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| A Lost Lady |
 A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
My review
rating: 3 of 5 stars
This novel challenges the concept of 'ideal,' more particularly, an ideal woman. Eastern gentility and refinement are seen as fronts for 'real' human motivations like despair and survival and greed. And yet, the main character still seems enamored by Eastern gentility and education and he leads a respectable, if boring, life. He seems torn by the principles of the East and his home in the West. And in the end that friction remains in the reader as well.
View all my reviews.Labels: I Read |
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| Mormon Country |
 Mormon Country by Wallace Stegner
My review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
Mormon Country is not history, per se. But it's not fiction either. I think it pre-dated the 'creative non-fiction' title that seems so popular now. It reads like a series of short stories and it happens to be about a group of people and a landscape that I care deeply about. I loved the breadth of the writing if not the depth. I also loved the hearty assessment of a people from an outsider, but without the anger or resentment that comes from being an 'other.'
View all my reviews.
Labels: I Read |
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| To-Do List |
1. drop off Bam Bam's Poo to Gastro
2. buy chocolate bar with ganze hasselnusse.
Irony?Labels: Nummy |
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| Goodbye, Hello |
 Goodbye little ones. I wish I could say that I want you here under my wings, and my feet, and my protection, always. But I don't. I'm thrilled to see you walk to school, to the bus, to the playground. I love to watch you find shoes, find friends. And I'm honored to be the one to wave goodbye from the porch, counting the seconds until the moment you return.
much love,
MamaLabels: Mamaesthetics |
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| Never. Forget. |
Bam Bam loves to give compliments. Bam Bam loves to use potty words. So, one of the highest compliments he can give is when he says, "You're the pee-ist ever I seen."
It slays me.Labels: The World According to Bam Bam |
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| He gets it |
| Hubby slumped on the couch after the boys were in bed last night. His eyes were red after many hours of making breakfast, lunch, and dinner for us all (and then cleaning it up), grabbing new underwear for littlest brother, fulfilling church duties, managing in-the-night visits by kids needing to potty, etc... He turns his head towards me and says, "I don't know how you do it. I'm barely keeping people fed, the three baskets of laundry that you folded last week are still sitting in the boys' bedroom, the house looks like s*#@ and I have spent ALL DAY LONG in the kitchen. I didn't get the bathroom cleaned yesterday and I'm exhausted. " We both started to laugh, me from my queenly place on the couch where I've been relegated for three days, him on the love seat scrunched between my books and crutches. "I'm always grateful when I come and the house feels organized. But, now I realize just what a miracle it is." Indeed. Indeed. Labels: love actually |
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| Quote of the Day |
'While the astronauts, heroes forever, spent mere hours on the moon, I have remained in this new world for nearly thirty years. I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination.'
--Jhumpa Lahiri, From 'The Third and Final Commandment' in her book of short stores, 'Interpreter of Maladies.' |
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| I've got Soul but I'm not a Soldier |
Hubby is listening to his playlist while doing dishes, singing along in perfect pitch, sexy as hell. As always. I stop on the landing, arms loaded with laundry and listen, enchanted, to his edgy tenor. Cold Play's electric guitar slowly fades and I hear something more acoustic come on, laced with a lilting beat. A steel guitar starts to play. My knees get weak as I hear, "I left out'a Tucson with no destination...." He matches George's baritone and continues to sing almost every word of the verse. I drop the laundry, descend to the kitchen and watch him, smiling a victorious grin. He turns, innocent but not ashamed, and says, "I love this song."
"So do I."Labels: and then.... |
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| You know how long I've loved you |
It only took an hour and a half to give the medical history.
Yeah.
I'm impressed with the doctors here but it's just so painful to get an appointment/work with the auxiliary staff because of the whole LANGUAGE BARRIER issue. You know, the one where I speak a different language than they do? And neither of us are THAT good at the other person's language of choice? I've been terrified of making the appointment and then, even worse, going to it.
Why?
Because Bam Bam is on the border of being diagnosed with any number of conditions and this doctor wanted to doubt his previous diagnosis (you know, the ones that have revolutionized our lives for the better and worse over the last couple of years? Yeah, those ones). And although I trust our previous docs and his previous diagnosis, I know, have always known, that none of his tests have been 100% conclusive (because of a thousand different factors, I won't bore you. I'm sure you don't want the 90 minute medical history). And because he's not gaining weight, we're now headed for more. More tests. More specialists. More uncertainty.
Frankly, I didn't handle this process that well when we lived in a country where I could communicate with the staff. When I didn't have to pay for everything out of pocket first and then get it reimbursed at out-of-country rates later.
They took 10 vials of blood today. And a urine sample. They want a stool sample. I have to go back in a month. With a detailed description (with weights in METRIC) of his diet. She wants more allergy tests. And to rethink his diet. Potentially change his diet and test him again for Celiac. Somehow figure out if we need to cut out milk. I trust her enough to follow through with what she wants. But I feel like we're starting over. Again. Didn't we just go through this?
Of course I'll do anything to see if he will gain weight and look like a four-year-old instead of a really intelligent two-year-old. Of course I'll go to any expense to get him the best care. But sometimes my will doesn't match my desires. And my desires don't match my heart. And my heart is just. plain. confused. |
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Name: Reluctant Nomad
Home: Austria
About Me: I photograph banal subjects to remind myself of the beauty in everyday life. I have two little boys who love me even when I'm crazy and a hubby who loves me in spite of it.
See my profile...
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Brushes by Gvalkyrie
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posted by Reluctant Nomad at 
