Sunday, October 16, 2016

Life: It Goes On - October 16

I can hardly stand it any longer. I need this election to be over soon. Every day I feel like a weight it sitting on me. I'm so tired of people spewing hatred against those who don't have the same opinion, those who believe that the other side is a bunch of stupid people for being what they believe. And all of the lies are just mind boggling - and once they're out there, it's all but impossible to get people to believe the truth. I'm afraid this election may have caused a divide in our country that won't be healed. What happened to the idea of compromise? Working together for the good of the country? Sigh.

This Week I'm:

Listening To: I've got about one more week of West of Sunset and really enjoying it a lot. I've also managed to listen to several podcasts while working out this week, including an episode of Best of the Left and Slate's Audio Book Club's discussion of Emma Cline's The Girls. It really put in words the issues I had with the book even though I was drawn in by it.

Watching: Given that my response to this prompt varies so little, I'm not sure why I still have it. I'd like to tell you I was able to get The Big Guy to look at Netflix for something good to watch but I wasn't. Yet another sigh.

Reading: Beside what you see on the right, I'm reading Megan Abbott's You Will Know Me. It's not my usual read and, while it's interesting, it's a slow build. I've heard good things about it, though, so I'll keep at it.

Making: Chicken and noodles, chili, peanut butter cookies. I was out of butter and resorted to the worst-case-scenario margarine BG bought because it was cheap. That will not happen again.

Planning: An attack on my office this week. Every time I think I'm going to tackle this project, something else comes up so it's still too scary for words.

Thinking About: See above.

Enjoying: Happy hour with girlfriends. Two of them just got back from three weeks in Italy and France and we had so much time hearing about their trip. As if I didn't already long to get to Italy some day!

Feeling: Pleased with myself. I went back to my folks' this weekend and finished the rock garden we'd started a couple of weeks ago. I hefted out landscaping stones and lugged rocks around. My back is reminding me I should have lifted more with my knees, but it was worth it. I can't wait to see it in the spring when the pots are full of flowers and everything green is lush.

Looking forward to: Book club this week. We'll be discussing Anna Quindlen's  Miller's Valley. I read it so long ago, I hope I can remember the details to discuss it because, as you may remember it, I loved it. 

Question of the week: I'm getting ready to start putting together a list of books for the first six months of next year for my book club. If you belong to a book club, what books has your club read that made for the best discussion? If you're not, what books have you read lately that you've longed to talk to someone else about?




5 comments:

  1. This election is weighing heavily on me. The negativity, lies, racially charged rhetoric, all have me increasingly stressed and depressed. At this point I wish we could vote right now and get it over with. This is something I never want to witness again. Hoping this country can hit the reset button after this election.

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  2. This election has made me a nervous wreck. I was already having problems with handling the stress in my life, and this election - and the vitriol it has allowed people to spew - has only made things worse. I already voted, so I have no need to keep paying attention to the news. Yet, you cannot get away from it as it is everywhere. I don't see this going away after the election either. This brought up way too many cracks to the surface that we either have to repair or find a way to bridge, and I am not certain if either candidate will be able to do that.

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  3. Which came out on top, in the opinion of your girlfriends? Italy or France?

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  4. Second-rate margarine?? The horror.

    The election. Something happened. I never got my vote my mail app, nor did my son. My husband got his so now I am not sure what to do. Print one out and hope that it gets processed or just go to the polls? If I send it in and then it never comes I am screwed.

    I have a book club but although some books have been good for discussion I didn't like them all that much so I feel weird recommending them. The House Girl by Tara Conklin was a great discussion and I was one of the few who didn't care for it. Ghettoside was a great discussion but it's Los Angeles crime. Not sure it would interest you.

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  5. The rock garden will look good in the Springtime. I'm looking forward to joining a new book group and hoping I can have some input in the choice of what we read in the future. I would like to talk about any of Kate Atkinson's novels. I wish I had read beforehand the latest novels of those who came to speak at the lit fest Readers'Day as the authors were happy to have a discussion about their writing. I've reserved the novels from the library and look forward to reading them now that I have insight into how they were created.

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