Over the summer I took a trip to northern California for a friend's wedding. Adan, my husband, and I stayed with my parents for the short visit. One afternoon my mother mentioned to me a stack of papers that had been under the bed in my old room, that a family friend had brought them over to give to me, and asked if I had wanted them. This was about the sixth time she had asked me, and every time I told her to just give it away to the elementary school down the street. It had been customary since my birth, practically, to give me paper and often times the paper was of poor quality. So, I wasn't jumping at the chance to even look at it.

"The print shop [where our family friend works] is no longer using that type of paper," my mother began. At the word "print shop" I got up from my seat and followed my mother to the box. "So [our friend] brought it over to us because she thought you would like it."

We dusted off the top of the huge flat box and lifted the lid.

It was like opening a treasure chest: high quality, toothy, beautiful, thick paper.

Sorry, elementary school. This paper is mine.



Unfortunately, I decided to take on the illustrations in watercolor and didn't consider the warping water would cause to the paper. It's minimal, though, and shouldn't affect the final look too much, especially after I scan the pages.

Slowly I'm getting this done. But it will get done.