So last night, I got to hang out with a best-selling author. No biggie, right? Ha! Many years ago, my mom started writing to Nancy Thayer, who writes women’s fiction and has now written more than 20 books and whose latest, The Guest Cottage, was one of Huffington Post’s favorite beach books. Well, through those letters, a friendship grew. It helps that Nancy has some family locally, so she comes through our area periodically. A while back, she invited my mom to come to an alumni event at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and since Mom doesn’t drive and I love Nancy’s books too, I got to tag along.

The reception was first, full of people who already seemed to know each other. Nancy recognized Mom immediately and gave her a big hug; I got a hug too, after a quick, awkward “do we shake hands or do we hug” moment. We chatted for a few minutes, then left so she could work the room. After that, we moved to the auditorium to listen to a conversation with Nancy and a local journalist/writer. That was fun too, but the best part came after. Nancy had invited us to join her afterward for drinks, so we got to party with the author! We were with one of her old friends, who was delightful, and another couple who had driven five hours to meet Nancy. Nancy’s nephew joined us too, and I found out he’s a musician, working with a band and recording an EP. His name is Andrew Foshee and he’s a singer/songwriter with a great folky sound. He’s got a few songs on iTunes now, and I’m looking forward to hearing his new music.

It was just a really fun night talking with smart, interesting people about books and music and life, and I realized I don’t do that very often. And I think I should. Maybe not every weekend, but more than I do right now.

And in between, I’ll keep knitting. I worked on this hat last night during the reception and finished it this morning. Funny story about this one: I got carried away last night and just kept knitting, so the body of the hat was 7″ instead of 6″, which meant that this morning I played a scary game of Yarn Chicken. I won, but it was too close for comfort! I won’t try to repeat that.  One of the cool things about this pattern is that it’s reversible. The “wrong” side looks like a nifty seed stitch pattern.But I still prefer the “right” side.This is the Slouchy Broken Rib Hat and it’s one of my favorites.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go shelve my newly-signed Nancy Thayer books!