caffeine diary

books:

I finished The Night She Died and read all of Six Feet Under by Dorothy Simpson. I really like these books; they are British cozies featuring an police detective, and all the mysteries are of the small village/lots of secrets/complicated interpersonal relationships kind, very Agatha Christie (and particularly very Jane Marple; Jane Marple would solve all of these cases in basically a day, but we provide allowances for Detective Inspector Luke Thanet.) They were written in the 1980s and 1990s and are set then, which is really nice and appropriately period, and only occasionally provides confusion of the, "How did people live before Google?" variety. (When reading Christie, it's easy to put myself in that time period, but these are much closer to contemporary so I keep doing doubletakes and thinking, "Can't you just check the internets?")

I also read 1 Kings and a good bit of 2 Kings for Sunday school. I will try to finish 2 Kings, and then read Micah, which is what's next.

In terms of fiction, next up is the set of library books that I am very excited about -- there is apparently a third Bridget Jones book, there are two more books by Jincy Willett, and there is Clariel.

For many years of my life, I looked fruitlessly for Regiment of Women by Clemence Dane. A chapter was anthologized in Chloe Plus Olivia: An Anthology of Lesbian Literature from the Seventeenth Century to the Present ed. Lillian Faderman, and that chapter plus the things mentioned in the preceding biographical blurb were basically tailor-made for my burgeoning kinks. (It is not a happy story and is deeply homophobic, according to the summary, and ends with pastede on het, but!

[behind the cut for trigger warnings, because your kinks are not my kinks. (Probably internalized) homophobia and mention of suicide]

( Read more... )

Anyhow, I fruitlessly searched for many years but couldn't find it, and yesterday I suddenly remembered it -- I saw mention of "queer literary fiction" and it popped into my head -- and lo, there is is on Project Gutenberg. If we have this technology, why don't we have the technology to send it back in time to me-at-fourteen, who really wanted to read it? I suck at reading long things on my computer, and my interest in self-loathing lesbians is substantially less than it used to be, so I suspect I won't actually read it. Which is sad, because teenage!me. (and because I feel like a crossover between this and Discworld's Monstrous Regiment needs to exist.)

perfume

My BPAL 'weenie decants from synecdochic_decants arrived just in time for me to wear the first four on the correct days. Brief writeups, since heaven knows I won't manage longer ones:
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food

I usually talk about this on Culture Created Tuesday, since most of the food I eat is created by me, but we went out to eat for my birthday.

We went to Alladin Cafe. I got lentil soup ("Red lentils seasoned with saffron, curry, cumin and lemon") and lamb kabob ("Tender marinated lamb, grilled and served with cucumber yogurt sauce" and with basmati rice and sautéed vegetables). It was all quite delicious.

I also got crème brûlée from Cosentinos, which was, as aforementioned, both disappointing and inspirational.

coloring books

I am not sure where these fall on the consumed/created scale, but Elizabeth gave me a Care Bears coloring and activity book for my birthday, so the first hour of being 29 was a lot like being 5.

sports

I half-heartedly watched the by-play on mlb.com during the last game of the World Series, so I would know whether my pie was celebratory or consoling.

+++

idk, I feel like I don't know where the week went. I mean, frequently I frivol away time, but I usually at least know where it went. I guess I did a bunch of baking, and read a novel and a half, and did a bunch of personal writing, and went out to eat with my roommates, and had a long phone call with my dad last night, and these things add up.

Ack! Things need done! Apartment needs cleaned! Clothes need cleaned! Phone calls need made! CD from library must be found in the midst of disaster that is apartment/car!

Will do everything tonight! No, have meditation tonight and must get some sleep as have exciting possibly late night tomorrow. Will skip laundry for another night. Will just clean until 6 when I leave for meditation.

All right. First thing is they are powerwashing the sides of the buildings tomorrow so much get stuff off porch. Stuff off porch! Garbage put in garbage bag, chairs stacked precariously in shed!

All right, next thing.

Um.

Right then. I wonder what the internets say.

Oooh, must remember Dar concert is tomorrow! Must buy tickets, make plans with mayhap!

Right then. Will run out to car and get GPS and charge it so can get to Dar without getting lost.

Mmm. Next thing.

Uh.

I wonder what the internets say!

Have concert tickets! Right then. Cleaning.

Have gotten all bags of garbage out to car. Have filled up one additional bag with obvious recycling.

Feel kind of dizzy. Did I eat today? I did. Ate fruit for breakfast, bagel + chicken + Naked Juice for lunch. That's protein and carbs. Still, feel dizzy. Will have to go grocery shopping after meditation. Drinking juice now.

Ugh, it is too ridiculous and hot outside.

Maybe I could go over to the library before meditation and return pile of books and get more Agatha Christie, since am on kick that nothing but Christie will fulfill. Also counts as cleaning, since removes massive pile of books from couch.

*PS that would be a great fanfic, yes/no?