stranded here like the rest of you

After all this time, I've begun reading Peter S. Beagle's "52/50 Project".
I've only had it languishing on the bookshelf for...oh...about...quite awhile.
That makes this the right time to start.
I will have had it two years at the end of this week.
Most babes are talking and have an interest in books by then, right?

Why have I waited so long?
No particular reason.
I printed the pages and placed them into a nice binder. The finished tome was then placed on the shelf with my other goodies garnered from kickstarter projects.
That's all it took.
I checked off that item from my "to do" list and went on to the next.

So, why now?
You can thank my ex-husband, Jeff, for that, as well as the VA hospital.
Let's take that second one first.
A mere week ago, I had ridden the shuttle 'twixt Savannah and Charleston yet again, this time for the post-operation consult. Even though I had made the first appointment of the day for the Plastics Clinic, I still ended up with almost four hours of idleness.
Ugh.
I had found on my last visit that the hospital lobby had several bookshelves of loaners, so I went in search of a book to pass the time.
Wonder of wonders, I found one on the top shelf of the first bookstand!
Even better, it was by a mystery author I enjoy, Sidney Sheldon.
Titled, "Tell Me Your Dreams", it hooked from the very start and was a fast read. Fur hours was not quite long enough to finish it, but I had a good grasp of the plot by the time I my name was called.
I also had a desire to read more.
Enter the ex.
After the wrapping session with him, I was inspired to take care of little ones on my list. So, into the gift closet I delved, and through the kickstarter rewards I explored, finding treasures I had forgotten.
Treasures like this book.

Today, I read the first one.
It's a song, as it so happens.
Perhaps because it was meant for publication on his 70th birthday?
That would certainly be appropriate, as these could just as easily be the musings of a newborn human as of an extraterrestrial being.
Titled simply "The Alien", I really love the chorus:

"I'm just an alien from anywhere -
Point out a star, and it might be there,
With thirteen purple moons and an orange sky
I'm stranded here like the rest of you
Doing those things that people do
Trying to love you,
Trying to learn to cry."

I do have to wonder what tune was playing in his head...

I intend to read another of his creations on Monday.
Why that day?
Because that's the day of the week on which he published them!
I'll keep the book on my coffee table, open, to draw me in...
(smile)