reading modes

A quiet weekend (yay!).

I did a lot of reading, finished off Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier. LOVED this book. It's roughly based on the Hans Christian Anderson tale of The Wild Swans. I'm eagerly awaiting the next two books in the trilogy.

There's something enormously satisfying about reading a completely engrossing book for hours (ideally in one sitting). I'm not sure what other reading experiences are like, but I have different reading modes:

Info-gathering: When I'm reading a book purely for reference information, I tend to scan pretty quickly, skipping to bits that are directly relevant to what I'm looking for.

"Popcorn" novels/beach reads: These are paperbacks I get to read for distraction and that don't need a lot of focus, perfect for reading on the airplane or on the subway (and in the bathtub!). I tend to read these pretty quickly.

Average reads: These are books that I enjoy all right, but are not totally engrossing, so I'm easily distracted. These take me a loooooooong time to read because I tend to read them in bits and starts.

"I'd like to own this in hardcover" books: I always hope to find this type of story. It's the kind you can't bear to put down, where you can lose yourself for hours without noticing the time (sometimes burning dinner or missing appointments as a result), stories so well-written and engaging that you actually begin to slow down near the end of the book because you know that it might be a long time before you can find a book that you enjoy as much for the first time.



Jeff and I went for brunch with Parki yesterday morning, hung out at his place afterward. I fell asleep again in the armchair (did I tell you that Parki owns the most comfortable armchair in the entire world?) while Parki and Jeff talked. I don't usually get that attached to furniture.

Jeff wasn't feeling well, so stayed home while I went to my sister's for dinner. To all parents: do your young children ever come out with bizarre questions or observations completely without warning? Annie tends to do that a lot. In the middle of the evening, she suddenly announced excitedly, "HEY! My heart is beating!" She went to each of us so we could put our hand on her small chest to prove it. And you know what? Suddenly the fact that Annie's heart was beating DID seem pretty exciting to me. As I felt her chest's rapid "bappity-bap bappity-bap" (she had been running around the circuit of the house with Sara), I thought about the fact that five years ago, she didn't exist. Then she was just a lump in Ruth's stomach, and then I saw her actually being born. And here she was, grinning up at me proudly, holding my hand to her chest so I could feel her heart beating.

Keeps me from getting too jaded about life, it does. :-)





Today's Blatherpic:
My friend Bryan Fullerton celebrated his birthday the Friday of Consonance weekend. Because I was in California, I wasn't able to attend, but sent my present along with Jeff to give to Bryan. My gift was a stuffed gorilla wearing white shorts covered with red lipstick marks, and some chocolate. I put these items in a wonderfully garish Teletubby gift bag which Bryan had to carry home. >:-)

ago

Filk community news

New additions to The Dandelion Report (filking.net): New columns by Allison Durno and Bill Sutton. Allison's is called "FILK FORTE" and is a regular reader survey. Bill's column is "Another QuarterNote Header From Bill Sutton", and will offer opinions on topics regarding music in general and filk in particular.

Greg McMullan and Maya Corbin are engaged. The wedding will take place near Boston on October 6th. Many congrats and good wishes, Greg and Maya!

Eli Goldberg reports that Christine Lavin's Webmaster just posted the lyrics to Bob Kanefsky's parody, "Santa Monica Ballooning", on the site.

Frolicks with nieces

Jeff and I took Annie and Sara to the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) yesterday. Even though Ruth had told us that the gallery was hosting some March Break activities especially for children, I figured we'd be spending most of our time looking at paintings (and was wondering how many minutes it would take for Annie and Sara to get bored).



I didn't have to worry. In fact, I estimate that we saw less than 10% of the activities and special workshops that the AGO had for kids this past week. Activities included wall magnet collages, building block sculptures, painting, making flowers, drawing with markers on slides and looking at your artwork on a projector, playing dress-up (they had an amazing assortment of costumes), creating creatures out of coloured styrofoam shapes, making sailboats out of empty Tetrapacks and scraps of coloured paper, string, and foil.

Speaking of Tetrapacks, someone at the AGO must have connections with the company that makes Tetrapacks. There were Tetrapacks everywhere. Some guy even built a CN tower out of them! They had a little ceremony when he put the top on the tower.




After lunch, we wandered a bit through the galleries. Sara took us to her favourite areas: the Food section (modern art, with a giant hamburger in the middle of the room), the sculpture section, section with the story painting. The latter was the most interesting experience...Sara obviously had a favourite painting in this area. She pointed out a rather sombre painting, and spent the next five minutes telling us the story behind it. As she talked, I realized the story was about the "Judgement of Solomon", and that Sara was doing a pretty darned good job outlining all the important story details. When I got back, I looked up the story online:

"Judgement of Solomon", from 1 Kings III, v. 16 ff: Two harlots came to King Solomon disputing about the rightful mother of a child. One claimed that her own baby had been swapped for the other's dead baby during the night and this was denied by the other. The king asked for a sword to be brought and said "Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other". The rightful mother of the child pleaded that the child's life should be spared and given to the other mother. The dishonest mother said "Let it be neither mine or thine, but divide it". On hearing this Solomon instructed that the child should be given to the woman who wanted the child to live - saying "She is the mother thereof".

She left out the part about the women being harlots, so I'm hopefully assuming she didn't know that bit of the story. I also couldn't help but notice that a few adults looking at nearby paintings edged surreptitiously closer as Sara described the story behind the picture.

Just before we left the AGO, Jeff bought both girls a small rubber duck that caught their fancy in the store (don't ask me what rubber ducks are doing at the Art Gallery of Ontario). Annie named hers "Looking". Jeff asked why she picked that name, and she replied, "Because it's always looking at me!".

Went out with Brian and Bryan in the evening...we had dinner at Terroni's, the best pizza restaurant in Toronto. Came back and watched "Triumph of the Nerds" on video. I know, I know...it sounds very cheesy, but it was actually a highly entertaining and interesting documentary about the history of personal computers, with a focus on the personalities rather than the technology.

They all mocked me unmercifully for starting up another online community even though I'm supposedly on sabbatical.










Today's Blatherpics:

Annie and I dressing up at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

CN Tower built from Tetrapaks.

A giant craft room at the AGO, one of the many special features being offered during the March Break. Each table had a different type of craft and/or demonstration, manned by several volunteers.

Larkin and Brittany this morning at Marche, where we had brunch with Jeff's dad-in-law.

ut practice

Hey, my book actually seems to be doing okay at Amazon.com. It's ranked 14,371 in sales, and an average customer ranking of 5 out of 5 stars.

Paul Kwinn has a Consonance Report online. I've added this link to the sidebar with other Consonance report links.

"The Lady" is being featured at MP3.com's World Folk section right now!

I got together with Allison and Jodi last night. We went through the Titanic song we heard Joey do at Consonance (we might do this as a one-shot at FKO, we'll see), and I also taught them a new song I wrote this past week. I hadn't written anything in a looooooong time, so it felt good to be able to get one done. When I write songs, I generally have to set myself an assignment; I don't do well if I just sit there with a guitar, waiting for inspiration. I tend therefore to tell myself, "Okay, you must write a song about XXXXX" and then DO it.

Anyway, we plan to do both new songs at FKO. I'll be staying at the hotel from Thursday through until Monday, by the way.

Jeff and I are taking Sara and Annie to the Art Gallery of Ontario this morning. Apparently there are March break kids' activities there, so it should be fun.

Today's Blatherpics:
Consonance photo. I took this by holding out my camera in front of Allison and Jodi and quickly clicking the picture before they can hide their faces (or knock the camera out of my hands). :-)

snatch

Reid and Luisa came downtown to visit last night. We had dinner at Babur, an Indian restaurant on Queen Street. I love Indian food, especially Naan. We ordered a bunch of dishes, rice, Naan, and then shared everything. Everyone's favourite was the mango chicken. After dinner, we strolled down to Milestones for dessert. I had peppermint tea and a white chocolate caramel brownie thingy. Yummmmmmm....

After dessert, we went next door to the Paramount and saw "Snatch". Wow, really good movie. I'm not usually great with violent movies (and this movie had a lot of violence!), but Snatch managed to pull it off with great style and humour.

It was a good evening, very relaxing and fun. We've known Reid and Luisa for ages. (Pause as Debbie does some idle calculating.) Yikes. It's been twenty years since we all met. TWENTY YEARS. When I was a kid, I remember twenty years being an impossibly huge amount of time. Then again, time was slower back then.

Anyway, there's a certain comfort in knowing someone that long. The awkward polite stage is over with, as is the need for smalltalk (did I tell you how much I -hate- meaningless smalltalk?) and second-guessing. There is also a huge benefit to the fact that all four of us are equally good friends and have similar interests.

Last night reminded me a bit of our old days in university, probably because it wasn't particularly planned out in detail. We only decided on the restaurant after we started walking, and going somewhere else for dessert and then the movie were decisions made during the course of the evening, one flowing naturally into the other. We don't always have the luxury of doing this, of course, but I'm realizing that I haven't been doing enough. I've always tended to try to stuff too many tasks and events into each day, and inevitably feel disappointed by the end at the number of things I haven't checked off on my to do list.



Jeff and I have both been living in a constant "interrupt state" in recent years. It's reached the point where I'm unable to read a book for more than an hour at a time without getting restless and thinking about some worrying task that needs attention. We talked about this last night, and Reid asked whether we thought this state was more of a result of today's society, or more of our chosen lifestyle. I'm sure both are factors, but I suspect the latter is more of the culprit. I hate being like this; I used to love being able to spend the occasional entire day just reading, only getting up for bathroom breaks and to eat.

Which is one of the reasons that Jeff and I are both taking a sabbatical for the next few months, after we each tie up some loose ends. For me, this is finishing reorganizing my office and catching up on my finances. My taxes for last year are going to be hellish (I was a sole entrepreneur, director of a corporation, and an employee, all within one calendar year, plus I sold my business and worked in the U.S. for six months). We'll be spending a lot of time at the cottage, going on canoe trips and hiking trips, spending more time with each other. Maybe it's a mid-life thing, maybe it's because we're both making major work changes right now...but we've both agreed that it's time to slow our lives down somewhat. I'm burned out from my experience with the corporate world, and am mightily looking forward to getting back to my own writing fulltime this fall.

The trickiest part, as I've mentioned before, is resisting the urge to take on new deadline-oriented projects before the fall. You all have permission to yell at me if you notice me forgetting this. And no, my comic and The Dandelion Report and my harp resource site don't count...they're just Fun Hobbies, after all. ;-)

Today's Blatherpics:

Reid and Luisa last night, at Milestone's.

Brian and Jeff.

flatmouse

Many thanks to Jodi for setting up an MP3 site for Urban Tapestry!

Sara and Annie came over yesterday morning to watch the Iron Giant on DVD. Annie asked Jeff to hide our blue wooden dog (see Andrea's photo page) because it scares her. Whilst wandering around our apartment, our nieces also found one of Jeff's childhood toys, Flatmouse. Flatmouse is, well, a flat mouse. Annie asked Uncle Jeff if a truck had run over his mouse, but he told her that the mouse came that way.

And heck, while I'm on the subject of cute, embarrassing stories about Jeff, I might as well tell you about the time he got a pussy willow stuck up his nose as a child, and his mother had to take him to the emergency ward at the hospital to get it removed. She kept the pussy willow, and has considered getting it bronzed for me since I find the story so highly amusing. :-)

Today's Blatherpics:

Jodi and me at the Chicago airport, on the way home from Consonance.

Flatmouse, Jeff's favourite childhood toy.