weed growing through fungus

weed growing through a shelf fungus
Originally uploaded by pwilnyc.

My stellar husband has taken the children to Artscape (oh how I do not enjoy Artscape - love this year's 5-years-too-late Boogie Nights logo) and I am not due at work for another hour and a half.

An hour and a half in the house by myself! I cranked up the South African hip-hop, I read half of Wired (has Wired gotten kind of not-so-informative, or is it just that I read boingboing now?), and I've got the deep conditioner on my hair.

So now I guess there's nothing left to do but marvel at the situation. Oh! Or I could eat Cheez-Its!

Is that it? I have time to kill and all I can muster is a halfhearted snack food ambition? In fact, I keep thinking about the basket of clean laundry waiting to be folded, but I have been resisting. Such was not Bob's intention when he gifted me with this free time. Why oh WHY do I not have all 7 seasons of Buffy on DVD? One or two of those and I would really begin to feel like my old self again.

I got a glimmer of that feeling earlier this week. Our pool is so safe and supervised that I felt ok reading my book there. I didn't read quickly, as I was kid-checking at least once per page. And I felt kind of self-conscious. The other moms weren't reading, they were all being social. I felt like I really ought to strike up a conversation, make new friends, etc. I talk at the pool, I talk to the moms I recognize from the library, but I don't go out of my way, and on the whole, I'd rather be reading my book.


Antisocial Librarian at the pool. Photo by Auntie Jane.
Originally uploaded by pwilnyc.


I was telling Bob about it later and it occurred to me, "I'd rather be reading my book"? Since when do I feel bad about that? That's the subtitle of my whole life. Until I had kids, it's what you would know me for. That and beer, often together. Let's get back to all that, shall we?

So let me tell you:
The Best American Nonrequired Reading
- Edited by Dave Eggers, selected by the high school students of the 826 Valencia project
Julie and Julia - Underemployed girl decides to cook the entirety of Mastering the Art of French Cooking
Sightseeing - Short stories by Rattawut Lapcharoensap. He's Thai, the stories were phenomenal.
The Watsons go to Birmingham - 1963 - Baltimore's Book for summer of 2006. For kids, but funny and well written.
Nature Noir - Non-fiction, a park ranger working in a park that's a political football
I hate myself and want to die - The 53 most depressing songs you'll ever hear, taken apart and examined like a clock radio that will never work again

and what I want to read:
Cross Country - by the guy who wrote Rats and that book about the Meadowlands
The Devil's Picnic - forbidden foods
Under African Skies - contemporary short stories by African authors
Beasts of no nation - Fiction. Child soldiers in Uganda.

You know when I'll know I really have my life back? When I can do the Sunday NY Times crossword puzzle in a bar on a Sunday afternoon with my husband. Who's up for babysitting?