In the morning on my actual day, my daughters were surprised that daddy had told them we wouldn't be doing a whole celebration. He told them we had been doing that all weekend. Despite the fact that we had done celebrations, I was a trifle disappointed with his attitude. After all, he has never once had to be responsible for doing anything special for my birthday. Every year, it's been my mom who gets my cake as we usually have dinner and cake at her house, followed usually by a birthday dinner at his mother's. This year things were a little different as it wasn't until the last minute that we knew we were doing anything with my family. Even dinner out with friend's was planned at the last minute. I was determined I wasn't going to be the one doing the planning so I kept out of it and have to admit I was relieved when he pulled something together on such short notice.
Anyways, my daughters decided they would surprise me themselves and they did. As soon as they got home from school they headed up to their rooms where they planned a party for me. When the time was right, I was escorted upstairs to E's room where I got to sit in the place of honour and open my "presents". I was very pleased to receive a hand drawn card from E and just as pleased to discover the large Hello Kitty stuffy that had hastily been wrapped in tissue paper. Not to be outdone, O offered up his favourite stuffed kitty cat and liked it so well that he promptly ran off to find something else to stuff into the box to give me.
As I looked around at my kids, I recognized these moments as one of the benefits of being a mom. Never mind that they weren't real presents, it was more fun watching their excitement as they showed their love for me. They were so eager and so assured of themselves that what they had planned for me was special and it really was.
Of course, I was just as pleased when I got my "real" present from my husband and it's that present that's primarily been the reason for my lack of posting this week. As I've said before, I'm an avid reader and now he's just given me more reasons to keep on reading.
The screen doesn't glare, so it doesn't irritate my eyes at all and it loads up and turns off easily. The battery seems to last a long time. Apparently I can sync it with my smart phone (don't know why I would want to) and it's light and easy to hold. It comes with a 100 free books right off the bat. Although a lot of these are classics and ones I had read already. (Of course)
The only hard part is that we really can't afford for me to be constantly buying new ebooks even though some books start as low as $0.89. Still it would be a charge on the credit card and there's no getting away from hubby's eagle eye on that. So I've had to scour the ebook section on my local library website to borrow. Unfortunately, a lot of people obviously read ebooks because so many are unavailable to read. I don't get this. It's a digital copy, why do they limit it to one reader at a time? When you consider how many people live on my island who have access to the ebooks, and there are apparently only 2500, you can imagine how long the wait list can be.
Having said that though I love it and I felt absolutely hip and cool when I sat in the coffee shop drinking my latte and reading it. Because while technology is out there and I see so many people with Iphones etc... I don't think I've seen one person out wandering around with an ebook reader.
I think I've read 6 books since I was given it on Monday night. Of course, 4 of those books were relatively small ones but you can understand why I haven't been posting much this week. My smart aleck 4 year old even said to me... "Boy you sure don't like daddy's present."
What do you think of Ebooks readers? What are you reading right now?
I have never tried one.
ReplyDeleteI'm partial to the feel of a real book in my hands, pages, the smell of the binding, etc.
I do wonder about these though. I'm not entirely sure how they work. You buy the book and then download it? Do you then have it forever? Is there a certain amount of memory that you are given to use? What happens when you run out? I am an avid reader, so this might really be what I need to keep down that book buying budget...if I just understood how they actually work. LOL
I also don't understand why there would just be one digital copy. That seems crazy to me.
I'm reading Little Bee by Chris Cleave right now. Just started it today.
Congrats on getting your ebook reader!
ReplyDeleteI like the feel of real books too but this baby can hold like 1000 books. Once you buy them and download it to your reader, they are yours forever. I'm not sure about the library ones. If your reader actually gets full you can transfer your copies onto your computer to make room for more. It's pretty cool!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday! Yeah, I love reading books all in one huge sit. So it is hard for me to pick up a book knowing I stop everything to read!
ReplyDeleteI found you on SITS!
What a great gift! I totally want one of those, that's what I've asked for for my bday (not until December though!)
ReplyDeleteWell, happy belated. Pamper yourself!
I have a kindle and love it! I also buy a book here and there, depending, but a tech device really is the way to go if you're an avid reader! Happy Birthday!
ReplyDelete