possibly better

2003-03-04 - 9:36 a.m.

Hmmmm.

Stuff to do, and I'm about to go get a cup of tea.

Book group last night. We'd read Bel Canto. Next we'll read Frangrant Harbor, by John Lanchester. He's great, by the way.

Bel Canto is an interesting book. It's about a house in Peru, where a group of important people and a group of terrorists are holed up for the weeks between when the terrorists took the important people hostage and when the army bursts in to free/capture them. For the weeks in between, it's a sort of idyl -- the captives have time -- something many of them have never had. The terrorists have time, too, and food, and television, and art and education. It's terrible when it ends, but then everything works out anyway --

It's a lovely book, somehow. It's all told so peacefully. You don't get the description from any particular point of view -- you get it from lots of points of view. Well, you get brief snapshot descriptions of many of the characters, who are all quite different, but somehow not all that different.

Hmmm.

Anyway.

And Nora did finish her Nicaragua poster, and it's beautiful. Not much time to study for the math test, but I think she had it all down pretty well. I'm trying to butt out to a certain extent. It's difficult, though. She got a B+ in math, which is perplexing. She got As in most everything else, except social studies, a B+, which is completely understandable. But why a B+ in math, when it's one of her favorite classes, and she seems to always do her homework and be prepared for tests. A mystery.

I'm trying to figure this all out -- it's her life, etc. However --

I'm afraid I've infected her with my cynicism.

Anyway.

Also -- I'm worried that we should have decided to send Maddy on to Middle School B. It would have been so hard, though -- there would have been such upset. And one more very comfortable year will probably be good for her.

Ho hum. It's very difficult, actually, to be responsible for children, and to make good decisions, and know when to butt out, and when to make them do things they don't want to do, and when to let them find things that they want to do.

I was furious with Nora yesterday because she wasn't waiting for me when I went to pick her up after school. I went down to the afterschool room, and couldn't find her, so I decided to leave, and just as I was pulling around the driveway she came running down from the lockers, with such an enormous smile on her face that I forgot how angry I was and loved her completely.

I guess mostly I want her to be happy -- happy in that good way.

So --

Okay, then. Off to get some tea, and then to work on several hideous projects.

I'm starting to feel a little better. I'm still completely exhausted, but walking up the hill from the parking lot no longer feels like the Bataan Death March.

--Bye.

out of print - new releases

find me! - 2008-02-12
where I've gone - 2008-02-07
Where I've gone - 2008-02-05
where I've gone - 2008-02-01
New - 2008-02-01

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