A book I saw in the bookstore last night. It includes a chapter entitled "Frog and Toad Are Feeling Vulnerable," and also a chapter about the wifi not working, in which Toad repeatedly says, "Now, router. Start working!" If you have read Frog and Toad to your children, who are now adults, you and they will find this funny. The child of mine to whom I texted this same photo last night reported that she doesn't own this book, but that she does have an Enid Blyton parody entitled Five Go on a Corporate Retreat.
The reading went well, once we all got there. Traffic was something else again. Even leaving my own small town, there was traffic, a thing I hadn't exactly expected. Where did all these people come from? When did we develop a rush hour? I'm generally in my kitchen at 5 p.m., not on the roads, so I had no idea. Marly, too, kept texting me from the highway, saying that they were in crawling traffic and that I had better plan to read first --- which I did, even though she wound up getting there before me. We had a great time, however, and the audience, though not as big as the bookstore had hoped for, was lively and full of good discussion afterwards.
So today I think I'm recovering. I got home around 11 p.m. (no traffic, but it's still about an hour to Concord from here), ate a very late dinner (having had oatmeal at 4 p.m. before leaving), drank some nonalcoholic beer, and then had trouble falling asleep. I'm going to go pilgrimage-walk soon, but possibly not as far today as I have been walking. Yesterday's walking brought me to just shy of 91 miles: less than 30 miles to go! I could do a 3-mile stretch today, made up of multiple legs, and still be on track to finish my pilgrimage in Holy Week. I don't want to let up too much, because I like walking 4-6 miles daily, but today . . . I am tired. And either I have allergies, or I'm coming down with a cold. I felt the tiniest bit off last night, and was wishing I'd taken a Zyrtec before leaving home.
BUT the day is beautiful. We're supposed to have "intermittent rain," but right now the sun is shining, and it's already 61F, with a projected high of . . . 84F? As I said to Marly last night, it had been nice to see her in the winter, last Saturday, and it was nice to see her in the summer, too. I mean no complaint by this, either. I will TAKE this weather, thank you very very much. Maybe today I'll actually plant the dahlia roots I bought last week. Looks as though we're going to have warm temperatures, if not always quite this warm, through next week, and again, I will take it and say thanks.
Wearing today:
Willow, for a 5th go-round this month. We'll see how 3/4-length sleeves perform in quite warm weather. Wearing her very simply, with blue EVA Birks, since I'm going to be outdoors and gardening.
As you can see, the Willow really does run shorter than other swing dresses. This is a medium regular --- it's a good inch shorter, at least, than my medium-regular Camellia, even after dyeing and the attendant shrinkage. I don't mind . . . I think a long length in this dress would have felt like a lot of fabric. But I definitely notice how short it is --- shorter than I would comfortably wear to Mass without something on my legs (yes, I do count leggings as "something on my legs" for Mass). I'm looking forward to the arrival, still more than a month away, of my new long skirt, which I anticipate wearing with this dress, among many other things. Wearing black bike shorts under today, as it is.
Not that you can see them. And I continue to love this dress for its delicate spring color and its fun swinginess. Although I think the length makes it less versatile than some of my other dresses --- I don't see ever really dressing up in my Willow --- it's still so wearable and easy for everyday.
And now I'd better go out and meet the day.