7/20/13

Eight days till my birthday. I have most of next week off. I slept for about 12 hours last night. I think I am more exhausted as a result of my summer schedule as opposed to the regular school year. I'm enjoying our heat wave. In all of my years living in Rhode Island, I have never felt the ocean as warm as it was on Wednesday. If I wanted bath water, I guess I'd move down south. Even our pool is at 95 degrees. That's more than the temp of a therapeutic pool. I'm trying to get through From a Buick 8 by Stephen King. Not his best. My least favorite book of his, I suspect. Or maybe I'm just not as into it after reading 11/23/63 and Under the Dome...both books I finished in about 2 days. Bag of Bones was my favorite, followed closely by Tommyknockers. It is chilling to realize he started writing the book (Buick) right before he was almost killed in a car/pedestrian accident...he being the pedestrian. A classic life imitating art imitating life conundrum. I just finished JK Rowling's A Casual Vacancy. It took about 100 pages for me to get into it simply because there were so many characters, and it took at least that many pages to get to know them and want to stick with them till the end of the story. I also feel like she would throw in some random vulgarity to remind readers that this was not your Harry Potter and for someone who professed to want this book to NOT be compared to Harry Potter, I think she was better off letting readers get lost in the story and not constantly remind them of what she didn't want us to do. She could have possibly benefited from a better editor. All in all, it makes you wonder why some authors can go on and create wonderful stories and characters time and time again (Stephen King) to great reviews and some who seem to struggle after their "swan song"...then again, Stephen King didn't create Harry Potter.

7/8/13

Well last week was a blur. I'm almost ready for the more tranquil days of early fall. Empty beaches, water warmed by the heat of the summer and glorious sunsets. I enjoyed six days off from work. I don't think I've driven anywhere since last Tuesday! I'm not really a stay cation kind of person. I do love a long weekend at home but anything longer than that and I begin feeling a bit bored and resentful and a whole list of other thoughts and feelings that being busy at work keeps at bay. My house is freezing. I have to go outside to warm up. I think I'm colder in the summer than winter with all the ACs running everywhere I go. I love the heat. The hotter the better. I love hot and humid weather. It feels like you're always covered with a nice warm blanket. We had quite a few friends and family over for the 4th. It was a lot of fun but I was glad to have the quiet back when everyone left. We had a cookout, fire, fireworks, lots and lots of alcohol, swimming in the pool and some good laughs. Next Monday is Hayley's birthday but it is also the middle of July!!! Crazy to realize that.