I used to love books...

There was a time when I used to read like crazy. I used to go to the library pretty much weekly and couldn't leave a bookstore without an armload. I even kept a list in the back of an old journal of all the books I'd read. It was always interesting to go back and look over the list a year later to see which ones stood out. Some I'd remember vividly, others I could barely place. Now I am an affront and should have my library card revoked.


Lately, I have not been a very good reader at all. I don't know what it is, but I have a hard time sitting down and focusing. Mostly, I think working long hours with lots of overtime has gotten me out of the habit. I have a theory about pre-sleep laziness and the current lack of a bedside lamp also being a factor, but we won't go into that here. It is too slothfully shameful.

For a bit after I got the Kindle for Droid app, there was an upsurge in my reading - The Woman in White (so good!), Letters of a Woman Homesteader, the first few chapter's of Paulo Coehlo's Brida). Reading via Kindle is no book, but it's not as heinous as I'd anticipated and you can read in the dark even if it will never become dog eared with love or replace the tactile sensation of paper against your fingertips.


I finished a book about Islam around Christmas and did spent a couple weeks in early November listening to Bloodroot on cd (if you have a long commute, I recommend the audio version). Since at least January, I've been reading the first Flavia de Luce mystery for what seems like an eternity. I burned through most of it on a round-trip flight, but have been stuck a few chapters away from the end for months. The worst part is that it's not due to any fault of the book, which is in fact is charming and well written. Normally, it would be the kind of book that left me wanting to start a new one with the same author and characters immediately upon finishing. Really. I even checked the second volume out from the library in anticipation of wanting more.

So, in addition to the perennial "write more, lose weight and get in shape" (progress is being made - more about that another time!), I am adding "read more". My norm used to be 4-5 books a month, but I don't know if I can do that much. Finishing one would be nice for a start (yes, I'm looking at you, dear Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie). Mmmm pie . . .

Good news

It must be starting to look like the end of my January blog-a-day project meant the end of my blogging, but it's not! There was just a blip when a work deadline got in the way this past week. Despite the stress, I managed to savor that it was the last of the (foreknown) ugly deadlines for the next few months. It helped that I also had my annual review and there are some good (if approved) things potentially coming my way, if things work out as I hope.

Let us pause for a moment to celebrate with a picture from last year's birthday trip to Maryhill. Aren't the trees pretty? Even though it was taken in mid-March, it looks an awful lot like it does outside right now.



But my personal work stuff is not the only cause or even the most important cause for celebration today. Can you believe the news from Egypt? The beginnings of a government transition mostly through peaceful demonstration. I am fascinated by the scenes and stories from this revolution. Mubarak has been in power for longer than I've been alive, longer than many of the Egyptians who brought about this change have been alive. Whatever happens next, today is a monumental day.

Here there are already pundits trying to guess which direction things will take. It's obviously not just a matter of ousting a government and then everything is okay. It is now that the work begins. This will be a journey for the Egyptian people, but for now I am simply happy for them and their victory. Every time I turn on CNN and see the demonstrators, first protesting and now celebrating, in Tahrir Square, I am reminded of my own relatives in Berlin and the jubilation when the wall came down. My mother and grandmother never thought they'd live to see that day, and yet they did. I remember what that felt like and how we sat in front of the t.v. at home crying tears of joy for our relatives thousands of miles away. I have no real connection to Egypt, but somehow that memory does make me feel connected to these people today.

January

So I've done it! I've posted approximately every day for a month. It was a different experience this time from past years. On the one hand, I didn't skip weekends and decided that as long as I posted approximately 30 posts, it didn't matter if some were back dated or if I missed a couple. (Hey, life gets in the way sometimes!)

On the other hand, I don't feel like I posted anything very exciting.  Last time, there were a few posts that ended up springboards for new writing. This time, I don't really feel like there was anything like that. A lot of it is just crap I posted to post something. Even if it wasn't particularly creative, though, it did start getting me in the habit of writing every day. So, I say, so far, so good!

Party in the USA

My headache went away just in time to go to the boy's party at Chuck E. Cheese. Being a childless adult, it is not a place I visit too often. When I think Chuck E., I think hyper kids, greasy pizza, and about when my cousin Charlene worked there and was reprimanded for spelling out dirty words on the counter in pepperoni. Eventually, she was demoted from handling the food to wearing the rat costume, but that is a story for another time.

As it turns out, the pizza wasn't as bad as I remembered (the veggie one was pretty okay), but I was right about the hyper, screaming kids. And when Chuck E. says your party will be two hours, let me tell you, he means two hours. Things got a little off schedule when the birthday boy disappeared just as it was time to cut the cake. I swear Chuckette (our party planner) would have cut it without him if we hadn't made her wait until he was located at the ticket counter trying to turn in tickets for a prize.

Ultimately, they ended up having to take the presents along to open at home, because there was no time and it was clear Chuck E. was going to call in his goons if we didn't vacate the party area asap. I think Antonio's parents spent quite a bit of money on the festivities (not just on the kids, but also extra food for the parents), which makes that a bit unfortunate, but I'm sure that there was another party after ours. They were probably just trying to stay on schedule. Still, it looked like the kids had fun, which was the point.

Auntie

Friday's headache spilled over into the weekend. So I did the only sensible thing and stayed on the couch in my pajamas, eating leftover pizza (Bellagio's, your Mother Earth is awesome!) and watching I Love Lucy reruns from her European vacation era and Auntie Mame until it was time to go birthday shopping for the boy. As his adopted aunt, Mame seemed a fitting choice.

In the end, I did get up and go out for birthday presents - a razor scooter, a Sonic game for his Wii, candy, silly string, and a snow globe. I know the snow globe is weird, but he has a little collection and he loves elephants. The heart loves what it loves. Who am I to get in the way?

Headache

Abandoned in The Dalles, originally uploaded by Martina.

If my head were a house, it would be the one in the picture above. Today it head aches like someone has been repeatedly hitting me with a bag of hammers. My neck, shoulders and arms feel compact, like pieces of paper that have been wadded into tight balls. I feel like I need to be stretched. It was one of those days where I could think of nothing at work but going home and taking a hot bath before flaking out on the couch with a dog and a quilt for comfort.

I have been pretty tired lately. At first I thought I was not getting enough protein, but I think the headache and fatigue are probably just stress. I was looking through my flickr pictures earlier and noticably absent were any vacation pictures from 2010. This is not because I forgot to upload any or even to take any, but because I never took a vacation last year. I was so busy working, I didn't even notice!

This year, I will have to remedy that. Maybe it's time to resurrect my annual birthday road trip. Or maybe I need to plan a real vacation to somewhere better reached by plane for later in the year. Maybe I need to do BOTH. Either way, my headache epiphany underscores my feeling that more non-work activity need to be ushered back into my life, because a life where you don't even notice you never took a vacation is just wrong!

Little Boy

The Grotto - Antonio, originally uploaded by Martina.

This weekend the boy turns six. It seems like yesterday that he first pushed his little stroller up to the fence, so he could climb on top of it for easier fence scaling. He was two then. After that first day, every time he wanted to come over, he stood at the fence bellowing until someone came out to lift him over the fence.

Who would have thought on that first day that this funny little boy would become part of my family? It's really because of him that I got to know his family. We would have all gone on with our busy lives, waving and smiling when we went out to get the mail, but never pausing long enough to really get to know each other. I might have never experienced a quincinera or sopes with cactus leaves and I certainly would never have watched any Chipmunks movie going a dozen times.

Antonio changed all that. He is in Kindergarten now and calls me his aunt and my mother his "favorite grandma", and I like that. On Friday nights, he often shows up with his little backpack tow, so he can spend the night. When I come home from work trips, guess who's conveniently waiting to visit, so he can help me unpack (the presents he rightfully assumes I've brought back for him)?

He never ceases to amaze me. He makes me want kids of my own. He is so goofy and sweet and sometimes even reverent. Last summer when he and I took my mom to The Grotto to go for a walk on her birthday, he disappeared. For a moment, I panicked, then I looked over at the altar to find him all alone, praying, hands folded, eyes squeezed shut tight.

I wonder sometimes what it is he was praying. I hope at least some of it was thanks for having so many people around who love him. I know that I am thankful that he is there to love!