Buenos Diaz! Yes its 1pm here on the west coast, but hell, its morning somewhere.
So! I've been saying for years that if I ever opened a restaurant or started a blog (because the two are so closely related), I'd name it "Buenos Diaz" to play off of my last name. After talking about it ad nauseum for longer than I care to admit, I figured I should just shut up and do it already.
See, I love to read and even more: to write. I have been a bona fide bibliophile since I was a little girl being read to by my parents at bedtime, memorizing each and every line of every single story and throwing a fit when those sneaky snakes tried to skip pages so I'd go the hell to sleep. Pssh. Scoundrels! I'm sure good ol' Mom and Dad rolled their eyes each time their toddler shook her head maniacally muttering "Nuh-uh-uh!" and turned back to the page they'd tried to pretend wasn't there. I just couldn't let them get away with skipping the part where Thing 1 and Thing 2 fly the kites inside the house. I felt it was my duty to make sure The Cat in the Hat's entire story was told.
I think I was more excited the day that I got my first library card than I was when I got my driver's license. My entire class in montessori school took a trip to the tiny local library and learned all about the Dewey Decimal system and the immense responsibility that would be bestowed onto us when we were allowed to take gems like The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Clifford the Big Red Dog home. The night before the scheduled trip, I asked my parents to please sign a random piece of paper for me then stole away to my room and studied their signatures for hours. I wanted to concoct and perfect my own signature for the grandiose moment when I'd get to put my John Hancock on that little piece of plastic. I physically stressed about it and paced back and forth in my Snow White pajamas, weighing all of my signature options. Should I sign "Vanessa Diaz" or go for the Mexican long form and go with "Vanessa Diaz Garcia?" Should I take a crack at that cursive stuff people were talking about or stick to the block letters I'd only recently mastered? And if I didn't sign correctly, would the library turn me away? NOOOOOOO! It was kind of a big moment.
My world was forever changed when the mousy librarian finally handed me the card. I was convinced no sweeter words had ever been uttered than "Congratulations, Miss Dee-azz. What book would you like to take home today?" I soon became that kid glued to the TV during Reading Rainbow with a pen and paper in hand, writing down the names and authors to all the books featured in each episode then begging my mother to take me to the library so I could check them out. The libraries in our part of town weren't particularly well stocked, so 7 times out of 10 the books I was looking for needed to be ordered from another library. We'd leave our name and phone number and wait for the book to come in, or if I'd been really good in school that week (i.e. I hadn't been put on time-out twelve times for talking in class), my mom would drive me across town to get the book from whatever distant library held it at the time. On those days, I almost wet myself with joy.
Now at age 28, not much has changed. I may read books on a Kindle or iPad now and use the Goodreads app instead of a notepad for my reading list, but my passion for all things literary has lessened none. I am most content, most at peace with either a book or pen (or keyboard) in hand. Not having pursued a related career, I've channeled this obsession by devouring as many books as I can and keeping a journal, and by writing my friends novella-style emails when I'm introspectively tapping into my inner Carrie Bradshaw. What I hope this blog will be is a less private, more open and creative exploration of my love of not just books but so many other things: music, food, wine, family, travel, Harry Potter (you know, the essentials). With any luck my musings will be entertaining to some, or perhaps they'll simply serve as a cathartic outlet. In either case, I hope to use this blog as a snapshot of my life to look back on later, an indulgence of my love of the written word and an expression of my most genuine self.
Promising to make future entries more brief,
Vanessa
