The Short but Sweet Bucket List

us singingDriving out here to Colorado so Jack could attend the Prison Visiting Service Conference, he and I had a lot of fun talking with people in Illinois and Kansas bookstores on the way.

We met up with some dear old friends like Stacie and Bruce (BSR Used Books) and LuAnn (Afterwords) and Hilda (Book Medley) plus met new ones (Anita at Al’s Old Books) and people who came to the events and chatted afterward at the hosting shops. At both talks the conversations turned to dreams, unfulfilled and sometimes unrecognized. We talked about what people want from life, and how they get it, and what they trade for it.

After the second talk,  Jack and I were careening across Kansas at its very interesting speed limit of 75 mph (you kind of have to drive that fast to stay awake on those long, long flat roads) and I asked him, “Do you have any dreams you haven’t fulfilled yet?”

He considered the question, then said, “I would really like to match all my black socks correctly before I die.”

And this just proves what I’ve known for so long: my husband is a good, honest, sweetheart of a man. When Jack works, he works hard; when he plays, he plays well (mostly in D, but also G, C and F) and when he sits, he falls asleep. Like Dumbledore of Harry Potter fame, when my husband looks into the Mirror of Desire, he sees socks: matching black socks.

He turned the tables. “How about you?”

I didn’t have to think about it. “Just once, I would like to use a tube of chap stick all the way to the bottom. I don’t know anyone who’s done that.”

Sure, we all have big dreams, grand schemes, great hopes and aspirations. But we also have the little heartbeat stuff that keeps us getting out of bed every day. And makes the little moments sweet and fun while we’re working on the big stuff.

BEST PICK-UP LINES IN A BOOKSTORE RESULTS

It took us a few extra weeks, but these are worth the wait…. (drum roll please – no, nix that and strike a blast on a kazoo.)

ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS OF THE GREATEST PICK-UP LINES HEARD IN A BOOKSTORE CONTEST:

Best of show – Kelley Pearson, for her combined use of great literature and sexual innuendo:

I see you’re a Poe fan. So am I! How about you come “rap, rap, rapping on my chamber door” around seven tonight? I will serve you some of my “Amontillado” and if “The Imp of The Perverse” is in spirit, you can show me your “pit” and I will show you my “pendulum”?

Since Kelley is the owner of SECOND STORY CAFE, and therefore a bookstore employee, she is disqualified. However, it is a great line!

So here are the other winning entries:

Second place in combined innuendo and literature: MA Williams, for:

Hey, babe. You know, that Darcy dude really got a bum rap. Wanna rewrite some chapters with me?

Nice touch, MA – appeals to the literary heart and the libido. PM us your address.

Smoothest line – James Ryan’s WOW! This bookstore is magical. I just made a wish and there you are.”

We know where you live, James. Be afraid….

Voted most likely to work – Lacy’s I’d love to catch you in my rye.”

Lacy, send us an address!

Voted most likely to work only in New England – Mark Seaton, withI’m not usually this forward, but I couldn’t help but notice your amazing table of contents. And if you are in concordance, I believe all indices favor that our meeting not be a mere footnote, but rather, a co-authored magnum opus.”

Mark, PM us your address and we’ll send you a copy of Jack’s Scots Traditional music CD. And we promise not to tell the police where you are.

Voted most likely to get you slapped – Stacy Baker’s  “Do you breed here – um, I mean, READ here often?”

We’d like to thank the other entries–some of which might get us arrested, so if you want to look at them, scroll down to the Sept. 9 blog and read for yourself. A word to the wise: don’t drink anything while reading; you’ll wind up spitting it on the keyboard.

Last but not least, thanks to “Rosemary Beddington’s Husband” for the worst entry ever: Oh, is that “Gone with the Wind” you’re reading or did you just fart?

*shakes head* Dude…….