Monday, February 19, 2007 | by nathan

Sold Short but Caught Up

I’ve fallen behind on my attempt to read a book a week, and so, in the interest of catching up, I did three really easy books in a row. The first was a book I have already read, albeit only one time. The second was a horribly trashy celebrity tell-all biography, one of those things that sells really well in the U.K. but that Americans turn their noses up at (and rightfully so). The third, which I’m reading now to catch up, is my pastor, the guy who is going to do my wedding - it’s his book, which is actually quite good, especially if George W. Bush ever made you give serious thought to honest-to-God drug addiction, as he did me and a whole bunch of other well-meaning liberals I know.

It’s a little embarrassing, admitting that I’m just now reading my pastor’s book, though in my defense my friend Todd borrowed it the day I bought it and, as far as I can tell, has yet to even read it, much less return it. This is fine; he can keep that copy, I now have a new one. At any rate, I hope to be caught up by the end of the week and to get ahead when, next week, Brian is out of town from Monday to Friday. He’s going off to Vegas for work - no, really - and then I’m flying out a week from this Friday to meet him there, and we’re spending the week in Vegas.

I went to Las Vegas once, when I was 12. My dad, brother and I were driving to California and we stopped there overnight, stayed in an overlit Motel 6, and drove up and down the Strip in 110-degree (at night) weather. It’s never been my idea of a fun vacation; I can think of about a zillion places I’d choose to go first, but now that Bri and I are going I’m looking very forward to it. I might just throw aside all my pretenses and be an honest-to-God tourist in my own country for once. After all, what happens in Vegas…