take a few guesses

fieldnotes, one of the sponsors for the tournament of books, decided they would send out a few prizes to some lucky people who happened to correctly predict the winning book and its score in the final championship round.

my guess (The Sisters Brothers to win 10 to 6), thrown up in the comments section without much thought, was just a guess. I hadn't read either book, I had no idea what the judges would vote. but I got lucky (much as I did a few months ago with the robotgeek folks), and not only was my guess correct--it was also chosen at random from among all the other correct guesses. and so it came to pass that I received in the mail...

{ image borrowed from these way cool people who make notebooks. }

... one of their specially created rooster notebooks. and a whole lot of other things. field notes pens. pencils. bands of rubber. steno books. a handy 2012 calendar. and a gorgeous trio of Texas field notes, from their county fair installment. on the back of these are lots of interesting Texan facts. did you know the smallest town in Texas is called Telegraph, and its entire population consists of a mere 3 people? crazy.

anyway, I guess you could say I was thoroughly flattered to win this little contest. and getting that package from Chicago last week pretty much made my evening. call me a geek. I'm okay with that. we all know Amelia loves blank paper and writing utensils. I'm only a little bit sad I didn't get a 1-inch button.

but not complaining! I have seven new little notebooks! it's wonderful.

other bits of news:

I am running away to Eastern Europe next month. it'll be a short little study abroad excursion, with one of the geography professors (whose daughter was in my bibliography class last semester). after a few weeks of thorough deliberation I decided it would definitely be worth going on. why not? it's summer. as long as graduate school is eating me alive, I may as well let it take me around the world a bit. Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Austria. I'm crossing my fingers we get to do something like this while we're there.

I've been thinking about blogging one of my short stories, in small pieces, once or twice a week, just for you all. but which one? I'm going to ask you, and if you have an opinion please express it to me in some fashion. here are the options (listed not by title, but by vaguely surmised subject/tone):

a. the story about the boy and his goat (quirky)
b. the story about the girl who never woke up (melodramatic)
c. the story about a solipsist princess (freakishly depressing)
d. the story about the mermaid (cold and silent)

thanks in advance for your thoughts.