post for today and then I decided it was crap. So, srsly, I've got nothing for you.
Sad, isn't it?
I'm busy spending all my mental energy on trying to figure out how to get a job I will actually enjoy doing.
Sorry!
I'll try to be more interesting on Wednesday.
Since January I've been on the board of the Greater KC Women's Political Caucus, which encourages and supports women to take part in politics as voters and as candidates. I think this is very important work and I'm glad to be a part of it.
So I wanted to let you know about an upcoming event we're having:
If you can't read the bottom part there, it says to purchase tickets in advance at www.gkcwpc.org or by calling 816-531-9595.
Follow this link for more about What's the Matter with Kansas? and we hope to see you next Friday!
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For me, there's nothing like a good book to help me get through the winter doldrums. Here are the books I've been reading lately to transport me out of my freaking apartment and help alleviate cabin fever.
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff
I can barely believe this is Groff's first novel. It is impeccable and so much fun! Home from college because of an affair with her professor, Willie now on the hunt to find out who is her father after her mother finally admits to it being one of the men in their small New England town. The narrative switches from past to present and comes through the voices of many characters, most of whom are part of the town founding family that Willie to. Woven throughout the story of the people who live or lived in Templeton is the story of the monster in their lake that, at the beginning of the novel, is found floating dead in the water. All about family secrets, town secrets and the way they all eventually come out, Monsters of Templeton was a book that I was barely able to put down.
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
This book is one of those books about books that can either be awesome or irritatingly self-referential. This one was the former. It reminded me of Italo Calivino's If On a Winter's Night a Traveler if that had a more modernist story telling style instead of being fragmented and postmodern. The Shadow of the Wind is about a boy who is given a book to guard by his father. His book is by an author whose books have been systematically burnt by an unknown person. His guardianship of the book leads our hero to falling in love, investigating his author's life, and becoming helplessly entangled in the affairs that led to the book burnings and that now threaten his own book. Part mystery, part love story and part love letter to literature, this was more fun to read than I think I can convey by just telling about the story.
The Concubine's Daughter by Pai Kit Fai
I love books about how generations affect one another over the years like Concubine's Daughter did. It is the story of three women, a grandmother, mother and her daughter and how each one's life went towards making her daughter's life better. The story is of two women coming of age at different times and with different, if similar, challenges as poor, self-educated girls who are struggling to be themselves in a culture that wants to use them and discard them. It is also two love stories, with the mother and the daughter both falling in love with European "barbarians" who also refuse to accept the Chinese cultural institutions as law. Through their journals, the grandmother and mother look after their daughters, sharing their wisdom and strength of character. And it's just a damn well told story.
The Crow Road by Ian Banks
Set in Scotland, this story is about a whiny college guy named Prentice who learns that his life's not so bad and to just grow up and deal with it already. Death has a central theme throughout; the novel begins with his grandmother's funeral and other deaths occur throughout. I felt like this book was really a mystery disguised as a coming-of-age novel, as Prentice as family secret that proves both his aunt and his uncle were murdered by another member of his large and wealthy family. While most of the story is told from the POV of Prentice, it also flashes back to the past to show his father's and uncles' interactions that later become significant in unraveling the mysterious murders. There's also lots about partying, unrequited love and the problems of getting along with one's family. This book was pretty much just endlessly surprising and a lot of fun as well.
You read anything good lately?
Related posts:
Anthropomorphized Animal Comic Books
3 Books Every Woman Should Read
My Top 10 Books of 2008
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Well, folks, I'm finally back. Turns out my cold was bronchitis, which I've never had before and I hope I never have again. That shit sucked ass. I couldn't walk the length of the apartment without getting exhausted and I coughed so hard I felt like my lungs were just going to pop. Luckily for me I had some friends who were able to give me meds, because I have zero money for a doctor... or, you know, anything.
PLUS it put me out of comission for two weeks that I really needed to be able to go out and get online somewhere (no internet at home, you see) because I need to 1) apply for unemployment (which was [and maybe is, idk I need to check my email] being held up by my ex-HR director not sending me the info I need in order to file], 2) I was waiting to hear back from a place where I interviewed (which Matt eventually checked on for me and found out I didn't get the job), and, you know, 3) I need to find a damn job.
So here we are the first of the month, not able to pay our rent, hoping my Uncle will front us the cash, plus I can't add minutes to my cell phone so how'm I going to get calls from prospective employers? I'm still somewhat ill and Matt can't work because he hurt his foot last week and then had to walk home on it from the PLaza (to Westport). He's got to get his mom to take him to the doctor so he can have a doctor's excuse not to work his two jobs or else he'll be fired from them both.
Awesome, right?
Anyway, I'm back, but distracted, so forgive me if the blog suffers because of it.
So you've probably noticed I like Buddha, because he's the only diety I really talk about on here, but while I've dabbled in Buddhism, I'd never been to a Buddhist service. That changed yesterday, thanks to the ever loving and fabulous @darcybl who took me with her to the Rime Buddhist Center. It's a lovely space full of vibrant colors, creaky wood floors, hangings of Buddhisotvas and incarnations of Buddha all over, bright red cushions for everyone to sit on, and a gorgeous, enormous altar full of shiny, gorgeous, spiritual nicknacks.
One of the things that ended up delighting me the most was how the Lama was in a skirt! It's the traditional garb as you can see sported by the Dalai Lama here:
I was like "hot damn! That's sexy!" And then I thought, "you know, I really forgot about that when I was writing my blog about boys not being that attractive to me."
Because boys in skirts are so fucking hot. It's the reason I became friends with this crew that turned out to be from Omaha one night in Balancas:
The two boys were running around in kilts and I knew I HAD to be friends with those people. So we ended up hanging out there and then they came back and crashed at our apartment. It turned out they were totally awesome and consider themselves "circus folk." They do all sorts of fire and snake and hoop and ariel fabric dancing and who knows what else. We went to party at the Dr. Sketchy's loft the next day (where these pics were taken) and the wearing of the kilt is why this boy got to nom on my ear:
(also, I was drunk)
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