My Day at the Park

Careful, I've got a back that is killing me intentionally and a kitten who is trying to walk across my keyboard. He seems to think it's funny when his paw presses a button that makes the entire screen go dim, which gives me ten minutes of a migraine trying to figure out what the hell he did.

So today was a long, but interesting day. I volunteered at a book and magazine festival in Queens Park here in Toronto. It was fun just having to sit there listening to the nominees for the Toronto Book Award just reading from their amazing novels. The time flew by fast. The one thing that kept me excited all day was trying to keep an eye on the nearby signing tent to see if the line to meet Margaret Atwood was short enough. I didn't want to be missed too badly when running across the muddy grass to get to meet, even for a short minute, one of my favorite authors. It ended up that right when the line was coming to an end, I was needed to hand out raffle tickets. So when I was finished, I ran in my flimsy flip flops with my copy of Handmaid's Tale in hand, almost falling on my ass as I slid across that damn mud, and coming to a stop in front of a table that had no Margaret! But, I caught her as she was leaving (Thank God!) and she signed my book with a smile and a "Fork it over" (which is usually used in the context of when someone is confiscating something from another, so at first I thought she wasn't going to give it back-- haha). I told her I was a writer and then I was on my way. I slid back into my seat about two minutes before Charles Wilkins was finishing up a reading from his novel: "In The Land Of Long Fingernails -- A Gravedigger's Memoir", which I do plan to read now.

Now I'm safe at home, completely exhausted, but not wanting to go to bed. As usual.