Saturday, August 05, 2006

Sometimes it's like you're a big pie settin' on the table, and everybody runs up and gets their piece of you. When it's over, the plate's empty.

Library books awaiting my reading eye: Geek Love - Katherine Dunn; Icebergs - Rebecca Johns; TinTin in Tibet; Why Did I Ever - Mary Robison; Elements of Style - Wendy Wasserstein; Broken for You - Stephanie Kallos; Havoc, in Its Third Year - Ronan Bennett; How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved my Life - Mameve Medwed; The Brief History of the Dead - Kevin Brockmeier; Saffy's Angel - Hilary McKay; Suite Francaise - Irene Nemirovsky; Veronica - Mary Gaitskill; Gentlemen and pLayers - Joanne Harris.

Also, my review copy of Twenty-Four-Karat Kids came in the mail yesterday. Add it to the pile.

***********************

You know you’re old when:

Sleeping in means 9 a.m.

You are sucking down Excedrin and coffee to go to work with an incipient migraine rather than a hangover.

Said headache is caused by TWO beers ingested over the space of four hours, rather than a dozen beers over the same time period.

You dig thru your purse because “I have the change.”

You see two guys in Starbucks, can tell they are father and (college-age) son, and are attracted to the older one. (And the younger one, in his droopy shorts and flip-flops, looks impossibly gauche and, good god, he’s a BABY!)

**********************

Things I have learned the hard way:

Eat your broccoli FIRST, the cake is going nowhere.
And if it does, you weren’t meant to have cake today.

There is no Prince Charming, no “The One.” But you can take the one you’ve got and make it a pretty damn good thing, too.

NEVER buy shoes a half size too small. It doesn’t matter how cute they are. They will not stretch.

Pay now or pay later; you will still have to pay.

If you have to TELL someone you are an adult, you are probably not acting like one.

18 comments:

Paula said...

About the adult thing? You're right, unless your talking to your mother.

BabelBabe said...

That's how I learned it : )

Anonymous said...

I like the "Pay now or pay later" philosophy. Also the Prince Charming thing.

You are very philosophical and wise today, Miss Babelbabe.

Kathy said...

The shoe thing is my favorite -- I hated that I had to buy a bigger size after I had kids but I did it using this philosophy.

I'll be interested to hear what you think of How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved my Life. I've thought about reading it because I like the title but I haven't picked it up yet.

Caro said...

I am that pie.

Joke said...

I've been the pie tin.

-J.

Badger said...

You HAVE TO read Geek Love. And also, you HAVE TO let me know what you think of the Brockmeier book when you read it, because it's on my wishlist, too.

I eat the cake first, because the broccoli's going nowhere, but maybe that's wrong.

Sarah Louise said...

Saffy's Angel! Oh, it is so wonderful. Oh Oh OH.

Couldn't get into Elements...

Did you finish Literary...in LA yet?

Oh, but Saffy's Angel...

Sarah Louise said...

But I do have change!! (But my wallet doesn't have a change purse, so it truly is DIGGING to get some...)

lazy cow said...

Definitely no Prince Charmings out there! I have this argument with my single girlfriends all the time. I'll take cake over broccoli anytime (because if you eat broccoli raw, like I do, it still tastes good afterwards).
Tried reading Geek Love years ago but couldn't get into it. Havoc is very interesting though. What is the 24 carat kids? Is it a magazine?

Gina said...

I own Geek Love, so if you don't get time to read the library's you can borrow mine.

And I liked Elements well enough, but didn't love it. Fairly or not, my reading of it was really clouded by the fact that she's dead. You know?

kilowatthour said...

i find myself with the next three weeks off(ish). i thought i might try out this "reading" i've heard so much about.

1st up: the mysterious flame of queen loana, by umberto eco. i'm ambivalent.

BabelBabe said...

oh god, kilo, PLEASE not Eco. I loved Name of the Rose as much as the next person but after that his stuff got obtuse, obscure, abstruse - what's the word I am looking for....BORING and PRETENTIOUS?

Yeah, that's it.

Instead, go read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, or even a Zadie Smith, for God's sake. Or Rohinton Mistry's Fine Balance. Or Penthouse. ANYTHING would be more entertaining.

kilowatthour said...

yeah, i know what you mean about mr. eco. i really enjoyed baudolino, though. i had high hopes when i bought this one but i find myself bored before even opening it.

perhaps i'll dust off some other unread books i have lying around...

like: the voyage out, or my antonia, or i appear to have a copy of something called the cloud sketcher. we'll just see what happens.

blackbird said...

I was just going to quietly whisper:
amen on the shoe thing...

because you know how I am about the reading thing.

Suse said...

My house is strewn with Tin Tin books. I return them to the library, and mysteriously they reappear a week or so later.

(Tin Tin in Tibet is one of the better ones though if you must have Herge in the house).

Anonymous said...

I have to second the vote for Cloud Atlas. One of the most amazing things I've read in a long time.

The Brockmeier is awesome, check it out. Also The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis. It starts off slow but grows on you.

BabelBabe said...

i just read The Thin Place. it was...interesting.

I also have a copy of The Cloud Sketcher floating around, picked i tup at a book sale for a quarter, no idea what it's about.

and i LOVED My Antonia.