Some days are just perfect.
Take this past Sunday, for example. I woke up early, met Luke and Lavina at the Tea Lounge, got a mocha. Walked down the stairs just as a train was pulling into the station. Spent the morning at the NYT book festival in the sunshine, in Bryant Park, where we met up with John and Heather and Neff. Bought a bazillion used books, thought about going to a reading. Didn't. Saw Will Shortz there and got a little wobbly in the knees, and was way too scared to ask for an autograph in my crossword puzzle book. Was driven to brunch, ate pasta and drank five pounds of mimosa. Drove uptown to the medieval festival, ran frantically through the park to find a place to pee before the mimosas punched out through my chest cavity. Watched a swordfight, looked at costumes, pretended briefly that I was walking the streets of Caemlyn. Went home, spent the evening with We Love Katamari, leftover omelets, and a down comforter. Absolutely fucking perfect. The kind of day that makes you jump for joy that you live in New York and not any fucking place else.
Of course, the longest-lasting impact of Sunday was the acquisition of a stack of books three feet high. The deal with the book festival was this: pay $25, get a tote bag, stuff said tote bag with as many books as you can fit. Lucky for me, I brought my dimensional portal and put that in the bag first; otherwise, I can't even begin to imagine how they would have fit.
Somehow I'm going to have to find room on a bookshelf for:
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them - Al Franken
Dave Barry's Travel Guide - Dave Barry
Light Before Day - Christopher Rice
A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
Madam Secretary: A Memoir - Madeleine Albright
Tales of the City - Armistead Maupin
More Tales of the City - Armistead Maupin
Firther Tales of the City - Armistead Maupin
Babycakes - Armistead Maupin
Significant Others - Armistead Maupin
Sure of You - Armistead Maupin
The Emperor of Scent - Chandler Burr
Lake Wobegone Days - Garrison Keillor
Carter Beats the Devil - Glen David Gold
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Berendt
The Stories of English - David Crystal
The Plays of Oscar Wilde - Oscar Wilde
Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
The World According to Garp - John Irving
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning - Lemony Snicket
The Blue Sword - Robin McKinley
The Time Machine - H.G. Wells
The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut
Welcome to the Monkey House - Kurt Vonnegut
Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse
The PIcture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat - Oliver Sacks
Mary Poppins in the Park - P.L. Travers
The Once and Future King - T.H. White
and last, but certainly not least,
Royal Cookbook: Favorite Court Recipes From The World's Royal Families.
Seriously. Some days are just perfect.