Vacation all I ever wanted, or another "Watching, Reading, Listening"

Yeah, it's a tired way of saying I'm on vacation, but I am. I was in a use it or lose it situation with some vacation time, so I took a week off. I was going to go to Seattle or maybe one of the local state parks, but like the week I took off at Thanksgiving last year, I decided to just putz around at home. People still ask me if I am going or went somewhere. Nope. I had some things to do around here--some of them I have done, some I haven't because other than yesterday, it has been fucking gorgeous here this week. And as I mentioned a few posts ago, after months and months of clouds, drizzle, and fog, being out in the sun is amazing.

So... I'm halfway through my vacation. Things I have done so far: dentist (for a check up); cleaned, kind of; napped, a lot; wandered.

I was going to rearrange furniture and clean and scrub and all that. Instead, I did my laundry, took an hour nap, scrubbed the stove, oven, bathtub, and sink. And I vacuumed. Thing is, you can barely tell I did any of those things. I give up. I really want to declutter. I may start that process this week. Or maybe not.

Anyway, Watching, Reading, listening. Or today: Reading, Watching, Listening.

Reading
I walked down to our local indie bookstore this morning. A friend sent me a giftcard after helping her out on a project she was working on, so I thought it would be a good time to spend it. I spent well over an hour wandering, looking, texting Frenchie, asking her what she has or hasn't read. If you know Frenchie, you may find this is hilarious because she's the librarian who doesn't read. But... It made sense to me because we have similar tastes and attention spans. If a book is on her list to read, then I know I will probably like it. If she read some of it or maybe even all of it and liked it, I will probably love it. If she read it and felt "eh" about it, I will hate it. And if she read it willingly (without the pressure of a book club), finished it, and loved it... then holy shit, it must be the best book of the year.

So... In the end, this is what I came away with:

Vegan Express, Nava Atlas. I had planned on stocking up on cookbooks, but eventually changed my mind. But this one had simple and quick recipes using ingredients I already have or that I buy regularly.

Crooked Letter Crooked Letter, Tom Franklin. This is how the text exchange with Frenchie began. This was on her list and it was getting awards. It came highly recommended by the bookstore staff. And the whole crooked-letter crooked-letter hump-back hump-back thing is how I learned to spell "Mississippi" when I was a kid (except for me it was in relation to the river, not the state).

Gods in Alabama, Joshilyn Jackson. I know nothing about this book other than the title was familiar and it was a cheap used copy.

A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan. I grabbed this as I was about ready to leave. A quick scan of the back cover (aging wanna-be punk rocker music dude who thought he was the shit, his assistant....blah blah blah). I was hooked.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot. Also a recommendation via Frenchie--not from her, but from a list put together by another friend. It looked great. And my mom also recommended it.

Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches Guide to Romance Novels, Sarah Wendell, Candy Tan. When I was young, much, much younger, I read romance novels. I think that's when a lot of girls read them. I don't read them much anymore, but every so often, in the middle of summer, I want to spend a weekend reading trashy novels. Well-written trashy novels. I think romance novels get a bad rap. They aren't all bodice rippers. They aren't all Harlequin Romance Novels where the woman hates the guy, calls him an ignorant boob, but then falls in love with his rugged good looks. Some are funny with well-written characters, so on and so forth. I don't regularly read the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blog much, but I think I will have to start. This book was recommended by a friend who, like me, likes to waste a few weekends a year reading trashy novels and Linda Holmes, founder of NPR's MonkeySee blog and my new pop culture guru, recommended the Smart Bitches blog. The bookstore didn't have a copy of this, probably because, you know, it's about romance novels and indie bookstores like to pretend their customers are above romance novels... Okay, I'm generalizing, but still.... And they ordered me a copy.

The other book I wanted that they didn't have was Nick Nornby's Fever Pitch. The woman thought it was out of print (it's available on Amazon, so I doubt that) and told me she couldn't find me a copy. I'm still not sure about that. Fever Pitch and Juliet, Naked are the only two Nick Hornby books I haven't read. I have a copy of Juliet, Naked--I just haven't read it. So Fever Pitch would round-out the collection.

Watching
My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. Oh man. Man oh man oh man. This show. I don't know what to say about it. It's sensational in every sense of the word. It's fascinating. It's intriguing. It's weird. It's... it's just kind of awesome.




Sister Wives. I watched the first few episodes of the the first season but stopped because the husband creeped me out. TLC was showing the second season leading up to the episode where the family leaves Utah for Las Vegas. Kind of like My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, I find this show fascinating. For a reality show, I find it fairly honest and eye-opening. I like the sister wives and the kids. But I still think the husband (Kody) is extremely skeevy. I have no problem with their family or how it's set up. The women are there willingly. All but one (there are four sister wives) grew up in polygamous families. As one said, she wanted a family, not just a husband. I get that: It does take a village to raise a child and multiple spouses means a large family community. I like that. They don't talk about the religious side of things and if they did, I probably wouldn't find it as interesting. And I still have issues with one husband having multiple wives. It seems to me that polyamory is more equitable than polygamy. But anyway... I find this family fairly frank and open about the various issues facing a family like this: day-to-day stuff like getting people out the door, holidays, vacations, so on and so forth. What I find refreshing is how honest the women seem to be with each other about issues like jealousy and the fluctuation of their relationships. I think that's why I find this show so interesting: the women seem so real. Too bad the husband comes across as such a scumbag.

Listening
I've kind of gotten lazy again when it comes to music. I've been setting the iPod on shuffle mainly because I haven't had the time to really focus and concentrate on music lately. Although I was in a Wilco Summerteeth mood today and a Social Distortion mood yesterday.