(no subject)
One of the great mysteries of the world: why cats love to sit on paper. I mean, you put down a few sheets of paper on the table and walk away, and two seconds later there's a cat sitting on top. Why does paper excite them so? I can sorta understand paper *bags*, with the crinkling and the mysterious recesses and such, but plain, flat sheets of printer paper? Really? Why so exciting?
Of course, I've never climbed up on top of the table to sit on a pile of paper, so maybe I shouldn't knock it 'til I've tried it.
We biked down to Target last night after my weekly hanging out with Lisa, and we ran into an old Andronico's employee there! She recognized us and came over to chat, and it was kind of odd, because we pretty much abandoned Andronico's for price reasons, and she apparently quit Andronico's for reasons she chose not to share. So we were like old Andronico's compadres.
I've been reading Jonathan Franzen's novel Freedom today, well aware that my book club will be discussing it on Wednesday, but I don't know if I'm going to finish it. I don't just mean that I might not finish it in time for the book group meeting ... I might not finish it at all. By this point in the book (about 450 pp in), one of the central characters has become so horrifically self-absorbed, passive-aggressive, manipulative, and just downright emotionally toxic that I don't really want anything more to do with her, and that includes reading a book in which she is a character. I have no interest in experiencing more of the conversations in which she abuses her husband and son while playing the "Pity me! You're so mean to me!" game. I'm fine with reading books about people I don't like, but I have to be getting something useful or rewarding out of it ... and in this case I don't feel like I am. I just want this horrible woman (character) out of my life. All the characters in the book have their flaws, but hers just make me grit my teeth.
But I hate to put a book I'm not liking down without finishing it, because I always harbor a glimmer of hope that by the end I will find that it was all worth it. It's happened to me before, and it was a very exciting experience, so I wouldn't want to miss out on it. But sometimes I just want to move on to something I *enjoy*, rather than reading something I hope I *might* enjoy in the future.
It's been raining today, so I've been sticking pretty close to home, doing lots of housework, reading Freedom, romping with the hubby, resetting clocks, and making lists of things I need to do. I like to make lists, but they drive Shannon crazy. Oh, the woes of living with a spouse! The trials we must undergo! The lists! The lists! How can one survive the organizational trauma?
Speaking of trauma, both of our older cats -- the ones who spent their first few years with me, before Shannon entered our lives -- are having great difficulty with the current sleeping situation, i.e, me sleeping in the guest room with the door closed. Cobweb and Munchkin have both spent significant amounts of time in the middle of the night, sitting in the hallway between the bedroom (where Shannon is sleeping) and the guest room (where I am sleeping) and yowling pitifully. It's all so confusing and upsetting! Their tiny brains are going to explode!
Of course, I've never climbed up on top of the table to sit on a pile of paper, so maybe I shouldn't knock it 'til I've tried it.
We biked down to Target last night after my weekly hanging out with Lisa, and we ran into an old Andronico's employee there! She recognized us and came over to chat, and it was kind of odd, because we pretty much abandoned Andronico's for price reasons, and she apparently quit Andronico's for reasons she chose not to share. So we were like old Andronico's compadres.
I've been reading Jonathan Franzen's novel Freedom today, well aware that my book club will be discussing it on Wednesday, but I don't know if I'm going to finish it. I don't just mean that I might not finish it in time for the book group meeting ... I might not finish it at all. By this point in the book (about 450 pp in), one of the central characters has become so horrifically self-absorbed, passive-aggressive, manipulative, and just downright emotionally toxic that I don't really want anything more to do with her, and that includes reading a book in which she is a character. I have no interest in experiencing more of the conversations in which she abuses her husband and son while playing the "Pity me! You're so mean to me!" game. I'm fine with reading books about people I don't like, but I have to be getting something useful or rewarding out of it ... and in this case I don't feel like I am. I just want this horrible woman (character) out of my life. All the characters in the book have their flaws, but hers just make me grit my teeth.
But I hate to put a book I'm not liking down without finishing it, because I always harbor a glimmer of hope that by the end I will find that it was all worth it. It's happened to me before, and it was a very exciting experience, so I wouldn't want to miss out on it. But sometimes I just want to move on to something I *enjoy*, rather than reading something I hope I *might* enjoy in the future.
It's been raining today, so I've been sticking pretty close to home, doing lots of housework, reading Freedom, romping with the hubby, resetting clocks, and making lists of things I need to do. I like to make lists, but they drive Shannon crazy. Oh, the woes of living with a spouse! The trials we must undergo! The lists! The lists! How can one survive the organizational trauma?
Speaking of trauma, both of our older cats -- the ones who spent their first few years with me, before Shannon entered our lives -- are having great difficulty with the current sleeping situation, i.e, me sleeping in the guest room with the door closed. Cobweb and Munchkin have both spent significant amounts of time in the middle of the night, sitting in the hallway between the bedroom (where Shannon is sleeping) and the guest room (where I am sleeping) and yowling pitifully. It's all so confusing and upsetting! Their tiny brains are going to explode!