Airplane Reading

The flight from Seattle-Tacoma to Miami has got to be one of the longest possible flights in the US. And have I mentioned that I hate flying?

I'm sure that kateri_thinks and I are going to have a lot to talk about, but I don't think we want to try to amuse each other for the entire length of the flight.

So: what book(s) would you recommend for airplane reading? And those times when I will need to hang out by myself in my spacious suite (because we introverts go bonkers doing group stuff all day every day).

I'd like something thick enough to keep me engaged for a while, with great characters and a juicy plot. I'm leaning toward fiction, but really engaging non-fiction would work too.

shimmeringjemmy gave The Red Tent a good review yesterday, so that's on my list.

Anyone else? Historical fiction is my current favorite genre, but I enjoy sci-fi and fantasy too. But I'll pick up just about anything.


[And I don't know if anyone even noticed yesterday, but I can't remember another time I used "giggly" for my emoticon, much less twice in a row!)

Once Upon a Time / Loving Clark

As many of you know, Julia Ormond is one of my favorite actresses. She isn't brilliant, but I love the way she combines delicacy with strength, and intelligence with passion. Plus, she looks like me if I were to achieve my ideal body.

The original Sabrina (with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart) is a sweet movie, but Ormond's version hits very close to home for me. Young Sabrina, with her long brown hair and glasses, gazing wistfully at the unattainable object of her crush, reminds me very much of myself in junior high and high school. I was never as slim or beautiful as Julia, but this image of her (see icon) reminds me of what it was like to be a teenager.



She is looking down on a formal party given by the Larrabees, who employ her father as a chauffeur. She and her father live in an apartment above the garage, and Sabrina has a hopeless crush on David, the younger Larrabee brother, who is several years older than she is and a playboy. She gazes into their world, and it's not the money she wants, it's David's love.

When I was in the seventh grade, I was hopelessly in love with Clark, a high school senior who was the helper for my church youth group. Everyone loved Clark: he was a very special person, genuinely loving and open, respected by other young people as well as adults, a fine musician and an athlete, and the best example of a "Christian youth" I have ever known: his faith was real and meaningful, but not stuffy. I was twelve, and I knew he would never see me as anything more than "a nice kid" -- but he was always sweet and kind to me. I would watch him at church, listen to the radio when his high school basketball games were on the air, and attend the concerts he played his violin in. Just to see him. I never hoped for anything but his notice when our paths crossed, but my life was brightened by his presence in it, and my love for him.

It was pure courtly love, and although I didn't realize it at the time, it taught me that loving was very often sufficient unto itself. To love someone unattainable might be poignant sometimes, but it was not necessarily tragic. Loving Clark was one of the best experiences of my girlhood.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

No, that's not virtual gunshots, it's the sound of my Ex-husband swinging a sledgehammer upstairs as they break up the tiles in the bathroom to get to the rotted floor boards beneath.

Had I mentioned that I'm wishing a terrible case of hives on the previous owners whenever we find something new wrong with the house?

I'm going to get a new ceiling for my own bathroom out of this. Between the moisture coming down from upstairs and the fact that my "vent fan" didn't have anywhere to send the moisture except between the two stories, my ceiling is mouldy. Fortunately, the Ex's Brother-in-Law is going to fix that next week.

And our plumbing is being fixed!!

Is there synchronicity in the proximity of me claiming my Queen of Cups aspect and the hiring of a plumber to fix our drains??? Inquiring minds want to know!

Meanwhile, however, I'm enjoying some California Pizza Kitchen Shrimp Scampi pizza, along with some Diet Coke and vodka -- my favorite Friday night tradition, and in a little while I'll be taking myself out to the movies, probably a double feature of "Take the Lead" and "Inside Man". Antonio Banderas, Clive Owen, Denzel Washington, Christopher Plummer, and Jodie Foster all in one evening? I may expire!

Most importantly, it will get me out of the house while the banging continues. . . . !!!!

Airline Reservations are Made!!

kateri_thinks and I are going to Florida!!

And we're being very silly and wicked planning what we're going to do with those dress codes.

Expect photos of us in tiaras on the beach! (With me wielding a sword, if I can find a kid's pirate cutlass in a giftshop!)

And yes, there will be a catamaran cruise on Saturday afternoon. . . *sigh*

'Scuse Me, But I Have to Go Watch Antonio Tango

Ta!