Sunday, August 17, 2014

Sunday Salon: Summer of King

 Good Sunday morning friends.  Well it's been one of those weeks.  I don't know how else to put it.  Not the worst week, but one that could certainly not repeat itself if I had my druthers.

On a good note, my dad returned from Africa.  He had an excellent experience this time around, and didn't harm himself, get Ebola or get shot down by terrorists.

My daughter started school on Tuesday.  She is a high school Junior so it is old hat by now, but there is already no shortage of stress going on.  She gets up at 4:40am for cross country practice, has three AP classes and is taking an SAT exam prep course.  She's going to have a most shitty first three months of school.  I plan to stay out of her way, except to provide food and the occasional pedicure.

My son starts high school tomorrow.  Gah!  So this week we ran around trying to get the information we needed to, you know, be prepared, and it isn't easy.  I did attend a Freshman Mom Mixer and orientation, BUT.  This is our first foray in public school, and they do not hold your hand like the private schools do.  It is like a scavenger hunt to figure things out, dependent on your wily and creative skills.  He is going from a class size of 40 to 600, from a school he has attended since he was 2 1/2, and I know he is worried about fitting in and finding his place in this sea of humanity.  Pray for us tomorrow!

We had a doctor appointment to follow up on his endoscopy from a couple weeks ago.  Esophagus is awesome, and they pulled him off one med.  But he has lost a lot of weight since April and doesn't have much of an appetite, so more tests.  So I guess several weeks into the new year we will miss a whole day of school.

The Robin Williams thing.  I'm worn out over that.  It pretty much devastated me, not only because he was a beacon of light, but because of his suffering.  If I hear one more person that says he was selfish, I'm going to lose my shit.

Books, then, kept me settled this week.  I finished Karen White's "Return to Tradd Street", the latest in that series.  As I have said before, the male and female protagonists in these stories drive me crazy.  They adore each other but they take part in a ridiculous game of self-denial and pride.  But praise the Lord, things are finally looking up, and I did enjoy this installment much more because of that.  (Small digression:  The funniest thing in this book was when Melanie's secretary, an avid golfer, becomes one of Tiger's flings and moves to Florida to be closer to him.  LOLOLOL).

Then I decided it was finally time to institute Tina's "Summer of King", never mind that summer is almost over.  I needed this.  So I started "Duma Key" on audio, something I've had loaded on my iPod for EVER.  And it is so good.  Not an action-packed novel, but classic King storytelling on a fictional Florida key two islands south of where we just vacationed.  I also just started "Joyland" in print.  King is good stuff, and not necessarily horror.  He gets a bad rap for that, and people don't read him because they think it will be terrifying.  Some of his stuff IS terrifying ("It" or "Pet Semetary" come to mind), but some is very subtle and more about the journey, on which you will be totally sucked in.  I'd match some of his work up against any author of highbrow literary fiction.  It is that good.  There is a reason why a gazillion people love him.

Besides running my daughter up to her SAT class today, I'm not really sure what is on the agenda.  I'm hoping to keep it low key but these things are often not in my control.  Hope everyone gets their day of rest today.  

  


11 comments:

rhapsodyinbooks said...

Once again I am exhausted just from READING about all you do! LOLOL

Anonymous said...

I'm glad to hear you liked the newest Tradd Street book! That was one of my favorites, too - I love Melanie and Jack and was happy to see things go somewhere with them.

JoAnn said...

Junior year is, without a doubt, the toughest. I will pray for your sanity ;-)

And I'm with you on Robin William's death, too...

bermudaonion said...

Whew, I'm glad the high school days are behind us. Good luck to you.

I declare you the Queen of King.

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

The Robin thing, people can be such assholes. I've slowly been learning how great King is. This year I've read 11/22/63, It and The Shining. He really is so good!

Anonymous said...

Good luck with your son entering public high school. I remember entering a large public high school after attending a parochial school for elementary. It was eye-opening and yep, you have to do all the dirty work yourself! (now speaking as a mom of 3 kids who went through public schools and as a person who worked in them).

I have read some of the more subtle King books: this Duma Key and Bag of Bones come to mind. It's not always horror, but some of those horror books are pretty creepy and violent.
Enjoy the last days of summer!

Unknown said...

I will never forget our transition to public school with the girls. I was sure I'd lose my mind. It was and is fine. Wishing your son a great first day.
Nick had 2 AP classes this year and has already said it's going to be bad. Jr year is hard...we may need more wine and liquor.
I haven't finished a book in 3 weeks, couldn't concentrate post surgery...it's not been good.
Onto another week.....breathe deep!!

Beth F said...

School already?? Yikes! Have fun with the King!

Anonymous said...

I am so in denial about school starting! I'm simply not ready - and this hasn't happened before, except for the summer Natalie was in the hospital with her Crohn's. Even then, I had more time for lesson planning while sitting in the hospital than I've had at home this summer! Argh.

I agree about the Robin Williams thing. I don't think the death of a celebrity has every felt so personal. I have a sister who is struggling with severe depression right now, and it scares me to death.

Ti said...

My son is signed up for the PSAT this October and based on that score, we'll decide whether or not to do the SAT prep thing. He doesn't want to and I don't want to spend money on it if he doesn't want take it.

I got the grades back from summer school and it was a win win. All good. I am very happy.

We started off the school year with that idiot kid making stupid threats so the school was in high security mode yesterday and then they arrested a kid from our high school last night because of some joke he played on another kid.

King. I love him so and Duma is one of my faves. I loved the art, the setting and that there was a little woo woo in it but not too much.

Alyce said...

My oldest is in the same boat with missing school for health issues. He's already missed two days and will miss another day and a half in the next month for various appointments.

And the whole thing with people saying Robin Williams being selfish ticks me off too. You can tell which people don't have a single clue about depression by how they comment on various articles and/or social media sites.

As for Stephen King, I loved his writing so much in 11/22/63, and have been wanting to try another non-horror book of his, but wasn't sure there were any others. We have Doctor Sleep, which I started and was completely creeped out with after about 20 pages. The writing is too good, if you know what I mean. So creepy!

I hope the first week is going well for your son (and the rest of the family too)!