Money money money! The devil that destroys mens' souls!
It was a lucky thing that I flew home when I did. It rained a little bit on the day I arrived, but was mostly fine. However, the following day a pea-soup fog rolled in and flights were cancelled from Madison to Chicago. It's since cleared, but damn, that trouble. Hopefully on my way back it will be much of the same. I already have a 3 hour layover in Minneapolis, and any longer? Ew.
I've been hanging out with dawno and nbrys (welcom to LJ, btw! Whee!) as of late and doing a fair amount of last-minute Christmas shopping. However, the bills have me a'scared as I checked my checking account and saw that Jim already cashed the check I gave him for the monthly credit card bill and rent. I was planning on paying off more on my credit card bill, but I'm glad I waited because a bounced check is not a good check. My next paycheck is the Friday after Christmas and should be directly deposited, and so I hope when that time rolls around I can pay off a little more of the credit card bill because that thing is ridiculous. But finance talk is depressing and I do it entirely too often.
On to better things: I read a great short story on Thursday on my flight from Baltimore to Wisconsin. I wasn't the biggest fan of Murakami's Norwegian Wood, but I am loving his collection, After the Quake about people in the aftermath of, you guessed it, the Toyko earthquake. I had previously read and loved, "Super-Frog Saves Toyko," and this time the story I read and loved was "Honey Pie" (I can tell Murakami must be a pretty decent Beatles fan if the title comes in part from the song of the same name from the White Album). It's about a short story writer and his kind of urban family--the girl he loved and loves, his best friend who is also the girl's husband, and the little daughter of that marriage who is traumatized by images from the earthquake. It's sad and smart and it has sentiment without ever being sentimental, and in an age where the hipster west-coast style of ironic and quirky short story writing is the in-thing, this is such a wonderful breath of fresh air for me, and it made me want to write again. I think this is what in part has been missing. I haven't felt the urge to write lately because I haven't read anything I felt was worth reading.
I've been hanging out with dawno and nbrys (welcom to LJ, btw! Whee!) as of late and doing a fair amount of last-minute Christmas shopping. However, the bills have me a'scared as I checked my checking account and saw that Jim already cashed the check I gave him for the monthly credit card bill and rent. I was planning on paying off more on my credit card bill, but I'm glad I waited because a bounced check is not a good check. My next paycheck is the Friday after Christmas and should be directly deposited, and so I hope when that time rolls around I can pay off a little more of the credit card bill because that thing is ridiculous. But finance talk is depressing and I do it entirely too often.
On to better things: I read a great short story on Thursday on my flight from Baltimore to Wisconsin. I wasn't the biggest fan of Murakami's Norwegian Wood, but I am loving his collection, After the Quake about people in the aftermath of, you guessed it, the Toyko earthquake. I had previously read and loved, "Super-Frog Saves Toyko," and this time the story I read and loved was "Honey Pie" (I can tell Murakami must be a pretty decent Beatles fan if the title comes in part from the song of the same name from the White Album). It's about a short story writer and his kind of urban family--the girl he loved and loves, his best friend who is also the girl's husband, and the little daughter of that marriage who is traumatized by images from the earthquake. It's sad and smart and it has sentiment without ever being sentimental, and in an age where the hipster west-coast style of ironic and quirky short story writing is the in-thing, this is such a wonderful breath of fresh air for me, and it made me want to write again. I think this is what in part has been missing. I haven't felt the urge to write lately because I haven't read anything I felt was worth reading.