How Did I Get This Lucky

In case you didn't know, today is August 7. I have been waiting for this day for months now, thinking it would never get here and wishing it would take its time because the new school year was just around the corner. Eclipse was released today. My Barnes & Noble gift card has been burning a hole in my wallet waiting for the moment I crossed the threshold into the store.

Everyone who knows me well knows that although I love learning and reading, I don't particularly care for fiction. Never have. I still read it from time to time, i.e. when I find something that resonates with me or truly revolts me. Poor Nadia has had to listen to me complain about the crap that gets published and I waste my time reading. (I owe you for that.) The exceptions for my anti-fiction rhetoric have been the Left Behind series and the Twilight series (Stephenie Meyer's fantastic vampire series). Eclipse is the third book.

Finally holding this book in my hands was like smelling a freshly showered man after being separated from all humanity for years. I bought it this afternoon (along with another page turner: "Eight Greeks and Romans Who Changed the World"). I read two chapters sitting in my driveway cooking in my turned off vehicle.

I collapsed on the couch and continued reading until my eyes were blurry and the dogs were circling me with their legs crossed. I forced myself to come up for air and take care of some necessities around the house. I'm halfway done. For those of you counting, I read 3 pages per minute. Yes, it's that's good, and I read that fast.

While I'm sitting here ignoring the boxes that are waiting to be packed and the sink from the new place that I need to scrub, my darling husband has been pulling up floors, installing new air conditioning ducts (we don't have a/c there at the moment), and stressing about how all this will come together. He's a worker, that man. I've never seen anyone so dedicated to the task before him. In less than a week, he has pulled out kitchen cabinets and over 1,000 square feet of tile flooring, mowed 3 acres of the property, bought several truck loads of supplies, and annihilated several species of stinging insects. Part of me is enthralled by his dedication. Part of me feels guilty for not helping more. All of me admires him.