Readathon Hour 8: Company

Despite the title of my last post 6 hours ago, I promise that I have NOT been sleeping.

Sometime around midnight, Mr. Bybee showed up at the office and was in an uncharacteristically chatty mood. So to be polite, I left off reading and blogging and talked with him keeping one eye on the clock. Pages read between midnight and one a.m: A big, fat goose egg.

Then, around 1 a.m. he said, "Well, since you're just reading, can I get on the computer and play some games?"

I wanted to whine that I would be missing challenges, but didn't. I just said sure. Am I too polite and dignified for my own good, or am I a mouseburger? I yearned for computer time, but on the bright side, I finished How Koreans Talk then really got into and was completely charmed with Books: A Memoir by Larry McMurtry. I took notes; this is going to be a full-blown review.

Around 2:15 a.m, Mr. Bybee decided that he wanted to run home for a few minutes (I forget why), so I walked him downstairs, where we ran into my co-worker, Baldy and a Canadian woman that I'd never met before. She used to live in Gumi. Anyway, we chatted for a bit and walked out together. Then we ran into Steve, our office worker who gets more and more dazzling every day with his mastery of English (complete with an Aussie accent!). So we chatted with Steve for a bit. After that, I was so disoriented I walked Mr. Bybee all the way back to Dorm Sweet Dorm. He got whatever it is that he wanted and we walked right back to the office, and he made a beeline for the computer.

And he stayed.
And stayed.
And stayed!!!
He had the computer mouse in a viselike grip, but I kept reading, grimly knowing and so determined that I would outlast him. Finally at 4:45, he gave up and staggered home to bed. Sweet dreams, Mr. B.
Hopefully he'll be there for hours.

Here is my page count so far:
Hour 1: 31 pages
Hour 2: 75 pages
Hour 3: 98 pages
Hour 4: 0 pages
Hour 5: 56 pages
Hour 6: 29 pages
Hour 7: 50 pages
Hour 8: 23 pages

OK -- Now I'm going to cheerlead for 8 hours, so I'll be dropping by your blogs soon. Just let me dig my pom-poms out of the file cabinet.