What have I been up to lately…

Hi everyone! It’s a very chilly Thursday in New York today. I’ve been really busy trying to get my next manuscripts done before Christmas, but wanted to post a few little fun things about the last few days.

1) My dad (not a rock star) came to visit this weekend and we went to Tea & Sympathy, a tea shop in Manhattan’s West Village, for an authentic English breakfast after checking out the Beatrix Potter illustration exhibit at the Morgan Library.

I had beans on toast. Don’t knock it ’til you try it! Then we went to go see Argo (my second viewing) and it was so good that my dad actually stayed awake for the whole movie. It’s a pretty rare event when my dad doesn’t doze off during the first ten minutes of a movie. Last winter when we saw Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, he slept from the opening title sequence until the credits were rolling. Anyway, Argo is fantastic and one of my favorite actresses, Clea Duvall, is in it.

2. I bought these killer boots at an insanely cheap price on Gilt.com. I truly cannot resist a bargain.

3. I was interviewed by the very sweet Hannah L. for her classroom assignment about authors. Her questions made me remember just how much I read when I was in middle school, and how much I loved The Babysitters’ Club series by Ann M. Martin.

4. I suffered through and survived a really, really nasty cold. I used this very gross time in my life to read most of World War Z and avoided opening the box containing the Insanity workout featuring Shaun T. that I ordered a few weeks ago in a moment of rare enthusiasm about fitness.

5. I donated a bunch of toothpaste, tooth brushes, bottled protein shakes, and baby wipes to a group in my neighborhood doing a collection for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts in awesome Red Hook, Brooklyn, not far from my neighborhood.