Monthlies

That’s right.  It’s been a month, blogfriends.  *ahem*

So what’s shakin’?  Or, what’s been shakin’?  Let me run it down for you

We had a kickass Thanksgiving last weekend, complete with a dip in Lake Erie, just for giggles.  Effer is COLD, people.  My legs went numb almost immediately, but still I soldiered on and out to waist deep water where I took a deep, scared breath and plunged myself right under.  And I didn’t die.  But I did feel pretty tired afterwards, like my body was trying to use all its reserves to ensure my organs maintained functionality.  Which is good, I guess.  The boys and I were pretty proud of ourselves for taking that plunge, and I can honestly say that was the first time in my history of cottage life that I have ever been for a swim on Thanksgiving weekend.  This is why we have our Thanksgiving in October, people!  And, having mastered the Thanksgiving swim, The Musician and I were talking about participating in the mother of all swims, the New Year’s Day Polar Bear Dip.  For some odd reason this is something I’ve always seen on the news and thought “pffft whatever, I could do that” but I never have.  Maybe this is the year for me – and the boy.  What do you think?  Should I attempt?  And would it be better or worse to be hungover while doing it? 

So I’ve been crazy-swimming and cottage-ing and you know what I haven’t been doing?  Reading.  I know, right?  Crazy.  I recently finished On the Road to Babadag by Andrzej Stasiuk which was a lovely homage to the parts of Europe that almost never get written about.  You know how people write memoirs or travelogues on cities like London and Paris or countries like Spain and Italy?  Those are pretty easy to find.  But what about the “other Europe”, as Stasiuk calls it?  Tirana and Saranda, or Sibiu and Rasinari and cities in Moldova or Slovenia?  Exactly.  But Stasiuk does, and On the Road is beautifully written, a slow-paced story of people and history, landscape and passion. 

So ok, I did read that and I enjoyed it, but other than that one book?  Nothing.  Strange, but I think part of my problem is that my city’s public library system, which I love dearly and with all my heart, is failing me on the ebook front.  They almost always have the books I want to read either available currently or available to reserve, but they almost never have these books in ebook format.  And my poor old Kobo is feeling pretty neglected.  And I’m a little frustrated with having to cart big heavy books around once again.  And I know I sound like a great big whiner who just started a third sentence with the word and, so probably shouldn’t be paid any notice anyway.  But still.  I’d love to be reading away on Kobo, but it’s just not happening.  Those are my excuses.  There will be more reading in the near future, of course, since I do have another nine books to read to fulfill my 2011 reading challenge.  Oh, hai!  Yes, in fact I have read 41 books thus far, it’s true.  Can I get a witness?  Or a wut-wut?  Okay, moving on.

Yeah, a month goes by and that’s all I’ve got?  I either need to get a more exciting life or get better at remembering shit because I know there’s more.  Finding its way from my brain to here is really the problem.  Getting on that, kids.