Meetings, meetings...

Today I had two meetings.

The first was at College Station City Hall where I gatecrashed a committee meeting of the 75th Anniversary of College Station organising committee.  They didn't seem to be at all phased by a complete stranger at the table.  Texan courtesy is unfailing!  They are planning a celebration of 75 years of incorporation as a city with an exhibition at the George Bush Library.  They sounded as though they had all grown up together, "It was next to your grandaddy's house..." and they clearly know every blade of grass in College Station.  I couldn't always make out what they were saying, but that was probably mutual!  Anyway, they have all been asking around amongst their contacts and connections about various aspects of the city's history, gathering sponsors and promises of assistance, photographs and artefacts.   It seems as though my role will be to go and interview people for the oral history archives and help someone with sorting out photographs.  I shall know more on Monday.   Sounds as though it will be interesting!

First book for the new book group

The second meeting was of a completely different kind with a young man who I met the other day at the bookshop Barnes and Noble.  We sat down over a drink - iced coffee in my case and some pink liquid that I didn't like to ask about in his case - and discussed books we were reading.  He's a very serious reader and we were both interested to hear recommendations from each other and had quite a lot of reading interests in common.  Which is surprising as I'm *!?*! years old and he's 18!  He's a lovely young man (anyone who calls me ma'am is in my good books) and we have decided to start our own book group! Yes, my friends, I can hear you laughing all the way over the pond!   We have designed a flyer that Barnes and Noble are going to produce and our first book will be 'The Orchardist' by Amanda Coplin, a first novel which has just won a prize. It was reviewed in January in the Independent.   

My young friend says that he doesn't know many people in his age group who read serious fiction so we've speculated on whether we'll get any other men/young men in the group.   I'll let you know how we get on.

24 degrees C today, that's 75 degrees F and it's only the middle of March!