I know, I know, everyone loves this movie, me included. We recently let my sons watch it (they are 4 and 6) and even they loved it. But I was totally unaware–until recently–that there was a book. Not only that, but I only heard lately that S. Morgenstern is merely a writing device. I’m so out of the loop.

So I put the book on hold at the library, finally got it, and last night I’m reading the Introduction to the 25th Anniversary Edition and then Introduction to the 30th Anniversary Edition (both by William Goldman, the actual author), thinking to myself, ‘Is any of this stuff true?’ Having not done any research on the book or any of the side stories, I have to tell you I was a little drawn in…’Could there possibly be a country Florin of which I’ve never heard? Are the Cliffs of Insanity actually real?!?!

Now I feel like an idiot. But I guess that’s what makes William Goldman so good. More on the actual book later…

I’ve been tagged by Amanda Brice…so today I’m writing five interesting or unique things about me. I’m not sure any of these will help with writer research…sorry

1. I’ve never had a job paying less than $10/hr. Bascially I’ve only had three engineering internships and one full-time job (not counting stay-at-home mom). I have no experience with retail or food preparation, and not much with working hours outside the 8-6:30 range.

2. Both of my boys were born sans drugs, but not because I’d decided on natural births. I was induced with the first one and in labor only a couple of hours when I asked for the epidural–it was already too late. For my second one, I barely made it into the hospital room before he popped out of there. There was no time for much of anything.

3. My husband planned on proposing to me on the Gondola ski lift at Keystone, Colorado, but I was so angry with him that he put it off. The only way to get to the lift is to ski down this steep, icy slope, and I’m not a very confident or experienced skier. I’d been down the slope once–very carefully–and I’d asked not to go down again, but he already had plans for me, so he took me down again (I didn’t know my way around, so I had no idea where we were headed most of the time). So, what happpened on my second time down? I got going too fast and tried to slow down at the bottom, which is basically just roped off, with a sharp turn. Well, my skis slid…they slid me right into a collision with this poor middle-aged couple, whom I totally and completely knocked down. I was mortified and refused to speak to my then-boyfriend for quite a little while. So…he didn’t carry on with the plan…he decided to propose at midnight on New Year’s Eve instead. Only trouble was he mistook a Campbell’s soup commerical about the ball dropping in NYC for the real thing and made me stand up for this little ceremony 20 minutes too early. Still very sweet…

4. In highschool I was friends with a Vietnamese guy who eventually decided to ask me out. He told me it was just a friendly dinner, but I could tell it was more. However, I had just started dating my husband-to-be, so I told him I had a boyfriend, said I had a church function to go to (a total lie) and asked to go just for something quick. Well, at dinner at Long John Silvers–I told him I didn’t have time for Red Lobster–while eating corn-on-the-cob-on-a-stick, he told me he’d been seeing a psychic, and that he’d discovered that we were meant to be together and would eventually be married! I was sort of freaked out, but I just hurried though my meal, and he took me home. The following Monday, he called me over to his table in physics class, asked me to hold some beads, did some weird hand manuevering, and then thumped me on both sides of my chest, right below my collar bone. At that point, I was through being nice and refused to take him seriously at all. It hurt! He did however give me (and absolutely refuse to take back) a 14K gold thick chain. My brother wore it with pride.

5. Although he still denies it to this day, my dad had my brother, sister, and I spliting a McDonald’s happy meal when we were young…even not so young…my brother and sister are three years apart, and we were still sharing at an age I can easily remember, so I’m guessing I was maybe five or six–that means my sister was even older. We thought it was such a treat when we went to Grandma’s and she bought us each our own meal!
(My son is six, and you can bet he gets his own happy meal!)

We’ll try this and see if it works…I tag Catherine Avril Morris, Colleen Gleason, Sara Hantz, and Swishy.

What a weekend–I feel unrefreshed and a little nauseous. Friday, after my oldest woke up wheezing, I gave him a couple of breathing treatments (which are a rare occurence in my house) and took him to the doctor. She told me to continue the treatments through the weekend and just have him rest. She wasn’t too concerned because he seemed to have no other symptoms besides coughing. So late, late, late Friday night, my youngest woke up coughing and wheezing and we had to do a couple of breathing treatments on him. After that he got steadily worse (and so did I). He had high fever Sat. and Sun., with coughing, lethargy, and no appetite. I, on the other hand, was also lethargic from being up half the night and then Sunday I got a rip-roaring headache that would just not go away. I feel it lurking even now, so I’m trying not to move too suddenly or look into any bright light.

So this afternoon I need to take the little one to the doctor. He’s much better and his fever is down, but he’s still not eating anything. And if I don’t take him, he’s bound to be up with another 102 degree fever in the middle of the night again…

My goals for the weekend had been to finish Rumble on the Bayou by Jana Deleon, which I did, and let me tell you it was one of the only highpoints of my weekend…and to finish writing the last couple of scenes on my WIP. That was not acomplished. I could barely bring myself to sit up straight in the chair, let alone push out anything wonderful. And this week probably won’t be much better, as the little one will likely be home and needy for the next few days. It’s a chance for more reading, I guess…

Hope your weekend was better…