My favorite gifts to receive are books. I have hundreds of books, some in large boxes placed in storage. My most cherished books are from my sister’s, one of them just made me a personalized book. My grandfather gave me, Great Expectations, and wrote something nice in the front cover. For my 13th birthday, my aunt gave me Jane Austen’s entire collection, and wrote me a nice note on the inside of my special copy. For highschool graduation, my aunt gave me a book of poems. I am so happy to have had the pleasure of studying English Literature in college, had I not completed a minor of literature in highschool from starting college early, I only would have studied mathematics in college and I love reading literature. I worked too hard in math to have a career in something else, even though I love literature. My oldest sister let me borrow her copy of, Les Mis, for my bookshelf because I enjoy reading books in french too. I am better at reading and writing in french than speaking, but it is probably, because I have more opportunity to read french literature than causally speak the langauge everyday. Books are my favorite gift to receive, and I keep all of them, even the copy of, Into the Jungle, my sister gave me when I turned 16.

I think when I have my run book, I will pay for hard copies of it to give to family members and then just do an e-book version. I’ll probably do 50 hard copies, an ebook, and 100 soft copies to go to race expos or retreats if I’m lucky, the book is more of a personal accomplishment than anything. My boss does grants for people to do that kind of a thing as her side pleasure later in life, dabbling with her gave me the number idea. It can be a tremendous amount of money or really not that big of a deal, depending on the specific situation, either way having a fund to cover a project is always a plus. There are ways to do pictures at home and an e-book publication without spending money, which a lot of people choose. Set aside a few hours a week to write, and you’ll have a book before you know it. Once a book is published, there are so many competitions to enter for special awards, it’s cool. Anyone can publish an e-book for virtually zero cost. I had fun with my boss helping pick her winners and organizing events like a photo shoot. We made blueberry coffee so our photo shoot location would smell splendid, fun weekend which included playing dress up in her ginormous closet of the finest. I want my old doctors to have my structured literature for patients going through what I did, and runners too. Books are doable creations that can always help people. I have a very specific crowd and number to start out with, as everyone should. Books can be a small business for a lot of authors or grow into something unexpected, everyone’s different. For instance having my poetry published was more of an honor than a money-maker career, but it is still a big deal. That is why software things, is my real job, however I suppose working in tech can be an honor too. It’ll be a cool thing about me when it is finished, and it’s nice to have family support in making goals happen. Surely, there will be a Christmas where my stocking stuffers for everyone is the usual signed picture of me and my run book, it’ll be fun.

Just yesterday for Valentine's Day, I received a gift from my Aunt Barbie. She certainly was like a barbie doll, loving fashion, wearing the gorgeous designer clothes whilst working at Lord & Taylor all of those years. It also made me pensive about how I loved running in the cemetery next to her house until reaching the green Mother Mary statue, before my favorite series Vampire Diaries made it cool to hang out in cemeteries. So I will need to write a chapter about running through Aunt Barb's backyard, which was a cemetery in Gloversville NY. Whenever my sister and I drive to Boston or Maine, we say ‘hi’ to Aunt Barb near the Gloversville exit upon driving by. We also think of Aunt Barbie in summertime when we use frozen grapes as ice cubes in white wine, such as Dry Riesling. That backyard cemetery of Gloversville, is essentially where my running career started before hitting five years old, and it’s pretty profound. Then, it is something else to think in my town there are a lot of trails through cemeteries that our cross-country team would always run through. I do not think it is creepy, I actually think it’s nice. My grandpa’s cemetery is pretty to run through during sunset, because of the hill where there’s a gorgeous overlook, and there is a near by park. Cemeteries are holy land, making them nice running locations, or a location to leisurly walk while praying the rosary. 📿 I have matter of factly run on a lot of cemetery trails, golf courses before 6am and tracks. Those are nice controlled environments in my location to run through in addition to parks. 🌞