Queen of Swords

oakmouse recently posted a wonderful hawk story. Here's mine:

When I was in my senior year of high school, my entire family drove from our hometown in SW Washington to southern California during Christmas vacation so I could do an admissions interview at the college I wanted to attend.

We spent the first night of the trip somewhere in central Oregon and got up very, very early in the morning to hit the road again. Somewhere in those central plains, shortly after sun-up, with "Here Comes the Sun" playing on the radio, I looked out my window and was stunned to see a hawk keeping pace with the car just outside and above my window. It was close enough that I could look up and see one golden eye.

It was utterly magical. For several long seconds I just watched the hawk, entranced, then it shifted its wings and soared up and away.

It was a moment of grace.

The flight from Seattle-Tacoma to Miami has got to be one of the longest possible flights in the US. And have I mentioned that I hate flying?

I'm sure that kateri_thinks and I are going to have a lot to talk about, but I don't think we want to try to amuse each other for the entire length of the flight.

So: what book(s) would you recommend for airplane reading? And those times when I will need to hang out by myself in my spacious suite (because we introverts go bonkers doing group stuff all day every day).

I'd like something thick enough to keep me engaged for a while, with great characters and a juicy plot. I'm leaning toward fiction, but really engaging non-fiction would work too.

shimmeringjemmy gave The Red Tent a good review yesterday, so that's on my list.

Anyone else? Historical fiction is my current favorite genre, but I enjoy sci-fi and fantasy too. But I'll pick up just about anything.


[And I don't know if anyone even noticed yesterday, but I can't remember another time I used "giggly" for my emoticon, much less twice in a row!)

One week from today I will be waking up in a bed in a hotel across the street from Disneyland! Our train will arrive late Sunday night, so I'm not going to even think about getting up early to take the park by storm Monday morning. We'll sleep until we wake up, and take it from there. With three days to enjoy, we should have plenty of time to see everything and take the time to rejuvenate between sorties.

And I just realized: it's exactly one month until my 41st birthday.

It's nice to know I can still get *happy dance* excited about going to Disneyland at my age.

And as long as I'm on the subject of "counting down": at the party last night, one woman had a pendulum she was using for divination. I asked a couple of questions about vocation, my house situation, and etc. And on a lark, I asked if there was a romantic partnership in my future. The pendulum predicts "yes" and for the connection to begin nine months from now. We shall see. . . ;-)