What to do on vacazione...

The only thing bad about going away on vacation is Missing the Family. Here's little Nombs, sitting on the couch back by me. He's such a sweet cat.

Friday I leave for Vancouver for 5 days, then Nanaimo for another 5. I want to do the following things on my vacation:

1. go to the Japanese shop and look at Bento boxes!
2. read
3. watch anything
4. start planning my next book
5. stare at the walls
6. stay off my feet

I've got fascitiis or something in my right foot. I go see my doctor in late fall usually, for my pill renewal, so I might ask for a referral to a podiatrist. And I've got to buy better work shoes when I get back--the kind nurses wear. Looks like years of crapitude shoes, and working on my feet, has finally caught up to me. In the meantime, I just want to stay off my feet!

Jilly is vair vair amusant

I decided to start a Jilly Cooper book, instead of the Guernsey. I'm planning my next book, so I'd rather read something sort of in the vein of what I want to write. Something funny, to get me in a funny mood. Cooper's characters are so trashy and trashed, bonking and drinking their way across the polo pitches... vair vair amusant.

There's always a bunch of characters, and one of them always has a great romance storyline. So bonking, drinking, and a little sweet romance. Also great horse, dog and cat characters, great flower descriptions, great polo matches, and plenty of bon mots. Just the thing for a vacation.

I'd love to buy up all the rest of the Georgia Nicolson books and read those on vacay, but that's a lot of money for books that only take a couple hours to read. The library still hasn't come through with book 6 for me. Vair vair non amusant.

I'm watching Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf as I write this. I'd always thought I'd love this play once I'd seen it, because I love these depressing 60s plays. But really, it's just annoying.

I re-watched Rashoman this week. That was better.

more "shit my dad says"

1. 'You don't know shit, and you're not shit. Don't take that the wrong way, that was meant to cheer you up."about 13 hours ago from web
2. "Here's a strawberry, sorry for farting near you...Hey! Either take the strawberry and stop bitching, or no strawberry, that's the deal."5:04 PM Sep 8th from web
3. "The worst thing you can be is a liar....Okay fine, yes, the worst thing you can be is a Nazi, but THEN, number two is liar. Nazi 1, Liar 2"3:41 PM Sep 7th from web

1 work day til vacation!

Alright, my Attraction blog is all set up to post the rest of the week. I just have to make some schedules for work, and then tomorrow at work I won't have very many loose ends left to tie up. I even have a nice lunch all packed for tomorrow (I'm usually too lazy, but looking at bento lunchboxes all evening put me in the mood) -- iced tea, chick pea spread sandwich, cucumbers and a little bag of chippies!

I also have to use up the vegetables before I leave, cause Fernando won't. Tomorrow I will make pizzas to use up the tomatoes, and then I'll be fine.

How Organized I am. Something terrible must be around the corner.

Ooh, also this vacation I get to try out my travel vegan cookbook.


All that's left is to make a Packing List and choose out which books to bring. I'm going to read Bitten (the author's coming to our store next month), but I need a second book... maybe The Guernsay Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. ...I both hate and love the process of choosing the next book to read.

roommating

Romance author Jennifer Crusie shares her house with a couple other women and their kids. Plus dogs and cats. She often writes about the jollifying they get up to, and I must admit it sounds fun and reminds me of when Delyriam and I used to live together, and Swiss Girl down the hall. Living with a girlfriend can definitely be a load of fun sometimes.

[The story I just read is of them adopting a dachsund, and having to adopt the toy poodle which the dachsund had adopted. And how Jennifer and her roommate are NOT dress-up-the-poodle types... aside from the hoodie, the duckie outfit, and t-shirts they buy her.]

Non-smokers just sit alone in a cold basement... non-smokin'.

Navel Gazing: The Books That Changed My Life - Malcolm

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

As mentioned previously, I loved reading about Malcolm because he was a man who believed in evolving. But watching the movie again, and re-reading parts, I've also realized I just identify with him as well.

* I've also been part of a cult-y church, and went through a big struggle when my husband was suspended from said church. (When Malcolm is *silenced* in the movie, it's all painfully familiar--it's like watching what my husband went through, all over again. Very hurtful stuff.)

* I've tried to live this very Moral Life--after prison, Malcolm didn't sleep with anyone until he married, and then he was monogamous. In the movie you see how bored the wiretappers are, listening in on Malcolm's private life. I'm not saying Premarital Sex is wrong, I just mean Malcolm had integrity--if he said he believed in something, then he did his best to live it. I'm down with that. If you hold a belief you can't really live by, then do you really believe in it?

* And have been Disappointed In People when they've proven to be more "frail" than I expected them to be --> because I too have that almost childlike innocent belief in people. I'm talking about when Malcolm X starts learning about all the shit going on in his church--the "prophet" sleeping around with women and then kicking them out, the ministers living high on the hog, and the prophet and other ministers plotting his downfall behind his back. Okay, okay I've never had someone I thought was my friend plot to murder me. But in the book he talks about how being lied to, betrayed, is the one thing he just can't bear, and I'm totally with him on that.

* And I've also had to mature and soften in that respect. (Well Malcolm didn't soften towards the people trying to kill him. But when he realized what shits the Black Muslims were, he certainly softened towards the other Black leaders he'd previously critisized.)

* And my final worldview turned into one that was more expansive and inclusive, but without compromising on what I believe, in the end, is *right.* (Malcolm's trip to Mecca.)

Luckily my journey has been a little more quiet and low profile than his was... and hasn't ended in my being assassinated.