wrapping it up - oh, and books, of course

haven't felt much like posting lately.
or seeing people either. i guess it's a case of the end of the year blues or maybe it's because i like people less and less...? hmmm. ok. you decide.

that being (typed) said:
christmas was lovely - filled with some of the people i love best.
some cooking god(dess) smiled down on my roast pork because it was OUT of this world!
that and the baked ziti - (which i did NOT like) but others thought delicious. the exchange of gifts resulted in a frenetic mushroom-like cloud of wrapping paper. everyone happy with their loot. even the dog got a stocking. yay petra!

but you know, even after all the christmas music - my own compilation CD, of course -it still didn't feel like christmas. oh well. i hope next year i feel more festive and less resigned to it happening whether i want it to or not.

i don't have a best of list, nor could i do one justice, but let me just say how much i am STILL enjoying the Ozomatli DVD i got last month. and melissa gave me Batman Begins because she knows how much i loooove batman.

so here's my books read list for the past however many days...

1) laurie lynn drummond's Anything You Say Can And Will Be Used Against You
2) james reston's Warrior of the Gods (about the Crusades - damn good reading)
3) stephen graham jones's All the Beautiful Sinners
4) danny lyon's The Destruction of Lower Manhattan
5) barbara victor's Army of Roses : Inside the World of Palestinian Women Suicide Bombers (scary good reading)
6) candice millard's The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
7) geoffrey maguire's Son of Wicked
8) frances itani's Deafening
there's something else too, but i'm in the office and way too lazy to go and see what it was. it will have to wait for next weeks list, i guess.

ok people, have a happy new year and all that.

some news and weekly book post

a Henry Moore statue, one of his 'reclining figures', was stolen from a courtyard at the Henry Moore Foundation. it weighed in at a measly 2.1 TONS! those guys had to use a crane to get it out of there - and no one notices??
'We are gobsmacked, extremely upset and also disappointed that someone would steal it' - Gareth Spence said yesterday. indeed.


1) edward humes's No Matter How Loud I Shout: A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court
2) kent haruf's The Ties That Bind
3) demetria martinez's Mother Tongue
4) paul auster's Oracle Night
5) daniel ellsburg's Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

it's 3:30 AM and

the ice crystals floating in the air
look like the dust of diamonds
all is silent and strangely calm

books of the week

1) ernesto quiñonez' Chango's Fire
2) mary childers' Welfare Brat
3) adrian c. louis' Skins
4) stephen graham jones' The Bird is Gone: A Manifesto
5) andrew witten's Dondi White Style Master General: The Life of Graffiti Artist Dondi White


i love reading, but i sure wish i slept more.

there were 2 sitting right next to me...

stolen from rich's live journal:
(because i like it)

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the "coolest" book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.


‘he didn’t blame anyone but wished the hell he could turn back time’


-edgardo vega yunqué from No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook Or Pay The Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain’t Never Coming Home Again

and

‘likening voluntary simplicity to a religion is neither hyperbole nor sacrilege’


-barbara kingsolver from Small Wonders (essays)



my only other comment for today is fuck a winter wonderland.

books and bullsh*t

1) george r.r. martin's A Feast for Crows
2) amanda eyre ward's Sleep Toward Heaven
3) keith walker's A Piece of My Heart: The Stories of 26 American Women Who Served in Vietnam
4) jake halpern's Braving Home
5) owen sheer's The Blue Book (poems)

a pretty good selection this week although i was pretty disappointed in A Feast for Crows. it was supposed to be the final in a series of four - and we all waited FORever for him to finish - only to find out that he wrote SO much that he ended up having to split the book in half. and god only knows when the second half will be out. also a little disappointed with the owen sheers book. it got so much buzz that i ordered it from a far away library just to read it. and if you aren't hip to the awesome-ness of the library, you really are missing out. especially if you're like me. i read a LOT, and if i had to BUY all the books i'd read, well, i'd be ever more poorer than i am now, that's for sure. there were 2 poems in the sheer book i liked, so maybe i'll reprint them here.

so tuesday my dog is getting her first of 5 doggie training lessons. i can't wait to see what he thinks of her and what he can do. the guy who's doing them is pretty well known. he just did a movie with nicole kidman - well, his dog did... here's his site: Shepard's Watch
i'll be sure to update her (and my) progress...

i need a new job - pronto!

my employer's husband is having pretty major surgery on monday. they're fixing something wrong with his jaw. so they have to break it, then saw out some bits and add other bits. then wire it all shut for 6 weeks. just thinking about the operation has given me nightmares. anyway, i ask her what the matter is - she looks upset - BAD idea. she tells me she's scared about the surgery. I SAY: understandable - it's a 5 hour long, scary procedure. SHE SAYS: no, no , you don't understand - it's not the operation i'm worried about, it's the recovery. he's going to need A LOT of ministering to. this is going to be really hard on me. well, i choked on my gum and sputtered something that i think may have sounded sympathetic and hurriedly left the room. i was kinda queasy by then. remember a while back when i wrote about the hurricane thing and her credit card? and i thought then that she was the MOST self-involved human alive - but this - THIS is too much. i have to find another job. now. today.
this is me going to spruce up my resume to find something.