Jeez.
It takes me for-freaking-ever to read through my Flist these days. TOO MANY COMMUNITIES, and too much drama. But I can't help but laugh at the snark communities. They provide me with some much-needed levity. And information.
Today has been a lovely day. I appear to still be dying from consumption, but I am improving rapidly thanks to my ferocious assault on said consumption with those mighty weapons of mass destruction: vitamin C and dihydrogen monoxide. So, it is possible that I will not die a magnificently tragic Victorian death just yet. I am delighted that I improved enough to survive the two exams I had today: one in math, one in sociology. I feel pretty good about both exams. I could be horribly wrong in thinking I did reasonably well on them (it's happened before. No, I am never going to get over having made That Grade on That Test on That Class, why do you ask?), but I am too mellow to worry about that at the moment. Spring break starts as soon as I'm done with class (if, indeed, I am required to go to my one class Friday. She may let us have the day off.)
Is it really time for spring break yet? I'm a bit startled to realize I've made it so far already. And my grades are solid. Really solid. This is the first time in my collegiate career that that has been the case and has not been accompanied by thrice-weekly freakout sessions.
I finished reading Bad Prince Charlie today. I had The Tsarina's Daughter with me, but after starting it, I don't think I'll be finishing it. Early in the book, the main character (Tatiana, second-oldest Grand Duchess) meets a scraggly angry peasant girl, who rants a lot about how everyone in Russia is broke and how Tatiana's sitting so pretty in the palace, and so forth. She inspires Tatiana to give food to the poor. So, Tatiana asks the lady who comes to collect the baskets of food to let her accompany her around the city distributing said food. For some reason, this made me impatient. It was so unlikely and improbable as to snap my willingness to believe--not that royalty could be compassionate, but that one of the legendary Grand Duchesses of the ill-fated Romanov family could just slip merrily out of the palace and go hand out food to the people without there being servants or guards around who would NOTICE THIS and try to say, "Uh, Your Highness, there are a lot of people who want you and your family dead right now. I wouldn't do that if I were you." I expect fiction to lie to me, even historical fiction, but there is a limit as to how far I will go.
I cannot write this book off completely without finishing it, but based on having finished it, The Kitchen Boy is a far better historical fiction presentation of the Romanovs in their last days.
So, my next book will likely be the Nevada Barr sitting in my room. God, I love Nevada Barr. I discovered her quite by accident in the SCC library, and now I can't get enough of her.
The evening was made just a little perfect by a blissful golden time spent beholding href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3343/3330177780_c59beb421a.jpg?v=0">the very essence of tender grace. Also, feeding them. They are fond of dried corn.
In other news: it is entirely possible that my parents can be persuaded to let me get some birds. Of the duck/goose/chicken variety. My mother thinks it's hysterical that I want chickens and ducks and geese.
I think they are magnificent.
Today has been a lovely day. I appear to still be dying from consumption, but I am improving rapidly thanks to my ferocious assault on said consumption with those mighty weapons of mass destruction: vitamin C and dihydrogen monoxide. So, it is possible that I will not die a magnificently tragic Victorian death just yet. I am delighted that I improved enough to survive the two exams I had today: one in math, one in sociology. I feel pretty good about both exams. I could be horribly wrong in thinking I did reasonably well on them (it's happened before. No, I am never going to get over having made That Grade on That Test on That Class, why do you ask?), but I am too mellow to worry about that at the moment. Spring break starts as soon as I'm done with class (if, indeed, I am required to go to my one class Friday. She may let us have the day off.)
Is it really time for spring break yet? I'm a bit startled to realize I've made it so far already. And my grades are solid. Really solid. This is the first time in my collegiate career that that has been the case and has not been accompanied by thrice-weekly freakout sessions.
I finished reading Bad Prince Charlie today. I had The Tsarina's Daughter with me, but after starting it, I don't think I'll be finishing it. Early in the book, the main character (Tatiana, second-oldest Grand Duchess) meets a scraggly angry peasant girl, who rants a lot about how everyone in Russia is broke and how Tatiana's sitting so pretty in the palace, and so forth. She inspires Tatiana to give food to the poor. So, Tatiana asks the lady who comes to collect the baskets of food to let her accompany her around the city distributing said food. For some reason, this made me impatient. It was so unlikely and improbable as to snap my willingness to believe--not that royalty could be compassionate, but that one of the legendary Grand Duchesses of the ill-fated Romanov family could just slip merrily out of the palace and go hand out food to the people without there being servants or guards around who would NOTICE THIS and try to say, "Uh, Your Highness, there are a lot of people who want you and your family dead right now. I wouldn't do that if I were you." I expect fiction to lie to me, even historical fiction, but there is a limit as to how far I will go.
I cannot write this book off completely without finishing it, but based on having finished it, The Kitchen Boy is a far better historical fiction presentation of the Romanovs in their last days.
So, my next book will likely be the Nevada Barr sitting in my room. God, I love Nevada Barr. I discovered her quite by accident in the SCC library, and now I can't get enough of her.
The evening was made just a little perfect by a blissful golden time spent beholding href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3343/3330177780_c59beb421a.jpg?v=0">the very essence of tender grace. Also, feeding them. They are fond of dried corn.
In other news: it is entirely possible that my parents can be persuaded to let me get some birds. Of the duck/goose/chicken variety. My mother thinks it's hysterical that I want chickens and ducks and geese.
I think they are magnificent.