working in Rockville for two years and dealing with that hellacious commute, I have so much empathy for anyone stuck in traffic on 95 and I felt terrible for them.
I'd assumed there was going to be a panel discussion, but each of the writers/artists did a reading/presentation. Sally Madden was first. She wrote a comic called GRAY IS NOT A COLOR about her time working at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. I kind of wanted to visit the Mutter Museum when Brian and I were in Philly that one time, but we didn't have a chance. She read one part of the book about her co-worker who had a jar on her desk full of baby heads. I'm discovering that I find a lot of things completely humorless now that I have a kid, and dead babies in a jar is definitely one of those things. I probably couldn't handle the Mutter Museum.
Monica Gallagher was next. She's done web comics and just published a graphic novel called GLITTER KISS written by Adrianne Ambrose. She used to be in the roller derby and one of her web comics BONNIE N. COLLIDE, NINE TO FIVE is about a derby girl. I'm still sad that I never tried out for the roller derby back when I was young and had good health insurance. I dream about publishing a graphic novel one day, but I am the least artistic person I have ever met, so I wanted to know more about her collaboration on Glitter Kiss, but I couldn't figure out how to phrase that as an intelligent question. Then no one else had any questions, so I missed my chance.
Cassie J. Sneider read from her memoir FINE FINE MUSIC, and I just loved everything about it. I loved the writing and I loved her voice and presentation and her whole look. I was so close to buying a copy of the book, but I didn't have the money to buy a book from EVERYONE so I didn't get anything. I don't know why I feel awkward about that, because I have actually done book signings before so I KNOW that a reader buying a book from every author in attendance would be the weird exception and not the norm. But I still feel awkward about it. So now I'm just going to have to go back to Atomic Books or see if I can order it online.
Nicole J. Georges went last. There are a lot of things happening in her memoir, but the big hook is that she always thought her father was dead, then a palm reader tells her that he's alive, which turns out to be true, and she finds out her whole family had been lying to her. She said that when she had the opportunity to publish the graphic memoir, she hesitated because her family is still alive. So she went to a psychic to ask for help, and she couldn't afford to pay the psychic so she traded her a pet portrait for a reading. I love that.
So that was our night. It was fun. I should definitely get out more.