Rainy days are made for books and coffee . . .

And snuggling. But since I had to be up at the butt crack of 8, snuggling was out of the question. Seriously, who even knew that there was an 8 in the a.m. too?! But all joking aside, I woke up in my new bedroom, which is huge and cavernous, and the sky was overcast and dripping. My room was a little chilly, so I was snuggled under warm blankets while Foster snoozed next to me. What a perfect way to wake up! If only there was time to hunker down for a while and spoon the dog!

If you don't have pets, I suggest you get one just for the snuggle factor. (If there's a hairy man in your bed, you can use him too, but I suggest the dog over the dude in most cases.) Regardless, I had to get up, rip myself out of my warm cocoon, and get ready for an interview. Emali had to be out of the house a few minutes before me, so there was a mad pants-and-bra dash to get dressed and get out the door. I made coffee before we had to go our separate ways, and that seems to be the thing that connects us in the morning. It's sort of our ritual to drink at least one cup of that hot, steaming goodness together before we run our separate ways for the day. The interview lasted 10 minutes, and it took me 20 minutes to get there.

And that's the way things go, I guess. The bright side is that I am now fully awake, and have accomplished many things thus far today, and will have more things done before noon. But right now, I'm sitting at the coffee shop working on my little Mac, sipping on steaming coffee, occasionally gazing out the bank of windows at this gloomy, rainy day. And you know what? It's wonderful! One of the girls who works here is reading Lolita, and I read it for the first time last summer. So of course, we had a mini book discussion, leading into Catcher in the Rye, and how much we love the characters as much as the plots, adding that both books are life and perspective-on-life changers. Books bring strangers together, and now I have two new friends, because we are all reading and drinking coffee on a rainy day in Austin.

Confucius say: Three days of rain makes one really appreciate the sun. Take that little nugget for what you will, but I think that, metaphorically speaking, there's some real truth to it.