weekend update

I am back from Detroit where I was attending my cousin's wedding. It was a really fun weekend -- lots of family bonding, story telling, dancing, eating (Buddy's pizza!), and hanging out.

My plane fishtailed and slid on the runway yesterday when we hit a patch of ice. That was pretty exciting. It's weird to feel the total loss of control in a vehicle that large.

I finished Atonement. It was good. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie. I started In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders after that and I am almost finished with that. It's a nice change of pace from Atonement.

I got my copy of In Persuasion Nation for like $5 or less from this warehouse/consignment style book store in Wisconsin - a totally random place as part of an outlet mall. I was deliberating even buying it because I was looking for stuff for my sisters at the time and felt guilty for getting something for myself, but I had wanted the book for awhile and I figured it was roughly the price of a mocha at Starbucks, so I bought it.

I was looking for a book to bring with me on the trip as I was almost finished with Atonement, so I picked up the Saunders book and starting flipping through the pages when I saw some scrawled writing on the cover page. I stopped and navigated back to the page. It pretty clearly read George Saunders in cursive. I looked closer and, sure enough, it was an autograph from the author himself. So the $5 wasn't bad for a hardcover, signed edition. That was a pretty thrilling discovery.