Unhappy dogs

It’s probably a good idea for me to update my blog regularly considering I’m not writing at this time and haven’t written in months. It’s a problem. I did write a prose poem a few months ago, and I wrote a scene for a story, but other than that? Sigh . . .

I’ve been reading Milan Kundera’s The Curtain--essays on the novel. It’s quite good. Cerebral, little aphoristic like sections about literature. But I forgot it at home. I read half of it yesterday, wanted to finish it today at the store, but it looks like I won’t be finishing it until tonight or tomorrow.

Friday night I went to a Halloween party. I’m not sure what I was, but I wore this bright pink wig, pink eyelashes, and a long flowing pink dress. I didn’t dance because I didn’t want to. I didn’t drink myself into a blackout. I saw a friend I had been worrying about and he was okay. I laughed. I heard some wild stories. I talked to my friend until 1:30 AM. Then went home.

Saturday. I had to pick up my friend at 9 AM. I tried to start my car and realized I’d left the lights on all night and the battery was dead. I searched for jumper cables, but found none, so I took the other car and picked up my friend and called someone and asked if they had jumper cables and they said yes so I drove over and got the cables and went to the house and jumped the car and then I couldn’t turn the car off so I drove to Kannapolis and looked for books. I found Gertrude Stein, Cormac McCarthy, a neat perfume book, Edgar Allen Poe, Annie Dillard, Louis L’Amour, Philip Roth, and a few others for the store.

On Sunday I ate entirely too much Halloween candy. I ate at least 12 mini chocolate bars, along with Swedish fish, Sweettarts, taffy, tootsie rolls, sour bears, and Starbursts. I was so sick I almost barfed. Then I crashed from the sugar and felt utterly depressed. I also took a long nap, which made me feel worse instead of better. For some reason, naps always make me feel more edgy and restless than usual. I try not to take naps for this reason, but sometimes, especially if I’ve been reading for a few hours, sleep is inevitable.

Someone has tied their dog to a lamppost across the street and the dog is not very happy about it.

The best thing about the bookstore is recommending books to others. It’s deeply satisfying to me when someone walks out with a book I loved reading and I like to imagine that person will enjoy it as much as I did and it will change them like it changed me, because books change the way you see yourself in the world.