An invisible procession going by

28. Truth and Beauty: A Friendship, by Ann Patchett. This was one of the darkest books I've read all year. A memoir about Patchett's twenty-year friendship with writer Lucy Grealy, who eventually died of something like an accidental heroin overdose (the telling and probably the fact of it is unclear), the book starts out with the exuberance of two girls fresh out of college, and concludes with one of the girls spiraling into depression and addiction and her eventual and inevitable death.

I always feel sad when I read books about intense friendships, especially nonfiction, because while I have many friends I love dearly, none of us are quite pathological enough to have the kind of relationship where one of us feels the need to call the other every day and ask "Do you still love me?" (as Grealy does). I think I almost had one of these friendships once, in high school, but neither of us deserved the other: Jennifer was too smart for me, and I was too unself-centered for her. This sounds cruel, and maybe it is, because I am still resentful not only of her but of the failure of our young girlhood friendship to turn into a lifelong obsession that would have fueled endless novelizing and memoirizing of our lives.

Anyway, even though Lucy Grealy's death is no secret, and in fact an article about it was what led me to buy this book a few years ago, it hit me too hard. I am burdened with the sadness of The Book Thief, which is a world of pain and death, and now of Truth and Beauty as well, which is an individual and personal pain. Too much! I don't know if I need to take a break from reading or from reading these kinds of books, but yeah.

Hey, remember when I used to post about things that weren't books I was reading? Yeah, that.

Well, let's go with an old tradition:

Things I Like Thursday
1. Planning my trip to Espana (okay so I don't know how to make tildes on this computer... but you know what I mean)
2. Puppies (see icon)
3. The sophomore girls who spend their free periods in my office and keep me updated on all the gossip
4. The fact that I am no longer a sophomore girl
5. Leftover Easter ham sandwiches
6. New sundresses
7. Watching endless reruns of Friends (this never will tire for me)
8. Listening to NPR while driving in the rain with the windows down enough to smell it
9. along the same lines, Big Fat Raindrops
10. Tax refunds, baby!

I just clicked on a link that led me to EXTREMELY DETAILED AND BELIEVABLE "rumors" about the BSG finale.

WHY DID I CLICK THAT LINK. :(

(not that it is a bad ending... far from it... I'm just so sad/mad at myself for spoiling myself!)


ETA: DUDE I was just looking at my profile and discovered that this, THIS POST, is my 1,000th livejournal entry ever. Happy 1,000th to me? Let's see, since I have had this journal for almost exactly seven years, that means... what... 147-ish posts a year? That sounds about right, I suppose.

( this is a story about a zit. )


PS I have finished the puzzle but keep forgetting to take a photo when it's light outside, and the indoor light makes it look terrible. Patience, friends!

3. 1/17/09: The Woman Who Can't Forget: A Memoir, by Jill Price with Bart Davis

( This is going to be long )

Day Three

Dresses? I dunno, today is lame.

Day Two of things that make me happy.

Cake.

Hamburger Helper with added peas and onions.

Mucinex.

Staying under budget for the second month in a row.

cpennylane tagged me yesterday, but I was very unhappy, so I didn't want to start until today...

The rules are that for 8 days you have to post something that made you happy that day.
Tag 8 people to do the same. (Also, I'm ignoring the "tag 8 people" part--if you want to do it, go ahead!)

Day One: Wednesday, December 10.

I am happy about my soft white scarf,
eating King Ranch casserole,
many sixteenth birthdays this week,
being a confidante.

I am happy about a lunch date with a great friend and a dinner date with another.

I am happy that the end of the semester is fast approaching and with a new year comes a new leaf.

I know it is cliche but I love this time of year.

Sometimes when I panic about the future viability of my job (working for small nonprofit = every year's budget is dependent on somebody giving us a lot of money), I think to myself, "Well, if my position is cut, I could always go be an administrative assistant somewhere*, and that would be okay."

Today --> HELL to the NO on that one. I spent seven hours straight sitting at the same table, sorting 2,000 pieces of mail by zip code. And when I thought was done, then I was told that I couldn't just sort them by the 5-digit zip, I had to sort them by the whole 9-digit zip. THEN I stamped them. All 2,000. And THEN the development lady brought me 200 more pieces that I had to stamp and sort in with the rest. Oh god, the humanity. I have now basically memorized every zip code in North Texas from staring at them all day.

I am so spoiled because my job does not usually have any crap like this. Maybe a little, but I can almost always track down a student and convince them to do it for me. Not today. My eyes are dry and scratchy and I feel like I'm going to be sore for doing the same damn motions all day.

Anyway, I know this is whiny but... I can't even express how grateful I feel that my job is so interesting & different most of the time. It doesn't pay super well, but I can live on it, and that's fine with me. I should take more time to appreciate what I have, you know?






*and of course I am realizing that even these positions are not so easy to come by as I had thought. :(

I dreamed it was Election Night, I was watching TV, and switching between one channel that showed election coverage, and LOST.

McCain was in the lead and on LOST, everyone was being killed in extremely violent ways. It was kind of nightmarish.

That character meme, with a twist:

1) Make a list of fifteen characters and ten locations (real or fictional) first, and keep it to yourself for the moment.

2) Ask your flist to post questions in the comments.

For example: "One and nine must stop eleven from destroying twenty. Do they succeed?"
"How likely are five and seven to have a passionate encounter in sixteen?"
"What would four do for fun in nineteen?"

3) After your flist has asked enough questions, round them up and answer them using the characters and locations you selected beforehand, then post them.

Question away! Remember, one through fifteen are people, sixteen through twenty-five are locations (either places or vehicles).



ETA: 1-15 are people. 16-25 are places.

from darthlorexa If you see this, post a quote from Star Trek in your journal.

"Get this cheese to sickbay!"

from own_the_sky

( meme that has the word  )

I just finished watching the first season of The Wire, which is one of those shows that I kept reading about as "THE GREATEST TV SHOW EVER ON TV," but I always figured it would be boring since I don't watch cop shows, generally.

The Wire = NOT boring.

It is not really like most TV shows I love. Back in the day I made a list of characteristics I enjoyed in TV:
- fantasy/sci-fi elements
- humor
- irony
- intensely emotional scenes
- long-lasting series arcs
- will-they-or-won't-theys that typically are answered by "they will, but not for a long time, and we might not even tell you if they do"
- male heroes that are So Gay for each other (i.e. season 1 Clark and Lex)
- ambiguous morality in the heroes
- good dialogue
- likable teen characters
- guys without shirts
- end of the world scenarios
- social commentary in allegorical form
- good acting


Out of these, the Wire has: (1) irony, (2) long-lasting series arcs, (3) ambiguous morality, (4) good dialogue, (5) social commentary in allegorical form, and (6) good acting. So that's less than 50%, not looking good for the Wire, is it? But on the other hand, the acting is just sublime, as is the dialogue, so those count for way, way more.

Finally--it is really different from most shows in the level of concentration it requires. Even for a drama, you have to pay a ridiculous amount of attention to understand what the fuck is going on. But then, when you do, it is SO worth the payoff. I don't know if I love it as much as Entertainment Weekly seems to, but man, I'm itching to get my hands on season 2.

True stories:

1. David Lemon walked into AP Physics class and announced "SOME CRAZY PEOPLE JUST CRASHED A PLANE INTO A BUILDING!" David Lemon was the kid who couldn't stop drumming on himself and liked to squeal "Pika, pikachu!" We rolled our eyes and went back to studying.

2. It was College Night for the school district. Only state schools showed up--most colleges and universities couldn't get in town because all the flights were grounded.

3. I went to Sonic for lunch, which was by my house. While waiting, I called my dad and asked if I could just go home. Not because I was so distraught, but because it was a great excuse to miss class.

4. During 5th period we were watching the footage on TV, and this kid Aaron, who I didn't know very well, had tears running down his face. Later, he turned out to be a complete douchebag. I was talking to my friend Raj, and Aaron came up and asked if he was a fucking Arab, because if so, he better get the fuck out before he bashed his fucking face in.

Our students take a test each summer to evaluate their fluency and progress.

The name of the test is the Woodcock Johnson.

I just realized why everyone always giggles when we say the name... oh, man.

Did anyone else LOL at the Coldplay played when Barack Obama walked onstage?

From eponis, blogger of great things related to food:

( follow the cut for a FOOD MEME )
38/100... not bad, I suppose!

( silly sort of personal/political views survey ) from cpennylane