I babysat the niece for the last two days, picking her up from camp and running around the city with her for a few hours in the afternoon. For some reason she just noticed that my eyes are way more wrinkly than hers. Also she did not like my shoes two days ago, and yesterday, her comment about my black and white plaid dress was that she did not like the black boxes, but liked the white boxes just fine. We went to Madison Square Park and she jumped around in the wee sprinklers. We sat in City Bakery and listened to the New Pornographers on my iPhone, one ear bud in my ear, another in hers, while I sipped an iced coffee and she typed letters on the phone. We went to Books of Wonder and we sat on the floor and she read a Mr. Happy book to me, and I read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs to her. (The verdict was “too long” which I sort of agreed with.) She is a sunny and charming and well-behaved child with a little bit of a wicked sense of humor and I’m crazy about her.
Last night I just missed the Samantha Peale reading at McNally-Jackson, but I got to hang out with Sam afterward at the Tom and Jerry bar, and she was a complete delight. Before last night, Sam and I had only knows each other over the internet. She befriended me because we were both going to be (but are both no longer for various annoying reasons) in the same (obviously totally going to be terrible without us in it) anthology, and also we have the same literary agency, and also she knows KC, so duh, we were destined for friendship. Of course in person she felt instantly familiar and awesome (as did all of her People) and I am happy I got to make a new friend.
After a survey of aforementioned People (and a few others over the last couple of days), I decided to change the title of my novel from SPRAWL to THE MIDDLESTEINS, because when I say SPRAWL out loud, people nod and look serious, and when I say THE MIDDLESTEINS out loud, it keeps making people laugh. I think we all know I am like a dumb dog with my tongue hanging out waiting for a scratch on the head, and obviously making people laugh is way more fun than making people nod. And I believe it tells you exactly what the book is about in a very specific way. So THE MIDDLESTEINS it is.
The end.CHICAGOLAND
SPRAWL
THE MIDDLESTEINS
