It is night and everyone

It is night and everyone is asleep. No one is asking me about, for, to do,
ANYTHING! I love night! I love when little eyelids are closed and breathing is
slow and sweet. Hands are still, lips are silent, bodies are twisted and curled
and tucked. I also like it when R is snoozing and drooling away! I try once a
week to stay awake just to do little nothings that I want to do: paint my
toenails, cruise all over the web, read until my eyes feel like two burnt holes
in a sheet. I crave completion of tasks without interruption. Companionship with
myself is becoming more and more important and understood the older I get. I
used to secretly judge all the older women who celebrated their husband's
business trips with dinners out, movies in, and a few extra glasses of
Chardonnay as dried-up old hags who had lost love and found resentment and
disappointment their kindred spirits instead. I get the Cool Mom of the Year
award for scoring tickets to The Return of the King opening show at 12:01 A.M.
Wednesday, December 17th. We are planning on a Tolkien Fest. After viewing the
first two at home, we will bundle up and head out to sip hot chocolate while
waiting in line to get the best seats! I require E to read all the books before
being allowed to watch the films. I am a purist and have little room for
artistic allowances, but I think that Jackson has done a stand up job with this.
We can hardly wait. Speaking of waiting, what is up with people putting
Christmas decorations on their homes the third week in November? Let us eat some
turkey first for pete's sake! I always wait until the first week of December to
even dig out Frank, much less lights, greenery, and Nativity sets. Good grief!
We are going up the mountains to cut our tree down this year. We have always had
a real tree. I love the smell and as long as it is watered frequently enough,
the needles are never a problem. We decorate, listen to Nat and Frank, and sip
hot chocolate and/or egg nog. Then we lay on the floor and stare at the lights.
I let the kids decorate the tree as they wish. I figure the time is coming when
I can compete with Martha (from a comfy cell), so we hang colored lights and
stringed popcorn and candy canes and paper ornaments fashioned with sticky hands
in Sunday School. I dropped by my local bookstore today. They have a coffee shop
that also sells little sweets baked by the owner's wife. I love to bake, but
even my best recipe pales to this woman's cookies. If I am anywhere near the
area, I have to stop in and pay a fortune for one of them. Maybe they aren't as
tasty as I think. Perhaps it is the thought of eating one all by myself that I
savor more than the sugar and chocolate. I cannot decide which it is that
actually draws me... Anyway, while there, I was introduced to a book by Thomas
Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization by the bookstore owner. Side bar: One
of the reasons that I absolutely love "You've Got Mail" is because of the scene
in which Meg Ryan's character goes to Tom Hank's book superstore and finds a
woman looking for a children's book with some ignorant sales person poorly
attempting to help her find it. Meg overhears and is able to tell the woman
exactly what she needs, who wrote it, and why the story is so endearing in the
first place. Now, I go into Barnes and Noble when I see one, but what addict can
resist a seller on the street? A quick stop is made for a small purchase, but
it's the regular supplier that gets the big business. Thus, I was in the
bookstore nibbling my gigantic cookie (without having to share) and listening to
a discussion between one customer, two employees, and the most completely
anti-social social studies major that has made the lives of the owners miserable
by his inhabitation of their store. In the discussion, someone mentioned a new
book (Sailing the Wine Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter) by said author. My
interest was immediately piqued. Apparently, the man is writing a series of
books, The Hinges of History, and this is the fourth. I wanted to know about the
other three. Here was I brought to my above mentioned purchase. It is a great
read! I love hearing things from differing perspectives. I am only into the
first chapter but am already amazed at my complete ignorance. Either I was
absent more times from history class than I realized or they have got to stop
having the coaches teach. That is a whole different blog. Alas, their supplier
is removing The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, and The New Yorker from their rack!
I can't find those magazines anywhere in this annoying little town. They were
told that they weren't selling enough of them. Doesn't that say something about
this place? No good restaurants, no good shopping, and only one bookstore (Thank
God!) and only recently acquired at that! Where am I to purchase my serious
periodicals? On a more superficial note, have you checked out the latest In
Style Magazine? I have never thought Julia Roberts an actress with great depth,
I mean most of her movies are " and they all lived happily ever after." I have;
however, always thought her luminous. Everytime I read an article about her I am
surprised at how articulate she is. She has a varied vocabulary and seems to be
well-read (leave me alone, I don't know why it surprises me, o.k.?) I do plan on
seeing her newest film Mona Lisa Smile, a more positive and less bizarre take on
an old Maggie Smith (another of my A-List actresses) movie, The Prime of Miss
Jean Brodie. I think I like watching her films because sometimes I need a good,
predictable ending. So, for that Julia, I am thankful, and maybe your smile,
it's nice, too.