Andare, Partire, Tornare ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three wee clothespin dolls and tales of the Hood Why do I feel the need to get territorial about *my* bathroom stall here at work? Don't fucking use my bathroom stall, people. I've marked it. Mine. It's my quiet room when I need to destress. Not that today has been particularly stressfull. I spent the morning with my boss and two reps from Artex, because we're getting estimates on long-term art storage for when we renovate two more storage areas. They brought swag, bless them - so I am now wearing an Artex hat, have two Artex pens, an Artex notepad, and, strangest of all, really yummy Artex mints. While the mints are great, they were sealed in some sort of manner more befitting cyanide or nuclear waste. I had to attack the tin with a letter opener before it opened. Spent the rest of the day making clothespin dolls in practice for when I have to teach a little pack of Brownies how to make them. Actually, they came out pretty well, so now I have three elegant clothespin women dancing around my desk. I need to get some chinese food paper umbrellas so they can have parasols. At least I got to use some of the scraps of material I had left over from another project - one of the dolls is now dressed in really elegant wine-red brocade. However, my attempt at giving her a kick ass hairstyle just didn't work, because I'm not exactly a wizard with the black Sharpie. Just reread Robin McKinley's _Outlaws of Sherwood_ for the first time in ages. I have to say that I find it a bit offputting compared to her other books (besides Spindle's End, which I don't think worked at all). Her tone (both authorially and via the characters) is a little distant, and it seems pretty obvious that the story of Little John and his love interest are what was most interesting to the author. Plus, the ending is just plain ol' depressing - whoohoo, everybody gets to go to Palestine and probably die in some horribly and historically accurate manner! Maybe they can all catch typhus before the Crusade is over with, because you know, it's not a Crusade without some horrible deaths from disease. Props to McKinley for not letting Lionheart be the typical fairy-tale deus ex machina king, putting everything to rights without any consequences for the lawbreaking that Robin's band did, but sending everybody off to die at the hands of the Saracens really just makes you feel low when you put the book down. I find the book very oddly paced, too. But now I want to go back and reread _The Blue Sword_, _The Hero and the Crown_ (which deals with depressing themes but doesn't make me feel like the ending of TOoS does) and _Deerskin_ (which deals with big horrible themes in a bloody and cathartic and empathic way). Tonight, another concert for ATF, and hopefully an early bed for me. I feel like poop warmed over. 3:39 p.m. - 2003-04-04 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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