In which I've had enough.

Dear Universal Dispenser of Karmic Justice,

I am sorry. I get it. I am publicly apologizing for being superior, inflexible, intolerant, and narrow minded as an adoloscent. In my hubris I assumed that people were almost always responsible for their own situations, that behavior issues were always due the lack of discipline and good parents, that people who weren't advancing simply weren't trying. I understand now. I spoke in absolutes. I was wrong. Lesson learned. I am a much nicer person now.

That said, I'd like to dicuss the possibility of parole, because honestly, I need some Normal STAT. I really feel that 11.5 years of lesson learning is ample. If you take into account my toddlerhood (during which, by all accounts, I was a very sweet child), consider the standards of particular father I was given, and time spent in waiting rooms (and we all know that's just an Earthly extension of Purgatory), I think you will find that the time in which I was unaware of the error of my ways easily equals time spent learning humility.

I am really and truly sorry. Please, please, please can I have things in my life that work now? Or at least don't work any worse.

Megan

In which I wish you a happy New Year and make a resolution

My plan (call it a resolution if you must) is to be better at this. You may just end up hearing about what I ate for dinner, but it will be something, and something is better than nothing.

I've always thought it would be kind of neat to keep track of everything I read in a given year, so I thought I might do that here. Be forewarned that my previous attempts never got past February.

So far, in 2011 I have read:
Tara Road by Maeve Binchy I like Maeve Binchy. Particularly Circle of Friends and The Glass Lake. I know she's formulaic, but it doesn't bother me with her. I most enjoy her characters as children (although the twins in Scarlet Feather were irritating), they have a believability that is missing with other authors. That said, I avoided this book for a long time because there was an American in it. 1. I didn't want to leave Ireland. 2. I was a bit afraid that the Americans would be like Americans in 1980s British television - crass, nasal, and pushy. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the first half of the book was entirely about Ria and her family. I sometimes wonder about Maeve's own experience in love. She's always writing about incredibly good looking men attaching themselves to women who are socially/physically/fictitiously inferior and then everyone talks about how she'll have to watch him all the time until he does something stupid that proves everyone right, or turns out to be Stevie Sullivan.

The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig Total guilty pleasure! I it was very silly, I missed Eloise, and noted some historical anachronism, but Turnip Fitzhugh says "Didn't think there was such a thing... As too much kindness, that is." And it was so lovely and earnest, and unexpected that I think I actually gasped.

In other news Lucy says, tickle tickle, grum (some), and walks around with the mouth piece of her toy phone to her ear saying " 'ello, 'ello." She can also brush her hair. Clearly, she is a genius.