Really Important Sunday Stuff
A smattering of thoughts I've had in my first three hours of work today:
*The worst book I was ever forced to read without fail or question (although Jonny Tremaine is a close second) was The Old Man and the Sea. I hated that book. I put off reading it until the day before the thing was due. I hated the biblical references. I hated that I was supposed to get all the biblical references and recite them on a test in a public school (and argued as such multiple times with the teacher just because I didn't want to read the book). It's what? 18 pages long? And I practically had to get myself grounded in order to read it. I finally had to switch work shifts with someone on a Sunday in order to finish it and I distinctly remember laying on the couch at home and with each passing page making some sort of disgruntled noise and yelling "Blah blah blah" multiple times. My mother just sat in the recliner and looked at me, her daughter who read ALL the time, huge novels about cowboys and the women they screwed in pickup trucks or the deep literature I had to read in school, who never complained, and I couldn't stop complaining about that book. It was that experience that caused me to decide that if I hate a book and am struggling to get through it, I just won't finish it. Life is too short and The Old Man and the Sea wasn't short enough to waste precious minutes on, I concluded.
*I haven't read anything else by Hemingway because of it either, though now that I'm way beyond drinking age, I might try again. I feel like I'd get him better if I could drink a whiskey sour while reading, even though I don't like whiskey sours either. Seriously. Hemingway and I are not meant to be.
*Carrie and I have been exercising extensively thanks to Aquabics and the changes are noticeable in a variety of ways for me, body, mind, soul, etc. But really, people.....the two of us needed increased libidos like we need holes in the head. Jesus.
*I'm reading The Soul of Baseball by Joe Posnanski. If anyone on my Flist has an interest in the Negro Leagues, baseball, or brilliant, wonderful old men who tell stories and a writer who tells their stories well, then pick it up. Great book. Almost done with it.
*Carrie decided it's a baked goods day today. Last night, she made shrimp and chicken pineapple skewers with wild rice. I win. That is all.
*I got my invitation to my 10-year high school reunion in the mail yesterday. They had my address wrong so I'm probably last in the class to receive theirs. This is amusing to me as the person sending them out A) Lives in the same town as me, B) Has hung out with me on multiple occasions, C) Knows where I live because one of her best friends lives approximately 500 feet from me, and D) Sent the invitation to my old address in a different town anyway. I've decided I will go to a high school reunion as soon as the letter that arrives doesn't say, "Can you believe it's been ____ years since graduation?"
If I was in charge of it, I'd say, "Obviously, you are painfully aware that ____ years has gone by and really, it's not all that amazing. I know the time has dragged significantly for me" just to be different, y'know?
Cliches are the death of language.
Back to work.....almost baseball time.....