New Year, New Commitment to Blogging (?)

I am pathetically awful at updating my blog, apparently. I opened blogger up today, just to see, and thought to myself, "August? Seriously?" Needless to say, it's been a while.

We bought a house. We moved in. We bought a lot of Ikea furniture. We put it together. (I know what you're thinking, but I totally helped!) Then we were inundated with family members for Christmas. A brief photo history of the holidays follows:


The Christmas tree I picked out in five minutes, then had to drag out of the back of the little Honda by myself. It sat propped up on the front steps until Lisa got home from work. It's still up, at least until Epiphany. The furniture (minus the bookcase, which we got at Target and put together) was my grandparent's. I sat on that couch every Christmas afternoon for most of my life.

Not-so-subtle indoctrination of the sister continues apace. She liked her sweatshirt! She also liked the ribbon, which she wore on her head most of the day.


The view of our back yard from the kitchen window on New Year's Eve. We got more snow yesterday, so it still pretty much looks like that, except with blue sky. It's gorgeous, really. I'm sitting at the kitchen table so I can enjoy it. I love living here.

New Year's Eve fireworks in Northampton. I took a bunch of photos, but this one is my favorite. You can see that they're being set off from the roof of the parking garage. This was around 6:30pm. Later, they raised a ball (reminiscent of Times Square, but going the opposite direction) on the roof of the Hotel Northampton and fired a cannon. It was excellent. Cold, but excellent.

I'm currently listening to the new Ani retrospective that Em got me for Christmas. We saw it in Target a few days before, and I told her that it would be worth having just for the re-recording of Both Hands. I was so right. Now, a moment to contemplate the incongruity of an Ani cd in Target, hanging out next to all those kiddies from High School Musical...

In other news, I somehow managed to finish 52 books in 52 weeks in 2007. The end was a little ugly and involved me finishing three books on New Year's Eve while trying to go to a bunch of First Night concerts. I wanted to go up to the performers afterward and tell them that I really liked their music, but I really, really had to finish reading. I finished up with the third in Madeleine L'Engle's Crosswicks Journals series, which seemed appropriate considering that she was one of the authors we lost this last year. I also managed to read Slaughterhouse Five a few months ago, in honor of Kurt Vonnegut. No Norman Mailer yet, though. I'm not so sure about that one. I've already begun my first book of 2008, The Princes of Ireland. I like it so far, but it's freaking long. Why do I pick the long ones? At least I'm working on it now instead of on December 31. Never again. I'm saving children's books for December this year.

And that, my friends, is that. Hopefully, I'll blog again soon.

Living in New England = Seeing My Friends!

About two weeks ago, I went to the Cape for four days to hang out with Kate and crew while Lisa was in New York. Much fun (and some insanity) was had. Observe:

Kate and I on the whale watching expedition, pre-feeling pukey. The ride out was great, the ride back was fine. The sitting still while the waves tossed us about? Not so much. Even talking about it later still made us queasy. But at least we saw a few whales!


Loek in the new shirt I brought for him. I also brought them homemade chocolate chip cookies, but Gus helped himself to those.


A really cool big sailboat thingy (I'm sure that's the technical term) we saw while riding the ferry back from the Vineyard. It was just so New England.

While we were lounging about on the beach at the Vineyard, Kateo (who had come down for the weekend) was reading to me from The Big House, by George Howe Colt. It was so interesting and appropriate that I requested it from the library when I got home. It came today, but I may have to wait to start it, since I seem to be reading about five other books at the moment. Isn't that just the story of my life? On the upside, I'm still keeping pace to finish 52 books by the end of the year. It's good to have goals.

Oh, and before I forget, the highlight of the weekend was Loek's new word: "poop" (said in a sweet, tiny, high-pitched voice, as one might say 'oops' to a similarly small child). I don't know about Loek, but it's totally my new favorite word of his. Now if only we could get him to say "Bunnie." I guess we'll keep working on that one next trip.

Books that changed me

The book I'm reading right now (Walking a Literary Labyrinth by Nancy M. Malone) asks the question, "Do you have a list of books that have changed your life?" Her theory is that each book we read takes us to a new place, and it changes us irretrievably. I think she's right. If I had to make a list to answer that question, it might look something like this:

The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley

The best telling of the Arthurian legend I've ever read. One of the biggest shapers of my early spirituality. It still speaks to me about divine feminine energy and the sacredness of the earth. If pressed, I'd probably still claim it as my favorite novel.

Journal of a Solitude - May Sarton

My first trip into May Sarton's world of poetry and quiet. A love song to the work of one's soul and to New England. I am not her kind of poet, precisely, but she somehow still is my kind of inspiration.

The Long Loneliness - Dorothy Day

I first "met" Dorothy Day through Liz Carr, the Catholic chaplain at Smith. She inspires me incredibly, with her honest quest for meaningful spirituality, her care for others, her writing, her integrity. And the last two pages of the book are the purest poetry I know.

Anything by Louisa May Alcott and L.M. Montgomery

I'm particularly (still) in love with Jo's Boys/Little Men and Eight Cousins/Rose in Bloom. I liked their most famous works, of course, but the slightly lesser known books were my constant companions as a child. I reread Rose in Bloom a month or so ago, and it made me realize just how much of my early sensibility was shaped by their writings. Perhaps that's why I liked Jane Austen so much when I met her (finally!) at the end of last year.

The Exiles Series - Melanie Rawn

The best fantasy books I've ever read. I've been waiting, none-too-patiently, for the final book to come out for about ten years now. And I'll wait as long as it takes. They're that good. I can reread the first two once a year, at least, and still find new and fabulous things within them.

There are a million other books I love as well, but these are the best of the lot. I imagine I read books by men, too, but just not as often. I think this year I've completed sixteen books, and only two of them are by men. They just don't tend to speak to me as well, and they don't write books about the things I need to read. At least right now. So I'll stick with these, my favorites. And keep reading. I just never know when I might find more.