Last night I had a dream, the second of a new theme. In this dream my grandma (who died of cancer in 1983) has come back to life or reappeared from wherever she'd been hiding. I conjectured perhaps she had been in an induced coma all this time, until they finally cured her. And when she comes back home, my grandpa gets his mind back. This is the new recurring theme. Grandpa Frank has alzheimer's and every time I see him there's a bit less of him there. But in my dream world he goes back to his old grumpy yet good-humored and almost entirely sane self. When grandma comes home.
Their house is the childhood home base that my dreams seem to seek out by default. I never feel safe or happy there in my dreams. There are often problems with the plumbing and the lock on the bathroom door. The main plot point in this particular dream is the appearance of Adolf, one of grandma's long-dead cats. I look out the kitchen window and see him sitting in the middle of the dirt yard where grandpa now keeps his backhoe. I recognize his crooked Hitler mustache. He is bigger and rounder than any non-dream housecat. I announce to grandma that Adolf came home and open the door for him. He rushes inside out of the bitter cold and I sit on the kitchen floor where he uncharacteristically snuggles up on my lap (he was a weird, unfriendly cat). I realize with low-level concern that he is way older than cats are supposed to live. I ask grandma, "When was Adolf born?" She tells me, "45 weeks after your cousin." Even in dream math I realize this is simply not possible. My cousin was born in 1973.... which would make this dream cat over 30 years old. This reasoning launches me toward consciousness, where grandma is still dead and grandpa will never be sane again.
Another theme often found in my dreams: Moving in with my mom in some unfamiliar place that always has complex architecture and more rooms than one would think. The last dream like this was last week, and she and I had moved into an apartment complex much like the one I live in now. In this dream the multitude of rooms we share are spread over two units on opposite sides of the hall (and yet it is still somehow one apartment). It dawns on me that if we divide the space it could be almost like having my own apartment, and I go down the hall to suggest this plan. I find mom has gone insane and is making a variety of loud cat noises. This is not altogether improbable in real life. I try to talk to her quietly and rationally, but she continues to make cat noises. There are a bunch of young women neighbors who come over to help her (wearing fuzzy slippers and pink bathrobes). I decide I can be of no help and lock myself in the other apartment.
The trip totally killed my NaBloPoMo goal. Blah. Still going to keep going. I'm exhausted from the trip, but I did come to the conclusion this weekend that I would like a new laptop. The DVD drive on my laptop is on the fritz and our old Macbook is on it's way out. I'm thinking the 15 incher. We'll see.
I haven't posted in a while. Looks like it was just a week, but feels like longer. I think I was having a bit of a reading/reviewing slump. I have about three books to review and I'm just slogging through those slowly, but the reading is getting better - I'm now into the first of the Brent Weeks Night Angel Trilogy. This is a series my husband gave me to read a few months ago and I'm finally reading it (See? I DO eventually try to read books you suggest)! At first I liked the pacing, but the world building wasn't wowing me, but now I've encountered a few surprises and the plot has lots of entangled threads so I'm enjoying it more and wanting to know what happens next. It's a long book though (over 600 pages).
To tide people over, here's some pictures!!! A friend and book blogger came to visit me this weekend and we had the best grill corned ever. I am usually really meh about corn, but she would not SHUT UP about it for more than 30 minutes so we went to Cafe Habana in SOHO and tried it. They cover it in a mexican cheese that's similar to parmesean, and a bit of chili powder and a squeezed lemon finishes off the taste. Very tasty actually:
And then I nagged people into going to The Strand bookstore because I don't think I've been there in over ten years (even though I really don't live very far from NYC). I was reminded why I wasn't impressed by the Strand. They have a sort of smallish SF section in my eyes, and the romance section is 2 bookshelves in the basement. Two bookshelves that aren't all romance. We had a little WTF moment over this. But on the other hand, I thought the YA section was awesome.
In the YA section I peered at the ARCs for sale there and got a couple ($2 each!). Note how the Nicole Peeler book was mistakenly shelved as young adult. It's not YA. Gateway has a romance between an asian girl and a white boy, which is why I got it (and I like Sharon Shinn). The Strand YA section was VERY nice, although I found it rather confusing that they had young adult broken into subgenres. It was hard to find things quickly by just author.
We also went to the Met and then ate again at a cantonese restaurant, and then went for drinks (I had a delicious non alcoholic midori soda. SO tasty), but I think people may get bored of my millions of pictures of food (it's what we do when we get together. Eat).
photos taken from susan elsagir.
Pets were few inside the hidden cities, but many people kept caterpillars, and helped nuture them from worm, to
So many animals, and people, had been lost to the change, that a catepillar represented the chance for emergence from the situation. While the change was happening, some species of caterpillars threatened environments and people when the never ending rains, extended from the period of change to longer seasons, created habitats where the creatures thrived. Some over-thrived.
In Liberia, mass breeding of caterpillars, in an exceptionally wet climate, pushed people out of their own homes. The masses of caterpillars devoured plants and food for other wildlife became scarce. Normally, the caterpillars would not all fully develop, but in the extreme damp conditions the creature's multipled, nearly all growing to full adulthood. It became known as the caterpillar crisis of climate change in Liberia, and consideration was given to spraying the country with chemical pesticides to defeat the munching worms. The threat of poisoning the environment made the authorities decide against any pesticide use, and so the people moved away from the caterpillar infested areas, taking shelter in refugee camps.
While Liberia hated the caterpillars, other parts of the world were marveling at the growth of the species, and the
Many people who lived in the hidden cities remembered the seasons of the butterflies with joy, and desired to keep the Monarch caterpillar as pets in their living areas. These pets were hand-fed leaves and grass, and given safe, dark places to build their chrysalis, and time to allow the transformation. When the caterpillar began to break out of its chrysalis, people gathered to watch the butterfly emerge.
When the birght coloured creature spread its wings and flew into the air, the people clapped at the performance.
Welcome to Haiはい。my transmedia journey,
-Lisa
*Flickr photos by:
Caterpillar - Brenda Anderson: http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiouskiwi/
Chrysalis - MsEli: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mseli/
Butterfly - dwain77: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwain77/
me myself and i on a b/w trip.
i'm on a grey-scale or better black/whit trip. i think it is a phase because i'm so fascinated by all the masters of photography that i currently can't do anything against it... than taking b/w-shots too...
i will live that phase... what can i do else... until i edore the colorful ones again...
susan.
fatih on his bike.
spontaneous visit last year...
what a good looking biker... :-)
photos taken by susan.
Anne Boleyn is one of the most famous Queens of England. Typically in literature she is described as the manipulative schemer who lured Henry VIII from his devoted wife Katharine of Aragon and later met her death on (probably trumped up) charges of Adultery, Incest and Treason.
In this book, Denny presents a different view of Anne, as a victim of Henry's cold blooded-ness. She asserts that Henry relentlessly pursued Anne, who resisted because of his marriage to Katharine. Anne finally succumbed to Henry's advances and was then cast aside when it no longer suited him to be married to her.
The book is written in a very 'readable' way. I often find non-fiction to be somewhat dry; however this book flowed easily and held my interest throughout.
It has obviously been very well researched, and Denny is clearly a Boleyn enthusiast, with a lot of passion for her subject. However, this is a double edged sword. While I firmly believe that it is important for any biographer to really care about their subject, Denny's own view means that this book is extremely biased. Katharine of Aragon is described as a vicious, manipulative and unreasonable woman, who lied to fulfill her ambition to become Queen of England. Anne is painted almost as a saint, who could do no wrong and was blameless in every respect.
Joanna Denny wrote this book to bring balance to the general view of Anne; however, she has not created balance but has merely tipped the scales all the way to the other side. She claims that the critics of Anne are biased - and this may well be true - but unfortunately, Denny shows herself to be equally as biased. The women in Anne's world are portrayed as evil and two faced, with the exception of Elizabeth I, Anne's daughter.
I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Anne or the Tudor period, but I do not think that this book is 'the truth' about Anne Boleyn, as the author claims.
YAY!!!
Went to see Avenue Q again tonight. Definitely enjoyed it the second time around. It was interesting to compare tonight with the first time I saw it, as the performance in Melbourne was in the opening week with the Australian cast. Although the first time was really good, it was very much a copy of the American show. Tonight was so much better in that the actors were more comfortable with the characters and the puppets.
Now we just need to convince Canberra Theatre to install cocktail glass holders. :)
- 08:28 Thinking about making pancakes for breakfast. I wonder if I have any syrup. #
- 10:06 @peavesfamtravel what class are you taking? #
- 19:38 Think of all tye chocolate you eat @sacentrepreneur! The average chocolate bar has 8 insect legs in it. #omgfacts (via @OMGFacts) #
- 23:10 Trying to figure out what to watch/fall asleep to. #
- 23:32 So. Cold. #
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