Library Scramble

So I'm back in Chicago. It's almost like North Carolina never happened. Almost.

I'm finding the adjustment difficult. I feel like going from a lively, busy life with a lot of friends that I saw very often to a life where I'm trying desperately to structure some vitality into my day is a challenge. I've had some bad days so far - feelings of depression and uncertainty, and sometimes a physical feeling of illness. My friend J* spouted some of Tony Robbins sage advice to me recently. We talked about setting some goals for all this free time, and for trying to get out of the apartment and into "public." Mr. D and I went to a yoga class today, which was wonderful. But even afterwards, I felt the daily blackholeness start to sink in. As susceptible as I am now, J* had suggested reading some Charles Dickens books, kind of off the cuff. I'm here at the library now, with "Oliver Twist" and "The Pickwick Papers" in hand. Having more time to read is certainly appealing, and I applied for one job successfully today. I'm open to any suggestions about ways to spend all this free time - places to volunteer, good books, new hobbies? Let me know.

Happy V Love

I received some beautiful flowers from Mr. D yesterday! They are gorgeous and smell amazing. He's a good man and a good boyfriend.

I also received another Valentine from one of my aunts, AJ. She sent me a book, "Cold Sassy Tree." I've been on a Southern fiction kick so I'm looking forward to reading it. It was such a thoughtful gift and I loved getting it in the mail!

Currently, I'm reading, "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter." I can say at the half-way point that I'm enjoying it. I like the characters alright, and I like the setting with mill workers and the carnival and the local restaurant. I try to read a little before bed and I've been waking up for a time in the middle of the night where sometimes I read a few pages.

In other blessings, I've had a couple late-blooming friendships in graduate school this semester. I finally found a running buddy! My friend A* is a perfect running friend because she pushes my pace and I push her endurance. We have great conversations on our runs and I think she is very positive about health and I'm enjoying having her help as a motivator in that area of my life. She showed me a local park with a beautiful river running through it - an energizing run no doubt. I also have another newish friend who is someone to share foodie stuff with (rare in these parts). She's introduced me to Trader Joe's pizza crusts and a great raw kale salad. This friend has really delighted me so far - she's interesting AND nice and I've really had fun spending time with her!

Reading and Fitness Make the Time Fly By

I haven't been posting much this month. Mainly just hanging on and doing a lot of reading. I joined/formed a Southern Literature Reading Group. Our first book was "House Behind the Cedars" a book published in 1900 by an African-American writer named Charles W. Chesnutt. The book takes place in North and South Carolina and is all about racial issues and star-crossed lovers. The discussion was really interesting and fun, and Miz M got to think up the questions. Our next book is "The Last Gentleman" by Walker Percy. I'm also trying to catch up on my New Yorkers, and I bring extra magazines to work on Fridays to catch up on back issues. I'm super-attached to them for some reason, and I can't bare to throw them away without reading every last drop. It's a worthwhile quirk though, as I recently read an interesting article about medical marijuana in CA from April or something - oh, informal/illegal markets do tweak my student economist side.

I'm also increasingly focused on fitness. It's becoming an obsession/priority lately. Joining an intermural soccer team at school has provided me with two good options per week to run around and kick a ball with other people. With another friend, I do aerobic dance and pilates on different days of the week. I'm trying to also keep up some jogging, but it's not as fun as these group activities. I had my dietitian cousin look over my food journal, and help me with some suggestions. One great one is to track my progress on the FitDay website, which I must say is amazing. It adds up all your calories for you and calculates your exercise. And! You can make reports about these things. Pretty cool, indeed. I'm fixing to get healthy and I feel really happy about that.

Great Beach Reading. Now All I Need Is a Beach...

I read through "Sellevision" in about a week. It was fun light reading: perfect for a train ride, ideal for a beach. It's the kind of book that would be easy to pick up and read between naps, or between frustrated sighs on your morning CTA commute. The quirky characters, who are all hosts on a home-shopping network, are entertaining without being too deep or too flawed, and their trials and tribulations are both mildly amusing and slightly unimportant. The author, Augusten Burroughs, wrote a memoir Running with Scissors, which I think is fairly well-known. This is his first novel.

"Sucker Bet" update.

Man, this book is corny!

There was a scene when the some crooks try to scare off a detective by putting an alligator in his trunk an a raw steak in the passenger seat. The alligator busts through the back seat to get the steak, and the 60-year old Italian detective uses a judo move to stun the alligator. Uh-huh.

Wind-Up Bird Chronicles

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles is next in my book project. It superceded Aztec in order because I had borrowed it from a friend over the summer and wanted to give it one more try before I returned it.

Apparently, I like to read about 100 pages of a book, put it down, and pick it up several months later. I usually don't get into it for a long while, but luckily I don't totally abandon it.

Bird Chronicles is a really weird book - full of dreams, the surreal, and strange character confessionals. It's kind of perfect to read during these gloomy days. For several pages, the main hero, Mr. Okada, was sitting in the bottom of a well reflecting on things. This was after he heard a terrible story of a solider who was stuck in a well in Manchuria and lived to tell the tale.

Another strange theme in this book is finding one's true self. It is always a struggle, and it is not often pretty. I'm really interested in learning more about how much the themes and story lines are influenced by Japanese culture. Because the book creates a very odd and unsettling mood...

Conclusion of P&P and the start of "Aztec"

Well, I finished P&P and I can see why a lot of women like the book.

Spoiler: the sassy, smart girl gets the tall, handsome rich guy 'cuz she refused to kiss his ass and he thus realized what a prick he was previously. Awesome!

My next book is Aztec, a Christmas gift and one of my brother's favorite books.

Things I've learned from the P&P Project

• I found two people in my life who are obsessed with the Pride and Prejudice story, have seen every movie version (including a 300 hour version), and apparently played a board game!?!?

I repeat: Two people have this in common.

In the time of Pride and Predjudice?

I started a new personal project this week. The project still needs a name, but it has a goal. I want to know and read one of each of my friends' most favorite books.

My first phase is Margaret's book, Pride and Predjudice. Normally, I don't care for "period" books, but I decided to follow my own project rules and give it a try. So far, I'm on page 73 and I find the book to be facinating. I love the subtle dialogue that expresses and exposes social norms and desires. The characters all have so many social rules that they must follow.

At one dance, Elizabeth gets snubbed by Mr. Darcy (and everyone knows it.) At a later dance, she refuses to dance with him. She has a rep to protect! In the world of P&P, a guy couldn't ask a girl to dance, even if they've been to several of the same occasions, unless someone else intimate with both parties introduced them.

"What a bore!" I thought, "I'm so glad we don't have to follow social rules like that today!"

Until I went out to a swing dance club last night.

When I got roped into dancing with a robot named Mork, who danced embarrassingly slow to a mambo beat and couldn't give me a twirl if his life depended on it, when an acquainted man-friend left my friend and I as wilting wall flowers for 100 songs even though he is a great dancer, I was thinking about Pride and Predjudice.

How would these events at the swing dance be seen through the lens of P&P?
Probably, I would have know all about robo-mork and been able to turn him down for a dance to spare myself the awkwardness.

And the man friend? The social slight would not have gone unnoticed. All the society ladies would be talking about what a bad countenance and temperament and manners he had. Well, they would say that to me and my friend until we left the room.

Then, when talking to him, those bitches would talk about my friend and I in the same way.