He's a One Boy, Cuddly Toy, My Up My Down, My Pride and Joy

So, I thought I'd finally blog again. So much has happened - well, in Covid-19 terms, so much has happened. Mostly, we picked up our new kitten two weeks ago. He is so sweet. I've never had a cat this young before, so I had some reading to do to learn about what to do with such a little baby, and how to integrate him with our two older cats.

 We picked our new baby up on a Friday afternoon. He was a little skittish at first. Since we didn't want him to hang out with our cats until he could see the vet, we kept him upstairs in our dormer room. The first night he was up there, he wouldn't go anywhere where he was out in the open. He spent most of his time under the futon frame or in a little crate where we keep my old albums. He is very vocal, and he would meow as he ate. It was adorable.

The next day he came out in the open more often. He also learned to use the litter box. He was an outdoor kitten before he came to us, but he caught right on to the litter box. Whew!

On Monday we were able to take him to the vet where they checked him out, vaccinated him against distemper and feline leukemia, checked him for both diseases, fleas, ear mites, and worms. He was good on all fronts, except for worms, so he got sent home with some dewormer meds, and some Frontline, just in case he had some fleas that the vet wasn't able to see. The vet also told me what a good boy he was. He has no problem with anyone touching his paws or ears or belly. I already knew all of that, even after three days.

After we saw the vet, we were able to gradually start integrating him with our older cats. Our older cats were decidedly not amused.

At first they were jealous and mad at us. They punished us by ignoring us and not sticking their butts in our faces for a few days. We were duly chastened. 

We also needed to name our kitten. We kind of liked old guy names. John also thought we had too many cats names that ended in an EE sound. We thought about Emmett, Ned, Stan, Saul, Simon, and Orville (after our favorite road name - the Orville Yoder Turnpike). We tried Orville, but the lack of a hard consonant was a problem for me and John has always had truble with his R's. We talked about it, and finally came up with Gustavo Gustafson, or Gus Gus, or Gus, or Mucho Gusto when he is being way too much.

At first I wasn't sure if John wanted another orange boy cat, since we already had one who is a MIGHTY presence in our house, but Gus and John and have a very special bond. John ended up sleeping with him every night for the first week and a half, and now Gus is the president of John's fan club, and I think John just started Gus' fan club.

In the two weeks we've had him, Gus has already grown so much, and he learns everything so quickly. We know from Archie, smart cats aren't always a good idea... Just kidding! I love smart cats.

Speaking of Archie...He is no longer jealous of Gus. His feelings about the kitten now are mostly just annoyance. Gus loves Archie and won't leave him alone.

Archie is forced to find places that Gus can't get to...yet. He is now often parked in the kitchen window with his back to the kitten.

Being annoying can be really tiring for our little guy too.

Gus is now full time downstairs and he is more and more comfortable in his new home. The bigger cats are also getting more and more comfortable with him.

Yesterday I couldn't find Gus. I called to him, got his food out, and still he didn't show up. I went outside and saw that the door to the screened in porch was unlatched. So, I frantically wandered around our yard yelling for Gus. I was so afraid he got out.

I noticed Archie going from window to window watching me outside, and then he started meowing. I went inside, and Archie was sitting right inside the door next to Gus. Archie was so sweet to bring Gus to me, but of course, once I was inside and Archie remembered how close Gus was to him, he started hissing at him. Silly cats.

And so, at least one good thing has come out of this Covid crisis. We were able to get our new kitten, while I'm still working from home. The bigger cats may not agree, but both John and I feel like he is a wonderful addition to our weird, messy, chaotic, family.

She'll Just Tell You That She Came in the Year of the Cat

This Emu has the same facial expression that I do lately.

So, wait. Do I have a blog? I thought I did, but then I haven't been here for a while, so who the hell knows.

Anyhoooooo. I am still  here, treading water like everyone else right now.  I haven't been writing, or even reading that much, which id weird for me, but I've been doing so many other things, I haven't had the time to relax and sit long enough, to read and write. As always, I will try to be better about that in the future.

I am VERY lucky that both John and I are working full time, and so far, we haven't been furloughed or been given pay cuts or haven't had to take unpaid time off. We're hoping that stays with the big number of cases there are in Iowa right now.

Even though we seem to live in a shit hole country right now as far as politics are concerned, I am hopeful more people will get out and vote this year, and we can turn things around and protect civil rights, the environment, and democracy in general.

The big news in our house right now, is that we are going to pick up our new kitten tomorrow! Both of our other cats are getting older, and we're worried that if one of them dies, the other will be pretty damn lonely, and we don't want that. Soooo, we are adding another little orange boy into our weird and chaotic family. We don't have a name for him yet. We want to meet him in person first to see who he is.

My friend, Julie lives in Newton and she is the best of the crazy cat ladies, and kitties seem to just know that about her, so the strays show up at her property, and she takes care of them and gets them to the vet, and our kitten's mom showed up pregnant. Soooo, John and I are both getting off work early to pick him up tomorrow, and then we'll start our week long birthday vacation at home. Yea!

We Fell Up, Not to See the Sun. Gardening at Night Just Didn't Grow

Man, I suck. I really thought I would be able to write more during these Covid times, but work is crazy busy, and I'm gardening like a fiend, and riding bikes like a mad woman, and cooking healthy meals for us.

Soooo, I am REALLY trying to write more. I know you would just hate to miss posts about the books I read, and how they made me feel, or the tricks and plans for my garden and the feelings I have about them, or my political rage, or my old lady health problems and the emotions they invoke in me.

Well, today I'm going to write about my husband and how I feel about him. Basically, I am so damn lucky to get to live with John. Maybe I appreciate him so much because we didn't start dating until I was 45 years old, and I had to sort through all kinds of frogs, and spiders, and snakes, and scorpions, and poisonous creatures of every kind.

Anyway, John puts up with my weird obsessions, and gardening is a big one of mine. He doesn't love to garden himself, but he will always help me and support me in my gardening, and he really loves the fresh food we get out of ours too. As I've said before, gardening is basically war. You battle the elements, you fight animals trying to eat all of your hard work, and you wage war against the bugs...And right now, the worst of those bugs are Japanese Beetles. I am always looking for solutions to these problems in an organic way. So, one of the solutions, is to buy Neem oil and spray your plants with it every couple of weeks. Especially, the week or so before the Japanese beetles come out. The male beetles come out first and eat the leaves of plants and they go back down and feed their babies with those chewed up leaves and if they consume the oil laden leaves, it will kill them before they can even come up and be pests. Neem oil is an oil that comes from a tree in India and helps kill fungus on plants (which has been a problem for my tomatoes, and zucchini and basil), and it also helps kill said Japanese beetles.

The big problem is that Neem oil also kills bees if it has direct contact with them. So, I can only spray it when there aren't any bees around. So, I did the only logical thing, I Googled "What time do Bees go to bed?". It turns out, they go to sleep once it's dark out. Which means, I could only spray the Neem oil at night, and since we're almost at the Summer Solstice, it gets dark after nine o'clock at night. John normally goes to bed BEFORE nine.

Last Sunday, I decided to spray the Neem oil. John was sweet enough to set it all up for me and left a flash light too, so I could see what I was doing. As John was getting ready for bed, I told him I was going to go out and spray the Neem oil, and he came out there too, showed me how to use the hand held sprayer, and then followed me around with the flashlight, so I could see what I was doing. We were like bug thieves in the night. I know what a pain in the ass it is to stay up past your bedtime to help your partner with something you aren't really all that interested in yourself, so I appreciate the hell out of him for doing so without me even asking him.

I just hope I'm not lazy and I can support him like that the next time he needs help doing the things he loves, but I'm not particularly all that interested in.

Our Freedom of Speech is Freedom or Death

Even though our country is falling apart right now, and there is so much justifiable anger right now, and we don't have any kind of leader, and people thought it was a good idea to vote in a president who just settles things by saying, "You're fired!" to anyone who disagrees with him, or incites violence against the citizens of his own country, and doesn't produce even one positive plan of action to help with the HUGE divide in our country right now. Even though all of that, and a whole hell of a lot more, Archie wants to remind you that there is still a pandemic going on that has already killed over 100,000 people in your country, so you need to wash your damn hands.

Also, BLACK LIVES MATTER!

What Else Could I Write? I Don't Have the Right.

Hey! I just wanted to let you know that I'm still here. I've had this weird combination with being freakishly busy at work (I know. I'm not complaining, I feel very lucky to have a job), almost constant migraines, tons of gardening, food cooking, bike riding and generally doing whatever the hell else I do around the house, and I haven't had time for blog writing. I have lots to tell you and I will try very hard to find more time to write here. Wish me luck!

Pretty Soon Now You're Gonna Get Older

Not all that long ago, in this very same galaxy, my daughters were in their early twenties and they came over for brunch on Mother's Day and didn't offer to help, and didn't offer to even clean  up after, and when I said something about it to them, they "joked" about being lame or whatever and still didn't help clean up and I was very disappointed in them.

I get that they were in their early twenties, and newly out of my house, and that made them more self-centered and they probably thought of it like they had to cook for themselves all the time, they might as well get a home cooked meal, and be catered to, or whatever goes through anyone's head when they're in their early twenties, but I was pretty hurt.

Fast forward to yesterday when the girls are in their late twenties. I said something about making dinner when they came over and The Youngest said, "We can talk about that later..." Which I thought meant she wasn't crazy about the food options I presented.

Fortunately, it was because she and her sister didn't want me to have to do anything. So, they came over with their men, and The Youngest brought her dogs, and Archie got to assert his dominance in front of them. Then we sat around and talked about what they were going to pick up for Mother's Day dinner. We ordered pizza from Wig and Pen and they went and picked it up and paid for it. It was so nice that they finally got it.

We had a lovely day. The food was very good, and the best Mother's Day present of all, is seeing my girls maturing and growing up. The saddest part of the day was standing next to them and realizing how much I'm shrinking. Eek!

The are the only people, besides John that I get anywhere near these days. Lucky for me, they are people I love spending time with. So, Happy Mother's Day to all you Mutha's out there, whether you have children, adopted children, foster children, step children, you help mentor other people's children, you have animals, or whatever other situation you find yourself in.

In a Little Cottage Cozy The World Seems Rosy at Sundown

 One of my co-workers is getting ready to sell her house. They bought a bigger house, when her son and her mom both lived with them. Now that her son is in his thirties and has moved out, and her mother died of her dementia a few years ago, they want something smaller with less upkeep. So, she took last week off to get her house ready to sell. Which basically means they are getting rid of tons of their crap and doing some projects to make it more attractive to buyers.

That got me thinking. Our house is about the perfect size for John and myself. but it needs a lot of work. What if we got our house ready to sell, but then didn't move? Wouldn't it be great to do that work just for us, and do the projects to make it more attractive and with less crap inside of it? So, that's my new goal.

Of course, I'm not worried about making it nice for someone else to want to buy it. That usually means making everything more neutral, and, as  you know, I'm not a neutral kind of person. I want our little cottage to be sweet and homey, and full of books and music, with a big kitchen where I cook wonderful meals. It doesn't have to be spotless, John and I like to LIVE in our house, which means we have linoleum tile on our kitchen floor, so we don't have to worry about something happening to it when John works on bikes in our house. I also want our yard to be full of flowers, and vegetables and have funky little sculptures and gewgaws, and whirligigs. I like quirky, funky places, like a Hobbitt house, or Snow White's cottage, and if woodland creatures wanted to come over and clean-up the place, I'd be receptive to that too.

 To that end, we are still working diligently on our place. Since we don't have a lot of money, we have to do the actual work ourselves, and try to find the stuff we need on sale. On Saturday, the store that used to be a Hy-Vee grocery story, but is now a Hy-Vee drug store (?) that has a huge garden center in the warmer months, had a sale of 15% off their landscaping and garden items. So, I took full advantage and bought a few more sculptures, and flagstone and some bullet pavers.

Then I started arranging them as a border around our very small backyard. I didn't get to do the digging and then the weed cloth and lava rock placement yet, but I'm getting a lot closer. There is just soooo much work to do, and never enough time to do it all.

John also ordered new linoleum floor tile for our kitchen. Since our house was built in 1950, we got black and white squares in keeping with the period. We'll see how long it takes to get here, but we'll have more than plenty to do around here while we wait.

For now, I plan to keep plugging along on getting my house ready to sell, and then staying put and enjoying my whirligigs and gewgaws.

Gimme a Break! The Game is Survival! Gimme a Break, And Plan My Arrival!

Soooo, I'm going to talk about how lovely last weekend was. Not just the weather, but all the things we did. I'll start off with projects. I know not everyone else is as weird as I am (Okay, almost no one else is), but I love to do projects, especially ones that make a huge difference, and are pretty when they're done.

Right when they were starting to close everything down for Covid-19, I ran to the paint store in case it wouldn't be open for a while and I got paint for our front screen door. Our house came with this cool, old, screen door and any house nerd who sees it tells us how amazing it is. The big problem with it, was that it was a 1970's brown color with weird, tan trim and on a 1950's white house, it just looked unattractive and odd.

If you know me at all, you know how much I love color. Bright colors. So, a few years ago, I started looking for pictures of houses with colorful doors. I found one that I loved that was bright blue, not teal, or aqua, but a lighter, bright blue. When I went to the the paint store, I checked out different paint samples and asked the woman what the best kind of paint was to use on a metal door. She was very helpful, and I found exactly the color I was looking for:

On Saturday morning, John got out the Borax and cleaned the hell out of that door (and boy-howdee! did it need it). Then in the afternoon, I started painting. I got the first coat on by the evening and got up early the next morning to apply the second coat. I think it looks great. It's exactly what I wanted, and man, is it bright. It's amazing how much different our house looks just from painting the door. We've had tons of compliments on it, and on Sunday, my friend Bridget, who owns her own house painting company was across the street at the community gardens and yelled over to me how much she liked it. I figure, if a professional house painter is enthusiastic about it, I did okay. I'm sure there are plenty of people who don't like my bright blue door, but those people don't have to have one on their house either.

While I was working on the door, John went to work on our side yard. It's not very big, but it was one hell of a mess. It had tons of volunteer trees, and a few of them were right up against the house. So, John finished the project I started, digging those up. If you want to talk about a shitty project where you're basically hacking at the earth to get to some roots, there it is. By Sunday morning he had finished that thankless job. Now, this weekend we're going to dig up all of the fern starts there, then use some of our tax return money to buy some more brick pavers, weed cloth and lava rock. I wanted to finish that project by last weekend, but now I'm shooting for this coming weekend. Wish us luck!

We also headed up to the small town where Coadster lives with her boyfriend to drop off her bike and some seedlings for what my daughter is calling their Victory Garden (she is and always will be a World War II nerd). When we were there, she told John that the Aloe plant that he gave her for Christmas a few years ago, had grown out of its latest pot, so he took it back with us and repotted it in this HUGE ceramic container. Hopefully, it will be a few more years before he has to repot it again.

After all of our chores were as done as they were going to be for one weekend, we did our favorite thing - Bike ride! Bike ride! Bike ride!

We are very lucky to live in Iowa during this pandemic. We can ride a couple of miles and be out in the middle of nowhere. We love it that there are more animals than vehicles in Amish country.

And the majority of vehicles we see have a very different kind of horse power than in town.

We rode almost 50 miles and it felt so good to play outside where there wasn't any danger of catching Covid-19. It was almost like it didn't exist for a few hours. Exactly what I needed - a break from it.

When we got home from our mental health break, I made veggie lasagna and my favorite salad for dinner. It has fresh spinach, raspberries, feta cheese, red onion slices and pine nuts. It is pretty damn delicious.

Anyway, I'm glad we had such a lovely weekend, because work this week has been hell. May first is decision day, and we are inundated with calls and emails from students wanting to either cancel their admission, postpone their admission, or a firm promise that we are going to have classes on campus this Fall. If only we knew what the future held for all of us...

There's So Much That We Need to Share. So Send a Smile and Show You Care

During these funky times, I've been doing a lot of trading of things with friends. I love to share and give people stuff, which is how this all started. Then the people I offered to give stuff to, said they wanted to trade me for stuff. And so, I have traded a ton of shit lately, and it feels really good.

I traded a lot with my friend, Brittany. She is a baking fiend, and I don't have the patience or the exactness (?) to bake very well. So, she traded me some coconut muffins, and I made her and  her boyfriend some chicken enchiladas with homemade refried beans and fried tostada shells. When she saw all of that, she threw in some Impossible burgers and some African groundnut stew.

That same day I traded my friends, Rob and Dawn some of those same enchiladas and beans and tostada shells for two and they reciprocated with two rolls of toilet paper, some farm fresh eggs and they colored (blue, appropriately) a card with the word, "balls" on it. Have I mentioned how much I love my friends?

I said something about how I was trying to keep an eye on my drinking (this virus has me very stressed-out and parched) and trying to find some fun non-alcoholic cocktails. That same friend, Brittany gave up alcohol about a year ago, and sent over a bottle of this non-alcoholic cocktail mixer and  some ginger beer to make mock Moscow mules. I then traded her for some lemon zucchini bread, which is one of the few things I do bake.

I really love trading food, especially meals with people. I've never made African ground nut stew and it was amazing.

My friend, Brittany dropped off some chocolate banana cake this week. I didn't have anything to trade for it then, but this weekend, I hope to make some veggie lasagna and some chicken wild rice soup in the crockpot, that I will drop off for her on Sunday.

My Spring flowers are finally blooming, so when John goes to drop off groceries for his mom in her retirement community, I try to get a bouquet ready for her. I also make sure he has a book or two. I gave her the first two books in the Olive Kitteridge trilogy last week, and the first book of the "Little House on the Prairie" series this week.

Now that it's garden season, I've been giving or trading like a banshee. My friend, Kathy had her husband drop off some cilantro and parsley plants, and I will bring over some snapdragons, bell pepper, and Mexican Torch Sunflower seedlings as soon as it's warm enough to plant them outside.

I traded my next door neighbor some red raspberry bush shoots, and some cone flowers, and he gave me some red onion shoots, and dropped off buckets of mulch. He later told me he took the mulch from the community gardens across the street, but since I'm not the one who pinched it, I can't feel too badly, can I?

Of course, I've been making plenty of food for my girls during this crazy pandemic. This week I made mashed red potatoes and green bean casserole and tomorrow when we drop off Coadster's bike, we'll bring them some lunch take-out from a restaurant of their choice.

So, if you haven't already, give somebody something. The act alone will make you feel better, and who knows what you'll get back.

Here is the Main Thing I Want to Say. I'm Busy Twenty-Four Hours a Day

First off, I want to apologize for not having written. I've been having bad migraines that make me stoooopid and not very eloquent, and on top of that, we've been amazingly busy at work from home.

Second off, I want to say, Happy Earth Day! I hope you can get out at some point and pick up some garbage, or enjoy the outdoors in some way that doesn't ruin it. It's all we got, so let's respect and treat it like we want to be around as a species for a long, long, time.

 Today I'm going to talk about my husband only working part-time during the Covid time. I wasn't sure how it was going to go. John and I both have our own way of doing things, so we've had to be better about communicating why and how we want things done. Like, he does most of the dishes (which is one of the best things in my life right now), but apparently it drives him crazy that I put dirty dishes in the other side of the sink (just so you don't think I'm an animal, I put them there and put water in them so they can soak). So, now I will try to only put dirty dishes on the counter to the left side of the sink where John washes the dishes. The things you learn about a person after being together for almost ten years...

Anyway, it's going pretty well so far. For the last two weeks, John was working Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Starting this week, John will only be working Tuesday and Thursday.

The key to a happy partially employed husband, is to keep him busy on his days off. He is always asking what projects I want done. Well, just let me scroll out this list that should cover most of state of Iowa.

His first project was to attach a bike rack to my car. Since he didn't get a new car after the car accident where the woman ran the red light into his car, we are sharing mine, and so we need a bike rack on it. Consider that job done.

Since I bought the house, I've been meaning to get to the yard on the East side of the house. It doesn't cover a lot of space, and it's mostly big ferns that do well in shade, but increasingly there have been more and more big weeds and scrub/volunteer trees. My plan this year was to grub up all of the trees, rake all the old leaves, dig up most of the ferns, then enclose most of the area in a brick border with weed cloth and red lava rock in it. I would also cut some holes in the weed cloth where I intend to plant every other plant a Hosta or a fern. We'll see how that goes. Last Fall, our friends had some extra pavers they wanted get rid off for free, if we were willing to cart them off ourselves. We're planning to use those for the border, and buying a few more if we need them. Of course, I'll put up after shots when we're done with it all.

I had been chipping away at it the last couple of weekends, by grubbing up trees and roots, but yesterday, John spent almost the whole day raking and getting the trees out of there. He has a couple more tree roots to go, but with him doing so much work, we might actually get it almost all done this weekend. We'll see, though.

The other project he's been working on, is putting pet screen on some of the windows. Since Archie was a kitten, he has made it his mission to rip any screen in our house. He's done one hell of a job too. John had already replaced a few of them with pet screen the last couple of years, but there were some more where we just couldn't open certain windows, since the screens were shredded (thanks again, Archie). John finally got a couple more done last week.

And let me tell you, the cats are thrilled to  have that new window to look out of and smell from. Especially since our neighbor's cats hang out in their screened-in porch that faces this particular window. This could be the best Summer ever for the cats.

I would say that we're dealing with John being home more often and me working from home just fine. I just have to keep a list of projects handy for him, and if  you've seen our house, you know that will not be a problem.

Don't You Ever Feel Like You're a Rider on a Downbound Train

It was really nice out this day, and the window was open, and the cats were ever so happy.

 So, Hey! Guess what? On Saturday I went to the store and not only was there toilet paper, they had dish soap too. Neither was my normal brand, but I haven't seen toilet paper or dish soap for sale at the store in over a month.  A few months ago, I had no idea how exciting this would be. How long after this pandemic is over will we still appreciate something like this?

Also, am I the only one who watches movies where people are in big groups, and shaking hands and hugging others, and I scream in my head, "What are you doing? How irresponsible of you.".

I was laughing the other day that instead of being jealous of your friends who seem to always be posting on Facebook about taking trips to exotic places, now you can judge them for it and feel so much better about yourself. There's always an upside.

In the interest of not drinking WAY too much during this pandemic, I'm working on making Temperance cocktails, or Mocktails. A friend gave me this Seedlip stuff, that is a mixture of different infused spices, to use in place of vodka or whatever your alcohol of choice might be. So far I made a mockscow mule, and a tonic drink with lots of lime and a splash of cranberry, but not vodka. They were both very refreshing. I'm still drinking some alcohol, I just want to make sure that doesn't become a problem during these stressful times. After all, I'm already overeating enough to fulfill anyone's vice quota.

You know how I said John and I were watching at least one zombie movie a week during this pandemic? Well, a friend of ours recommended one called "Train to Busan". It's on Netflix, and it is my new favorite South Korean zombie apocalypse social statement movie ever. It's so stressful, that I told John I might actually have a heart attack before it was over. I'm sure you won't overlook a recommendation like that.

Lastly, this might be the first year that I almost forgot the Iowa City tornado anniversary. I guess all it takes is another tragedy to happen the same time of year, to take your mind off a thing.

Little Darling, It Feels Like Years Since It's Been Clear

Well, Kids, this weekend was so much more wonderful than the last few. That's right, I got to go outside and play for the first time in almost a month. I had that bad head cold for over three weeks, so I was very limited in what I could do.

Of course, I've lost all kinds of fitness, so I was doing everything very slowly, but it felt so good to move and to play outside.

 We were supposed to do a trail running race on Saturday, but it got changed because of Covid-19. It was now called a "run-in-place". You were supposed to run it away from others wherever was closest, and safest for you. We chose to run the route it was supposed to be. We went to Hickory Hill Park in the morning when there weren't many people out and about.

It was a lovely run. Since I hadn't done any exercising in almost a month, we went slowly and had fun with it. That run was just what I needed to get me back on track playing outside.

After we finished that run, we made plans to ride bikes. Again, I wasn't very strong, but the winds were from the North on Saturday, so we rode the hilliest route around us. I didn't ride very fast, and it was fine. It was very windy out. but I let John lead and shield me from the wind.

On Sunday we decided to ride the Lone Tree Loop, that is about 40 miles long. It is much flatter, thank Jeebus, and it wasn't quite as windy. There were a lot more people riding bikes on this route. There were much fewer cars, though. Mostly, we saw motorcycles and fancy old cars that people brought out and were parading around in the lovely weather.

We gave everyone we came in contact with a very wide berth. I felt a million times better after playing outside for two days straight, but MAN, were my legs sore for a couple of days after that.

This weekend looks a little colder with rain predicted for both days, but I'll figure out a way to get out and play. It's so good for my fragile sanity.

And The Earth Died Screaming. While I Lay Dreaming

Today is the day to go over my traveling through books for the month of March, and boy howdee, do we all need a vacation through books these days.

I read seven books for the month of March. One of them was HUGE, and I switched around the order of my books, since at about the middle of the month I wanted to read escapist fiction, or "beach books".

1.) The first book I took a trip through was "The Japanese Lover" by Isabel Allende. It took me to San Francisco mostly, In a retirement community, but then flashbacked to several places. It was a about a younger woman with a lot of scars from her childhood who gets a job at a retirement community right around San Francisco, and meets an old woman there who's story she discovers. It wasn't groundbreaking fiction, but it was a nice little story and a fun vacation.

2.) The second book I traveled with was "4321", by Paul Auster. It was the VERY long book I was telling you about. It started right around WW II and went into the early 70's. It told four different stories of four men all with the same name and parents and family history, but then each boy had different things happen in their lives, to make them all different. The concept was interesting, the writing was good, but at almost 900 pages, I ended up skimming the last part of it. It was too bad, but you know how my attention span is...

3.) My third book trip was "Daisy Jones and the Six", by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I was hoping it would be a fun Summer type book, but it wasn't great. It took place in the 1970's, mostly in the LA area and it was about a band and the two lead singers in it, and their issues. I wish it had more of a feel of the 70's. These people are all being interviewed after the fact, but it would have been nice to be taken back there a little better. It definitely felt like the writer hadn't lived back then and remembered that people that age were all talking in SNL quotes, and wearing their gigantic combs in the backs of their too tight jeans pockets. Mostly, the story wasn't that great, sadly.

4.) My fourth book trip was Sally Rooney's "Normal People". I loved this novel. It took place in Ireland in the 2000's. It was about a relationship between two people from different backgrounds that evolved as they went through high school and college. The woman was from a wealthy family and had an abusive home situation that made her feel like she was a bad person (because her family kept telling her she was), and then she sought out relationships where guys treated her like crap, since she believed her family, and thought she deserved it. Boy, did that feel way too close to home. The freeing thing about reading this book, was that it reminded me of how far I've come. I kept thinking,"why is she putting up with that? Why doesn't she leave him?", but forgetting what it felt like to feel so badly about yourself, that it wouldn't occur to leave in those situations. This book trip was so liberating for me, because it made me look at myself in my twenties, and early thirties, and feel just how far I have come since then. I'm glad I've worked so hard on my shit.

5.) The fifth book I read was "Imago" by Octavia Butler. It was the third book in the trilogy. I love Octavia Butler, but this series wasn't my favorite, and I can't figure out why. I really loved the second book, mostly because it seemed more emotional with more of an actual story and characters I could feel something about. The first book was a lot of set-up, and the third book was the closure. I'm not sure if the third book was hard to read because of what's going on in the world right now, and this post-apocalypse seemed too close, or what. I think I'll have to read it again in happier times to see if that makes a difference.

6.) The sixth book I read was by another Iowa Writer's Workshop alumni, Curtis Sittenfeld. I read "American Wife". It was very loosely based on Laura Bush. It took place mostly in Wisconsin and then at the end, in DC. I really enjoyed it. I thought everything was believable and I was really into the story of it. I basiclly devoured that book in a couple of days.

7.) The last book trip I went on was written by someone who lives in Iowa City. It took me to Minnesota, but right right on the Iowa/Minnesota border. "The Current", by Tim Johnston was a detective/mystery book about two college aged women who's car goes into a creek and falls through the ice in Winter, and about another young woman who died in that same river about 10 years before. It was a sad trip, but also one that kept me up until three in the morning, trying to figure it all out.

So, I had mostly good reading vacations last month, which I'm glad for, because I REALLY needed them. I hope for the same in April. Since I'm stuck at home for the most part, I plan on traveling through my books as a necessity now.

I Want to Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin

Today I'm going to talk about how lucky I am in all of this crap...And how much luckier I am than I would have been 25 or 40 years ago.

First of all, I don't live with abusive people anymore, or even people who would drive me crazy if I had to see them and only them. I think about children and adults in abusive situations, trapped in a house with their abuser, and every trigger going off to cause that abuse. Shudder. I feel for those people and hope their lives get better very, very soon.

Secondly, I am thankful that I don't live in a big city. Some people who live in high rises can't leave their building without getting on an elevator, and being in a small space with other people. Even if they say we can't leave our yards at some point, I have a screened in porch to hang out in, a garden to work in, and I can walk right out my door without being stuck in a little box with someone who might be contagious.

The third thing I'm thankful for is that I like spending time alone in general and most of my hobbies can be done by myself or with John. Oh, also, I can, and like to cook. Having to distance myself isn't a huge hardship for me, since I live in my own little world most of the time anyway. A lot of people assume that since I'm loud and gregarious when I'm out in public, that I love to be surrounded by other people, and those people are wrong. Being social takes a lot of energy. I love my friends, but I need lots of breaks from people to recuperate, and I love my alone time. I know people who play team sports, or have other very social hobbies, and I feel badly that they can't do the things they love right now.

A friend of mine said there was an article about New Yorkers having stay in place orders and one woman was quoted as saying something like, "It's gonna be like "Little House on the Prairie", where we have to eat leftovers and make our own soup." After seeing that, I thought that I must live in "Little House on the Prairie" world all the time. I like to eat leftovers and make my own soup.

Archie is my kid bothering me while I try to work from home, but I can always shut him in a room and leave him if he's annoying, without DHS becoming actively involved in my life.

Out of the millions of other things I'm thankful for, is that as of right now, I still get to work from home. Even a year ago, we weren't set  up with skype and the technology to take phone calls from home. Now, I can hang out by myself...And with the cats, and do my damn job. Both John and I are getting paid our full paychecks, and we know how rare that is right now.

Also, the last couple of weeks it's been just me at home. I don't have a husband blaring the TV, or kids fighting while I'm trying to help someone over the phone. John said he called someone at work yesterday about an insurance claim and he could hear the woman's kids screaming in the background. Poor woman. fifteen years ago, that would have been me. We think that next week, John will start having some time off from work, and if that's the case, he's really good about keeping earbuds in while he watches Youtube videos of mountain bike races, or cyclocross races, or whatever other kinds of bicycle porn he's into. We will also probably have to give him projects to do, I can't imagine how antsy he'll be with nothing structured to do. So far, though, John and I have been doing pretty well being the only people we see for the most part. There's probably more eye rolling behind each other's backs, and some heavier and more frequent sighing than normal, but I am VERY lucky that I'm with someone I can stand to be around all day without getting stabby. Let's hope all of the good stuff in this post lasts this pandemic out.