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Naamah

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Categories: General, Tags: , , ,

Life is full of tiny joy. Sometimes I forget this and am depressed but every once in a while, something happens and I remember. Today I finished the newest Jacqueline Carey novel–Naamah’s Kiss–which makes me glow and cry as great literature does. There’s something about Carey’s characters which produce this reaction in me; and it’s not just all the sex they have.

I started the book yesterday in Oregon while swinging in a hammock next to the river. Mosquitoes rose above it in clouds and I cursed them ineffectually. The tiny chipmunks that make a nest behind the house scurried underneath my swaying form without fear, gobbling up all the bird seed I’d spread on the sauna’s deck. Sun dappled through the trees and the river burbled away as I read about a girl born in a land almost Ireland who worships a bear goddess.

I read today again while my mom drove us home for hours and hours as Moirin traveled from Terre D’ange to Ch’in for months and months and I fell in love at least four times.

The problem with my ability to finish a 645 page novel in two days is that my ability to read fast outstrips my ability to digest the language. I read so quickly that the words barely register anymore and I tend to come away more with an impression than the actuality of events. I found myself desperately trying to remember exactly how and why she stole into the twilight and pulled out a dragon like a magician with a rabbit. I would flip back a page to re-read a sentence again and again trying to make it compute; to really hear what was happening. If you quizzed me now I could answer you anything having to do with the plot or events but my brain is still processing and will be for at least another day.

Katherine asked me this week how I could start another book so quickly after finishing the last and I was blasé about how easy it is to just go from one to another. Now I remember that actually it is horribly difficult if the book is fabulous. I have a new MacDonald Hall book which was awaiting my return and even though I’d love to devour I can’t actually contemplate entering a different world yet when mine is still so intricately tied up with hers.

I lost track of how many books I read while on vacation this last week–it must have been at least 10. By far Carey’s was my favorite so it is funny that I saved it till the very end–admittedly this is my habit with most things I love; so not so funny, I guess. The MacDonald Hall books by Gordon Korman and Suzanne Collins’ Gregor the Overlander series were both fantastic as well.

Now I will have to wait an interminable and unknown amount of time for the next in the series to come out (no doubt it will be a trilogy like her Kushiel ones [SCOIN]) and I am a little made depressed by this again. But I strive to remember that I can reread Naamah’s Kiss before the new one arrives and be delighted all over again by the bits of language I didn’t manage to ingest this time around. It will almost be like it’s new again and I get to re-meet Jehanne, Snow Tiger, the dragon, and Bao–most of all Bao.

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i suppose i could

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Categories: General, Tags: , , ,

3rd day of projects, please let it be the last; my back hurts. today has consisted of 3 projects and one failed attempt.

number 1: today i thought i should clear everything out of the guest bedroom (including the eight fucking boxes i just put in there) in prep for finally, FINALLY finishing the hardwood floors in there. remember that time i had kittens with ringworm and we opted to rip the carpets out in lieu of trusting the bleaching process? well that was a year ago and the floor is still …unfloored. i’m going to try to convince my mom we should do it this weekend. maybe adam (fat chance snort) will come to help us.

so i cleared everything out and stashed stuff all over the rest of house.

project the 2nd: i painted my toes and fingernails with a new color–“artful dodger”–i like the name. the color is growing on me. it’s quite blue.

failed project of the day: exercise for at least 15 minutes. instead i made cookie dough and ate it. when i fail, i fail big. you gotta risk it to take the biscuit. i’m just saying. (nuala: fired up is still delightful on a second viewing! maybe we should watch it at your house tomorrow again after going to the wedding superstore. i can bring it! cheerleaders!)

3rd project of the day: appease kristen with a new project post. and DONE.

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and again

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today’s project (don’t worry this spate of projects and posting about projects will end quickly. i miss my days of leisure) involved a ridiculous amount of recyclables and summoning up the courage to go the the recycle place.

net time: 3 hours

breakdown:

2 hours spent sorting thru everything that could be recycled in the lean-to of the side yard. this involved touching many things which cats had sprayed urine on. also throwing away many things which hindered access to garbage cans full of PBR cans my brother left here over 3 years ago. smashing process also took a while. i smashed and i smashed and i smashed. from my one previous trial run going to a recycle plant ($7) i learned you have to unscrew the lids from all the plastic bottles. so i had to do that too. i now have blisters FROM UNSCREWING LIDS.

30 minutes spent convincing myself i could deal with recycle plant attendants.

conversation with self:

michele, you can do this. it’s not so scary. they will not bite you. sure you have SIX CANS of recyclables. but they exist to take them off your hands. all right, yes, you are wearing your glasses which make you have trepidations about going out in public, but you know what? pink eye is not for the faint of heart. buck up, missy! just ignore the smell of your car and the smell of the recycle plant area, take some hand sanitizer along, avoid eye contact and get it done!

i was unsuccessful.

so i had kris pump me up via instant message for a little bit. then i left the house! annnnd promptly detoured to jo-ann’s fabric because the wait was too long for recycling. eventually though, i had success.

30 minutes to actually drive to, get rid of and be paid for the recyclables. only marginally terrifying. at one point the attendant did ask me in a sort of world-weary annoyed voice, “is this all of it?” and i had to reply in a subservient apologetic cringing murmer, “no.”

net pay: $38.71.

not too shabby. except for how it was 3 hours of work and means i am making like minimum wage. what’s minimum wage? it’s probably not $13/hour. whatever. time for left over pizza and some well deserved couch time.

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a day in the life

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Categories: General, Tags: , , ,

unemployment has its perks. the main one being lots of time to do projects around the house. today’s project was intensive (well, intensive for some one whose days generally consist of lying on the couch emailing, watching dvds, and reading)

Step 1: laundry. it piled up as laundry does and i started on the first of four loads this morning (morning being a subjective term much like “intensive” and for me being approximately 1:30pm).

Step 2: piles of books on floor in bedroom. cannot take it anymore. must reorganize and purge bookcases so everything will fit.

Step 3: change over laundry

Step 4: email for a bit with kristen about purging books and libraries of our future selves.

Step 5: change over some more laundry

Step 6: sort piles of books into non-fiction, fiction, sci-fi, romance, and YA.

Step 7: find out jacob and lisa got engaged, have a bout of phone and emailing with friends.

Step 8: more laundry. sigh.

Step 9: begin purging bookcases starting with non-fic, moving thru to fic, have purged enough or become a supremely inventive stacker to have cleared one whole shelf. continue purging and stacking until starvation sets in

Step 10: force mother to order pizza.

Step 11: have reached romance! do i really need to see all the titles? no! stack 2 deep, more delightful kresley cole’s, julia quinn’s, judith mcnaught’s, and jennifer cruisie’s in front.

Step 12: fooooooooood.

Step 13: cursed laundry.

Step 14: hang up all outstanding laundry in preparation for new laundry.

Step 15: reach YA (2 whole bookcases)! still have a whole extra shelf! have masses upon masses of newly read YA to shelve though. inventive stacking takes on whole new proportions. i am a genius. reach end of YA and still have a whole extra shelf.

Step 16: put away all clean laundry.

Step 17: put 8 boxes/bags of books to sell in guest room.

Step 18: celebrate today’s success with mini bottle of 17 year old scotch found on bookcase (purchased when last in scotland–1998). fish styx celebrates success with favorite toy found behind row of books on third shelf up (WTF? how does he do that?)

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Marriage

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I found the handwritten toast I made for Marina’s wedding when I served as Maid of Honor and felt the need to type it up and share due to recent events (Nuala and Garren getting engaged).

I’ve known Marina for 10 years since we went to college together at the University of Puget Sound. Back then we were too young to know what the future might hold, but I always suspected Marina would get married first.

On Marina’s bachelorrette party our friend Kristen made up a rhyming toast which ended, “…and here’s to Marina, the first one to fall.”

We may have been a little bit mocking in our laughter of her pioneer descent into matrimony; but it really all just stems from jealousy. You’re not falling into a trap, you’ve fallen into love.

Back when Mark and Marina first started dating–in November of 2002–Marina sent me an email, which I’m quoting here: “Michele, I am just so happy I really don’t know what to do with myself.”

I hope that you both remain “so happy” in your life together. Here’s to falling in to love and falling in to marriage together.

Please join me in a toast to Marina and Mark. Cheers!

When you get married, Nuala, I’ll say to you, “Second to fall!” but I’ll say it with a smile, love and joy. I’m so happy for both of you finding the best of men to fall in love with and marry. Congratulations again!

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Accepted!

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Categories: Movie Reviews, Tags: , , ,

On Cinco de Mayo, I celebrated by watching the classic silent film The Lost World at the Castro theatre in San Francisco as part of the International Film Festival. In addition to being an awesome silent film with stop motion dinosaurs, there was a live band accompaniment to the film. This band was none other than Dengue Fever, the most awesome combination of punk, jazz, rock, and Cambodian lead singer you could ever imagine. I went, admittedly, mostly to see the band, but I ended up really, really enjoying the film.

Favorite line of the movie said by my favorite character Dr. Challenger, in response to Malone’s request to join him on the expedition to the Lost World:

“Most likely the brain of a child, but the body of an athlete. Accepted!”

Seriously some excellent use of italics and exclamation points in silent films. Plus Dr. Challenger’s hirsute head was practically a character in and of itself.

The first half hour of the film and music was amazing. But then it seemed as if Dengue Fever mostly played the same chords repetitively for the other hour and 10 minutes. And Chhom Nimol only sang like 4 songs. I expected her to 1) sing more and 2) sing some in English. I’ve never heard her sing in English! I was all excited. So the music portion was a trifle disappointing.

Also upsetting was the number of dinosaurs mawled upon by the allosaurus. I have to say I really hate allosauruses now. I was pretty happy when the herbivore brontosaurus got him in the jugular and bit down hard. Take that, allosaurus!, I cried silently, beaten by a leaf-eater!. But then the bronto fell off a cliff, sad. He’s shipped back to London to prove to all the scientific naysayers that live dinosaurs do to exist, suck on that. Of course, being a stupendous story of adventure and romance by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the dinosaur gets loose on the streets of London and rampages, sending the citizens fleeing! It’s very exciting, made more exciting by a driving Cambodian rock beat. Eventually she destructors the London Bridge and falls into the Thames, swimming off back home to the Amazon plateau from whence she came. Probably intent on gnawing on some more allosauruses. Sweet! I’d watch that sequel.

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