Nothing of much excitement going on here. I have just been working, sleeping, eating, exercising, reading, watching, listening... you know, the usual. Also, I have been feeling much better lately. I imagine the Cymbalta must be working. After a little while, the nausea stopped, and then I eventually increased the dosage to 60 mg, as instructed by my doctor, and that was that.

I have enjoyed reading two books since the spring semester ended. It took me a while to get into Pride and Prejudice, but once I did, I found myself wanting to keep going to find out what would happen. I mean, I knew Elizabeth Bennet would marry Darcy, but I wanted to find out how it would come to be. The other book I read was Digging to America by Anne Tyler, and I was immediately enthralled by it. I read it in about three days. The characters and situations are SO real, and the main character makes an important and believable change in her life by the end of it. Digging to America is one of the best books I have read in a long time.

I am currently reading Victory by Joseph Conrad. Monique has said that she hates Joseph Conrad, but this was after reading Lord Jim and I have a hunch Victory might be better. Also, I am determined to read it because when I was a miserably unhappy high school junior, I took a class called The Modern British Novel and this book was one that was assigned that I didn't read. I mean I guess I must have read some of it, because I passed the class, but I was a master bullshitter and was able to pull off Bs and Cs back then while doing a minimum of work. Anyway, I want to read it now in the spirit of completion. The other books in the class (which I also didn't read) were Brideshead Revisited, Where Angels Fear to Tread and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I have since read Brideshead and Angels, but I guess I will need to complete Portrait at some point. Anyway, so far Victory is fairly good, definitely well written. I can't remember if there were other books assigned in the class, but it occurs to me that it seems a very sexist selection. I mean, there were female modern British novelists too, right?

Today Sweetie and I went out for brunch at It's Only Natural. Sweetie loves going out to breakfast and now that he is eating vegan, his choices are limited so he really wanted to try this. I told him as long as I had time to prepare mentally for leaving the house on Sunday, which is traditionally my "sanctuary" day, I would go with him. So we went. I had a cafe au lait and the strawberry pancakes which were served with scrambled tofu and homefries. Sweetie had acai juice and the scrambled tofu breakfast which was served with broccoli with vegan hollandaise sauce, grilled bread and homefries. As usual, our meals were delicious if a bit pricey. I filled out the survey that came with the check which asked if we would still go there if they moved to New Haven, and although I didn't say "we'd cry" as Laura did, I wrote that we would go much less often. They also asked where we would like them to move and I wrote "Hartford or thereabouts" or that they could stay in Middletown. I don't want my favorite restaurant to move farther away!

Reading: Digging to America by Anne Tyler
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Victory by Joseph Conrad

Watching: Serenity (2005) starring Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres et al.
The Looney Toons Golden Collection.
The West Wing, Season Three.
The Control Room (2005) An excellent documentary about Al Jazeera and the war in Iraq.
All in the Family, Season One.

Labels: food, reading, the blues

posted by Miss Rachel 7/22/2007 02:16:00 PM

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