Bloomsday

Another June 16th, another Bloomsday.

The bulk of action in James Joyce's Ulyssess takes place on June 16, 1904. It's a mountain of a book, but I really felt like I accomplished something when I finished reading the damn thing. I even liked bits.

At my uni, they did public readings outside the student union from morning well into the night.

This year Bloomsday is cancelled in Dublin due to the funeral of the prime minister. My favorite qoute on the subject is "You can't cancel Bloosday. That's like saying you can cancel Monday or Tuesday."

I heard on the drive home on NPR that the grandson of Joyce was trying to stop public readings of Ulyssess because of copywrite issues. The Rosenback Museum in Philadelphia has the original manuscript of Ulyssess and is planning a public reading today, Bloomsday, regardless of the young Mr. Joyce. And apparently Stephen James Joyce is also being sued for copywrite abuse, trying to supress publications about his grandfather that he does not like, and possibly distroying correspondence of interest to scholars.

In this New Yorker article we learn that Stephen James Joyce once turned down the requet of an academic from Purdue because he considered the name of the sports team, the Boilermakers, vulgar.

Sounds like a class act.

Joyce's unpublished work enters public domain in 2012.

Happy Bloomsday.

George Washington Did What??

Little known fact:

George Washington crossed the Delaware to wrestle a whale. True story.

Actually, this steams from Delmar being underwhelmed by the size and majesty of the Delaware at Washington Crossing State Park and scoffing that G.W. could just jump across if he had a running start. He was not impressed a was lead to believe by many public school history books that the Delaware was a wide, majestic river.

Here's a poem that only raised expectations. And a mug with the famous painting.

I thought the Delaware was decent sized. So I said, "Two other boats didn't make it over that day. And the water was freezing."

Not impressed.

"Would it helped if he wrestled a whale on the trip over?"

"Yes! George Washington wrestling a whale. That's a President."

So I thought the nonsensical idea deserved an illustration.

Hey Baby, You Look Pretty to Me

After a long day of work, I'm unpacking the laptop/breifcase, etc from the car and some guy (dark skin, tall, thin, not unattractive) comes up to me and says, "Hey Baby, you look pretty to me."

I hesitate. You look pretty to me. That's a rather backhanded compliment. I'm sure he didn't mean it that way, but all I could think was, "And to everyone else but you, I'm a dog. Thanks for tossing me a bone."

I say, "Thanks." Totally skipping the "for the bone" that was my innner monologue.

"I saw you yesterday but you were in a hurry."

"I was on my way to work." I take my sunglasses off, waving my wedding ring in front of my face.

"What's you name?"

"Melissa."

"Felicia," he says.

"Um, Muh-Lis-Ah," I say slowly.

"Fuh-Li-Ci-Ah," he repeats.

Great. I look pretty to him and he thinks my name is Felicia.

Still, I always appriciate the odd chat-up.

Mum's in Town

Mum and BIll came into town this week. I played the role of dutiful daughter and tour guide. As a result, I am exhausted.

Highlights include:
Winning $40 clams in Atlantic City.
Immediately spending $30 of those clams on a pink knock-off Burberry bag. Styling.
Having Mom lecture me about curteous driving as I push my ways through rush hour traffic in a minivan.
Lunch in Chinatown and introducing Mom to dim sum and bubble tea.
Thrift store crawling. My family loves a bargain.

Now that she's gone, I miss having my mother around. It was nice.

Next vacation idea

Okay, it's weird. But how cool would it be to go to Dracule's Castle for our next trip?

30

Yesterday morning I wake up and Andy says, "Do you know what day this is?"

"Wednesday," I say, failing the entrance exam for Spy Girl Camp. (It was a bit early for guessing games.) I was still in bed, for crying out loud.

"No. Today's your last day of being in your twenties."

I was tired. And groggy. My eyes started watering. "Shut up! Why would you say that to me!"

"Life begins at thirty," Andy says.

"Shut up, shut up!"

"I'm trying to make you feel better."

"You suck!"

And that was the tone of the day. Everyone at work knew I was turning 30 so they tried to make me feel better about it, which can only make a person feel worse. The way people are acting, it's like I was going to have all my hair turn white and develope instantanious arthritis.

Thankfully, this morning (the 30 morning) Andy didn't try to make me feel better. However, I did anounce that I was spending 30 in jim-jams.

"Wait," he said, "all of your thirties?"

"Just 30."

"Good thing I didn't get you a girft certificate to a clothing store." I did get a gift certificate to a bookstore. Cool.


But now it's my birthday and I'm 30.

It's just a weird concept to wrap my head around.

But I can say that it was WAY more traumatic finding my first white hair at 25. I was getting my hair cut and I was so surprised I stated to tear up in the hair-dresser's chair.

Playing catch-up

At lot has happened in the month since my last post. I know. I'm terrible at these things. Everytime I sit down at the keyboard, my mind just kind of dries up and I can't think of anything to write.

For our anniversary. Andy and I upgraded to a king-size bed. It's beautiful. And comfy. And it's so large, I can stretch out my arm and not hit Andy. Cool. And the snoring has been reduced to a rumbling in the distance, as opposed to right in my ear.

I had the prep work done for my bridge this week. I am now wearing a temporary bridge. It hurts. And feels funny in my mouth. My tongue hurts, which is just plain weird. And it hurts to talk.

I have started to re-write the nano 06 novel. So far I've added a character named Florida. I'll post in the lab when I have something more than one page long.

That's all I got for now.