Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts

Wednesday, also knows as "IAmTiredandWishitWasTheEndOfTheWeek-Day." Just me?

I just started Rachel Kushner’s The Mars Room and am really enjoying it so far. I know it’s nitpicky, but, as a California Central Valley girl, it slightly annoys me that her fictional prison set in that location is actually named after one in Southern California.

Speaking of being annoyed by small things, I started listening to Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. I have to come the conclusion that since having Sawyer, I really have done a good job of prioritizing what I truly care and don’t care about. I don’t actually, for real, let things like the above comment bother me. I don’t freak out if someone doesn’t use their blinker, if a colleague does something differently than I would, or if someone doesn’t answer my texts for a few days. Sure, there are blips along the way, like when I get annoyed at Target for not carrying something they should or when my students don’t underline the title of a book (HOW HARD IS IT????). But as a whole, I really feel good about what I let bother me. It’s still a funny book, though, and does have some really interesting perspectives on coping with life’s obstacles.

Sawyer has speech for fifty minutes every Friday afternoon and I am actually, strangely, really enjoying it (except the cost, but that’s not something up for debate). It’s fifty minutes I can sit in one spot and read or cross stitch and not have to talk to anyone or get up and do chores or help anyone out. The fact that it’s at the end of the week, during a time slot we never have anything going on, makes it even easier to digest. He really loves going and is really receptive to the practice she’s giving us at home (so far), so I’m feeling good about the arrangement.

You should go read this post, which Cely, a blogger I’ve read for years and years, bravely wrote. I think it's really important to remember that women in all walks of life or sexually assaulted and it's hard to come forward at any point. I'm glad conversations are happening, but it's still frustrating that our own government does want to protect women. 

I have been loving the “screen time” function after writing that I was excited that it was added to the iOS last week. I have already consciously made more of an effort to not mindlessly pickup my phone have seen a decrease in usage correspond to increased productivity (I read while drinking my coffee, for example, as opposed to mindless phone scrolling).

I feel like I’ve hit sort of writer’s block when it comes to posts lately. It’s funny how ideas come in starts and stops, at least when it comes to reading and books. I think one of my biggest problems is that, even after all of these years, I don’t really consider the blog as I am reading. After I’m done with something I’ll want to write about it, but I feel discouraged by the fact I didn’t take notes while I read or tab pages. Clarice Lispector’s The Hour of the Star is the perfect example. She did such creative things with her narrative structure, yet while I was reading I didn’t read like a blogger or student; I read like someone who was reading for fun. I also need to be better about jotting down ideas for posts and being more willing to write about non-bookish things as well.

I saw that Roxane Gay was doing a class on Skillshare about personal essay writing and I’m really thinking about doing the free trial to check it out. I have no ambition to write my own memoir or anything like that (you’re welcome, world), but I think it would be awesome to learn from her as a writer in general. There's a few Master Classes that I would love to do too, but that subscription is pretty pricy, and has to be paid all at once (but having Margaret Atwood "teach you" about writing? So tempting!).  

This weekend my brother and I are taking Sawyer to a corn maze and then Sunday I am running a 10k in Huntington Beach. I already have no expectations for this run, which is disappointing, since as of a month or two ago I was feeling good about it. Since then I have had a lingering cold that is just now resolved, needed to take a few days off for my tattoo to heal, and am having some major issues with the ankle that has an extra bone (the pain has started radiating past the bone itself and is now burning as well as aching, which is a super fun addition!!!!!). But still, at the end of the day, it’s an opportunity to get some exercise on the beach and if I have to walk, I can listen to a podcast and still enjoy the time. It might rain, though, and if it does I might skip the thing all together. We’ll see.

Fingers crossing this weekend speeds up!