Discovery

At times I wonder, "Is anyone reading Cypress Walls right now?" On Thursday, a couple of emails confirmed that, 15 months since publication, there are readers out there still discovering my little book.

An old MTSU friend, Christina, wrote to inform me that her sister Meredith absconded with her copy while visiting her over Thanksgiving.

"She was so consumed by it that she would pick it up every free moment she could steal for herself," Christina wrote. "She would even bring it into the den at night (after the kids were in bed) so she could 'technically' be with the rest of us AND still indulge herself in your words. Honestly, on more than one occasion it was quite distracting, because she would be on the couch while we were all trying to watch TV and then we'd hear her get engulfed in her own laughter only to discover her reading your book....again!"

I'm pretty sure this is the first time that Cypress Walls has semi-disrupted a family get-together. Thanks Christina for passing along the story and thanks to Meredith for taking the book back home to finish up!

The second email I received was from a recent college grad, Joseph. A few years ago, he and I played together on a Travelocity softball team with his dad, Tony. Since then, Joseph has earned his degree from Texas Tech and spent this past summer interning with the Quad City River Bandits, a minor league baseball team affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals.

"I got a lot of good experience out of the internship, including writing press releases, doing play-by-play, and even dressing up as the team's mascot on occasion," Joseph wrote. "It was a great summer, but unfortunately the season came to an end and so did my internship, so I moved back home have been living with my parents since the beginning of September.

"It wasn't until I got back home that I was able to start reading your book, and it really hit home," he continued. "I could definitely relate with most of what you went through and it was really cool to be able to know that I wasn't the only one that graduates college and then moves home back with mom and dad. haha."

Joseph is currently balancing part time work at an Apple retail store and substitute teaching. He also attended the baseball winter meetings and applied for a couple of minor league broadcasting jobs. His short term goal, however, is "moving into my own place." Don't worry Joseph. It won't take too long.

Thanks for taking a few minutes to check in. Look for one more post before we go into our holiday hibernation. Cheers everybody.