Back among the living

This morning I am feeling as if I am finally sliding out of vacation mode. Nice time for the transition as tomorrow morning I have to head back to work. Three weeks more as a hair stylist, and then on to the next transition, to the position of receptionist. That's nine whole days of hairdoing. Not really an ugh factor, but I am just ready to put the scissors to bed. Before I left for vacation, I sent out the notice to my clients that 12/17 will be my last day as a stylist, so hopefully, it will be 9 busy days in the salon.

Last night E and I had occasion to meet Beth and Nerdstar. We went to Book Woman in Austin for a reading by Susan Stinson from her latest novel Venus of Chalk. Five links in one sentence, and three of those links are daily reads for me, so it was a lovely evening. I have been reading Susan's blog for more than a year now, so it was nice to meet her. Her energy is so very gracious and her achievements as a writer, primarily being published, were very inspiring. I bought her first two books, Fat Girl Dances With Rocks and Martha Moody, on a previous trip to Book Woman after I began reading her blog. I wanted to get Venus of Chalk sooner, but at the hint that she might be doing a Texas reading I decided to wait.

I learned about the reading before we went on vacation and I asked E if it would be too much to try to do so soon after vacation because of her crunch at work to get her magazine out and play catch up. She is always so quick to indulge me these whims, "Oh, a 2 and a half hour drive is not at all a problem", she gave me a solid sure when I first suggested it.

Once I confirmed with E that her first day back was going smoothly enough, I called Beth and let her know the plan. Leave Houston by three, hit Austin at 530, meet for dinner, then go to the reading. I had previously mentioned this to her and she said she and Nerdstar should be free to meet and join us.

We actually got there closer to 6, but we had a great meal at Austin Java. I had the avocado and crawfish salad and a cup of the roasted chicken soup. Just the right amount of zip, and pretty cheap. And let's not forget oodles of intelligent conversation!! The reading was right across the street, so it was also a convenient spot to dine.