Douglas, Christopher and Me

It began with a Borders gift card and spiraled into trademark introspection. Although there is a Borders bookstore less than ten minutes from my house, I opted to use my gift card online. Immediately, I decided to purchase a couple of Christopher Moore books As I perused the many Moore choices, thinking of Moore's very wicked sense of humor, it occurred to me that there were other writers whose works I am interested in collecting. Chief among these is Douglas Adams.
And, cause and effect being what they are, thinking of Douglas Adams made me remember my introduction to his brilliance. In high school, hanging out at a friend's house, I would occasionally get the opportunity to talk to her older sister. After a few conversations with said sister, she handed me a book and said "Read this. I really think you'll love it." The book was Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and Jeri was right: I did love it.
Jeri was a popular girl, very pretty, very smart and very funny. Just all-around cool. What she ever saw in me to make her think I would be interested in Adams, I'll never know, but I am glad for the introduction. She was just cool. There isn't any better way to describe her.
Adams saved me the summer I spent working on Mackinac Island. I purchased all of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books from the island bookstore and spent my days off camped out in Marquette Park, reading. Without a doubt it is some of the funniest stuff I have ever read and I loved every moment of reading those books.
Then, years later, a friend introduced me to Christopher Moore's book Lamb and I admit that was also love-at-first-read. I adored it and laughed hysterically through it. This friend of mine, also much cooler than I am.
I have discovered that I don't mind being the least cool person I know. I have cool people in my family, very cool friends and a husband way cooler than I am. That tends to keep life interesting, I think. I have always sought the company of interesting people and populate my bookshelf with interesting reads. Life is too short to do otherwise.
For now, I am cool to my children, but I know that will pass quickly and they will discover my utter uncoolness and that's fine in a whole circle-of-life kind of way.
I ended up buying books by Adams and Moore and I can't wait to read them. And, if my obvious eagerness makes me even less cool, well, so be it.

Song of the day: "Most of the Time" from Bob Dylan. A perfect song of heartbreak and loss from a very cool guy.

Parental moment of the day: Sometimes, I just feel like a mother. Jude wanted me to read a book to him, his Big Frank firetruck book so I asked him where it was. He said "I put it on top of the thing that I take stuff out of" and I knew exactly what he meant.