A few lovely things for today, when I’m feeling grateful for new adventures, and even more grateful for old friends.
A few lovely things for today, when I’m feeling grateful for new adventures, and even more grateful for old friends.
Still have one more post to share from our Mt. Rinjani adventure, but for today, some Bukowski. I shared some more passages of his that I like here, as well.
Long walks at night–
that’s what good for the soul:
peeking into windows
watching tired housewives
trying to fight off
their beer-maddened husbands.
– Charles Bukowski
A few lovely things for today, our first day back to reality. We are officially Arizona residents, and are starting to wonder what the hell we were thinking, so right on schedule, then.
A few lovely things for a rainy day spent back in California, hunkered down under the covers and eating pomegranates like it’s my job.
On the way into Byron Bay coming south from the Gold Coast is a huge graffiti mural on the backside of one of the buildings. I saw it the first time we arrived in Byron, and was immediately obsessed with it.
I kept telling myself I’d get over there to take pictures of it, but I kept putting it off, mostly because the traffic coming back into Byron on that road is kind of a nightmare.
It wasn’t until we were driving out of Byron for the very last time, on our way to sell our car before jumping on a bus to Brisbane that I finally was able to stop and see it up close.
It was even more stunning up close, and made me feel sad and talentless. I can’t even draw a straight line (not really sure why people say that, if I could choose something to be able to draw, I would probably aim a little higher than just a straight line), and I am violently jealous of people who are artistic.
A few lovely things for today, when I am on my way to Gili, and hopefully am not seasick.
When you get off the ferry in the Sydney Harbour, all along the way to the Opera House there are dedications to well-known authors who are from or have spent time in Australia. It’s known as the Writer’s Walk.
It’s kind of like the Hollywood Walk of Fame, except way better.
I read about Forgotten Songs on the plane on the way to Sydney, and it wasn’t too far from Sydney Harbour, so we decided to check it out while we were wandering around one day.
It’s kind of hard to find, especially if you are me and are blessed with the combination of being utterly unobservant and also really terrible at directions. I consistently say “left” whenever I mean “right” and if I ever get a divorce, that will likely be the predominant reason.
Forgotten Songs is down a little side alley, over top of a cute little restaurant. I thought the exhibit was beautiful when I saw it, but since I’d only been in Australia a few days, the significance was kind of lost on me. As I spent more time there, and traveled away from the city, I started to notice the very distinctive and interesting bird calls of the native species.
I’m not much of a bird person, although I’m pretty sure I didn’t have a strong opinion either way until I moved to Hawaii, but spending four years dodging pigeons at every turn will put you off the whole species pretty quickly.
But even I had to admit that the bird calls we were hearing in Australia were very unique. There was an especially interesting one that sounds almost exactly like a woman screaming bloody murder, so that was a fun addition to the ambiance while we were sleeping in the car on deserted dirt roads in the middle of nowhere, but I got used to it eventually.
I’m not sure how long the exhibit will be there, but if you’re in Sydney over the next few months, stop in and check it out. You can learn more about the exhibit here.
I just finished reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I really liked it, I’d definitely recommend it. I really had no idea what the book was about before I started it, so I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen.
Isn’t it funny how when you read a book that someone recommends to you, or go to see a movie, one of the first questions people ask is “what’s it about?”. As if we only want to see a movie or read a book if we already know what’s going to happen.
The book takes places across several decades, and in many different places, so it’s very unpredictable, and I thought the ending was perfect, which is not something that I say about endings very often.
Especially towards the end of the book, everything is very tense and you are sure everything can only end in complete catastrophe, but then there is a deliciously simple but completely unforeseen twist.
This excerpt was on of my favourites:
“Because here’s the truth: life is catastrophe. The basic fact of existence– of walking around trying to feed ourselves and find friends and whatever else we do– is catastrophe. Forget all this ridiculous ‘Our Town’ nonsense everyone talks: the miracle of a newborn babe, the joy of one simple blossom, Life You Are Too Wonderful To Grasp, &c. For me– and I’ll keep repeating it doggedly till I die, till I fall over on my ungrateful nihilistic face and am too weak to say it: better never born, than born into this cesspool. Sinkhole of hospital beds, coffins and broken hearts. No release, no appeal, no “do-overs” to employ a favored phrase of Xandra’s, no way forward but age and loss, and no way out but death….And maybe it’s ridiculous to go on in this vein, although it doesn’t matter since no one’s ever going to see this– but does it make any sense at all to know that it ends badly for all of us, even the happiest of us, and that we all lose everything that matters in the end–and yet to know as well, despite all this, as cruelly as the game is stacked, that it’s possible to play it with a kind of joy?”
The Goldfinch plot centers around a famous painting. The story contained a lot of discussion about art history, and different artists and painting styles, which was really interesting to me.
I had been wanting to check out Khan Academy for awhile, so I went on there once I finished the book, and saw that one of their courses in an intro to basic art history, so I’ve been working my way through that in my spare time.
They also have math, history, and science courses, and courses on taking test like the SAT’s, LSAT’s, and GMAT. Definitely check it out if you feel like doing some book learnin’.
A few lovely things for today, because I’m procrastinating and because job hunting is the absolute worst.
loveliness. 