The National Book Festival
Although its nearly been a month since the festival I didn’t get a chance to write about attending. It is an event I look forward to every year because I learn so much when I go. It is surprising to me how many authors are good public speakers. So good in fact that you could find yourself listening to them all day. I have never visited the Poetry tent or the Children’s tent so I can’t say anything about those authors. However, authors who have writen, either fiction or nonfiction, have a great deal to say and luckily, the few I’ve managed to see have done so quite eloquently.
The ones I am thinking of at the moment (from all of the book festivals I’ve been to) include Alexander McCall Smith, Salman Rushdie, Diana Gabaldon, Thomas Friedman, Paul Theroux to name just a few. These events always remind me of what I am missing being out of school. Do you remember a class with a professor and a topic that was simply fastinating? I had many like that and time always flew by. I’ve had professors who knew their topic so well they were awe inspiring. An endless fount of knowledge. Salman Rushdie seemed like one of those professors. Regardless of whether or not you agree with his politics, Thomas Friedman is a fantasically charismatic speaker as well.
But more importantly, the whole event creates inspiration to read. At least, it does for me. The secret is to not buy any books there because amazon and bookstores are cheaper. And who wants to carry them around all day? My only complaint about the event is that there are never enough chairs. With all the space on the mall, there should be more chairs brought out. I, unfortunately, had to leave earlier than I wanted to this year simply because I wasn’t tenacious enough to wrestle a 60 year old woman for a chair and got tired of standing. Five hours walking around and standing in one spot for 45 minute spans of time with no relief sounds silly to complain about but it is tiring, especially when it is hot outside. Although I will say, sometimes I was so fastinated my feet forgot to hurt.
But back to my earlier point about inspiration. I was lucky enough to have parents who took me to the library and never complained (to my ears anyway) about the number of books I checked out. (I do believe the library started imposing a limit because of me). But the children who get to go to the festival are lucky as well because I never heard authors of my favorite books speak, play in the Scholastic Bookmobile, or simply be around people who loved books as much as me. Hopefully, those children who get to see R.L. Stine might just want to read more of his books or even attempt to write a scary story. The festival has served its purpose when that child picks up a pen.
And, of course, it is free entertainment for the day for kids and adults. I simply cannot say its free because inevitably I will rush out and buy more books by the authors I’ve seen. It has been almost a month since the festival and my pile of books to read is now two piles. So, definitely NOT free! But adding books to my amazon wish list IS free. Hint, hint. That way I managed not to buy all the authors’ complete lists of work. Awesome restraint I know. I might be caught up by next year’s festival.
An Excellent Weekend
So the busy month of October continues, although not for the Red Sox. Their season is over. It was a good run and exciting to watch. I might be just a little tired today though. Actually, I had quite the busy weekend which definitely explains why else I might be sleepy. Friday night Justin came into town and we hung out with his Media Matters coworkers. It was good to see them again. I hadn’t seen any of them since his going away party!
Then, Saturday morning we got up bright and early to head to GOLD CUP! The morning started just has I had expected it would. A little bit of a headache from switching it up the night before. Note to self: make up mind at the beginning of evening whether to drink beer or whiskey, not both. Then I packed up the food, the bedding, chairs, an overnight bag, got all dressed up, and woke Justin up. Guess which was the hardest to do? More dispensing of Tylenol later we were all ready (ok almost ready) when Drew pulled up to whisk us to VA.
Only we had a lot of shit and not all of it could fit in the mustang, a fact I had brought to his attention two weeks before but was ignored. But it all worked out in the end and we got there. The day was spent thinking, purchasing, and consuming food and alcohol and taking pictures of people imbibing said food and alcohol. It was a blast. We did actually watch some horses and I took a few pictures for proof that we did watch a horse or two.
I will post a picture or two when Justin posts them on facebook or flicker. Last year Stephanie purchased a hat and then I ended up wearing it for the end portion of the race. This year, Becca purchased a hat and I did the same thing. Hmmm, all that might just be a sign. I totally forgot I was wearing it, again. I am officially in the market for a hat for next year’s event.
The bonfire was awesome. And it was quite cold so lighting up half a cow pasture minimizes the cold, in case no one knew that. I even ate a s’more. Those things don’t get old, nor do they taste bad with beer. Something about fire, chocolate, beer, and friends was the best combination in the world. AND a fact I always forget… it turns out when you leave the city and it is night you can see these things in the sky called stars.
Whenever I am working as a lifeguard at night I see how many stars I can see. The most on a clear night range from 25-30. There were so many stars on Saturday night in a cow field in the hills in Virgina. To say I was a happy girl is the understatement of the year.
Oh, and a trip to Cracker Barrel the next day was the icing on the cake. We ordered so much food that there was no conversation for about 10 minutes after the food arrived. And there has never been a better cup of coffee in the world and I don’t even drink it every day.
Once Justin and I got back we watched SNL and I took a shower, inevitably having to wash my hair three times to get the smoke smell out. But…beer, chocolate, friends, stars, and fire all equalled a great weekend. And Justin will be back in town in less than two weeks! October rocks!
Weird Dreams
Very rarely will I remember my dreams. Anything I do recall are stills in a long running movie. More often than not my dreams are strange. And I mean out there. They usually have celebrities or people I went to high school with in them. I’d say about maybe an eighth or so are of the erotic variety. And I’ve been able to remember some of those, who knows why. But I still wish I had never told Justin I had a sex dream about Bradley Whitford. Whatever, I was watching a lot of the West Wing.
So two nights ago I had a dream about Steve Martin and Hayley Mills (as her character in Pollyanna). I had watched Pollyanna one night while flipping channels about a week ago and I had watched Parenthood for the millionth time on Sunday during commercials of the Patriots game. They were losing so I ended up watching more Parenthood. So in this dream I alternated between being Hayley Mills and watching Hayley Mills. This happens a great deal in my dreamworld.
So Hayley Mills and Steven Martin are in bed together which didn’t seem strange at the time. And it wasn’t sexual. But Pollyanna does spend a lot of time in bed in the movie once she gets paralyzed so perhaps it seemed a natural setting. But of course, she was able to move around just fine in my dream. They got out of bed and started walkng around the mansion from the set of Pollyanna, which was ten times bigger, scarier, and had far more staff (maids, butlers, cooks, etc). This walk ended in the basement where things proceeded to become very strange.
It sort of looked like the steam room scene from Eastern Promises except the tiles were dark blue and lots of tunnels with pools of varying depth and demension giving off steam. And there were people everywhere doing things little girls should not be seeing. Very much like staff scenes from Dirty Dancing in a steam room except they were all strung out on drugs (I remember LSD came to mind) and drinking. And she was just chatting with Steve Martin like there wasn’t anything going on at all. Not that I can remember any dialog.
So that is what I remember. Steven Martin has to be the most ageless man so he looked like he does now or 15 years ago, no one could possibly tell. And Hayley Mills is now in her 60s but in the movie, Pollyanna, is innocense personified.
Um, so WTF does my dream mean? Eh, I have no idea. I wish I could have remembered more. What would have been even better is if Viggo Mortensen had come out in the steam room, dressed as he is in Eastern Promises. That is to say wearing nothing. And I mean before he gets all cut up. Yeah, no Russian henchmen in my dreams thank you. Well, I watched August Rush yesterday. Maybe tonight I’ll have a dream about Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.
When You Throw A Party and No One Comes
How horribly embarrassing. How did this happen? Well, let me step back about two weeks ago..
The pool is closing for the season on Oct 26. One of the lifeguards, Bojan, is returning to his home country next Sunday. So what better excuse for a party? End of the season party and Bojan’s going away party all in one. I posted fliers in the clock-in room, the guard shack out at the pool, and the front desk of the club. Everyone I asked said they were coming to the party, except my general manager who had a prior commitment. EVERYONE!
Fast forward to Saturday morning. I got up early, went to Target, the grocery store, and the liquor store. Now, keep in mind that I don’t have a car. So I went home between all three stores to drop off my purchases. I spent the rest of the day baking. Chex mix, chocolate chip cookies, mini cheesescakes (cherry, strawberry, peanut butter), and peanut butter cup cookies. I also bought a pumpkin. I baked the seeds and I cooked the rest of the pumpkin for future recipes this week. Then, I cleaned my house and got myself ready just in time, and set out the cheese tray…for nothing.
My friend, Denny, showed up a little early to keep me company while I was running around. Then we sat on the couch with my roommates and watched the cooking channel for an hour, then the end of The Princess Diaries (which is always on the Family Network btw). The party started at 9. The next guest to arrive was Lew, at 11pm. He finished his shift at the club (which closes at 10) and came over bearing gifts of Moet Champange and a bottle of Black Label Johnnie Walker. Those two gifts were all I needed to make up for shopping, baking, and cleaning all day.
Bojan and his roommate, Sasha, showed up at 11:30. Um, yeah. The guy who I was throwing the party for showed up 2.5 hours late. He did fix the DVD player that wasn’t working so there is that. But he spent about 45 minutes setting up his laptop music to our sound system while Denny, Lew, Sasha, and I sat there trying to find things to talk about.
Drinking more didn’t help. It was awkward. Imagine a Latino boy, 2 Serbians, a black guy and a white girl ranging in age from 19 to 32 sitting in a room. Yeah, conversation was flowing. I was trying my best but in my embarrassment I just kept drinking to the sound of Serbian dance music staring a blue screen injecting the occasional witty comment (maybe not) or asking a question. I did have a bottle of Johnnie Black….
The evening was made further awkward, which I didn’t think could be possible, by Bojan not wanting to leave. It took his roommate and me all but packing his computer up for him to get him to leave. It was 2:45am. That is more than 5 hours of looking at the platters of food not consumed, not talking, and getting increasingly intoxicated for the lack of anything better.
So I showed up at work on Sunday. I didn’t get angry when people gave me their excuses for not coming to the party. I just smiled and said, “I wish you had been there.” Because, it is true, I wish they had been there. But honestly, my head hurt too much to give a shit.
I am never doing that again.
Because I Should Write About the Halloween Party
But football first…
So despite Tom Brady being out for the season it appears the Pats are playing decent enough football to have won 3 of 4 games. I’ve always wondered what the injured players do when they are out for the season. They are never standing on the sidelines and sometimes they totally get the shaft, like Jeremy Shockey and the Giants last year at the Superbowl.
Hopefully, Brady isn’t sitting at home feeling sorry for himself. Although, despite the super hot girlfriend and new baby, I could understand why he might feel a little depressed. I have no frame of reference for how hard the man works during the offseason and preseason to prepare. By all accounts it appears to be a great deal of work. In one fraction of a second all that hard work was blown away. That has to be so incredibly frustrating. Well, painful both emotionally and physically of course.
So I have a busy month of October. Tomorrow, here at work, is my coworker’s baby shower. This has been planned for quite some time and I hope she is given a great deal of what she still needs. I tried to help with Goodnight Moon. Every child I know (or will know) can expect to get a copy of that classic. That wasn’t the only purchase of course, it is so easy to go overboard with infants! Everything is so little and cute!
I have a birthday event tomorrow night for my friend, Stephanie, at Cold Stone Creamery. What better place to celebrate a birthday than at an ice cream palor? No holds barred with the fat content tomorrow night! I’m looking forward to this as much as I would have as an 8 year old. No shame in that!
Saturday night I am having a party celebrating the end of the pool season (no one drowned!) and to say goodbye to the foreign lifeguard staff who are all going back to their respective countries. This is the first year I get a test run of a party before the EPIC Halloween party. So I’ll hopefully get the house in decent shape and spend some time baking to impress my guests, most of whom, have never eaten a Shauna-made baked good. I have a whole new group of test subjects so I’m bringing out all the stops including Chex Mix, of course!
So the Halloween Party. Yes, there is no evite yet but the date is November 1st. Which means that half the guest list already knows about it. Tonight is the night it will be written, I promise. Really, I do. It needs to be done. Because then we can start planning once we get RSVPs. Exactly how much alcohol (is their ever too much?) and such. We have to start infusing vodka pretty damn soon!
Venus Obsequens 