Little Kite Girl

Doesn’t anybody sell pizza by the slice out here? Seriously. After leaving work tonight I had to run a couple of errands and the traffic was horrible. I keep thinking about the pizza we had yesterday, and wanted some more. To safe myself the horror of getting an entire pizza, I started looking around for a slice. I took a detour off of University Ave to stop by this teeny little pizza place in the middle of nowhere. (Or, I guess, in the middle of Provo.) I thought- this place has GOT to have pizza by the slice. When I asked they said, “What? One slice?” and I said “Yes, one slice,” and they looked at me like I was from mars. Or maybe Jersey. Needless to say I grit my teeth and went on with the errands with no food- telling myself that hunger is good. It burns calories. (I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s what I tell myself.)

Work today was good. We had an offer for publishing. Just like that. It’s amazing how smoothly it happened. Looking back- I’ve been working on this project for 9 months- and we’ve got about 5 chapters completely done- 19 more in queue, and a proposal that caught some attention. It’s been a lot of work. A lot. Fortunately, in non-fiction, you submit a proposal and a few chapters in order to get signed, unlike fiction, which usually requires a complete draft. I’m excited to get with a real publishing house and editor to get some real guidance with what we’re doing. It feels good that people are liking it so far.

Yesterday was John’s birthday We went to church in the morning. I taught my new class which was full of 8 year old little girls who were full of wiggles and chattiness and willingness to participate. Not a bad combo. I could never, ever be an elementary school teacher.

When we got home we made some GF pizza- and a cake. The pizza turned out GREAT. The cake- well, I’ll try again next year. It wasn’t BAD, but it didn’t hold a candle to our wedding cakes- either of them! Then we just watched movies and ate, and spent the day together. I timed the cake frosting just in time for John’s parent’s to call and sing to him He also got calls from one of his brothers and both of his sisters. I know he pretends to not like his birthday- but I think he really appreciates hearing from his family. He even likes the singing. I think.

I gave him his presents at midnight. John has the ability to guess what I’ve gotten him for a special occasion by simply walking into the same room with the wrapped package- so I changed it up a bit. I took a couple books off his shelves and wrapped them up, and then deposited the REAL gifts into the gym bag under the bed.  Just to cover the bases. When he opened the books and was confused, I got to tell him I was the MASTA PLANNA and hid his real presents. Was fun. I had gone to the Apple store and gotten him an extra power supply and then a speaker thinger for his ipods. My parents chipped in a bit in place of sending him something else.

So yes. I also had a very weird dream last night. Neil Gaiman-esque even. I was in a closet trying to figure out which way I should get out, backwards or forwards, when I heard a monster outside of one of the doors. I had to squeeze in between a couple of boards to get into the other side of the closet and out another door, the whole time I heard the roaring outside. I escaped into another room where there was a girl sitting quietly on her bed looking out the open window. She said, “I knew you were coming. Now he knows you can get out. I’ll have to jump.” And I saw an image of her jumping out the window and falling onto the pavement a couple stories below. Instead, I took her hand and we ran down some stairs and outside. As soon as we got outside she said, “But it’s going to rain.” And I said, “Ok, we’ll get wet.” And she just said, “No,” and we ran into a mall nearby just in time for the rain to start. But instead of water, it rained pennies- punching the pavement as they fell.

And then I woke up. Weird, I know.