The Monday Book Giveaway is live! If you want a copy of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender, go comment on this entry!
Sorry about the delay. We got about 20 hours of sleep in five nights and six days, and we were exhausted! Then I woke this morning with a migraine — and a fairly busy calendar that had to wait until the pain subsided. But everything’s fine now.
It’s nice to be home.
We got home from Denver last night. We had a great time, but didn’t get much sleep — only three hours the night before we left to come home. Mars can’t sleep on airplanes, and we were in a row that doesn’t recline. So we were exhausted when we finally went to bed.
I woke up at 4 a.m. with a nasty migraine and got up to take medication. The really bad ones disorient my thinking, so I stumbled into Mad Scientist’s room, thinking it was the bathroom. I turned on the light, and he jerked awake and blinked at me. Realizing my mistake, I turned it off, and thankfully he went right back to sleep (it could have gone either way).
I remembered I had taken the meds with me to Denver, and I hadn’t yet unpacked, so I opened my suitcase on the floor and rummaged through it. I couldn’t find them. I checked the other suitcase — no luck. I tried to organize my scattered brain and remember where I’d packed them. Nothing.
Mars heard me rumbling around and sleepily asked what I was doing. Now, you have to appreciate that his alarm was set for 5:30. He had to get up today and go to work. I, on the other hand, could sleep in.
He got up. “Go back to bed,” he said. “I’ll find it.” He made sure my eyes were covered, turned on the light, and found my medication. He brought them to me, I took them, and we went back to sleep.
Now that is love.
This week’s winner is … (insert drama-producing movie music) … Cheryl McInnis! Congratulations! She chose Insatiable by Lauren Dane. Cheryl, please send your shipping information to katrina (at) stonoff (dot) com, and I’ll get your book on its way to you!
For this week, I’m taking a risk and offering a book I haven’t yet finished … but it’s fantastic so far! The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. It’s about a young girl who takes a bite of her homemade birthday cake — and finds herself overwhelmed by her mother’s sadness. From then on, she can taste in every bite the emotions of the person who prepared it. It’s a gift that’s really a curse. Fascinating premise, and the story itself lives up to it, as do the unique characters. Don’t miss this one!
Now, today’s hat (Kim’s Hat #3):
This is a fabulous hat! Most unique. Sadly, it belongs to my friend Kim rather than me, but at least it has a good home, right?
It’s vintage, so it’s too small for me. Modern women’s heads (like most of their other parts) are bigger than our predecessors, and my head is a little larger than average even for a modern woman (my hair is thick, shaddup). So vintage hats rarely fit me.
But even too small, isn’t this fab? It’s navy blue straw with gold cloth braid and a beaded medallion — and it’s in impeccable condition. Vintage straw hats are rarely in good shape.
I suppose this a boater, though it’s odd because the crown is actually below the brim. And you usually wear a boater flat — with the brim completely horizontal — but this one looked better tipped.
Or maybe that’s just me.
This is an ode to friendship (but in prose form).
Mars and I spent the day today visiting my former college roommate. I haven’t seen her since my sister’s wedding, twenty years ago.
Coleen was the first person in my life who really loved me unconditionally. I never understood it, especially since, at one of our first meetings, we stood in the church parking lot until 3 a.m. while I dumped my history, grief, and dirty laundry on her shoulders. She knew the worst of me first and still loved me.
A couple of months later, I came home from work depressed and lonely. It had been a sucky day, and I had nothing to look forward to but a ramen soup dinner in a cold, empty apartment. But that evening, I found a homemade gingerbread house waiting on my doorstep. It felt like a warm hug from a friend I didn’t know. It cheered me up for weeks as I admired it, picked candy off it, and tried to figure out where it came from. Though I talked about it often, it was a couple of years before Coleen admitted she’d made it for me because she knew I was feeling low. And we weren’t even roommates yet at that point.
People always say close friends should never live together, but Coleen and I were one of those exceptions that proves a rule (another is my friendship with Jeri and her husband — we’ve been sharing a house since May and still enjoy each other). Coleen and I had fun. And real life experiences too. Remind me someday to tell you about the Easter bunny and “Jonathan Devine.”
Mars and I are visiting friends in Denver and having a blast! Last night we went to dinner at the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse, a fascinating place. The building was originally built in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and the city sent it to Boulder as a gift.
The food was spectacular! I had Persian Chickpea Kufteh, chickpea balls in Persian tomato sauce and pomegranate syrup — fabulous. But the best dish was the Chai Tea Flan with crystallized ginger.
Tonight we saw Madama Butterfly at the Central City Opera. It was unbelievable. None of us had ever seen Madama Butterfly, though it’s the most commonly staged opera in the standard repertoire. I definitely see why it’s the most popular. It’s a very powerful story about two good women who love one man. Or maybe it’s about what happens to a woman who falls in love with the wrong man.
The Central City version was exquisite. The primary singers were great actors as well (especially Yunah Lee as Butterfly, though Chad Shelton was also wonderful as Pinkerton), and I wept through the last half of the show. Given the sounds of sniffles throughout the theater, I wasn’t alone.
And the staging was brilliant. A very simple Japanese home with movable screens for walls and lots of fabulous details like Japanese masks lining the stage and cherry blossom petals dropping from the sky. Though he didn’t sing, Scott Johnson was incredible as Butterfly’s Samurai father. As we filed in, he was sitting in a lotus blossom position with a stern expression, and for the ten minutes we waited for the show to begin, he never moved. The show began with his act of hari kiri, and it was vivid and powerful enough to make me gasp.
The entire opera was truly a powerful performance. I can’t imagine it would be any more moving staged at the Met or any opera company in the country.
Here we are in front of the Central City opera house with our friends, Steve and Dana. Don’t we look happy? We are. 
I saw this lovely woman in the airport Friday, and I couldn’t resist asking if I could photograph her fascinator.
She immediately pulled it off and handed it to me.
“No,” I said. “I meant, on your head. It’s so lovely against your hair.”
Obviously, she agreed.
Isn’t it fab?! She bought it at Walgreens. The drugstore!
If you can buy fascinators at the drugstore now, they are most definitely a trend. Let’s go find hairpieces, girls!
P.S. Why didn’t anyone mention the durn photo was sideways?
Today’s winner is … (insert dramatic pause) … Beverly C.! Congratulations, Beverly! You win Joshilyn Jackson’s great new novel, Backseat Saints. If you’ll send your shipping information to katrina (at) stonoff (dot) com, I’ll ask my wonderful local bookseller to put your book in the mail.
Now for this week … I’m fresh out of ideas, and already posting far too late. So I’m doing the easy and making this another Choose Your Book Week. Good news for all of you who wanted Backseat Saints and aren’t Beverly C. — you can ask for it this week! Or ask for another book if you prefer. Any book that’s readily available for $25 or less (don’t worry about the shipping). Just comment below with the title you want, and come back next week to see if you’ve won.
Contest open to anyone on the planet who has access to reliable mail service (one entry per IP address please).
Now, the hat (Kim’s Hat #2):
Now, this is a fascinator worth the name! And it’s definitely a fascinating — just a bit of silk flowers and feathers on a clip.
Obviously, I didn’t draw anything from this bit of fluff. Beverly C. was chosen at random.
Hint: do NOT click the link if you are the slightest bit squeamish about furry things that fly.
Yeah, I know. I said I would live. But I wrote that entry Friday night, with a Beret full of ice on my head, back when I really did think I would live.
Saturday morning I woke with a nasty headache. Still half asleep, I assumed it was a migraine, so I took my ercaf and went back to bed. When I got up at 10 a.m., it was worse than ever, plus I was nauseated. It felt like a hangover (*ahem* not that I know what a hangover feels like, Mom!). I took Vicodin and went back to bed. I couldn’t sleep for a long time, though, and my head continued to throb. When I got up a few hours later, I took extra-strength Tylenol, but that didn’t work either.
I finally went to the Urgent Care center, but they didn’t even bother to check me in. After hearing my symptoms, they just sent me to the emergency room for a CT Scan.
Mad Scientist must have noticed all the attention Girly Girl was getting — and gotten jealous — because he splashed me just as GG was pushing off the pool side. I couldn’t see for a second, so I didn’t catch her. It was OK, though she panicked a little and grabbed at me, pinching my arm.
I told him to stop. He did it again. And again.
I decided to teach him a lesson. Note to self: never try to out-roughhouse a fifth-grade boy.
