Bookstores, Authors, and a Perfect Meal

Today has been an amazingly satisfying day. I had two tests, both of which I feel very confident about, and all of my other classes were quite productive too. We finished our recycled materials sculpture in Earth Science! So exciting!!

An author visited our school today. Her name is Kristina McBride, and she published her first book called The Tension of Opposites in May 2010. She went to my school in sixth grade, and she's lived in this area since she was a teenager.

She. Was. Amazing.

I listened to her talk the whole time with rapt attention. There was so much I could relate to - she loves chocolate, writing (obviously), words, lives in this area, had one of my teachers when she went to my school...she was just AWESOME! She's even writing a book that's based in the small town that I live in! That alone makes me very excited.

I had the opportunity to go up and talk to her after school since I had ordered a book. I asked for some advice from her on how to plan my books - which is my fundamental, major problem. She said to always add conflict. That's how you keep the story going - conflict. And that makes perfect sense! I think I had to hear that from a real live author who was standing right in front of me to really take it to heart, however. Just reading that online wouldn't have helped.

I walked away from her talk feeling very inspired to read and to write. I couldn't wait to open her book and start reading it. I was just worried about one little thing: that the writing wouldn't be good.

After all, what's worse than hearing someone talk wholeheartedly about their work, and putting your faith in them, admiring them, and then discovering that what they've been telling you all about isn't good?

Well, I didn't have to worry. At all. When I settled into my seat at the table in the Starbucks cafe at Barnes and Nobles, took a sip of my chai latte, and read the first page of that book, I already knew I loved it. The beautiful thing is that it's exactly the kind of writing that I want to read and the kind I want to write. You can't tell those things from the back of a book...that's why you've always got to open it.

Don't be afraid to open a book.

Here's her website, in case you want to check it out: http://www.kristinamcbride.com/.

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I absolutely love being in bookstores. They feel like home. They contain so many different stories, ideas, people, tastes, smells, countries, languages, opinions, dreams... A bookstore has EVERYTHING. And I'm interested - or can be interested if I want to be - in EVERYTHING. So it's perfect for me.

If I ever become rich, I'm first going to donate a considerable amount of money to a worthwhile cause, and then build myself a huge, authentic library with couches as soft as clouds around every corner and shelves filled with books of every imaginable origin. I'll spend HOURS in there.

Today, to celebrate my SAT scores, my parents took me to Barnes and Noble after school. I had a gift card from winning the spelling bee that I could use, too. I looked around in the kids' section (more than the teen section, because the teen section is mostly paranormal romance - all of which have some variation of a black cover with a red object of focus in the center...like Twilight), and almost every book I saw looked like the world to me. There's a slight problem with that - I don't have a world of time to read them in.

I ended up getting a book called The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. I got the one adapted for young readers, so that I could read it faster and wouldn't stumble at all over tricky words that I have to look up. I'm excited about this book because it will help me magnitudes (I'm know I'm not using that word right in context, but it felt right in meaning) with the novel I started for NaNoWriMo. Plus, it's all about food. Who doesn't wanna read about food?

Heck, I love food!

Which brings me to my last discussion point: a perfect meal. My parents brought me to a restaurant called Thai 9 tonight. I love that place. It looks like nothing from the outside - not impressive at all, just a sign and a set of doors. But then you walk inside, and the ceiling's high, and there are people bustling all around, and the lights are dim and flattering, and there's a sushi counter across the room where the presence of food is tantalizingly close. My family shared two different tofu dishes, and for dessert we had fried bananas in a wonton wrapping with homemade coconut ice cream sesame seeds and honey drizzled on top.

It was the best thing. In the world. Ever. The bliss I experienced at tasting that beautiful fried banana with the creamy coconut flavor and sweet honey is indescribable. When I closed my eyes, nothing existed of my but that taste in my mouth.

It was the perfect meal. A perfect ending to a pretty perfect day. So I feel extremely happy.

And might I add: the bathrooms at Thai 9 are exceptionally excellent.