In Canada, we have this unofficial holiday to celebrate Heritage Day. The reason it's not official yet is because a date has never been set. So, what happens is that every employer sets it differently - in my organization, our Heritage Day is taken on our birthday. Since my birthday is next Tuesday, I get the day off. (And since Friday is Good Friday, it's going to be a short week for me. W00t!)
Anyways, I've been trying to find an appropriate way to spend the day. I knew it would involve a lot of "it's all about me"-type activities, but that's as far as it got. On Tuesday this week, I got a notice from Chapters that a book I'd preordered just after Christmas was on its way to me - a whole week before the official release date! Tonight I picked it up and did a little happy dance because I know what I'm going to do on my birthday - re-read Liquor and read Prime!
I haven't been this excited about spending a whole day reading for a while now. The last time was a few years back when I read Tanya Huff's Keeper Chronicles - Summon the Keeper, The Second Summoning, and Long Hot Summoning. I'd ordered all three at the same time, along with a couple of other items. Inexplicably - and this is what I dislike about Chapters, that they send your order in chunks as soon as it's available instead of waiting until everything is ready - they sent me the first and third book in the first parcel. I think it took me an afternoon to read the first one, and I was hooked. Unfortunately, it took a few weeks until I got the second book.
Because I wanted to savor the experience, I waited until the weekend to read the last two books. I remember I did all of the housework and other weekend-type stuff on Friday night so I wouldn't be distracted. All week, I'd take the second book off the shelf and read a page or two, and then quickly shove it back so I wouldn't be tempted to finish reading it while standing there. I read the second book on the Saturday and the third book on the Sunday. And oh, what a fabulous weekend it was!
(Since then, I'll always associate those books with foggy summer weekends, Sam Roberts' We Were Born in a Flame, and Funky Monkeys - a banana, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, a cup of milk, and liberal amounts of Bailey's.)
So, you now know what I'll be doing on Tuesday. I'll also be eating popcorn* and mangoes** and drinking coffee***. I may also indulge in chocolate-dipped strawberries****, if I can find a basket of berries that doesn't look too scuzzy.
*Not a secret code for delicious chocolate truffles rolled in cocoa powder.
**Not a secret code for double-chocolate chip cookies.
***Not a secret code for espresso with whipped cream.
****Not secret code for chocolate-dipped strawberries. Oh, wait. Yes it is.
