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Sunday, October 28, 2007

Lazy Saturday Snippets

I woke up yesterday morning and stayed in bed to finish a great book - maybe the best book I've read so far in it's genre, which I guess I would say is personal storytelling - about Japan. It's called Japanland: In Search of Wa by Karin Muller, and I think there was a sentence on every page that I could relate to or had special appreciation for. This one was early on in the book: "I'm gradually starting to realize that being born Japanese in not unlike signing up for a lifelong stint in the military: good benefits, great job security, but not a lot of room for renegades."

This week I had a huge treat - I attended a Sarah Vowell reading for the first time. What fun. It's always feels so personal to hear an author read something they've written, and how gratifying to experience her biting wit and sarcasm firsthand. I can't wait to reread Assassination Vacation.

My parents are visiting this week from the Pacific Northwest. It's pretty great to have my mom around after being gone to Japan for four years and then only seeing her briefly earlier this year. Last night we carved pumpkins, which I think I can say I haven't done with my sister and mom for over twenty-five years. Lots of gooey fun.

I'm headed to Pittsburgh for work tonight for two days. I'm sure the trip will be worthwhile, but it sucks to leave while my mom is in town, and it sucks to be doing work on a Sunday.

Crazy dreams last night about returning from Japan, quitting my current job, and my boss finding my blog. Yikes. The night before it was continual dreams about Monopoly, after my BIL beat us all at a marathon (is there any other kind?) game.

Finally, I leave for my two-week vacation in six days. I haven't packed a Q-tip or even made a hotel reservation. I need to get on that.

3 comments:

  1. i'm jealous of the sarah vowell reading seeing. she's one of my favorite npr personalities. 'assasination vacation' is awesome. you'll like it.

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  2. I just wanted to stop in and say hello. I've been OUT OF THE LOOP for over a month now - hard drive crashed!! ugh. You can read a *tiny* bit about it in my blog (um, how ridiculous that for the past month, w/o my bookmark for my own blog, i haven't been able to even FIND my blog, let alone log in).
    I'm *sort of* up and running again. Playing more catch-up than anything.
    But what I really want to say is: I miss you. Will you email me your address and all contact info? Lost it all in the crash :(
    LOVE YOU!!!

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  3. i am reading a book now aout dinner with family, and one of the things he said really hit me: without technology, we wouldn't move so far away from one another, we'd stay closer to home, closer to those we love. but since we have cell phones and email and cheap long distance, we fare forth, losing something, maybe, in the process.

    lucky you to hear miss sarah.

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