I'll report on our last few days, moving backwards, then forwards again.
First, today - a trip up to Lansing, capitol of the state of Michigan, governed by...never mind. Our greatest concern for the day was, of course, Joseph. Would he sleep? When? Would it be possible that he would actually be helpful and doze during the book signing?
Answer: If you know a two-year old, you can guess.
We kept him awake during the trip up, which was a challenge, considering that the kid has a hard time staying awake in the car if I drive to Kroger's in the mornings. But we did it, so as we approached the Rosary Book and Gift Shoppe, we were filled with great hope. Which faded quickly enough, naturally.
About ten minutes into this book signing - which was associated with the opening of this new branch of the bookstore, I could tell we were not going be exactly inundated, and that I could be spared. So I took Joseph out in the stroller and walked him back and forth on the shady sidewalk about 97 times, at which point I determined he was asleep. And he was - until we got into the brightly lit store, at which point he awoke. If you have a two-year old, you know that sometimes a three-minute nap is just enough to re-energize a kid for an afternoon, but not in a good way.
I have to say, though, he was very, very good, up until about the last fifteen minutes. We sold a number of books, most notably to the one priest who came in and bought one of everything we had - if we'd had more priests, we would have sold out in no time.
After the appointed hour had ended, we decided to break in our reciprocal zoo passes at Lansing's little zoo, where we saw a tiger, some raggedy looking camels, really raggedy looking reindeer (I guess they shed their winter coats), a few monkeys, goats, pigs, porcupines, peacocks, and kangaroos. It was a nice enough little zoo, good enough for Joseph, and good enough for free.
We then took a look at the Michigan State campus, including the football stadium, of course, drove by the capitol, shopped a bit, ate at Carrabba's, one of the few chains which I really like, and which has one salad in particular that I really, really like, (Insalata Fiorucci) but have not tasted in close to three years because the Fort may merit 47 Mexican restaurants, but not a Carrabba's, and then headed home.
Oh, and did Joseph sleep? He finally nodded off thirty seconds after we drove away from the zoo, and slept for the Michigan State tour. About thirty minutes. And not one slight droop of the eyelid on the way home either. He was too busy yelling, "Go FootWayne!" for two hours to sleep, I guess.
