One of the things I love best in life is hosting. Usually when friends come to town I have to try hard to shave down my long list of places I want to take them to eat out, wander and sight-see. But with Stephanie coming tomorrow morning I have not even picked up the pen and paper because honestly, we’ll be lucky if there’s time to take a pee!
Stephanie is coming 3191 miles to my Portland for about 48 hours to sign books and ship books and sign more books and ship more books. We’re going to hold up in my studio and not leave until it’s done! That said, I don’t think there will be much eating out, wandering and sight-seeing. We’ll have to, instead, rely heavily on smiling, stretching and snacking (oh and I am going to do my damn best to fit in a petite walk on the beach).
I knew I needed to cook and bake up a few choice bits to keep us energized so I went straight to my favorite online sources — Molly & Heidi. I made a batch of Heidi’s cookies (by the way I love these cookies—when I made them this afternoon and ate four right in a row I muttered to myself, ‘this is one of my favorite cookies’) and egg salad and Molly’s chocolate chunks. I’ll go to the bakery tomorrow early for fresh bread, the farmer’s market for blueberries (please let there still be a blueberry or two) and some vegetables, and a libations shop for wine. I was planning to make a favorite soup but just didn’t get around to it. Oh well, I guess we’ll have to have more chocolate instead!
Oh and I have prepared a room for her (I like to lay towels on the bed; I got this from my Mom who always does it up right when a guest is coming) and cleaned things up a bit. Of course I do have boxes and boxes of ink-smelling books right down the hall from that room so on top of the signing and shipping I bet she’ll even be dreaming of Evenings. Well … a long flight across the country, 48 hours of straight work with a little snacking thrown in, dreaming of pens and paper … what else are fantastic, dedicated, beautiful (and similarly crazy) friends for??!
