Of Mice and Men

I'm at the bookstore all day and hosting a NaNoWriMo write-in after work. Translation: I'm not leaving this store until late tonight. Also, not directly related, I woke up and heard a scritching sound in the bedroom. This is what followed:

ME: Husband,

(For reals this is the only way I address him. We are very formal. In fact, this entire scene occurred in separate twin beds.)

Husband. What's the noise? Is it a bird trying to make a nest in the gutter above the window outside our bedroom?

HUSBAND: (Blinks. Probably asks himself why his wife had to be blessed with supernatural hearing and eyesight but only for household pests. Sits up and stares straight ahead. Considers how to break the news gently but is too sleepy to come up with anything good.) No. It's a mouse in the room.

Cue hysteria and me hopping up and down on the bed in my full length flannel nightgown.

Okay maybe that's not how it happened. Maybe I rolled my eyes and swore while Husband scared it back under his dresser. I went out to the store and bought some traps while Husband kept watch and then a little bit later, the trap was moving.

I think we caught it, but I decided not to check and confirm until it stopped wriggling....

I know. This makes me sad too. Poor little mouse who just wanted some yummy nummy peanut butter and a warm place to sleep. But it makes me less sad when I picture mice running around my closets and under my bed and in my kitchen and over my feet and in my hair while I sleep...

So the day was off to a questionable start, is what I'm saying.

But then, my first customer arrived. And what did he buy? Three books from the Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card. He told me they were for his nine-year-old. They've been reading the books together and his son loves them. And--get this--the copies the man bought were my father's, which I brought into the store because my parents were trying to scale back their collection.

That just left me with the warm fuzzies. My dad's books are now being read by a father and son.

And just like that, I'm having a very good morning.