At the close of March, I thought it was appropriate that I talk about wind. I just finished listening to a book entitled Ill Wind by Dan Chabon. Honestly, I was quite disappointed by it. The plot had a great deal of potential, but by the end, you felt rather like the author seemed to feel…just get it over with. It ended with a less than satisfactory whimper when it could have been so much more interesting. Serial killer who is very mobile, cypher in the dates bodies are found, flashbacks to a mass killing in the primary character’s past, uncle recently out of jail…on second though as I type all of that, the book suffered from way too much. There was no way to pull it all together, so he just gave up and wrote The End.
I am now listening to The Woman in the Window. It’s for the fans of Gone Girl (although I really was lukewarm on that one). What I like about this book is the 40’s film noir references. The author is doing an acceptable job writing in that style, and I’m enjoying the flashbacks to Bogart and Bacall and Hitchchock. I’m afraid that it’s going to end predictably though. Stay tuned…
My week of retirement practice is coming to a close, and I am honestly rather bereft about it. To stick with the wind theme, I felt like this week was a downdraft that shot me through the entire week (I know, that was a terrible stretch). My body feels happiest when it’s heading to sleep around 4 am and getting up around 11 am. I have to admit that there was absolutely nothing about school that I missed this week, and I’m worried about making it through the next 48 days. I have absolutely no motivation whatsoever. I guess it’s a severe case of senioritis.
Speaking of seniors, I know I’m a bit behind, but the walk outs that the students participated in are giving me new hope. I am feeling like we needed to get to this point of hypocrisy and insanity to wake people up, and waking up the young adults is a huge score. I’m seeing resolution and activism in their eyes, and I like it. They are bringing us back to the future of the Civil Rights Movement, and hopefully this time we can make it stick! Let’s make some huge changes and move this country forward. We talk about the rights abuses of countries all over the globe, and we desperately need to be paying attention to our own backyard. People are dying for many reasons, not just lack of sensible weapon control, and our country needs to address those issues right now. I think these young people can force that with their voting power, and I think they are realizing that.
Observations this week…all of the old people get their nails done during the day at my nail place. I talked with one woman who is 92. She told me about her boyfriend is is 87 and blind, so she has to get on the ladder. I thought that might be a bad idea. I’m also learning that 33 years in education have not prepared me for entitled pet owners. I realize that when your pet is ill, you want answers. Unfortunately, at the emergency clinic, emergencies take precedence over, say, a limp that your dog has had for three weeks. You can try to impress me with your fancy suit and your big guy job, but ultimately, you will be seen after the hit by car and after the respiratory distress. And if you puff your chest out at me, after you’ve tried to impress me with your business card, I’ll make sure to lean into your entitled space, Mister. I may be wearing an Easter bunny scrub top but I’m a cranky SOB.
What else? I’m working 12 hours of time and a half on Easter! Yay! I’m still enjoying the vet job a great deal. I work with really smart hard-working people, and I’m finding the private sector much different than the public sector. If I bring up an issue, management looks in to it. AND they get back to me about it. AND they treat what I say with respect, AND they acknowledge and appreciate (sincerely) when I help out. I realize this might still be the honeymoon period but I’ve put a lot of hours in the last couple of months, and I’m not seeing things differently.
Okay, well, that was all fairly boring, but I hadn’t written in awhile. I keep hoping that I’ll get more interesting or funnier, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. Until then, I’ll at least have some book ideas for you.
The Edgy Librarian 