BOOK PLANNING + HAPPY WEEKEND!

Oh Friday!

Hey, happy weekend! It's book promotion planning day today. I'm over here in a coffee shop mooching some wifi and shooting off emails and trying really hard to not panic, because even though promotion is not at all my strong suit, I'm really starting to get excited for everyone to get their hands on this thing and read it. I'm really proud of it, and it's really feeling real. I'm totally weirded out. Hopefully I get all my ducks in a row, because I'd love to make it to your city on a book tour, and there are like, logistics. (What cities should I plan for, cheese?) (You can preorder! Link on the sidebar to your left!) Brandon's always prefacing any of his exciting ideas with, "If your book sells a million copies . . . " which, look, that's great, you turkey. 

The sun was out until well past 5 yesterday, it's supposed to snow tomorrow, and I can't even put words to how happy it makes me. In Moscow (where we used to live), February 15th was usually the first day of the year when the sun would stay out past 5pm, and I could see it and smile at it as I drove home from work. I could set my watch by it. (Snow could be expected to be mostly gone by June 1.) So this January 23rd nonsense is juuuust fine by me. I knew to expect February 15th for the sun to stay out, because that's the kind of thing you notice and look forward to when you live in northern Idaho in the winter, because northern Idaho in the winter is the pit of despair. I can still remember every inch of that long drive home through the snowy wheat fields. There was this one moose that lived around those wheat fields, I was always nervous that I'd hit him when it was dark out. One morning I was late for work because of that moose. I sort of sat there awkwardly while the neighbor dude tried to shoo him off the road, waving his hat around like a lunatic, while the moose just stared at him, completely unconcerned. It was kind of great.

A few things I enjoyed this week . . .

So first of all, is Mercury is in retrograde right now, through February 11. I've already fallen victim to its ridiculousness. Batten down the hatches! Take cover! Don't sign any contracts, guys!

The truth about your smile -- have you been doing it wrong all this time?

Should you feel ambitious, here is a list of all 339 (!!!!) books referenced in Gilmore Girls

And this video, on our relative size to, like, everything. Some seriously good perspective if you're feeling stressed.

Oh my gosh: To fall in love with anyone, do this. (And The New Yorker's response, To fall out of love, do this.) Will I force Brandon to do this with me? Duh. (Hey, it's been almost 12 years. Sometimes you need a nudge ;). The steps to do it yourself are listed here, and you can find out more about the experiment (like how they calculated for introversion vs extroversion) here. Go forth and fall in love!

Shopping, tourism, love locks, and ownership of your city, in Paris

I thought this was interesting. (My money's on Billy Crystal.) (Have I told you about the time I walked past him on the street in TriBeCa and it was my most Meg Ryan moment of my whole entire life!?)

Joanna got me turned on to High Maintenance, in case you're looking for something more, uh, herbal, to watch this weekend. And in other old news, Broad City is back, and have you been listening to Invisibilia?! :)

The real cost savings of moving from the city to the country, on Apartment Therapy. (The comments on this one are fascinating.)

Have a great weekend!