Once Upon A Boring Week-end

So I had no particular plans this week-end, except to make a four hour round trip to a monthly writer's workshop I've been attending for thirty years. It is run by an 84 year old science fiction and mystery writer. Her latest novel just came out and she's working on the next one.

Guess who I want to be when I'm 84!!!

But first, I woke up to sunshine.

No big deal, you say? Hah! That means you haven't spent the wettest month in two decades in the Pacific Northwest. It's not that we, who live here, don't know to expect rain. Just NOT the amount of rain we've had, and NOT every dang day of March!

So, it's looking like a good day from the moment I get up on Saturday. Then, on my way out of town, I see that one of the cities I will be passing through is having a used book sale to support their local library.

But I'm late getting on the road, and I arrive at the book sale during it's final hour.

Sounds bad, you say? Again, Hah! It turns out that since they still have a lot of books left and don't feel like hauling them all away, we latecomers can have the books for $2 for whatever we can put in a very large shopping bag.

I come away with a load of paperback mysteries, a bunch of CD's including a number of Christmas Albums that I'm always too cheap to buy during the holidays, some young adult books for my grandkids, two lovely garden books that I'll read even if I'll probably never plant a garden, and a bunch of maps I intend to use to paper my laundry room. Not bad for two bucks!

Then I arrive at my writer's group to find that one of the participants has landed a book deal, and insists on taking us all out to dinner on his dime. Which means I can hang onto the money I intended to spend for dinner.

On Sunday, a friend invites me to the local art museum, which is having a "bring a guest for free" day for its members.

She and I go out to dinner at a fast food restaurant that is famous for its use of locally-sourced products and its rotating meals that tend to correspond to what is in season. I've known for years that they have the best fresh strawberry milkshakes in the world--well, at least in my part of the world. But one can get them only for a month or so, twice a year. Luckily for me, April is one of those months.

So, while nothing truly special happened this week-end, I had good times with good friends, ate good food, and saved some money.

Pretty darn good, I'd say!