this is the vacation

living room painted. just hallways tomorrow.

then move two bedrooms and a study in a silly rotation that will get us back to the big bedroom connected to the walk-in closet and bathroom, the study in the next sized bedroom and ben t. back in the small bedroom that he's fine with. 2 of these rooms need to be painted in the process. I am hoping that this is about 2 weeks and maybe 20 ? 30? boxes of diss stuff will be recycled. other junk will get tossed, too.

then the floor in the living room.

no classes right now. no books I've promised to read. only one commitment at school this week and that's not until Thursday.

ben t. is at music camp, so no driving.

just have to wake almond joy for 6am swimming. someday even this she'll do herself.

I'm on vacation!

(book club did meet on the deck and it was lovely).

edited the next morning: that is the food and weather on the deck were lovely.

the discussion was about Maus and it was with a small intense group of people who were children of survivors, children of Poles who had helped Jews escape and were betrayed and sent to work camps, and grandchildren of children hidden in France whose relatives did not survive -- lovely was not the right word for this discussion. intense, thoughtful, enlightening, powerful, even a sense of how did I dare choose this book for this group where I still feel very new after about 2 years?   

Comments

[What Now?]

I find it comforting that we are virtual companions in our respective house-painting projects. I have finally admitted that I pretty much need one day off in between painting bouts; apparently hard work is anathema to me, and if I push myself to paint a second day in a row, I get queasy and grumpy. So I was "on" on Saturday, had yesterday off, and am back "on" today, working in the hallway that includes a built-in bookcase (which is great, but takes more time to paint) and acres of trim, what with the five doorways off of the one small hallway.

Good luck with the bedroom-switching plans. It sounds like a gargantuan project, but one that will be immensely rewarding once it's done.

[timna]

Yes! It's a four door and one linen closet hallway, but one side still has wallpaper on it that I'm not taking down (yet).

today should be an off day since I painted both Sat and Sun, and maybe that's why I'm moving so slowly this morning. it really is hard to say, it might be ok to go back to sleep and wake up when ready. shocking!

the bedroom switching is not really my idea of fun, but I've had my way for the past three years (small bedroom for sleeping, large sunny room for study) and now it's mr. t's turn to choose that the we go back to the large room as a bedroom. ben t. is just agreeable to whatever, so we'll take his larger bedroom for the study. I think he has his eyes on almond joy's basement spread next year anyway.

[What Now?]

Could you say a little bit more about the Maus discussion? It's a book I've taught many times and love, but I've never had the discussion with people whose personal histories were bound up with the Holocaust.

[timna]

The discussion was small: just a few people came, which happens both in the summer and because I'm way out in the suburbs. I almost postponed it last week when no one had said definitely coming. One said last night, after I read it, I was going to talk about it if it was just the two of us. She also said she never reads Holocaust books or watches the movies, but she was glad to have occasion to read this.

We talked a lot about the details that become visible in the graphic novel format and how readable it is (more accessable say than the short segment that has human beings in it). We talked about the characters as being familiar, likeable, not likeable. The after effects on the next generation, whether it's the author or others (family members). About half the people had visited the camps, so there was discussion about whether there's landscaping there and how the sites have changed in the last 25 years into tourist sites.

I think they were maybe willing to share partly because almond joy was there and spoke about her experiences with talking to her grandmother about her [grandmother's] experiences as a hidden child.

I felt presumptuous for having chosen the book, for not having thought more seriously about how it might affect others. On the other hand, I also felt that many people have read it (at school it's in the reading center) and I felt not having read it was a hole in my knowledge. But, I too, needed a reason to read it.