Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 96

Working Wednesday, June 9, 2021

I spent (not enough) time cleaning for Krissie’s visit this week (thank god, she’s not fussy) and the plan was for us to go through my stuff so she could take what she wants and I’d throw the rest out (yes, I know I should take it to Goodwill or something, but this needs to be done NOW). It’s probably wrong that my house is cleaner after she leaves, but it works for us. Except her visit got postponed until next week–that’s a good thing, she has something she needs to get done and I get an extra week to work here–so now the anticipation continues. Along with the cleaning.

What did you do this week?

A Beautiful Look at Bad Reviews

Atlas Obscura has a great post on the artwork done by Amber Share in her posters that incorporate one-star reviews of national parks.

I like Share’s view of bad reviews:

“If a national park—which is beautiful and incredible and inarguably amazing—is going to have one-star reviews, you also have no chance of pleasing everyone. It’s like—learning to laugh and have a lighthearted mindset about our critics, including the ones in our own heads, who are often the meanest.”

Possibly my fave (so hard to choose) although the one for Death Valley saying “Ugliest Place I’ve Ever Seen” is close (did you read the name on the sign, buddy?):

For more of Share’s posters, go here.

Happiness is Anticipation of Something Good

Krissie is coming to visit on Wednesday for five days. Nothing but good times ahead.

What made you happy this week.

This is a Good Book Thursday, June 3, 2021

My good book news: two of my favorite authors dropped new books on June 1 (Tuesday): Casey McQuiston (Red, White, and Royal Blue) with One Last Stop and Beth O’Leary (The Flatshare) with The Road Trip.. They’re on tap for this weekend. Oh, and I continued my exploration of New Age Adult romance, and The Book of Firsts (high school with lots of sex and no trauma) was a great fantasy (okay, not a fantasy fantasy but so full of sane people with very little angst and lots of money and connections that it felt like a fantasy and a lot of fun).

What did you read this week?

Working Wednesday, June 2, 2021

It’s June and spring has pretty much put me back on my feet (also vaccination, thank you, Science) and now I’m working my ass off getting ready for my first visitor in almost two years: Krissie. Fortunately Krissie has a large tolerance for animals and clutter, but even so, I must get this place in order. At some point, I have to go to Rockaway to get this damn keyboard fixed, too, but first things first: Krissie’s coming next week so I must work. Oh, and last week I put together two tables and a bench and took apart another table and did some other stuff. I worked.

How did you work this week?

Happiness is New PJs

I have a vast wardrobe of knit maxi-dresses which of course are easy to sleep in and which inspire me to do just that: wear one all day and then curl up to sleep in it. That is bad; my life needs some demarcations since it’s already amorphous (what day is it, anyway?). So I have made a new resolution: At midnight, no matter what I’m doing, I’ll take off the damn dress and put on pajamas. Which lead me to buy cheapo pajamas and nightgowns, which are delighting me because I was getting sick of wearing those damn dresses 24/7. Well, it’s pandemic life; I was getting sick of everything. (No, I didn’t set my stove on fire because I was sick of it, but it is giving me a chance to get rid of everything in the kitchen I was tired of, so BONUS.). Today, new pajamas are making me happy.

What made you happy this week?

This is a Good Book Thursday, May 27, 2021

Mhairi MacFarlane’s new book, Just Last Night, is great. There’s a darkness to this one, but it gives the story so much depth. I loved it.

What did you read this week?

Working Wednesday, May 26,2021

I know this is late. I’ve been working.

What did you do this week?

Wear The Lilac Towel Day, May 25, 2021

May 25th, as all Douglass Adams readers know, is Towel Day, the day to flaunt your towel in memory of an amazing author, who gave the best general advice of all time: Don’t Panic.

May 25th is also, as any fan of Terry Pratchett should know, Wear the Lilac Day, in honor of the events of the Discworld People’s Revolution (see Night Watch) whose rallying cry was,”Truth, Justice, Freedom, Reasonably Priced Love, and a Hard-Boiled Egg!” And after Pratchett’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, Wear the Lilac Day has been used to raise awareness and funding for Alzheimer’s research.

Because of this, today is the day that Argh Nation Wears the Lilac Towel in honor of these two great authors. We shall never forget (although we may be a little absent-minded at times and are easily distracted). Thank you, gentlemen, for multiple weirdly great characters in many twisting, startling plots not to mention brilliant observations on life in general and some of the funniest, smartest writing in specific. You are missed.

Here, have an Adams/Pratchett quiz. Who said what?

1. “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”

2. “Sometimes it is better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.”

3. “Solutions nearly always come from the direction you least expect, which means there’s no point trying to look in that direction because it won’t be coming from there.”

4. “If you don’t turn your life into a story, you just become a part of someone else’s story.”

5. “A learning experience is one of those things that says, ‘You know that thing you just did? Don’t do that.”

6. “The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.”

7. “Let’s think the unthinkable, let’s do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.”

8. “In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.”

9. “The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.”

10. “Getting an education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge to pass it on.”

11. “This must be Thursday,’ said Arthur to himself, sinking low over his beer. ‘I never could get the hang of Thursdays.”

12. “Sometimes glass glitters more than diamonds because it has more to prove.”

13. “Reality is frequently inaccurate.”

14. “It is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you’re attempting can’t be done.”

15. “The Answer to the Great Question… Of Life, the Universe and Everything… Is… Forty-two,’ said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.”

16. “Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.”

17. “There’s always a moment when you start to fall out of love, whether it’s with a person or an idea or a cause, even if it’s one you only narrate to yourself years after the event: a tiny thing, a wrong word, a false note, which means that things can never be quite the same again.”

18. “Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.”

19. “Words used carelessly, as if they did not matter in any serious way, often allowed otherwise well-guarded truths to seep through.”

20. “Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?”

Happiness is Lots of Color

{This was set to publish on Sunday and didn’t. That does not make me happy.]

When my kitchen stove went up in flame, the plastic things on both sides of it melted. I ended up with a lot of plastic blobs and no kitchen tools. (Okay, the stainless steel stuff made it, but that was all hanging on racks out of the direct flame zone.) So when it came time to replace them, I did something I’d never done: I bought a set. In turquoise. Because you know what looks good in a blackened kitchen? Color. It feels like those pictures of burnt forests when the wildflowers start to grow again. Then there’s my bathroom which I had done all in white tile figuring I’d add the color later and it would be easy to change. Now I have a bright orange plastic fish that holds my tooth stuff and bright green canvas fish hanging under my window to hold washcloths and a turquoise squeegee next to the mirror . . .

Color makes me happy. What made you happy this week?