out on the Cape this weekend, we were disappointed to hear that Nauset beach was closed both Saturday and Sunday. it had closed briefly two weekends ago due to the nearby hurricane, but this weekend's reason was much more fun. and it wasn't a barracuda. *g*
Beach Patrol radar shows five large sharks near Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge Thursday, four more sighted Saturday.
* *
Mayor Vaughan: [to reporter] I'm pleased and happy to repeat the news that we have, in fact, caught and killed a large predator that supposedly injured some bathers. But, as you see, it's a beautiful day, the beaches are open and people are having a wonderful time. Amity, as you know, means "friendship".

Mayor Vaughan: I don't think either of one you are familiar with our problems.
Hooper: I think that I am familiar with the fact that you are going to ignore this particular problem until it swims up and BITES YOU ON THE ASS!
* *
"But researchers say great white sightings are extremely rare, and so are its attacks on humans. They say the last shark-related death in New England was in 1936."
* *

in other news, life continues on chez Kate. I asked my manager about sales in the bookstore, and she said that while sales are down from last year, we are doing better than they projected we would be. I enjoy working at the bookstore, although I sometimes fall into the trap of considering shelving and zoning my work and the customers an unfortunate necessity. *g* all in all, I'm a happy little employee (especially considering the national unemployment rate is above 9%).

as for my summer, I had a quiet Readercon in early July, and then a blissful (if woefully short) visit with Lisa and Michal to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. out to the Cape a bit, up to Northampton, down to visit the cousins in Danville (PA). one of my favorite things about Pennsylvania continues to be the local sticky buns. we don't really have sticky buns in CT, it is very sad. I get them when I visit, and turn into a sticky bun fiend. I probably drive my aunt distracted debating the various merits of the local bakery outfits. yummy.

I haven't been to a concert in ages, and this must be remedied. I currently have plans to go see the Old Blind Dogs with my family this Saturday in East Hartford. haven't seen them in quite some time, so yay!! Peter Mulvey will be at the Iron Horse on 9/26, and Vienna Teng will be there on 10/1; I'd like very much to see PM and will almost definitely see VT. must ask around, see what plans friends have for concerts. (how about y'all?)
in the meanwhile, I'm watching Sunday night's episode of Inspector Lewis. it's so exciting to have new episodes!

I just posted a list to facebook, but since it's about books I thought I'd put it here as well. it is that 15 books meme:
Rules: Don't take too long to think about it.
Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag 15 friends, including me because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your 15 picks, and tag people in the note - upper right hand side.)

1. L. M. Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables
2. Elizabeth George Speare - The Witch of Blackbird Pond
3. Jane Yolen - Dove Isabeau
4. Patricia C Wrede - Dealing with Dragons
( Read more... )

in other news, the summer has been moving along way too fast. things are busy at the bookstore, and on hot weeks like this one it is actually a pleasure to get to work because of the air conditioning. it's a fine thing when you're driven out of your house and into places of business by the heat/humidity!

My Chess bear has died. her time was coming, and about ten days beforehand her back legs gave out. on Tuesday June 30th we could tell that it was time, and she died late that night. I find it easy to speak about with people, in person, but very hard to write out. we love her, and we miss her. the above picture was taken on the hike we took on Mt Tom on June 14, as are the ones below the cut.
( Read more... )

"

last friday afternoon an F1 tornado touched down in my town (Wethersfield, CT). the tornado was part of what the National Weather Service called a powerful, severe storm system that moved across southern Hartford county. lots of thunder and lightning, with massive falls of hail. the storm downed trees and power lines in many towns, leaving roughly 30,000 utility customers without power at the height of the storm (as of Sunday night, 1,359 customers were still without power!!) but Wethersfield was the hardest hit, with winds gusting to 85-100 mph. all over town, trees are completely uprooted, or split in half, thick limbs snapped and hanging jaggedly. "We know the damage is extensive," said Mayor Andrew Adil. "There are seven houses uninhabitable and 70 damaged – that doesn’t include cars and personal property." the good news: no deaths and only one injury, sustained from a falling limb the next day.

the picture above is of a house on the corner of Church and Garden, that got sliced in two by a falling tree.

my family is very lucky because our neighborhood was not close to the tornado path; we sustained very little damage, with no trees down on my block that I can see, just a few limbs. my yard had stray leaves and small branches, nothing else. our power went out (as did that of almost everyone else in Wethersfield) at around 4:40; we were lucky and got ours back at around 3am that night, rather than sometime Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. look below the cut for more pictures ( of wreckage! )

I've driven throughout town over the past three days, and each time I see all of the hurt and ruined trees I'm newly amazed. I've never been near a tornado before, but I lived through Hurricane Bob on the Cape in 1991. that was a lot bigger, but I was still young enough to find it exciting, heh. and we get strong mean winds on the Cape every few years; since the house only takes up 1/4 of the land and we adjoin town-owned swamp, there have always been half-fallen trees and uprooted stumps lurking about. but I'm used to seeing Wethersfield all tidy in that well-maintained historic way. so many old trees gone! it is very sad.

Chessie came home yesterday morning, and she is happy. she has stitches at the incision site; no restrictions in behavior but a course of antibiotics to take. she's been doing a lot of resting, but that isn't so different from her normal downtime behavior. she is just as eager to go outside, but content to sit still rather than play ball. I am so relieved.
( click here to see pictures of Chess and Hannah )
* * * * * * *

I spent all of yesterday afternoon and evening wrestling with myself. finally I gave in to my sense and my gut and made the decision to stay home these four days and rest, instead of traveling to Wiscon. I am more sad and bummed and regretful than I can say. but when I went to bed last night, and through today, there's been a sense of relief and a knowledge I made the right choice. I've been feeling like a steamroller ran me over, and now that I have these four days of rest I'm just starting to re-inflate. took lots of naps and spent time lying outdoors in the shade with Chess. the vice of tight bands gripping my head have started to ease a bit. hopefully the swarm of buzzing anxieties will begin to settle. it stinks that events in my life lined up to lead me to this state, and missing Wiscon, but sometimes that's how it goes. there will be Wiscon next year, and Readercon this July. in the meantime, my thanks for everyone's words of support. *hugs*

dog news:
my Chesapeake is currently spending the night at the vets. she is doing ok, resting up and getting fluids into her. the story: this Monday I took Chessie into the vets because her back leg was swollen, and we found a growth protruding from under her tail (right above the rectum). the docs felt her leg up, but the lymph nodes were not at all swollen, and it wasn't giving her any pain so they said to merely keep an eye on it & apply hot compresses. they took cell samples from the growth and sent them to the lab [note: this growth is very different from the one on her neck that burst in January, that had deep brown thick fluid, full of dead cells, very disturbing]. this growth seems to be mostly full of normal blood. at any rate, we got the call this morning that the cell samples were benign (nothing malignant). very good.

I came home from work this afternoon and found this news in a note. I smiled and got the dogs corralled to go out. (around 1:30pm) after they did the necessary I noticed that there was blood on the grass, I looked at Chessie and she had blood all over her hind feathers. I had her sit down and yes, the growth had burst and was leaking all over the place. ran her back ( Read more... )

my nerves are shot. I was in a bad way on Tuesday, worrying about Chessie's growth and whether it would turn out to be malignant and spreading. there've been a bunch of stressful and/or sad events in the past weeks: my cousin's dog Heidi died a few weeks ago, she was fourteen and had the same parents as Chess, she'd gotten old and developed a tumor and it was her time. we had about 2 months warning that she was doing poorly. then we found out that on Mother's Day, Julie - my former manager at BN - passed away from colon cancer. we had known it was coming (she was stage IV by the time she was diagnosed 1.5 yrs ago) but it is still a shock. so I've been brooding about that. and then my father has been under very high amounts of stress lately & had a minor meltdown on Friday, so I've been all wrought up over that as well (so hard to see the pain and hurt of those we love and feel powerless to solve it). so there we are. my nerves are shot.

hopefully I will get home from work tomorrow and Chessie will be home and on the mend. I will tell her I love her and be able to pack and get on the plane Friday to head to Wiscon. I'm so excited about Wiscon, I dearly hope it will be a relaxing time in terms of having fun and feeling lots of positive energy. I am conflicted. I am exhausted. I'm gonna hug my dog Hannah some more and think happy thoughts.

hello, hello! this Friday I shall be getting on a plane and flying to Madison, WI to attend Wiscon. it will be my third Wiscon and I am very excited; eager to see friends I've spent time with at previous cons and hopeful of meeting more awesome folks. I've been a bit indrawn over the past month, and so it will be delightful to embrace the lots of people & fun times of the con. who among you will be at Wiscon this year? let me know!

in the meantime I'm having fun wading through the programming schedule. it's kind of snuck up on me; four mornings from now I will be boarding the plane at Bradley, Friday I'll get into Madison airport at 2:30pm. yay! I'm going to start packing today. this year, I swear I won't pack a zillion books for the flight and down time. *lectures self* it's not like I won't pick up more in the dealers room, anyways. ^_^
- - - - - - -

never a dull moment in my life with dogs. Hannah has had a small cyst that developed on the surface of her tail near the base. when I first saw it I had no idea what it was; it looked like a scrape about to scab over. it did scab over, and when she later went in for blood levels the doc took a look and the scab came off, the skin looked healed. but then a few weeks later the site got puffy and red, then opened up again. took it in, the doc diagnosed it and gave us antibiotics. we're still applying the salve, and it looks much better, but if it comes back again they'll have to go in and nip it out. *sigh*

and then this morning I found Chess's back right leg all swollen up along the hock towards the knee. it's very odd, I couldn't find evidence of a bit anywhere, so I took her in to the vets. when the tech went to take her temp we found a protruding purple growth under her tail (about the size of a small cherry), so they've taken cell samples and sent them off to the lab. we'll hear back tomorrow. Chessie is otherwise completely fine - eating well, plenty perky, walking fine, but we're to keep an eye on her and keep her resting. I hope this isn't anything scary. I pray it isn't. one day at a time.

1. GREAT news!! Maine's governor has signed the bill that allows same-sex couples to marry. BBC news says, "Maine will be the fifth US state to allow gay marriage, after Connecticut, Massachusetts, Iowa and Vermont. A number of other states, including New Hampshire and New York, are also due to consider proposals to legalise it." and in Washington D.C., the council overwhelmingly approved a bill yesterday to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.

2. Johanna Justin-Jinich, a 22 year-old college junior, was shot and killed this afternoon in the Wesleyan college bookstore. "Johanna Justin-Jinich ...was killed around 1 p.m. today when someone entered the Red and Black Cafe, inside Broad Street Books at the intersection of William and Broad streets, approached Justin-Jinich and fired multiple shots. Police say they are still searching for the gunman."
my prayers go out to her family and friends. (sorrow/scary/fucked up)
I have been in Broad Street Books many times; it is Middletown's only retail bookstore (although more and more taken up by Wesleyan) and just two blocks away from the building my dad and brother work in. one of my coworkers is dating a man who works there. my brother says that after the shooting their building locked down for the afternoon.

I have other things to post about, but this has wiped me out for now.

several weeks ago I bought the album Who Killed Amanda Palmer?, and have been rocking out ever since. I love the album, I love Amanda Palmer's raw and biting edges and the breadth of the music between haunting piano, sweeping orchestrals, brass band and full out rock. so much fun. the mood and energy, the verve I get from Who Killed Amanda Palmer reminds me strongly in places of my connection with my two favorite Tori Amos albums, Boys For Pele and From The Choirgirl Hotel. WKAP is produced by Ben Folds, with him playing on some tracks.

the song I heard that prompted me to get the album was "Leeds United"; you can see the music video here. it sure would've been fun to be an extra in that video! and here is the video for the opening track, "Astronaut". oh! and here's the music video for "Oasis"; both the song and the video crack me up, I can see how the vid became controversial. *g* you can hear songs and see many more videos here.

just after I started listening to album, Neil Gaiman posted about the companion book made by Amanda, Neil and photographer Kyle Cassidy:
"And then Amanda sent me an email telling me that she had been taking photographs of herself dead for about 14 years, that the original idea had been to use some of those photos for the CD sleeve, but that would not happen, and she was making it into a book, and asking if I'd be interested in writing some words to go along with them... I loved trying to turn the photos into stories. Some big stories, some very small stories, even a new-old fairy tale, each story odd, each story fun to write, and each story, invariably, fatal."

so I've ordered the book. such fun!

I wish you could remind me who I was
because every day I’m a little further off
...
and you may be acquainted with the night
but I have seen the darkness in the day
and you must know it is a terrifying sight
because you and I are living the same way

this week has had me busy enjoying the most glorious of spring days. the flowers are blooming and budding and shooting up in the garden. in the park the ferns are out in full vibrant force, the skunk cabbage is fuzzy and cute, and the brook burbles and bounds with delight. it is spring and the earth is smiling.

in a few minutes my mom and I shall head up to Northampton to see Kris Delmhorst at the Iron Horse. I wasn't sure I would have company for this show; am delighted that I do. I haven't seen KD since last spring's show at the Iron Horse, always a treat. ^_^

I have been listening to Vienna Teng's brand new cd, which finally arrived in the mail this week. it is excellent, by turns sweeping and intimate, a breath of fresh air. over at her website I was delighted to find that there is a new concert date added for New England, for July 9 at Infinity Hall (Norwalk, CT). that is the night before Readercon (July 10-12), which I've been planning to go to, but I don't think it conflicts. (technically Readercon programming starts Thursday night, but I've never bothered to get there until Friday early afternoon.) and I've been gnashing my teeth with impatience to get to a Vienna Teng concert. last december's concert was made of awesome, and I want more! I remember hearing "the last snowfall", "antebellum", "kansas", "in another life", and "grandmother song" when she played in december, and it is such a treat to hear them now on the cd! I love the different textures and levels of appreciation that come from hearing songs various ways. and god but "antebellum" still grabs me by the gut.

oops, time to vamoose! I'll be back to tell you about all the books I've been holing up with (alas, to the detriment of my online time, yes). see ya, and have a good Friday night!

Edited to Add:
on Monday April 13 this article was put out at seattlepi.com, regarding what was happening inside Amazon.
here is a response from Dear Author on April 13. and here is the Making Light post/thread on the subject, 'Amazon's very bad day', April 13. interesting comments in both the Dear Author and Making Light posts.
[/eta]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
there has been major drama over at Amazon.com this weekend.
here is an explanation from Dear Author:

"What’s going on?
For those who don’t know, Amazon has decided to derank and then remove from front page searches books labeled “erotic” and GLBT. For example, books that are about Lesbian parenting have been identified as “adult content” and deranked. Patti O’Shea’s book that is listed “erotic horror” despite having only one sex scene has been deranked and removed from front page search results. Amazon has deranked Annie Proulx, E.M. Forster, but not American Psycho. Mein Kampf and books about dog fighting are ranked and can be searched from the front page, but not books about gay love or books with erotic content.

"Why is this is a big deal?
It’s not because customers put any stock into the Amazon Ranking number. It’s that the Amazon Rank affects a books’ visibility on the bestseller list, on the “If you Like ___, you might like __ feature” and so forth. It is akin to the bookstore removing the books from the shelves and requiring you to go to the Customer Service desk and ask for the book or author specifically. Visibility is a huge factor in sales and anyone who doesn’t believe that is kidding themselves."

this first touched my reading list at around 10am in the morning, and the news has gotten more and more complex. one of the first people to notice the change at Amazon was Mark R. Probst (markprobst), who noticed when the sales ranks disappeared from two newly released high profile gay romance books. when he asked Amazon about it, he was told, "In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature."

not only are the sales rankings being stripped, but they have been removed from the search engine. the community meta_writer has been keeping track of which books have had their sales rank stripped. these include such respected works as Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain and E M Forster's Maurice. !!!

some people have suggested that these events are the accidental, the result of a glitch or a sorting algorithm gone awry. Publisher's Weekly weighs in, posted Sunday 4/12 at 5:49pm:
"A groundswell of outrage, concern and confusion sprang up over the weekend, largely via Twitter, in response to what authors and others believed was a decision by Amazon to remove adult titles from its sales ranking. On Sunday evening, however, an Amazon spokesperson said that a glitch had occurred in its sales ranking feature that was in the process of being fixed. The spokesperson added that there was no new adult policy."

I don't know what I think. if you type "homosexuality" into Amazon's search field, the top results are:
1. "A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality" by Joseph Nicolosi;
3. "You Don't Have to Be Gay: Hope and Freedom for Males Struggling With Homosexuality or for Those Who Know of Someone Who Is" by Jeff Konrad.
5. "Can Homosexuality Be Healed?" by Francis MacNutt
this is not cool.

edited to add:
here is a petition to sign that protests the situation at Amazon.
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books recommends much stronger measures.

I would like to wish happy and joyous Passovers to those who celebrate. I was privileged to attend a Passover seder given by my roommate's family friends, one year, and I'm glad I did. growing up I used to hang out with another friend's family all the time for the matzah ball soup. I need to learn to make matzah ball chicken soup, yum. ^_^
- -

my mother sings in the concert choir of a local church, and they're putting on a concert tomorrow night. the two main pieces are "The Crucifixion" by John Stainer and "Messe Solennelle" by Louis Vierne. I've heard a recording of the second and it is lovely; I hope to attend tomorrow with my dad. the minister of music, David Spicer, is a very talented choir director and organist; he's also good about working together with other local singing groups. tomorrow's concert features not only the First Church choirs but also the Oriana Singers of Farmington High School (the director of the OS sings in the FC choir). should be fun. I sang in the youth choir for First Church growing up; I have a lot of good memories. I think that hearing sacred music performed reaches a wide spectrum of people, and crosses a lot of boundaries. love and compassion and unity. that is, for me, what Easter and the celebrations of spring are about.
- -

over the past couple days I've been hearing various folks mention something called Dreamwidth. what is this? I know what it says on the opening page; I mean, why is this something people are intersted in, what distinguishes it from being just another social networking site? I'm always behind the curve with these things, but my main concern is that I'm still able to access and read my friends' journals. if someone moves away from lj (or other blog) to dreamwidth, I can rss it? or do I need a Dreamwidth account in order to read the pages of others, the wayFacebook is? hrmph.

oh, oh! I almost forgot - I read this the other day and it is hilarious. the Passover seder, facebook style! it's the bit at the end that's the kicker. *g* I think that the way it's written up, with the comments and icons, makes it much funnier than Austenbook (although I still like that). ^_^

here we are in April of 2009. I've read more than 30 books in the last 3 months, so I figure I'm on track. these include:
- Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, Winnifred Watson.
- Farthing, Jo Walton.
- The Manual of Detection, Jedediah Berry.
- Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison.
- The Mystery of Grace, Charles de Lint.
- The Secret Wedding, Jo Beverley.
- Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens. what I'm currently reading.

and I hope to talk about them soon (got off track watching a movie!). meanwhile, I have also been reading:
- Girl Genius, vols. 1-8 and on through the present; Phil & Kaja Foglio. we have here a gaslamp fantasy comic - "Adventure, Romance, Mad Science!" XD Girl Genius is a webcomic that started up in 2002; a page is put up each MWF, and printed in graphic novel format roughly once a year. I happened upon Girl Genius in January (conveniently at a break after vol. 8 ended); started at the beginning, stayed put for 4 days, and devoured it all. that brought me from 2002 through 2009, and since then I've been up to date. it's very interesting how the experience differs, reading the story in large, story-arc chunks vs. reading 3 pages a week. in the meantime, I'd love to hear recommendations for other webcomics you enjoy (preferably the online comic books/graphic novel type), or for print graphic novels. ^_^

on a side note, this news story from last week: 'Boston Latin officials seek to quash 'vampire' rumors' (and followup story).

happy Sunday! I always think of Sunday as the end of my week; while I work Saturdays and have Mondays off, Monday is my 'get lots of errands done & start the week on top of things' day. in theory. *g* today was spent: walking the dogs in the park, housework, and doing my taxes. words cannot express my enthusiasm for TurboTax. it is concise, and understandable, and does the math for you - no nasty worksheets, no incomprehensible 'choose your own tax adventure' instructions... smiles all around. all that remains is to photocopy it and mail it in.

I am currently watching Masterpiece Theater's adaptation of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit. I have not read Little Dorrit, nor seen a previous adaptation of it, so I am quite excited. plus, it has Matthew MacFayden in it. *squee* and Andy Serkis and Freema Agyemen and a whole host of people! I love Dickens. *g* blast, it looks like they're airing it over a period of 4 or 5 weeks. I think it may be time to read the book. ^_^

speaking of books, an upcoming release almost snuck up on me. I am delighted to learn that Nina Kiriki Hoffman has a new book coming out at the beginning of May, Fall of Light. the main character is sister to the protagonist of her 2005 novel A Fistful of Sky. so exciting!! meanwhile I have Tammy Pierce's Bloodhound to look forward to, finally coming to us on 4/14/09. and Pat Wrede's new book, The Thirteenth Child, comes out that week as well. and Jane Yolen has a book coming out in May, another unlooked for treat as it is Dragon's Heart, a fourth volume in the Pit Dragon Chronicles (cowritten by Jonathon Schmidt). my, my, my. ^_^ a good spring.

usomitai has provided me with five associations. this is a fun meme - in Iz's words: we ask each other to associate us with things, we post talking about them, and the meme becomes the living undead! in the comments, you can give me your own set of associations to do, and/or ask me to give you five associations.

Neil Gaiman
- *g* like my Delirium icon? I (and a large portion of the general public) adore Neil Gaiman. I started reading Neil in highschool, first Good Omens and then Sandman and on from there. being a sff reader I would've clued into Neil eventually, but I came via Tori Amos. when I was first obsessing over her album Little Earthquakes, I noticed that she mentions Neil and the Dream King in her lyrics, which led me to him. by the time a friend played me Warning: Contains Language I was past being hooked and well into adulation. ^_^

rewatching movies a whole lot
- I love to bond with friends by discussing the books we each like, and the ones we have in common, and swapping back and forth. I also love to talk about films in the same way, and it's neat because with a film you can have a shared viewing experience within a reasonable period of time (as opposed to reading the book aloud together or having the friend read while sitting and watching him/her (although I've tried that!)). it's a fun way to share things I love. plus, I've always been able to rewatch well-liked movies/reread well-liked books at whim, so it doesn't bore me to view them with others. right now I'm actually in the sharing process: we found out my brother's gf Ashley had never seen Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, & Return of the Jedi the other night, and this had to be remedied. *nods* (at present the Millenium Falcon has gone to ground on/in the large asteroid and Luke's off to Dagobah). so yes, there are so many awesome movies out there, and it's easy enough to strap a friend down and feed them films => fun for all!
p.s. did you catch the quote in the subject line? that's Tracy in The Philadelphia Story.

gold retrievers
all retrievers are good as gold. all retrievers are worth their weight in gold? my retrievers have hearts of gold! yes, my family has two golden retrievers, and I love them madly. Chesapeake will be 13 in June, and Hannah just turned 6.

pictures!
( cut for size )

Cape Cod
- when I was little my grandparents lived on Cape Cod, in Orleans. we used to spend 4 or more weeks there each summer. in 1988 my grandparents moved to Florida; so for a few years the time we spent at the Cape was in rental places (always in Orleans). my parents had bought a nearby plot of land in the seventies when they got married, and in 1991 the Cape house was built. I spent my entire summer on the Cape from age 9 through 22, and went up a good deal on holidays and weekends. so yes, I love the Cape. it is in my blood, I can call up the taste and smell of it. I learned to swim on the Cape, I grew up going to Audobon camp and sailing camp and mucking about in the wild. it is part of my heart home.

drool-worthy book collections
- hee hee! I'll have to post pictures of the current size of my hoard. I have a habit, that of buying, begging, inheriting and otherwise accumulating books. *g* working in a bookstore doesn't help this habit, let me tell ya. the thing is, I like acquiring books. I get a rush of pleasure and satisfaction when I bring them home. I put them lovingly in stacks and spend ages filing them into my shelves (i.e. shifting the piles) and into my excel database. they're the last thing I see as I turn out my light at night. there's something aphrodisiacal about large numbers of books in one place. (again with the bookstore.) I love driving about visiting libraries, I love visiting special collections at museums and large libraries. and my collection is, well, mine! which makes it even better. (there are other ways to talk about this prompt, but I'll stop here, lol.)

well, there you have it. in addition to the above meme options, I'd be interested to hear your associations with any of these prompts. ^_^

Tracy Lord: The time to make up your mind about people is never.

this weekend I celebrated my birthday in high style. on Thursday evening my mother, brother, and I headed up to Northampton to see Solas perform at the Iron Horse. one reason I adore having my birthday in March, and four days before St Patrick's Day, is that the surrounding weeks have more celtic music concerts than you can shake a stick at. XD ( cut for length )

yesterday afternoon I drove up to Massachusetts and the lovely home of superfin and parrish_relics. after greeting them and their wonderful furry family, we hooked up with desar and Heather (whose lj-name I have unfortunately forgot) and went in to Cambridge in order to attend Catherynne Valente's Palimpsest release event. it was a reading/concert, held at Pandemonium Books in Central Square, and featuring S.J. Tucker (s00j) performing songs inspired by/kin to the book.
[for the curious, here's Cat talking all about what Palimpsest over at Scalzi's blog.]

I had a blast, and thought the performance was awesome. ^_^ I was lucky to hear Cat read from Palimpsest this January at Arisia, but last night was a performance, with Cat, s00j, and two other readers placed on the stage area & taking turns reading, interspersed with s00j songs. I had not before had the treat of seeing s00j perform, and I am mightily impressed (and a bit sheepish, as I've been hearing about her for years, most notably from copperwise and yukki_onna). I picked up her album Sirens and listened to it on the drive home today. she has a wonderfully versatile voice, and doesn't just stand up and sing but performs and seems to transalte her whole self into energy that ensnares you. (... I sound really fervid, but it gives more info than merely saying "really, really good", doesn't it? *g*)

at any rate, Palmipsest performance = awesome. venue = so so. the basement level of Pandemonium is a series of interconnected rooms, with no real doors. around the corner from the event seating were a bunch of gamers at tables, and when the event started they went right on talking and playing their games. the sound was distracting and (I felt) disrespectful; fortunately by the end of the performance I think everyone was suitably hushed and spellbound, but it could have been that I was drawn in so much I ceased to notice. that being said, I think it is great that Pandemonium has the space and ability to host such an event, and that they were willing to do so. I bought my copy of the book there, to show support; it was only because I was leaving with a group of 5 others that I managed to enter and exit the store without looking at all the books (I hadn't been in ages! the current crop of used books could have some real gems! aggh!).

after the concert, the six of us sallied forth into the rain to find supper, and wound up in the Middle East. I was very tired by that point, so picked cheesecake as it was cheap and tempting. after that, various partings and I was back at E & J's for the night. they were also putting up Cat for the night, so I got to visit with her for a tiny bit before bed and then this morning. [running into sleepytime, so speed sum-up:] then later today, E & J took me to the zoo, and then I drove home. good times all round. yay!

this past week had my hair frazzled and grey-tinged.
my Hannah is, as you may know, epileptic. (I should pause here to say that she and Chess are both home and happily awaiting their dinner, no worries.) Hannah is on meds (phenobarbital) and usually has less than one mild seizure a month. she started having a seizure on Friday at 4:15pm, and I sat with her and talked to her, as usual. but then instead ( read more about Hannah )

this afternoon my friend Natasha and I saw Coraline in 3D. it was awesome and such fun! I had not been to see a 3D showing of a film before (that I recall), so that was neat, and I'm very glad I made the effort to see it in 3D. exploration of the Coraline website yields lots of interactive goodies (the mouse circus spells my name!). ^_^ if you poke about Neil Gaiman's blog you'll find links to all sorts of neat articles/sites regarding Coraline, including this list of fun facts. and have a look at the original book.
*

I finished reading Lois McMaster Bujold's The Sharing Knife: Horizon on Saturday. I love love love it! this is the final volume of The Sharing Knife quartet; when I brought it home I went back and reread the third one (Passage), let it sit for a few days and then launched into Horizon. it fulfilled expectation; I've enjoyed each of the volumes but coming to the end of this one gives especial pleasure in watching the story arcs come to fruition. ^_^
*

Masterpiece Theater has started up its feast of Dickens with a new adaptation of Oliver Twist. this adaptation came out in the UK in 2007, and boasts both old and new faces (Timothy Spalls as a cross-dressing Fagan? oh yes!). the lineup continues with the 1999 adaptation of David Copperfield (w Daniel Radcliffe); then a 2008 adaptation of Little Dorrit (it has Matthew Macfadyen! woohoo!); and finally a 2007 adaptation of The Old Curiousity Shop.

of these four Dickens novels, the only one I have read is David Copperfield. I am very fond of the 1986 adaptation; I can't remember if I've seen this 1999 one or not. how up are you on Dickens? go to this wikipedia site to see the list of Dickens's notable works (and the individual novel pages will list adaptations. gods I love the internets.) do you have a favorite novel or adaptation? very yummy.

tears are running, running along down your breast
and your friends, baby, they treat you like a guest
don't you want somebody to love?

at times I worry that I lack proper socialization skills. let's not even get into dating; I'm currently getting stuck at the friendship part. I had years there where I spent time with friends on most days of the week. and then I had years where I didn't talk to almost anyone outside of the house. depression and social anxiety can do that. and coming back out of it, learning how to talk with people I think of as "friend", to chat with them on the phone, or ask if I could come by and visit, it has been very hard. exhausting and scary and painful and sad.

I look at these sentences, I look at the last 8 years of my life, and I wonder what the hell happened. it's as if I went through the looking glass and got stuck there, watching from behind the glass as everyone carries on without me, and I can't be seen, can't be heard. this is, of course, major meladrama from any other person's perspective, but it is what I experience as happening. and I wish I could fix it, but I don't know how.