author envy......

ok, so.....last night my middle child called....returned a call to his dad, actually.....but since the m.daddy was not yet back from the wednesday bikeride....the m.mamma would have to do.....he told of the book reading he had attended...the one with dave eggars......we had brought up our copy of a heartbreaking work of staggering genious to washington in hopes that stephan could get it signed by the author.......the event was made more immediate to me by virtue of the venue.....we had attended a reading last spring break in the very room by a poet and a novelist, neither of which i had ever heard of prior to that event.......the only person in the room that i could pick out of a crowd of j.carol oates, a most prolific auther who teaches at princeton.......i was therefore amused to learn that ms oates actually dozed through most of mr. eggars reading.......which cannot have escaped his notice as she appear to prefer to sit right up front and center......those who keep score of such things will recall that i have actually heard mr eggars read before.....on the day that stephan and belgian boy returned from ....well.....belgium.......we had already picked up jon and had several hours to kill before stephan's plane arrived.....so we headed toward the joseph beth in the hydepark/oakley area of cincinnati.......when we stepped out fo the cafe after dinner, the place was packed, and there was dave eggars reading from the book after heartbreaking work......you will know us by our velocity.......but i digress........i would have enjoyed an hour or so listening to a writer who was clever enough to include diagragms of the sock-sliding course that he and his little brother toph created in their subleased apartment.....i also learned that stephan chanced to hear david sedaris recently as well.....he of the scant but cutting use of ascerbic wit......i envy his residence on the left bank in paris almost as much as i am jealous of his talent for recalling poignant moments in the past with such vibrancy and relevance.......i never think to myself...enough of when you were ten...move on!......when i read/hear his pieces........so there you have it....dave eggars, david sedaris, and a sleeping j.c.oates.....all in the same week.......but not for me....the envious mm figure living vicariously on the newest newyorker and online newyorktimes book reviews.......but don't cry for me, argentina......i have wild flowers in bloom, the onions all weeded out, and a three=day weekend ahead of me.....from where i sit....the glass is completely full...........