Put in a Good Word for Me

After yesterday's foray into burdens of proof and the worthiness of our justice system, maybe it's time I get back to something a little lighter. Since law school ended, I have had an inordinate amount of time to read. And not read about copyrights or wrongful birth or adoptions or anything else that someone else has decided I should read about. I started with Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I have had this book on the shelf for almost a year. It waited patiently for me to decide I actually wanted to read it. I never knew how much I really wanted to read that book.


So many things struck me about this book, but perhaps this most of all:


Giulio said, "Maybe you and Rome just have different words."
"What do you mean?"
He said, "Don't you know the secret to understanding a city and its people is to learn - what is the word of the street?"
Then he went on to explain . . . that every city has a single word that defines it, that identifies most of the people who live there. Whatever the majority thought might be - that is the word of the city. And if your personal word does not match the word of the city, you really don't belong there.
"What is Rome's word?" I asked.
"SEX," he announced.


Giulio was already on to the next and most obvious question: "What's your word?" (103-104)


When I read a book for pleasure, I still read like a student. I have a pencil in hand. I underline important passages. I write notes in the margins. I use an index card as a bookmark and write longer notes or things I'd like to look up or words I want to know or anything I feel needs further research. My index card for Eat Pray Love reads something like this:


108
Bali: caste system
Snakes
It's not like tying the cat to the pole
How do I define pleasure?
What is my WORD?
Rumi
Hafiz
Buddha
St. Teresa
Sufi mystics
Kabir
Sanskrit texts on yoga
Upanishads
Fred B. Eiseman


In trying to momentarily escape from my own mixed-up universe, I create more work for myself. This makes me think my word is MASOCHIST. Or maybe that makes my word CURIOUS. After all, George does have a friend named Betsy. But I haven't landed on one word yet.


Gilbert discusses a million things in this book: love, divorce, religion, God, friendship, soul mates, writing, meditation, soul searching - the list goes on. Gilbert put into words what I had been trying to articulate for years - a comforting thing in a book. I tend to get sucked into the world of a book very quickly and whole-heartedly (see this post for an example). I think it's my favorite part of reading. Gilbert made me want to go to Italy, India, and Indonesia without passing "GO" and without a second thought.  Maybe that makes my word IMPRESSIONABLE.

Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. -E. Gilbert, Eat Pray Love (260).

Come Live With Me and Be My Love

Part of the blog challenge I was doing was to write a letter to someone that you would never send. This isn't really something I wanted to do, seeing as how it seemed quite personal, but I think I've got it figured out. I'm going to write Jon Krakauer a love letter.  I just finished reading Into Thin Air by Krakauer, and another of his books, Into the Wild, has been one of my favorite books for years. Into Thin Air (read the Times review here), is Krakauer's personal account of the disaster on Mt. Everest in May 1996. There is something about the way that Krakauer writes that makes me want to do the most insane things -- yesterday, I thought, well, maybe I could climb Everest. And after I read Into the Wild 7 years ago, burning all of my money and hitchhiking to Alaska sounded like an amazing time, even if the experience might end with me frozen to death in an abandoned van.

I grew up with an ambition and determination without which,  I would have been a good deal happier. I thought a lot and developed the far-away look of a dreamer, for it was always the distant heights which fascinated me and drew me to them in spirit. I was not sure what could be accomplished by means of tenacity and little else, but the target was set high and each rebuff only saw me more determined to see at least one major dream through to its fulfillment.
                                   -Earl Denman, Alone to Everest, quoted by Krakauer in Into the Wild

But I don't just love Krakauer for the crazy ideas he puts in my mind, I love him for his vocabulary. Into Thin Air is 374 pages long. Contained in those pages were 51 words that I did not know the definition of. Well, I knew the definition to some of them, but not the exact definition.  I could figure out the meaning of the rest because of the context and not knowing the exact definition did not hinder my reading in any way.  But this is not good enough for me. I have a sick fascination with words, with the written word, and with the people who get to string them together for a living. I looked up the proper definition of all 51 words, typed them into a Word document, folded this paper in half and placed it inside the book for the next reader.  While I already knew generally what loquacious, ebullient, and vertiginous mean, I needed to know Mr. Webster's idea of what those words mean.  In addition to the words I knew, I learned a handful of new words to work into my vocabulary -- peripatetic, mellifluous, parvenus, crepuscular, prevarication, carapace, and mirabile visu, to name a few. Sometimes it's nice to be reminded that I don't know nearly as much as I think I do.

I guess I never got around to actually writing a letter, but I think you get the point.

Is it not a joy to learn? And to practice and share what you have learned? -Kung Fu-tze

On a related note, I want this book.

A Sadness in My Heart Like Stone

Those of you who know me even the slighest bit know that I love to read.  I just finished Diary by Chuck Palahniuk (which was not my favorite of his) and am in the middle of Beloved by Toni Morrison (good, but I think I liked The Bluest Eye better) and Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Also, I am rereading The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (who I love, especially Loose Woman). 

On other fronts, the move to Newnan (for me at least) has been very slow. I just brought another car load of my things to the new apartment and there are probably two car loads left to bring.  I spent the better part of today hanging pictures and putting books on shelves -- basically making my room my home.  It may sound materialistic, but I like my things. I mean, really like my things. Or maybe what my things mean.  I found hundreds of old pictures, my first drivers license, cards, wedding invitations, and a myriad of other things I've collected in 27 years.  I found a scrapbook my best friend made for me when I moved from Dothan to Montgomery when I was 13, my senior yearbook, the ticket from the Dave Matthews concert we went to the summer we were 18, my Auburn student ID, and a bunch of Beckett's baby pictures.  Recently, I've been feeling, well, out of it. I wouldn't say depressed, just maybe not like myself.  These things were a great reminder of what a great life I've had.  It's a reminder I desparately needed and welcomed whole-heartedly.  A reminder of 27 years of people who have loved me, and more importantly, who I have loved.  You all know who you are, from high school to college to law school.  I have been a tremendously lucky girl.  If I had a scanner near me, I would post some of the pictures here, for they contain the most wonderfully hilarious memories (maybe that will happen soon). 

Now, onward to that blog challenge I have so gracefully avoided...

Day Twelve: A Picture of Something You Dislike

I got a lot of problems with a lot of things, and now you have to hear about them. Or read about them.

First and foremost, I am big on table manners. They are very important to me and I will not hesitate to judge you if your mama didn't teach them to you. Or if you weren't smart enough to figure them out for yourself.

And then there's the issue of grammar.  I have no idea why the difference between your and you're, or there, their, and they're is so difficult to master, but apparently it is.  I also take issue with the use of the following abbreviations: Ur, plz, cuz, etc. But I'm the girl who punctuates and capitalizes text messages, so what do I know?

There are, I'm sure, a million other things that I dislike. But in an effort to get me out of whatever funk I've been in lately, I'm not going to dwell on the negative any longer.  Those are two things I dislike without having to think about it, and that will suffice for today.

I think I've posted this poem before, but I love it so much.  It's by Sandra Cisneros and appears in Loose Woman, which was given to me by one of my favorite women (and oldest friends), Hillary Ballant Ryan, who you can find here.

There's a poem in my head

like too many cups of coffee.
A pea under twenty eiderdowns.
A sadness in my heart like stone.
A telephone. And always my
Night madness that outs like bats
across this Texas sky.

I'm the crazy lady they warned you about.
The she of rumor talked about -
and worse, who talks.

It's no secret.
I'm here. Under a circle of light.
The light always on, resisting a glass,
an easy cigar. The kind

who reels the twilight sky.
Swoop circling.
I'm witch woman high
on tobacco and holy water.

I'm a woman delighted with her disasters.
They give me something to do.
A profession of sorts.
Keeps me industrious
And of some servicable use.

In dreams the origami of the brain
Opens like a fist, a pomegranate,
an expensive geometry.

Not true.
I haven't a clue
Why I'm rumpled tonight.

Choose your weapon.
Mine--the telephone, my tongue.
Both black as a gun.

I have the magic of words,
the power to charm and kill at will.
To kill myself or to aim haphazardly.
And kill you.

The Second Verse, Same as the First...

For the 45,378,274th time, I am starting a whole diet/exercise kick. I figure if I write about it on the blog, then maybe I'll actually stick with it :). Well, that's the plan at least. I'm not going to say how much I weigh right now, or what my measurements are, but I will post updates. So, now you have to help keep me in line.

On the reading front, I have started three books. I always do this and it ends up taking much longer than it should to finish one because I'm trying to read 3 or more at once. Here's what they are:

(1) Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I hated, I mean hated, The Great Gatsby, but I loved The Beautiful and the Damned, I thought I'd give Fitz another go. So far, this is my favorite Fitzgerald so far.

(2) Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why by Bart D. Ehrman. This book is very interesting and really makes you think. I would recommend it to EVERYONE.

(3) Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt. Anyone who knows me knows how much I adore Shakespeare and how my idea of a party trick is reciting Richard's opening monologue from Richard III (one of my favorites). Since not much is actually known about Shakespeare's life, this book relies on a lot of speculation (educated speculation, but speculation nonetheless). But what Greenblatt presents is wonderful.

June 3, 2009: Part Two

Part One dealt with reading and exercise, while this post deals with law school. I got the shock of a lifetime today -- I got best paper in Criminal Law! I am so proud of myself, especially since I didn't think it had gone that well at all. Okay, I had intended for this to be longer, but that's really all I had to say!

Oh, books on my current reading list:

(1) Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreier

(2) The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin

(3) Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought by L. Ron Hubbard

(4) The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill

(5) The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

(6) Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt     

(7) The World of Rome by Micheal Grant

(8) A Doll's House and Other Plays by Henrik Ibsen

(9) Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence

(10) Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth   

June 3, 2009: Part One

One day, two blogs -- only because they are about vastly different things. This one is going to be about reading & exercise.

Reading: Right now I am reading Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Here are some of my favorite quotes from it so far:

He gets the title from Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats:

" Already with thee! tender is the night...

...But here there is no light,

Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown

Through vendurous glooms and winding mossy ways."

"He seemed kind and charming -- his voice promised that he would take care of her, and that a little later he would open up whole new worlds for her, unroll an endless succession of magnificent possibilities."

"Maybe we'll have more fun this summer but this particular fun is over. I want it to die violently instead of fading out sentimentally -- that's why I gave this party."

"When you're older you'll know what people who love suffer. The agony. It's better to be cold and young than to love. It's happened to me before, but never like this -- so accidental -- just when everything was going well."

"Later she remembered all the hours of the afternoon as happy -- one of those uneventful times that seem at the moment only a link between past and future pleasure, but turn out to have been the pleasure itself."

"So many people are going to love you and it might be nice to meet your first love all intact, emotionally, too. That's an old-fashioned idea, isn't it?"

"Tell a secret over the radio, publish it in a tabloid, but never tell it to a man that drinks more than three or four a day."

Exercise: I have been so proud of myself this week. I can always justify not exercising, but I have been very good this week! I have walked with Beckett for at least an hour every day and I have also been riding my bicycle at night. More updates later!

Tender is the Afternoon

Beckett went down for a nap around 1:30 this afternoon, and since then, I have done nothing, and it has been fantastic. Well, I read some more of Tender is the Night, listened to some Edith Piaf and Ray LaMontagne, and g chatted with P. Lovely.

And, I went for a 30 minute-ish bike ride last night, and this morning B and I went on an hour-long walk. I am so glad the eather is finally nice, humid, but nice. 

It is a damn shame that classes have start back (at least for Brandi, Caitlin, & me) on Monday. But, on the bright side, they are night classes, so I'll still be able to enjoy my days with B!   

...And Expands Again

Caitlin and I went to Trade-N-Books (at least I think that's what it's called) and I got tons o' books. I can't remember all of them, but here are a few I picked up:

A Selection of Plays by Henrik Ibsen
Some crazy book about Scientology
Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
Struck and White's Elements of Style (this is a replacement, I lost mine years ago)
A book about Roman history

That's only about half of what I got and I could not be more excited.

In law school news, I have made a B+ in Torts, Contracts, Property, and Criminal Law! Turns out studying your ass off does tend to pay off :0)

The Library Expands Again...

...I love a break from school for one VERY important reason -- it gives me time to read for pleasure! (And I think we ALL know how much I love to read...)

Reading List (for now, sure to be updated soon!):

Everything That Rise Must Converge -- Flannery O'Connor

A Good Man is Hard to Find -- Flannery O'Connor

Tender is the Night --  F. Scott Fitzgerald