Louis Sachar

Author Louis Sachar

Today was a very LONG day. I woke up early to begin cleaning my closet out and preparing for the weekend of my cousin Eva and her friend coming to visit. I need to clean my closet out anyway and this is great incentive. Now, I need to find a professional service, Office Max for instance, to shred every last bit of my crap I do not need laying around. The other half of everything is going to the Brown Elephant on Halsted...Brown Elephant is basically a His House fro all of those things in your life that are ready for a new home. When I finished Phase I of cleaning out my closet, I found that most of the reason there is no room is because of dirty clothes and the lack of hanging things. Tomorrow, this will be corrected. I am taking a trip to Wal-Mart to find the most inexpensive option for keeping my closet organized...containers, hangers, etc. Then, I will clear out the shredables, take them to my car, drive them to Office Max and be done with that. The next step will be clearing out a hole to put Emma's cage. She needs to sleep more in the day. Now that I actually have an apartment I feel like I live in, I am up and about a lot during the day. She is not getting the proper amount of Chinchilla sleep. She is going to go into a crevice in my closet and I will bring the cage out at night. Phase II will encompass all of this. Hopefull there will not be too many other phases of cleaning it out.

So, with all of THAT being said, I don't even know what my point was by any means. I went to the gym after my first closet cleaning. I did a nice little stint on the elliptical. I need to start watching my eating a little bit more. I am healthily adding a couple of pounds that need to healthily come off. Tomorrow, I have a one time visit with a personal trainer, Olya, at Bally. She will get me on a nice eating routine and workout routine for the summer. This routine will also embody exercises that do not mess with my wrist too much. I am excited to see what will happen. Olya is soooo nice and I am looking forward to her helping me out tomorrow. She is so helpful and she is always pressing me anytime I am in the gym.

Today at work was eventful. Author Louis Sachar had a reading and signing. Sachar was born in New York and now lives in Austin, Texas. He has a wife and a daughter. Sachar's writing career has been going on for 32 years. He has written 25 books that are widely popular. Tonight, the purpose of Sachar's visit was to promote his new Teen book, Cardturner. Cardturner is the book I have been reading this past week to prepare for his visit. I wanted to make sure I had read most of it so I could be able to introduce him. The book is about a 17 year old boy trying to figure out life. Alton helps his great uncle Lester (Trapp), who is blind, play Bridge. They begin to develop a great relationship and Alton begins to learn Bridge. The book is not only about the card game Bridge, but it is about bridging parts of life together.
Sachar has also written the book Holes which was the winner of the 1998 (?) Newbery Medal. Holes has been in the school curricula ever since it won the medal. It is a great story about growing up and believing in yourself. Middle school students are able to relate to the book. I actually used it in my Service Learning classes to talk about character development. Holes was made into a movie by Disney with Sigourney Weaver and Jon Voight.

The way I opened for Sachar was very simple. I gave a quick background and talked about his Newbery Medal. But then, I changed things up a little. I talked about how reading Sachar is a developmental process. I talked about how I grew up hearing his Wayside School stories in elementary school, reading Holes in middle school, watching people write lesson plans for Holes in my teacher education program in college and then actually writing my own lesson plans based on Sachar's books as a certified teacher. I have grown with him as he has with me. Today, I got an e-mail from Sandie Moore saying how her students always wanted her to read one chapter a day of Wayside School; she said it usually turned to three or four. I was very pleased to have Sachar come to the store. It was really refreshing meeting such a humble author. He signed The Cardturner, Holes, Wayside School and Small Steps for me. Other books by Sachar include Marvin Redpost and There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom; he has also written more.

I am excited about the prospect of having more authors come to the store in the future. I am so fortunate to have met some really cool people since I have worked there. It is nice to work in a big events store. By the way, someone asked if we sold Communion wafers today. Go figure.

Well, tomorrow is going to be a big day. I am going to the dentist in Park Ridge, Wal-Mart, Olya's appointment, the beginning of Summer Session in grad school and laundry!

Have a wonderful night! :)