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serene...then I think these laundry-list posts are most of what I have in me. Eventually, you may hear from me on subjects other than me me me, but for now, me me me is what I have energy for. Today, in brief notes:
1) Heat wave continues; 90s today, should start breaking early next week. I hope all those years living the hippy life without a car or air conditioning or a TV might make up for the hippy points I am losing by running the AC in the little apartment a LOT. I'm getting old; I can't handle 105°F.
2) Still waiting on our stuff, and buying interim stuff as needed. Boughtjames_huber some pants today. That's one of those things that makes me feel like a grown-up (buying clothes for my partner, that is).
3) There's an African-food restaurant in the mall food court here! Yay! (I had eggplant in garlic sauce and fried plantains; James had his eggplant with flatbread. I also had passionfruit juice. It was yummy and cheap. It almost made up for having to go to the mall to find pants for James.)
4) We've decided that once we rip out the kitchen cabinets (which will happen after the rented dumpster arrives on Tuesday), we're not going to replace them. We're going to get a rail system at Ikea and hang everything on the walls. At least, that's the plan.
5) I'm reading James Patterson's Worst Case and not much else right now. Almost finished with the books I was reading last week, but I think they ended up in the moving pod, so I don't have them. My mom is an endless supplier of mystery novels, though, and I also accidentally stole some books on writing science fiction fromdbubley's place on Saturday. Sorry, loracs/stonebender! I'll return them!
6) We miss the Berkeley Bowl a lot, but Sprouts is a decent substitute. We'll keep an eye out for even better places to shop, but we can walk to Sprouts, when it's not a zillion degrees out, so it will probably win.
7) Went yard-saling with my mom this morning. She's getting even crankier, but she's in constant pain, so I don't blame her. Tonight, dinner with my dad. We love each other, but we aren't close, and I tend to leave his company feeling a bit inadequate, which is not about any fault in him, but mostly about how I wish I were better at relating to people.
8) James's brother and his family live about an hour away from here, but they live on a scorching hot Indian reservation, and I'm damned if I'm visiting until after the heat breaks. Besides, he forgot to take the piano bench when he took our piano, so we need to wait until that gets here with the moving stuff anyway.
9) I have a friend who has no health insurance, and I cannot let that stand. When the November 15th open-enrollment date comes around for Obamacare, I want to be in a position to pay her premiums if possible. I used to do fundraisers of this sort on Facebook, but I'm not on Facebook any more, so if you want to help, please consider donating, and I will try to figure out some other fund sources, as well. Might be able to sell some things, and I'm not above using some of my retirement money if it comes to it. My paypal address is serene at serenepages (org), or you can email that same address for a mailing address. Thanks!
10) Recommendations for the best YA (or children's, if it's excellent) fiction out there would be appreciated. Old stuff or new. Some of my faves over the years have been the Weetzie-Bat books, Un Lun Dun, Coraline...
I would love to hear how you've been lately. I've lost touch with folks as my job has eaten my life, but for now, no job = more life.
1) Heat wave continues; 90s today, should start breaking early next week. I hope all those years living the hippy life without a car or air conditioning or a TV might make up for the hippy points I am losing by running the AC in the little apartment a LOT. I'm getting old; I can't handle 105°F.
2) Still waiting on our stuff, and buying interim stuff as needed. Bought
james_huber some pants today. That's one of those things that makes me feel like a grown-up (buying clothes for my partner, that is).3) There's an African-food restaurant in the mall food court here! Yay! (I had eggplant in garlic sauce and fried plantains; James had his eggplant with flatbread. I also had passionfruit juice. It was yummy and cheap. It almost made up for having to go to the mall to find pants for James.)
4) We've decided that once we rip out the kitchen cabinets (which will happen after the rented dumpster arrives on Tuesday), we're not going to replace them. We're going to get a rail system at Ikea and hang everything on the walls. At least, that's the plan.
5) I'm reading James Patterson's Worst Case and not much else right now. Almost finished with the books I was reading last week, but I think they ended up in the moving pod, so I don't have them. My mom is an endless supplier of mystery novels, though, and I also accidentally stole some books on writing science fiction from
dbubley's place on Saturday. Sorry, loracs/stonebender! I'll return them!6) We miss the Berkeley Bowl a lot, but Sprouts is a decent substitute. We'll keep an eye out for even better places to shop, but we can walk to Sprouts, when it's not a zillion degrees out, so it will probably win.
7) Went yard-saling with my mom this morning. She's getting even crankier, but she's in constant pain, so I don't blame her. Tonight, dinner with my dad. We love each other, but we aren't close, and I tend to leave his company feeling a bit inadequate, which is not about any fault in him, but mostly about how I wish I were better at relating to people.
8) James's brother and his family live about an hour away from here, but they live on a scorching hot Indian reservation, and I'm damned if I'm visiting until after the heat breaks. Besides, he forgot to take the piano bench when he took our piano, so we need to wait until that gets here with the moving stuff anyway.
9) I have a friend who has no health insurance, and I cannot let that stand. When the November 15th open-enrollment date comes around for Obamacare, I want to be in a position to pay her premiums if possible. I used to do fundraisers of this sort on Facebook, but I'm not on Facebook any more, so if you want to help, please consider donating, and I will try to figure out some other fund sources, as well. Might be able to sell some things, and I'm not above using some of my retirement money if it comes to it. My paypal address is serene at serenepages (org), or you can email that same address for a mailing address. Thanks!
10) Recommendations for the best YA (or children's, if it's excellent) fiction out there would be appreciated. Old stuff or new. Some of my faves over the years have been the Weetzie-Bat books, Un Lun Dun, Coraline...
I would love to hear how you've been lately. I've lost touch with folks as my job has eaten my life, but for now, no job = more life.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-04 09:33 pm (UTC)Dangerous, Sharon Hale. SF/Superhero tale with a protagonist who is both Latina and a congenital arm amputee. Clearly YA fiction has turned a lot more complex and willing to explore darker areas since I last read it as it opens with our heroine reflecting there's only two of them left out of five, and she really doesn't want to have to kill again....
The Fault in Our Stars,John Green is a more conventional setting, but again darker themes as all the YA characters have cancer - I deliberately stopped reading this halfway as it was intersecting too much with something I was writing, but that's a one-off issue, not a problem with the book, I'll go back to it when I'm happy my own ideas have gelled enough not to be affected as the writing and characterization is excellent.
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Date: 2014-10-04 09:49 pm (UTC)Adding you back. :)
-J
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Date: 2014-10-04 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-04 10:17 pm (UTC)Hi back (waves)
Date: 2014-10-05 09:03 pm (UTC)I'm good. Just back from a lovely, but more-stressful-than-I-would-have-liked vacation in Italy. Trying to get re-acclimated to my life.
Hugs,
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Date: 2014-10-05 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-06 12:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-06 02:52 pm (UTC)Re: Hi back (waves)
Date: 2014-10-06 02:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-08 09:41 am (UTC)Hooray African food!
So glad your pal without insurance has you in her life, because you're a great friend! But angry, too - you should not have to be a great friend in this particular way. Will send along a donation.
Gail Carriger's YA stuff is so fun - steampunky, banter-y books about a girls' boarding school for budding superspies (the corresponding boys' one is for evil geniuses). I love her adult series, the Parasol Protectorate, even more.
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Date: 2014-10-11 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-11 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-11 02:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-12 03:40 pm (UTC)On the older end of YA, I am more and more impressed with the Hunger Games trilogy as time goes on. Ursula Vernon's got a long children's series about Danny Dragonbreath, which I have not yet read but which I expect wonderful things of based on the author and the reviews. Have you read Cat Valente's Fairyland books? They are rather like Un Lun Dun.
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Date: 2014-12-12 06:47 am (UTC)http://www.buzzfeed.com/about/jobs?gh_jid=38782