An unavalanche of undoing
I guess I'm still not in MODE: LIVEJOURNAL yet.
But, speaking of journals, HOLY CARP, I just, like 30 seconds ago, put the finishing touches on Project: Haiku, which took place in 2009. Okay, I'm not proud of the length of time it took me to finally type out all the haikus that were scattered about in various notebooks and on various receipts, nor am I proud that I only wrote 209 out of what should have been 364.25 haikus . . . . I'm merely proud that I finished it at all because I have unreasonably low expectations for myself.
If you care to have a boo, c'est ici: haiku2009.livejournal.com/
In other news: winter has a death grip on this land. I'm beginning to take it personally, because 1) it's ALWAYS raining on my day off, and 2) my spring garden . . . . . *sigh* my spring garden is just . . . not happy. Usually I admire the persistence and tenacity of my crocuses and hyacinths as they pop up and bloom despite the weather, but this year all I got were a handful of crocii wheezing from the soil to produce a few sickly blooms and then die a few days later. Same goes for six of my tulips and a few muscari. The rest . . . . they've either juuuuust pushed their tips out of the dirt then died, or they didn't show at all.
It's really depressing. And effing expensive.
The only bright spot in all of this is my Christmas cactus (an indoor plant, it should be mentioned). As posted below, at Christmastime I got a handful of blooms and was so happy to see them (if only but to exclaim "They really DO know when it's Christmas!!"). I wasn't expecting another batch until Christmas 2011, but two weeks ago, he exploded with around 20 more blooms. Hmmmm . . . . maybe he's an Early Easter cactus?) Anyway: pictoral proof! (Taken in his early stages before he really got humming):
This l'il guy was one of the few small souvenirs I brought back from Japan. He's a little Buddhist monk,
and like all good Japanese tchotchkes, ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE.
The blooms are all gone now (well, there's ONE left), so now I'm back to wondering why my spring garden hates me so much and wants to see me all depressed and sad. I suspect it's because it was planted so late, and that we had a wicked freeze about a week after plantation.
COME ON, CHERRY TREES, GET YER BLOOM ON AND MAKE ME FEEL BETTER ABOUT ALL THIS DAMN GREY!
And now it's time to take some Valium. Or eat half a box of Girl Guide Cookies.
Alright. That's better. And now, something I've been meaning to do for awhile that will be of interest to no one:
A brief description of my reading list since 2009, because that's the last time I think I talked about it.
Dorothy Wordsworth -The Grasmere & Alfoxden Journals
Starting a tradition of taking a souvenir book home from an international trip
A.J. Jacobs - The Know-It-All
The story of one man's quest to read the complete set of The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Christian Bök - Eunoia
A book of poetry in five chapters, each chapter using only words containing one of the five vowels.
Carl Wilson - Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste
A book that takes an academic look into why Celine Dion's music is so universally loved.
Benjamin Drew - The Refugee: Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada
Published in 1856
T.S. Eliot - Four Quartets
John Cleese & Connie Booth - The Complete Fawlty Towers Scripts
Lucy Maud Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables
A book I've been meaning to read since I was, like, 12
Ogden Nash - The Pocket Book of Ogden Nash
James Boswell - The Life of Samuel Johnson
A small, antique, leatherbound book I bought in Victoria. They really should make all books this size and this sturdy. It's so handy for packing around with you wherever you go. (And I love the built-in bookmarks!)
Boswell & Johnson - A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
Post-Scotland souvenir book
Mary Agnes Fitzgibbon - A Veteran of 1812: The Life of James Fitzgibbon
One of the first books in a long time I just couldn't finish. I suppose one should never have one's biography written by family members.
Peter S. Beagle - The Last Unicorn
See Anne of Green Gables
Roo Borson - Upriver Towards Oishida
Will Ferguson - Hitching Rides With Buddha
Prep for my Japanese trip begins
Many, many, many, many, many Japan guidebooks, dictionaries and phrasebooks
Basho - Narrow Road To the Interior
Japanese souvenir book
John Hodgman - More Information Than Required
FINALLY. Had to put off reading this until a) it came out in paperback and b) I was done with Japan research. SO WORTH THE WAIT . . . . AND PROBABLY THE MAIN REASON WHY I SEEM TO BE TYPING IN ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME.
Aaaaaaand finally . . . . I was at the grocery store last week and the guy behind me starts unloading his stuff, and amongst all the organic soy milk and free range eggs and bulk quinoa in his possession is a bunch of bananas IN A PLASTIC BAG. Do people really do this? They know they don't have to eat the peels, right? RIGHT?!?!?!?!
People. Really. Come on, people.