Comfort Food (Booking Through Thursday)

Okay . . . picture this (really) worst-case scenario: It’s cold and raining, your boyfriend/girlfriend has just dumped you, you’ve just been fired, the pile of unpaid bills is sky-high, your beloved pet has recently died, and you think you’re coming down with a cold. All you want to do (other than hiding under the covers) is to curl up with a good book, something warm and comforting that will make you feel better.
What do you read?
(Any bets on how quickly somebody says the Bible or some other religious text? A good choice, to be sure, but to be honest, I was thinking more along the lines of fiction…. Unless I laid it on a little strong in the string of catastrophes? Maybe I should have just stuck to catching a cold on a rainy day….)

This may be heresy, but if things were this bad, my first inclination would be to make a cup of tea. Then I would need to just sit and drink that for a while. Then, depending on the situation, I would likely either grab a quick-read mystery (involving animals, usually. What can I say, I love them, even though I know many of them are very lame), or, if it seemed appropriate to me, I would read a chapter or two from The Cloister Walk, by Kathleen Norris. I read this book the first time when something terrible had happened to me, and found it well-written, a good read, and helpfully comforting, for reasons that are not overly clear even to myself. But you can pick it up and read as much/little as you like, and when things are awful, that's the kind of thing that can get me moving again.

Vacation update

As of yesterday, we are enjoying ourselves at Virginia Beach, which The Tim informs me is also known as "The Redneck Riviera." Who knew? But if there are rednecks here, they are leaving us alone, and we are leaving them alone, so our "Riviera" vacation has been wonderful. We are staying at a Courtyard Marriott on the oceanfront, and we have a balcony facing the beach. I promise pictures after I get home and sort through what I have.

Speaking of which, tomorrow we head home. So sad. Though I shouldn't complain, since it feels like we have been gone for weeks, and I'll be happy to see the cats. Still, it sure is nice to be on vacation ...