16 posts from September 2009

Then and now

Sep 29, 2009
2 comments

So I was trolling around online and discovered this old photo of our street from 1948. It looked so familiar: I looked out the window. It's the view from my front balcony...cool!

The trees are much bigger, but it's definitely the same place...the pic taken this afternoon shows the street all ripped up: still continuing with the construction....since 1948, they've widened the street and it's no longer a two way (it's been one way southbound since the early 80s).

So amazing that so little has changed, really. And in 60 years, I think about all the people who have lived in these places, all the experiences which happened inside....

Pretty interesting.

Christophe-Colomb, 1948

Christophe-Colomb, 2009

Re-reads are a thrill...

Sep 28, 2009
3 comments

Like this book I am reading again: Donna Tartt's The Secret History. I can't remember who recommended it to me originally, but I read it in probably 1993 or 1994, just before I finished university (it had only been out a year or so when I read it). And it is one of those books that has stayed with me all these years. Funny how I can pick up a book and get halfway through it before realizing I must have read it years ago. Nearly every bit of it is gone.

But this book I remember countless details about, I remember intricate scenes, long sections of conversations, though it's been 15 years since I read it. Why has so much of it stayed with me? I remember the tensions in it, between a poor small town kid from the west, trying to deal with upper class Northeasterners. I remember the allusions to Greek myth which run through it, the complex notions of friendship and betrayal.

I look at it slightly differently than when I was 22. The characters seem a bit clunky in parts, the set-up slightly hard to swallow now and then. It seems slightly dated (of that whole Brett Easton Ellis, late 80s/early 90s, literary savants scene). But I can't put it down. It's just a good story, plain and simple, and I reflect back about being so young and reading it (in a small town in Idaho), having no idea that one day I would just a hundred miles from where most of the action takes place (upstate Vermont) in an area I know pretty well (now). So strange to think that--the places life takes you!

I highly recommend this book to anyone who's not read it.

The Secret History

Donna Tartt

Dinner

Sep 27, 2009
1 comment

1 comment

Oh I can so relate to this.

Sep 25, 2009
Post a comment

French & Saunders - Computer Trouble

Update....

Sep 24, 2009
Post a comment

Construction on our street for 10 days now. SO annoying. First they ripped up the area along the curb on both sides to replace the water mains. It seemed that they were nearly done, but suddenly this morning, they are out there with the jackhammer again, taking up large chunks all the way down the middle of the street.

Not bad besides the jackhammering: it means no cars, no parking, no honking. Kids play ball with dogs in the street in the evenings after work is done for the day. It's not a terribly busy street, but definitely a minor Plateau artery, so the only annoying thing so far is the noise (at 8am, thanks a lot!).

I am amazed that Masa's brother is enjoying himself. When Masa is here, it's fine, but when Masa is at work, he just studies English or tries cooking various dishes (he's starting a job next week, cooking at a local Japanese restaurant). But how small his world must feel here: he obviously doesn't speak French, he speaks minimal English, so Masa (and Masa's Japanese friends) are about the only people he can talk to. He can't watch TV. But he seems to be doing fine...

Camera is broken. But too many other things we need to think about replacing it. Also, the week after next I have a week off. PAID. It's been years since I had a paid vacation (since China, actually). Unfortunately, since we still need a big armchair, a dining room table, a few rugs, etc., I really shouldn't spend the money. I am SO tempted to just book a trip to Rome or Paris for a week, just to get away (Masa and his brother would have to stay home). But. Maybe I'll just zip down to Vermont for a few days, save myself $1500. Which I can use on so much other stuff...and I can't believe I am saying that. Anyway, we are (tentatively) planning a big trip for the spring...

Fall is here. The leaves outside the front balcony and the trees on the mountain are starting to change, little bits of rusty dark green and an occasional orange splotch. In another two weeks, there'll be piles of leaves all over the sidewalk and all the trees will begin to get naked...

spring view (the street is empty now and all ripped up)

Two writers, very different.

Sep 22, 2009
1 comment

Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You: 13 Stories

Alice Munro

Reading nearly non-stop the last several days: even during the day, I take frequent breaks and sit down and read for 15 or 20 minutes.

Yesterday and today I read nearly an entire collection of Alice Munro short stories. They are beautiful: easy to read, easy to relate to, engaging, funny.

One of the pleasures of moving is discovering books that have been up on shelves for years that you have forgotten about. The Alice Munro collection was one I must have picked up on a whim somewhere because I didn't recognize or remember where I bought it. But after this one, hoping to round up another collection or two somewhere (and I hear she has a new collection out).

Also been reading Czeslaw Milosz, who continues to be one of my favorite writers. Read The Land of Ulro over the weekend. Though it's pretty dense with essays on Blake and other Polish writers, I found it pretty easy going for the most part. He's a writer I come back to, year after year. I love his poetry, his early stuff and his later stuff I feel equally enamored by. I like his big questions wrapped up in small details: a snowstorm, a tiny lake in the mountains, a bird's cry. The Issa Valley is one of my favorite novels and I've been reading his New and Collected Poems for nearly 10 years now: I never get tired of that thick & heavy book.

Nice Sunday!

Sep 21, 2009
1 comment

We went to the mountain, the very top. It was GREAT weather.

She's trying to make an escape

Magdali, me & Ken (Masa's brother)

She spies a big sheepdog.

Masa and Magdali

The tourist shot

I wonder....

Sep 19, 2009
1 comment

why I've changed. It used to be that I loved being alone. I spent a lot of time alone. I NEEDED to be alone for a certain number of hours each week.

But now: I don't like it. I hate it when M's at work and I am in this place by myself. I don't feel lonely exactly but...I don't know. Bored. So I call people, chat with friends online, anything to avoid just being with myself. Not sure why.

I wonder if it's working from home, the fact that I face this computer for 8-10 hours a day alone and when I'm NOT working, I want activity, conversation, laughter. Maybe before when I worked in a "place" (school, etc.) there were always people around me?

Also since we've never been big TV watchers, I guess I don't know what to DO when I'm alone. I definitely don't want to get online since I am in front of this screen all the time anyway. I could read, but something seriously happens to my brain when I spend more than a few hours reading alone in the house. I get too involved in my own thoughts, I turn inward and it takes me hours to get through it, to turn myself outward again. Of course, I read a lot when M is here, but usually in 30-45 minute cycles, not for hours straight.

Luckily, I am rarely by myself. M works three shifts a week and is here almost all the time. And Ken, his brother, arrived this week and will be staying with us for a year. Between his poor English and my poor Japanese, communication takes work, but we can usually manage.

Sailing

Michiko pics

Sep 17, 2009
2 comments

IMG_7281.JPG

She's been sending these to me for years and they keep on coming: every month 5-10 of them. Nice...these are all from a recent trip she took to Hokkaido in northern Japan...