Redemption...

and relief were evident in my roommate's eyes when i returned from a library used bookstore yesterday with over half a dozen Agatha Christie novels...

Penguins, Dante, and Pretentions

Okay, so i am slightly obsessed with Penguin Classics. I love the introductions, and the endnotes, and the commentaries, and everything. I also think they smell better than most any other brand. And so i saw Dante's Paradiso - Penguin edition - in the miserable little excuse for a bookstore they have here. (I also saw The Three Musketeers, but it turns out that was a Puffin, and abridged. Disgusting.) I bought it, since in spite of my medieval minor i have never read more than a few excerpts of the Commedia, which is really rather pathetic, i think. And since i read everything else backwards, i might as well read this backwards also. Have i mentioned how much i love Penguin? They have the Italian right across from an English translation, and although my Latin is extremely poor i still find it helpful. And it just sounds better in Italian. Anyway, so here i am, reading the ultimate Romance (or one of them, anyway, though i can't say i'm hugely fond of Milton). My roommate, who prefers to read the Romance novels that are actually in the Romance section (and i mean no slight to her intelligence, though i find her taste lacking), sees this with as much disgust as i view her romance novels. She practically sneered. It was highly entertaining, and i'm ashamed to say rather startling. Isn't that just...odd? To sneer at Dante? Of course, i suppose it is just as odd to sneer at romance novels. If i ever own a bookstore, i will reclaim the word "Romance." Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, Elizabeth Gaskell, John Milton, Connie Willis, John Donne, Kazuo Ishiguro, Dante Alighieri, C.S. Lewis, Mark Twain, Peter Abelard...

An Entirely Subjective Description of People I May or May Not Actually Work With and Know in Real Life

So, my boss at GSRing is a guy named Ron. Fifties, mebbe? People don't like him, and i'm not really sure why. He's not really friendly, or anything, and often sounds really annoyed. But in practice he has been very generous to me, making sure i have some one to help me, walking me through things several times - i mean, the fact that i still have the job... But a couple of times my other boss has asked me about him, if i think he's mean or a creep. And so have a couple other people. He seems to have a dry sense of humour, but i don't think that can be it entirely. I believe ppl simply take him too seriously. But anyone who can put up with my stupidity and not fire me can't be a complete creep... dunno. I mean, i'm the one that's usually frightened by people, and here's a guy that intimidates everyone else, and i think he's rather nice. Weird. He used to work for the Coast Guard, and hands out lollipops. His new haircut makes his ears stick out and in spite of his height, beard, and grey hair looks like a little boy And then there's Ruth, the lead at the Lighthouse. Late fifties? She's just as reserved as Ron, but has a very friendly exterior. Loves dogs - raises greyhounds. More than one person has commented about how obsessed she is with her dogs, and how weird it is to hear her talk about bitches. Don't see why - just b/c she prefers greyhounds to popular culture and politics... Anyway, i've always found her very interesting. She almost bought a dog named Ella, after Fitzgerald, (the puppy she did buy, a brindle, is Billy, after Holiday, and was flown in tonight if all went well) and we also share aging dog stories. Her husband Art works at mill creek, and her son Vince is building them a new deck. Paints an inch think, manicures, highlights, whole nine yards. Rose is one of the assistant leads. Generally friendly, and resents having to tuck in her shirt. Been here for a coupla years. 5-6 kids, some grandkids. I believe one of her sons is Coast Guard. Peggy is another assistant lead. A very jolly sort of person; reminds one of the stereotypical physical education instructor. Eloise is a housing director here. She is taking classes at a (relatively) nearby city, and also GSR's for money. She has been married once or twice, and i believe has a son that lives in Colorado. She thinks that it's disgusting the way ppl dress up their daughters these days, and agrees that romance isn't all it's cracked up to be. A bit of a nomad, she is planning on returning to Eastern Europe once she is done getting this degree (it's in business/marketing field, as i remember - she had to take an accounting class and she hated it). Gives the impression of being continually flustered, and has a rather unflattering hair cut, although a distinctive (slavic looking) face which could be beautiful. No makeup. John is a nice enough kid - gamer type - who i think might have been trying to start a longterm dating relationship. According to gossip, he tries to date anyone who isn't outright rude to him, no matter if he or she is already involved in a relationship, and can become quite stalkerish. Helen is a pretty blue-eyed blonde. Married, with two young daughters (2 and 4, i believe). She grew up here, went to school in Minnesota, i believe. Has recently been living in Wyoming, where her husband was (is?) editor of a magazine. They are in the process of moving to Wisconsin (which she pronounces wes-consin) this summer. She is living with her sister at the moment, and i believe her husband is in Wisconsin looking for a place to live. Like my mom, she eschews (is that the right word? i think maybe it's the antonym of the word i want, and i don't even know if i spelt it right, but whatev) ownership and hopes to rent an apartment. She got her degree in some sort of developmental psych. Though she grew up Catholic, her husband didn't and so now they are both Methodists (which was, i gather, a sort of middle ground). She is hoping to get a job in the church involving children's education. Mike has a girlfriend in the nearest "city" with a Walmart, whom he fought with over Fourth of July weekend. It's her birthday this weekend, and he doesn't know what to get her. The type of person you can say practically anything to, as long as you don't take anything too seriously. I haven't actually ever worked with Louise, but she's always around. A little old lady, reminds me a little of Murgatroyd from A Murder is Announced. Beth is amazingly ugly. However, she has a boyfriend, and her future expectations revolve around four children she's going to have, the German Sheperd she's going to get for each of them, and the land they will be living on. She is also making a list of every lighthouse in the United Atates, and enjoys reading Michigan ghost stories. She's picked out her wedding dress, and has already started buying clothes for her children (though she doesn't plan on getting pregnant for another four years). My dad thinks this needs a conclusion/wrap-up of some kind. I think it's just a list, albeit (i hope) an interesting list - there's no narrative. Although i suppose i could put one in. What do you think?

The Day I Met Jane Austen

UPDATE: Welcome, AustenBloggers. Thanks very much for coming. I have read a lot of literature, from many time periods, genres, cultures, and so forth. One of my favourite authors remains Jane Austen. As with most such opinions, i am not entirely sure why. As a little child (oh, be quiet, boys - just because i'm shorter than you doesn't mean i can't still beat you up!), i used to hate going to bed. This is now incomprehensible to me, but so it was. My brothers and i would camp in the doorways of our rooms and whisper to each other across the hall, inching as far out of our rooms as we dared, so our parents could trip over on their way up to bed. I always felt especially pathetic when i knew they were watching a movie, or having a party.* I remember at least one time when i tried to stay awake all night, to convince my parents that it was cruel of them to keep me up in my room while they were having fun, since i wouldn't sleep anyways. I used any excuse to get up and join the fun. One night, my parents decided to host a murder. By the purest stroke of luck, i fell off the couch and hit my head on the table. That doesn't sound like much, but when mom found blood on her fingers, they had to take me to the emergency room to get my head stapled. I've still got a scar, under my hair (cool, eh?), and left some authentic blood on the carpet (a clue!). Once it stopped hurting, i thought it was pretty fun. I got to drink lemonade and sit at the table with them. (Where is Jane Austen, in all this mess, you ask? To be quite frank, i'm not absolutely sure, but in the next paragraph or so, i promise.) As i got older, i came up with what i thought of as a very clever plan for movie nights. i would wait, dozing, for half an hour or so for them to get settled. Then i would be thirsty. I would dawdle in the background and eventually, or so i thought, they would forget about me. Depending on the movie, and on whether it was a school night, my parents would put up with this, as i soon fell asleep anyway. I was probably about eight when i used this tactic to watch the last half of Pride and Prejudice. The BBC, Colin Firth and Jennefer Ehle, 6 hour version. Much to the bemusement of my parents, i loved it. They re-rented the first half, and i watched that too. The elegant language, the elaborate hair and dress styles, beautiful houses, and gorgeous soundtrack... In the same way i watched the last half of Emma, and then the first. This was how i learned about hypochondria, noblesse oblige, prejudice, premarital intercourse (i remember the first time my dad explained to me exactly what it was that Lydia had done, and what threatened Georgiana), inheritances, et cetera. We lived in Sicily at the time, perhaps the book wasn't available. My dad printed it off of the internet for me and put it in a black three ring binder. I didn't think it was completely perfect - how could Lydia be the tallest? That didn't even make sense. And Mr. Bingley seemed somewhat of a fool. I simply couldn't like him. It wasn't until we got back stateside that i learned of Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion (my father's favourite), and Mansfield Park. I read them all, but Pride and Prejudice was, i decided, my favourite. I did not understand Mansfield Park at all. Eventually, although i will always have fond memories of Pride and Prejudice, i began to value the quirkiness of Emma above Pride and Prejudice. Emma was made much more aware of her faults than Lizzie, who only suffers through the actions of Lydia and Wickham. I gave Mansfield Park another try - dad seemed to pick up a copy everytime he went on cruise, so there were several copies laying around the house. It began to grow on me. The theatre scene, which for many people is completely ridiculous, was one i could completely identify with. I hated talking to people - still do. Fanny's fear and shyness, and her strength in spite of these, is something i perfectly understand. And while the impropriety of a private theatre seems incomprehensible today, with my own father often gone i could understand the evils of spending my father's money on activities he would not approve of and which would put considerable strain on already tenuous relationships. Other books are cute or amusing or probing or intellectual or adventursome or romantic or realistic. These books contain aspects of all of these, but mostly they are about Life. Her bit of ivory was nonetheless beautiful for being small. These are people one could meet (and indeed, i believe i have met) walking down the street anytime, and anywhere. Reading these books, i get the same feeling of delight as when i was a little girl and allowed to stay up past my bedtime (though without the headache). I get to catch a glimpse of a life other than my own, yet very like it - a "grown up" world, foreign and familiar, in which (in spite of appearances) I might just fit. ...... *a small clarification, as one must be careful - my dad was the pastor of a church at the time, so these parties were hardly raucous. the only alcohol was the caffeine in coffee, and the rowdiest game played was How to Host a Murder.

On Their Poor Substitute for a Public Library

The place where i work and live right now is called a City. Even though i can walk all around it in a couple of hours. There is one excuse for a grocery store in which everything costs twice as much as it does everywhere else, which, what with rising gas prices and all that, is quite substantial. The main street consists almost entirely of t-shirt print shops and fudge shops, which i tried to browse once, but the t-shirt people stalk you and the fudge people don't have to. I can't resist. I begin to realize that however peaceful rural life sounds in theory, i have been too spoiled by suburbia. But worst of all is the Library. This is not the one where i work - that is the state park library and archives. This is the Public library. It is a ways out of town - 20 minute walk. A small, brown, tin building, with a few narrow slits for windows. The organization is inconsistent and inconvenient. There is no computer catalogue at all, and the card catalogue is stuck in a corner with the few public computers available, so that it is almost impossible to utilize. However, since a good portion of the books aren't catalogued at all anyway, it doesn't really matter. A good third of the book selection consists of Romance novels. Not that i have anything against Romance novels per say - i am rather fond of Georgette Heyer (although i don't think her novels ought to be in the Romance section, anyway; or, i think they ought to be, and that most of the books now in the Romance section ought to be put under Sex/Lust/Bad Grammar, but that's another story)... where was i? umm... and i like light reading as much as anyone, but their selection of fantasy, science fiction, and mystery is abysmal. They have a few classics, but only the most famed, or the books are so old and in such poor condition they're practically impossible to read anyway. My family's library is much more comprehensive, better organized, and in better condition. Their selection of movies is worse - very few classics, and of course nothing too popular or i suppose it would get stolen... this is a big tourist area, and it it would never get returned. So i do understand that. Libraries are all about the books, anyway. And there they have fallen short. Oh, and the way they divide books between young adult and adult? Also completely nonsensical - worse than usual. Why can't they do everything my way??? AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When i do manage to find a book, which sometimes happen (they do have a decent collection of Dickens - which really ought to be catalogued! - and i've just discovered the Septimus Heap series, which is interesting but mainly i like it because of Septimus Harding), i turn down the road towards the water. I walk past the few feet of "woods," the little yellow house with the little white dog with the little loud bark, the nice gray house with the wrap around porch, and the large tree in the middle of a small gravel parking lot. Summer cottages are on either side of me, but there are few trees which means there are fewer bugs (it has been a really wet season here, and they are everywhere, but bugspray makes me break out if i use it a lot, so i just get bitten. my brothers swear by their own unique remedy of swallowing two match heads, but i think they're just trying to tease me.) A bench swing sits in a small plot of sand, just in front of a rather large rock - evidently a memorial of some kind. It is a gorgeous view of the water, with the Bridge on my right, and the sun setting on my left. One tall lone conifer is all that is between me and the sun, and sometimes i feel that if i could climb to the top i would be able to reach out and touch the last rays. Soon the light is gone and the bugs come out in full force. Back to the compound.

GSR-ing

So. I have a couple of posts in the works but right now i am just going to ramble, okay? Because this is all about me, anyway. The internship is unpaid, but they do provide a part-time job so that i can eat. And housing. Nice, right? I'm claustrophobic (which i never realized until i was lost in a hay maze for over an hour - not a good way to find out). After that, i hate talking to People (as opposed to Persons - there is a difference), and Money. This job - Guest Services Representative - is both of the latter. When i say hate, don't imagine impassioned and angry. Agonizing terror would perhaps be better. I have very little control over this, in part because i am afraid of losing control. Does that make sense? No, i didn't think so. I get butterflies, i feel faint, my hands shake, and i lose all power of logical thought processes (not that i ever had much to began with, as my brothers will gladly tell you). My parents say, "It's good experience for you. Growing." I think it sucks. Okay, okay. This is my second weekend (for some reason, the paperwork wasn't prepared for me at first). I have a spiel pretty much down, i know where the bathrooms are (the number one question), i know most of the prices, and have managed to make conversation with all of my co-workers. I had zero training and no previous experience, but people seem to be pretty generous of my mistakes. Today i was only 16 cents over, and they allowed me to come in a couple of hours late so i could attend church. I work primarily in one bookstore, under a bridge. However, sometimes i cover lunches at a gift shop down the way. While there, two children, their mother, and aunt came in. The aunt is a very ... shall we say, forthright? forceful? personality. She takes her time shopping. I was holding a compass behind the counter for the boy. They were bored, and started asking questions about how the date stamp worked, and the clicker, etc. So i told them. And we must have chatted for half an hour. I mean, it was so random. About Pennsylvania, and lighthouses, and sibling relationships, and dogs, and compasses, and i don't even remember. Anyway, on their way out, they asked my name, and i told them. And then they came and greeted me in the other store later, around closing time - just the kids, you know - and played with the clickers there, and we chatted some more... and i think if i had been working in the store the next day, they would have tried to come and visit me again. I don't even know their names. I mean, it was weird. But cool. Anyway. I still strongly dislike it, and often get flustered. I much prefer the library. But i can do this. My battery is getting pretty low. So, like, i should probably go. But i really, really missed you!!

HI!!!!!!

Oh, blog, how i've missed you! My neglect has been entirely involuntary, i promise you. I managed to obtain an collections/research internship in the archives of a state park. Unfortunately, access to internet is pretty much limited to Burger King, and a public library which closes half an hour after i get off work. So. Yay! I hope to be more regular, but until school in September, my access will be limited.