Four Things

One. Text messages with my sister. Lately, we’ve been sending texts related to books. We read The Hunger Games at the same time and watched the movie the same night, so we were checking in to chart each other’s progress and to get each other’s take. Most recently, we’ve been sending texts about this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. You know, the one that wasn’t awarded. Last year we both read the 2011 winner around the same time. (Well, I read, she listened.) So we’ve been chatting about the runner ups. She already has them, I plan to read them as soon as I get through some books that have been piling up. Of course, what I love most about text messages with my sister isn’t the book talk (although I love that too); it’s about being able to talk to my sister. It hasn’t always been easy for us to be in regular contact due to completely different schedules, and now it is. My sister is pretty awesome, and that’s an understatement. She’s always been a great role model and she inspires me. So, to be able to regularly send a text or to be able to talk on the phone without having to schedule it two weeks in advance has been really nice.

[Silverton Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, August 2011]

Two. Fish. I’ve been thinking about fish. Specifically seahorses, jelly fish, starfish and stingrays. My business partner Heather was considering getting a seahorse aquarium. It turns out that seahorses are expensive to feed; they’re carnivores and they prefer their food to be live. Then, we were thinking that it would be cool to have a starfish tank in our studio when we move from the sketchbook/planning phase of our business to the actually needing a studio phase. Yeah, they’re carnivores too. I had a fleeting thought of jelly fish until I discovered that not only are they also carnivores, but they are extremely picky. They prefer their brine shrimp to be be one to two days old, so it’s recommended that you have a second tank for hatching their food. I don’t think so. 

 For me, no thought about tropical fish is complete without thinking about stingrays. It’s not that I was thinking about a stingray tank, I just think about them often, as they’re tied for my favorite animal. Look how cute!

 

[Silverton Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, August 2011]

(On another fish-related note, I hand-delivered my manuscript to my former boss, who is one of my beta readers, last week. I took it to my old workplace and got to meet their new beta fish, who was named after one of the employees. She hadn’t realized that they had named the fish after him, so when she walked in one day and another person ran up to her shouting, “G’s dying, G’s dying!” she freaked out! She wanted to change the name after that.) 

Three. My nephew. He showed me how far along he is in learning how to tie his shoes, which isn’t far yet but he’s a little young. And he’s adorable! 

Four. Camera batteries. I keep forgetting that my camera battery is fully charged and actually works! I just set my camera out where I see it every day to remind myself. You can expect to see some new photos soon!