meanwhile, a life roundup

Andrea got back in the country on Saturday, right in the middle of my hyperacidity bout -- which was a kind of nice surprise, since there was no way I would have been in our flat on a Saturday if not for this illness, so YAY. (She says maybe the hyperacidity thing was the Universe's way of telling me I needed to have more oatmeal in my life; I said I would have understood a postcard. Hehe.)

Oh hey, she got me a Panda Hat!

LOL that photo will never get old.

ANYWAY. Andrea has her mega-China update over at her LJ involving pandas, tiananmen square and the forbidden city, the Great Wall of China, terracotta warriors, Guilin, and Shanghai. WHEW. That was such a week.

Anyway again, illness update: been on Omeprazole for roughly a week; stomach's all better now, though I am keeping off soda, alcohol, greasy food and caffeine FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE I SWEAR. Also: Man, Maalox Plus is one tasty chewable tablet. I mean, tastier than bubblegummy Kremil-S. (LOL addict - drug of choice, Maalox Plus. LAME.)

Also, I've managed to finish a few books I've been meaning to finish while Andrea was away, to wit:

(Under cut: Books. WOW.)

Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson - Loved the bit about the Twelve Dancing Princesses; did not understand the bits about Jordan and his mother the Dog Woman. LOL comprehension fail, but sometimes it's just too... I don't know, it's difficult connecting to Winterson sometimes, and this was one of those times. But hey, the woman's got a way with words. If I can't connect to the plot, I sure have a fun time getting lost in her words.

Like by Ali Smith - Oh my God, where to start with Ali Smith? I fell in love with her short story collection "Free Love and Other Stories" -- I remember the girlfriend catching me walking around Fully Booked in Rockwell clutching one of Smith's short story collections in my hand and then she ended up buying for me the Free Love short story collection (favorites off that: Free love, A quick one, The world with love, The touching of wood) and this novel, Like. It started off slow for me, but on Saturday I woke at 4 a.m. with horrible stinging in my stomach and I ended up reading it to music (Kate Walsh, if anyone's wondering) and I think I was finished by the end of the day IT WAS ASTOUNDING. Yes I surprise myself sometimes, but then again I never expected myself to swear off soda and caffeine at the same time, so why not. Maybe it's the season for surprises.

So basically, the first part deals with Amy and her trip with her kid named Kate -- it's always difficult reading something where one of the characters shares my name, but this was a fun read; this Kate makes me wish I was as perceptive and quirky as a child. The second part deals with Ash, and for me it was more relatable -- but then again, as are most girls in books who are horribly, helplessly infatuated with other girls. Ali Smith's prose is tender and young and sometimes I turn a page expecting this word after this word and then there's another word entirely and it is beautiful that I have to turn the page back and ask myself why I had expected another word anyway, that word she had was FANTASTIC. Yes, it's that kind of prose.

There isn't really a definitive link between the two parts, other than the fact that Ash and Amy were young together; it doesn't go full circle, and at some point I had a conjecture that didn't really, you know, prosper in the end (too many Filipino soaps in my head, I just think, though I still believe my conjecture would have made good sense, had the novel had some 100 pages more haha) but in all I liked how it ended - in the middle of things, just like that, very very openly. Which is how I like most my endings -- not with the finality of dropping curtains, but with the openness of second chances.

Wild Mind by Natalie Goldberg - Oh this was fun, it's like writing as zen practice. It feels like having a kind, elderly creative writing teacher talking to you, asking you to just keep your hand moving across the page. Maybe I will again - AFTER the elections. Haha. Sorry teacher, I know you said stop making excuses, but you know how it is.