Sunday Salon: Winding Up the Bird

 Good morning and Happy Easter everyone!  I will admit that I am cheating and writing this post Saturday evening.  For one reason, we are going to the sunrise Mass at 7am, so I'll be lucky to get myself up, dressed and there on time, let alone write a coherent sentence.  

But also...it has been 40 DAYS since I have had a drink of anything alcoholic...no wine, no bubbly, not one wonderful concoction that my husband makes for me on a Sunday evening.  And I don't mind saying that it has been a very shitty, stressful 40 days, before considering the absence of alcohol.  A little tipple could have helped my state of mind more than once in this time period.

It has been suggested that I should wait and write my Sunday Salon about 3pm, and add some entertainment in your day, but I don't think so.  I will be happily settled into a comfy spot on my friend's couch, or chaise lounge, with a glass in my hand.  I make no apologies.  

So the kids have been out of school for a couple of days, and will be out all next week.  For all of you that have younger kids, I will warn you that high school sports coaches don't really care if you are on spring break however.  My daughter has a track meet on Wednesday, right in the middle of our break, and heavy consequences have been threatened if anyone misses it.  So we get a shortened vacation starting Thursday morning, when we head out to Key Largo for some snorkeling, fishing and lounging.  I hope to post some pictures next Sunday...we will see.  I cannot wait.

We had a book club meeting this week to discuss "Indiscretion" by Charles Dubow (a book I loved by the way).  I think it was the longest discussion we'd had in quite a few months!  Everyone found the book to be very easy to read, but not everyone could say that they loved it because of some of the characters.  No, not all the characters are worthy of love.  But if a book can make me hide in the bathroom in order to finish it in peace, then it deserves five stars!  

So a few days early, I started "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" for Ti's read-along in the month of April.  I bought the book years ago when my sister, who isn't so much an avid reader but a lover of Asian culture and all forms of media, told me this was a favorite of hers.  But then the weirdness and cleverness of Murakami (and the length of the book) scared me.  But sometimes you just have to get out of that comfort zone!  I'm going for it!  I'm about 150 pages into it, and it is strange but very interesting.  I have no idea where he is going with this missing cat, the psychic with a bad taste in hats, and the mysterious house at the end of the alley.  

I'm still listening to "The Next Time You See Me" by Holly Goddard Jones on audio, and I'm really close to finishing.  What a great story!  Uplifting it is not, but it is all dark and twisty and full of complicated characters.  I love books like that.  All Tana French-y and stuff.

So I wish you all a blessed Easter!  I will be around for the first half of next week but after that I may be a tad bit absent.  And later on Sunday, I shall make a toast to all of you!