Rachel's first book reading

..I skipped chorus rehearsal tonight because Drew is flying back from DC and I can't make Rachel sit through an entire rehearsal. So, we went to a book reading instead. A former colleague of mine from the Oregonian, Peter Zuckerman, wrote a book about the K2 hiking disaster in 2008 that killed 11 people in a day. It's considered one of the worst climbing disasters in history and Peter tells it from the point of view of the sherpas who guided the expedition. No other mountain disaster books that have been written tell anything about the sherpas, so Peter's book is getting wide acclaim. As it should.

I picked Rachel up from preschool, we found a parking space at Powell's -- the last one -- and went next door to Sizzle Pie for great pizza and salad. She was quite well behaved during the hourlong book reading, although a little restless toward the end -- completely understandable -- and she kept whispering questions about K2 during the reading. I promised I'd tell her more in the car on the way home and she wanted to know EVERYTHING -- what K2 is, why people died on the mountain, what the mountain is made of, how snow can kill people, etc. Truthfully I couldn't answer much, and finally I resorted to telling her, "I don't know, sweetie. I have to read the book."

During one particularly harrowing account that Peter read, Rachel turned to me and exclaimed, "I'll NEVER climb K2! Will you??"

"Imagine being one of the 11 people that were DYING!" she said while brushing her teeth.

And before she went to bed:

"I wish I could stay up and read books ALL NIGHT!" she said. "Do you?"
"Honestly, Rachel?" I answered.
She nodded.
"Yeah, I do," I said.