Making it Up As I Go

I’ve written 3 different drafts of posts over the last couple weeks and then abandoned them because they didn’t seem interesting to me. So today I shall collect some of those random thoughts into one, probably disjointed, post. You have been warned. 🙂

This song has been stuck in my head for weeks now. It may be the death of me. I’m almost desperate enough to bust out some Outkast or Beyonce.

I do love that soundtrack though. But I love this soundtrack more.

It’s brilliant. Which I find amusing seeing as I’ve never seen this movie, as there are few books I dislike so much as Great Expectations.It’s only slightly Dickens’ fault; I had a college professor who pretty much killed the book dead for me. But my entire relationship with Dickens has struggled since then. I do whole heartedly love some of his books, but Great Expectations casts a shadow over them all.  On a different note- how much does Gwennie capture Estella’s cold haughtiness in this picture?

Speaking of books, I have managed to put 10 books on my wish list rather than just impulsively buy them. (If you’re curious to see what they are, you can see them here.)   I have bought 2 new Kindle books since the new year, but they’re parenting books dealing with specific things, so I’m not counting them against my resolution. Nor am I counting the gorgeous slipcovered two volume book I got at the bookstore (A True Novel by Minae Mizumura) or the paperback of  Apparitions: Ghosts of Old Edo by Miyuke Miyabe, because sometimes you just need a good, gorgeous book.

I’m about a 1/4 of the way through A True Novel, and I’ve just gotten to the beginning of the “Wuthering Heights” part. So far it’s fascinating, for a number of reasons that I’ll get into when I review it when I’m finished. But that may be a while- it’s a long one. I considered the readolution of concentrating on reading longer books this year but decided against it- but with this and The Accursed I’ll have done two 800+ books in a month.

We’re having a book exchange tonight at our church book club, and in trying to find a book to put in the pot, I realized that apparently a lot of the books I read/like have swear words in them. Or possibly have swear words in them, but I don’t remember well enough to feel completely secure in recommending them to people who don’t prefer swearing in their books. I don’t swear, but apparently I just don’t really notice it when I’m reading. Anyway, I found a book that should work, and hopefully it doesn’t have anything in it. 🙂

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been making it a practice to unsubscribe from email lists rather than just delete unused email everyday. It’s seriously shocking how much less email I get. It’s pretty awesome.

We showed the girls the Bugs Bunny episode “What’s Opera Doc” last night, and they are currently singing opera in their room with their My Little Ponies.

I have 4 sewing projects going right now, and none of them are cooperating. The girls are getting anxious, because the project they are waiting for is a set of stuffies of characters from Odd and the Frost Giants. The pieces are all cut out for Odd, Loki, Loki as a fox, Thor, Thor as a bear, Odin, Odin as a raven, Freya, Sif, and a frost giant. The frost giant isn’t going to be accurate to Norse mythology, but I don’t really care. 🙂  I have to embroider all of the faces, and that’s where I’m stalling out on that project. But I should get them done soon, before the girls move on to another obsession. (I’m also thinking through the logistics of making a long boat out of felt- but we’ll see if that happens.) So if you have any extra sewing mojo, send it my way.

And while we’re on the subject of Norse myths, can I just say that when attempting to read Norwegian words I usually feel like someone is playing a joke on me? For example, Skithblathnir, the magic boat that can go over any sea and that you can fold up and put in your pocket. There are just too aren’t enough vowels in that word. It’s like Hawaiian got extra vowels and so Norwegian didn’t get its full allotment.

Totally changing the subject, I have no plans to see 12 Years a Slave, but Lupita Nyong’o is my new style obsession. Seriously, she has not made a single misstep this whole awards season. The dress she wore to the SAGs is one of the most gorgeous things I’ve ever seen. And she is just devastatingly beautiful.

Now the girls are playing trip to California Adventure. And part of that playing is that the lines are long. At least there is an element of realism in their play.

My washing machine got fixed, and it is seriously like we got a whole new machine. It actually spins! It can handle a load that is bigger than 3 shirts and a pair of jeans! It actually dries the clothes and doesn’t leave them slightly damp! It’s seriously a thing of beauty.

Do you have conflicted feelings about Woody Allen? (I told you this post was going to be disjointed.) I really do. I think some of the things he’s done in his life are pretty problematic, especially things that have come out in more recent accusations, which are appalling. But his movies are fantastic, and I really want to see Blue Jasmine. At what point do you separate the artist from his work? Can you? At what point is supporting the work condoning the person? These are the things I think about, and I haven’t come to an answer. If anyone knows anything horrible about Wes Anderson or Baz Luhrmann, please don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.

I should go do my cleaning for the day, but it’s really warm in the window I’m sitting in, and the rest of my house is cold.  I would not fare well in a really, truly cold place.

But, the cleaning must be done, and I’m out of things to say. Tell me something random about your day!