Mar. 14: A day for the girls

Katie and I had a girl-y day today. It’s been a long time since we’ve done anything special, just the two of us, and it was a lot of fun. Even though we had asked the boys to come along with us, we were glad they opted to stay home because boys tend to ruin stuff with their farting contests and overall boy-ness. 

Our first stop was Lisa Schroeder’s book reading/signing at Powell’s in Beaverton. On the drive over, Katie asked to listen to Jim Gaffigan, and I loved listening to her giggle in the back seat all the way there. Since his comedy is pretty clean, we let our kids listen to it on long drives and they “get” enough of it to make it fun. Jack can recite the whole hammock bit; Katie loves the part about bowling. It cracks me up, kind of a lot.

Anyway, we braved that awful weekend traffic in Beaverton and browsed at Powell’s for a while before we sat down to wait for the reading to begin. Lisa said “hi” before it started, and Katie was excited to get an official introduction. She kept telling me, very proudly, that Lisa is the second author she’s met—the first was Carmen Agra Deedy, who spoke at the school last year. Katie is so fascinated with books right now that this reading/signing was perfect timing. In fact, when Katie’s copy of It’s Raining Cupcakes arrived in the mail on Tuesday, she started reading it immediately and hasn’t stopped talking about it since. When she said this morning that she finally finished the book last night, she went on and on about how good it was, how I needed to read it because she just knows I would love it too, etc. Very cute.

Once Lisa was officially introduced by the Powell’s dude, she talked for a bit about how she came up with the idea for this book, her first published mid-grade novel. I love hearing all that background “secret”-y stuff that authors often share at their readings. She then read the first half of chapter two, answered questions, and served cupcakes to the kids. She did a great job making everything interesting for all ages, and I don’t think Katie stopped beaming the entire time we were there—she was absolutely thrilled to be in Lisa’s presence.

We got our books autographed, I snapped a photo of Lisa and Katie, we walked around Powell’s a little more, and then Katie and I took off for a late lunch at The Cheesecake Factory over at Washington Square. After lunch we walked around the mall a bit, found a LEGO treat to take home to Jack, and then headed back over to the po’ side o’ town with our take-out boxes full of cheesecake.

The sky was clear and Mt. Hood was lit up by the sun on the drive home. It was beautiful. Sitting there in the car with a newly signed book to read, my tummy full of Cheesecake Factory goodness, hearing my daughter chuckle at Jim Gaffigan, and seeing that gorgeous view of our mountain, I thought how lucky I am to have all these things. ‘Specially that girl of mine. She’s a sweetheart, and I can’t help but kinda love her.