The Mermaid Chair

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've last posted, I've been super busy with work and summer school. I started my next class, and I'm not too thrilled about it. I feel like I haven't learned anything yet. It definitely does not seem like a grad level class, more like an elementary level class. Work is going well. I feel like I am getting used to how to do thins there.

I've mainly been doing a lot of reading. I just finished reading this one book, titled The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd. http://www.suemonkkidd.com/MermaidChair/ if you want to look at the description of the book. I haven't been moved by a book like that in a long time, probably not since Christmas when I read Possession by A.S. Byatt. This book was incredible in its imagery. Into its storyline, it twined this legend about the local Saint who used to be a mermaid before she was converted to Catholicism, and there's this sense of duality in every person of the physical and the spiritual aspect, and the sense that each person needs each part of oneself to truly live; we cannot leave out either part or we end up deadened and incomplete. This woman, Jessie, leaves her husband for awhile to go and take care of her mother, an extremely devout Catholic woman, who has seemingly gone mad and cut off one of her fingers. The whole story is intertwined with this sense of the need for the spiritual, and for the importance of sacrifice and redemption, how people aren't willing to sacrifice anymore. Jessie meets this monk on the island who she ends up having an affaire with, and obviously that I don't agree with, but it was interesting why she was drawn to this monk and how he helped awaken a part of herself she had kept in a box for so long, making her alive unto herself. It just made me want to write so much. I would recommend that everyone read this book, it was fabulous.

Bonjour

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, I feel like I have been doing a whole lot of nothing very exciting. I have been working a lot, of course, and I am now done with one of my summer school classes, so that is very exciting. Yesterday was our last day, and we get out early, which was nice. I have a take home final I am still working on which isn't due until next Thursday, but I want to get it done before my next class starts on Monday. I worked on it last night and today and got three of the four essay questions completed, so I can finish up the rest on Sunday. I am going to be working a lot this weekend, 21 hours just in these next three days. I'm feeling pretty tired right now. This weekend is employee discount days at B and N, so I get 40% off books in the store, so I'm going to shopping there on Saturday to get some good stuff. I'm going to try and not spend my whole paycheck.

Other than that, I've been listening to a lot of books on CD with my commute to Champaign right now. I've been listening to a lot of David Sedaris, with Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim and Me Talk Pretty One Day. I really like his stories of France, since I've lived for for three months. I can definitely relate with some of the stuff he talks about. I like how he said in one story how he thinks everyone should live abroad for awhile, because it makes them a more complete person, or something like that. I agree with that. I've also been checking out some books, so I've read the next Artemis Fowl book. I haven't seen any movies in awhile because my sister and her husband go to see maybe one movie a year. That is kind of getting to me, I'm really wanting to go to a movie, but don't want to go alone and they won't go with me. Ah, well. It's helping me save my money, anyway.

This is my exciting life.

People are strange, when you're a stranger...

It is so interesting observing all the people who come in to Barnes and Noble. There's definitely your hottie alternative intellectual who comes through, and I definitely enjoy checking those out. Then there's your families, coming to get their children books to read to fill their minds, and couples, who come in for something to do. Then there are the strange people that you just wonder where in the world they come from. For example, on Tuesday night, we had this man come in who had this brown paper bag with an open bottle of alcohol in it that he was drinking from. I think he must have been kind of tipsy because he was being really obnoxious bothering people and, when we were escorting him out of the store, he spilled some of his alcohol all over the floor. Who in their right mind would bring an open bottle of alcohol into a store? It's illegal. Then, last night this woman came in about twenty minutes to closing time, asked what time we closed at, and then when I told her it was 10, she asked where the bathroom was. How long exactly was she planning on spending in there that she was worried she would get kicked out? There are definitely some crazy people out there.

On another note, one of my dreams was fulfilled yesterday, if only it was as good in reality as it was in my mind. I got on my bus in Champaign to take me over to my class on campus, and the bus was completely packed with all these fire-fighters to be who were having three days of training at U of I. There was barely enough room for me to squeeze in up front behind the white line. Now, this would have been great if they were as hot as they always are in movies. However, these firefighters were mostly older, overweight, and smelly, obviously quitting their jobs to fulfill their lifelong dream of becoming a firefighter. Oh, well.