monday miscellany, again

Little bits of things today, because my brain is all unfocused. I’ve been doing things in fits and starts for days, so the blogging can have a similar, disjointed feel for the start of this week.

I have contact lenses! I had to wear my trial pair all last week and they were proclaimed satisfactory this weekend. I’m still getting used to them but they’re not nearly as strange as I had anticipated, and while I’m sure I’ll still default to my glasses out of convenience, it’s absolutely marvelous to have the option.

I also have new suitcases, since I have traveling to do in the impending future. Tessa likes them, so that’s something.


I spent part of the weekend finishing reading The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. I mentioned on Twitter when I was halfway through that I loved it like candy (dank, possibly haunted candy) and I continued to love it through to the end. Marvelously moody and perfect spring thunderstorm reading, curled up in a corner with a blanket, being stared at by a cat.

Speaking of Waters, I’ve noticed that I get asked about my literary influences and my mind almost always goes completely blank, or there are just so many that I don’t know where to start. I should start compiling a master list. Sarah Waters belongs on it, of course. Fingersmith is still my favorite of hers, though I did love this one a lot in a completely different way.

I just got the new Fleet Foxes album and I’m not sure what I think about it yet, but it’s growing on me.

I have been meaning to post this for ages and kept forgetting, of course: My friend Eleanor was at the London Book Fair and posted an inside look at some of the circusy things on her blog, including a peek at the still-elusive UK cover.

I think that’s it. Kind of can’t believe that BEA is only two weeks away, have to work on the rest of my “to-do before BEA” list.

may

Other people have likely said more articulate and poignant things than I can manage for today.

It is a sunshine-soaked Monday. It is, somehow, strange time that tumbles ever on, already May.

I bought an orchid this morning that looks as though it has been splattered with paint.

previous incarnations

I am cleaning my studio today, and amongst all the other questionable artifacts tucked into dust-covered corners (spools of fishing line? a Ouija board? a May 1999 NYC subway map?) I found a pile of old photos & I thought I’d scan a couple to share.

So this is me in New Hampshire circa 2004, with an apple and far too much hair:

 

And this is me in South Boston circa 1980, with a fabulous hat:

iPad!

I really thought the shipping notice I got on Friday might have been an April Fool’s joke, but my iPad 2 actually arrived today! Pretty much right on schedule with the estimated 2-3 weeks from when I ordered it, though a bit ahead of the ship-by date it had listed for a good long while.

I have a thing about not buying first generation Apple products, and I was skeptical about the original iPad. But I played with them in the Apple store over the last year and liked it more than I’d expected to, and I knew I wanted to get some sort of e-reader eventually, so I figured I’d get one when the 2nd gen came out.

And now I have my iPad 2 and it’s very shiny. Still mostly figuring my way around and setting things up, but so far I’m pleased & the Smart Cover is a thing of brilliance.