Rabbit, rabbit, happy lucky April!

April is peeking its head out--so rabbit, rabbit, happy lucky April, everyone...I must confess that I have mixed feelings about April Fools' jokes. And I'm working on April Fools' Day, and hoping that not too many customers have the urge to be obnoxious. There is some mighty unrest out there, these days. The latest changes at New Bank are actually omissions. The famous coin machine is gone, and I have felt punished for that, since people are bringing in copious amounts of rolled coin that we must check at some point before handing out to others, sometimes fifteen minutes before we close...good times. And there are other changes coming, as well.

Luckily, my life is such that staying a bit later than scheduled is usually not a problem. And I'm not being bothered by any coworkers, either. It does make me feel icky when a couple of them whisper in front of me, but it's groovy that I'm not involved.  Oh, the drama...(not to mention bad manners.)



March 31st :  a special morning: I jogged three miles without walking breaks. This is a light of hope; my oncologist had said something like 'three miles is enough,' after citing some study that concluded that distance training was harder after adriamycin. HE DIDN'T HAVE TO SAY THAT, I was paranoid enough. And me and my joints have no intention of ever doing that again, anyway. So there. And distance training is harder on the over-50 crowd, too. I am so happy to be tendonitis-free...


So much for my little world. The bigger world is always charging in, scaring the hell out of me. Oh, another thing about my coworkers: they are naïve. Since they have no memories of life without the internet, they are not bothered by any changes that take place there...and honestly, they are so busy shopping and buying stuff that who cares? Hey, whatcha doing for lunch? Sometimes, I fear that  they're right: go ahead, spend your paycheck on lunches, expensive phones, and clothes, because if the government collapses, at least you'd have enjoyed all your stuff. Eat all your nuts TODAY, before Russia completely destabilizes our trees.

April Fools' Day!

Sorry, that came from a dark spot in my brain. Facebook is becoming such an echo-chamber, I need to limit my viewing habits, or I'll become obsessed with scary news.

This weekend has almost pre-filled for me...working Saturday, and then on Sunday, one of Mike's long distance friends, and his wife, will be in town. This is turning  Sunday afternoon into quite the party, and I'm looking forward to it. As usual, we'll try not to get political.

In other social-crowd news, we will be taking a Gettysburg ghost tour in June, in conjunction with our reading of Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders. Mike is reading it now, and (so far) thinks it's way weird. I haven't gotten to it, yet. We often read stuff at the same time, but I'm still finishing Absurdistan, by Gary Shteyngart,  on loan from someone in our group. Both our Nooks are registered to me, so everything I buy is on both devices (and the tablet), which is very convenient.

Mike is doing an admirable job staying calm, with all the uncertainty at his place of work. We all need to stay hopeful. It's hard to balance enjoying life with planning for the future, sometimes.


Interesting article : http://www.iasc-culture.org/THR/THR_article_2014_Fall_McPherson.php

Anyway. It's the weekend! Let's all drink, be merry, and lose at Scrabble!

Whatchaupto?

March Came Quickly, and...

Trying to Save Piggy Sneed was an interesting memoir penned by John Irving, back when he was my age.  It's actually a compilation of memories, short stories, essays, and anecdotes from his life.  The title of this work lets it masquerade as a novel, and I must confess it tricked me. (Even its spine classifies it as fiction!)  Piggy is a cruel nickname for an unfortunate man Irving knew in his childhood, whose life comes to a sad end.  Since this collection of stuff starts with him, I expected it to end with giving Mr. Sneed a better ending, because that is what writers do. If I were to put my hand up in Mr. Irving's class and say, but what about Piggy Sneed, weren't you gonna save him? He'd peer at me over his half-specs, suppress an eye roll, and tell me to use my imagination.

Well, my imagination says that Piggy was way smarter than he let on, and those bones you found after the fire weren't his. He'd been stashing cash somewhere else forever and retired to a warm place, way way out of Maine, where people don't make fun of him. The End.

This is why I am not a writer. But still, I must persist, it would have made for a nice symmetry to end it all with Piggy Sneed--not ending it all.

Seriously, though, I stand in wonder of how Irving is able to effectively proselytize* about any subject that strikes his fancy; I know nothing about wrestling, it all looks like rolling around to me, but his wrestling stories are great, especially the ones involving refereeing. Yes, the famous author refed, and got screamed at by some of the strangest people I never want to meet. Great material...

Another subject Irving proselytizes about is literature. Yes, yes, it's true. He's part teacher. After reading his rhapsodies (the h filled in for me, love that) about certain authors and books, I picked up The End of the Affair, my first Graham Greene book. I know that we saw the movie years ago, but it's not memorable. This short novel is. The whole of this sad narrative is told in first person, takes place in one mind, and it is riveting and thought provoking.

After the end of  The End of the Affair, I picked up a novel that's been in my queue for awhile, one that's gotten a lot of buzz. It's called The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah. It's a tall order to follow Irving and Graham, and at first, I thought her style seemed thin, but that might be me acclimating to  different prose. Readers have to do that. I am getting into the story, which involves two very different sisters. Lately, I feel as though the two-sister theme is a strong one. Another book awaiting me is Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi. I'm digressing. A much more common theme is World War II. The End of the Affair and The Nightingale both take place during WWII.

WAIT....I forgot to do a Rabbit Rabbit post. March came so quickly, hopped right in after what must have been the warmest February ever. We are experiencing cold and windy sensations right now, but this shall pass very soon. And California has gotten multiple inches of rain. I remember watching it rain from the porch or "the old old house" with Granny, that's how unusual it was (Pasadena, long ago).
I do not have anything to report that would be exciting to anyone else...to me, it's exciting that I'm not working this weekend, and I get to sit and bask in the fact that I get to bask. And feel well. My parts are feeling better than ever, even my tendonitis seems to be gone, I can do the snow angel thing, and I'm sleeping better. Not to brag.

Yeah, yeah.

So. Whatchaupto? I'm all ears!



*Mike and I recently watched a spelling bee. That word did not come up. I was so far off that Blogger had nothing. I love google.