WAS IT SOMETHING I SAID?

22 July, 2015

Though I know that of course I had nothing to do with it, it seemed to be the way that a lot of my budding relationships run.

Today I went with Char to the next book club meeting.  I drive an hour and a half for these meetings and this is, I think, the third one I've attended.  I am starting to recognize the other people who come to the meetings and I like Carol, the librarian who facilitates the discussion.  It's certainly been the most satisfying experience I've had with a book club.

When I went to the first meeting, Char told me not to say anything about where I really lived because she thought that, technically, this was only for residents of her area, who were members of the local library, so when I signed in, I used my g-mail address rather than my Davis Community Network e-mail address.

But after my second meeting, Char ran into Carol at the supermarket and confessed my deep, dark secret.  Apparently Carol was thrilled and said they should advertise at the library that someone who lives 75 miles away likes the group so much she's willing to drive all that way to attend.

So today, I was going back to the group knowing I could be myself, if the subject arose (it didn't).  But Carol arrived today with a box of Sees candy to pass around to all of us to let us know that she has been transferred and she won't be facilitating the group any more.

Swell.  Just when I was feeling good about the whole thing.

Of course there will be a new facilitator and Char says she came once and is nice. so this probably won't change anything, but that was my first thought -- just as I join the group, the leader leaves!  Figures.

We were discussing "The Lowland" by Jhumpa Lahiri which I read earlier this month. Interesting multi-generational saga featuring an Indian family, living near Calcutta.  It's a story where just about everyone is unhappy and the children in each generation are seriously affected by their parents' inability to parent, or even love their children.

On the way home, I got deep into my audio book, Stephen King's "11/22/63," which I just started.  I'm not a big King fan, but this one promised to be free of the monsters and gore that seems to populate most King novels. It's a time travel novel and I am not far enough into it to find it riveting yet, but the premise is interesting (using a time portal to prevent the JFK assassination), though there are complications and I find a couple of major questions unanswered, and unlikely to be.  But I'm enjoying it.

And then there was tonight, when we went to Sacramento so I could review Peter Pan.  At the theater, I always read on my Kindle before the show and at intermission.  My current Kindle book is "The Rosie Effect," our book club selection for next week.  It's the sequel to "The Rosie Project" which we read two months ago.

So this was a book day.  I read at 3 different books and discussed a 4th.

On the home front, it's been a strange day, a day when I think we are all (2- and 4-legged) feeling the loss of Sheila.  Walt found Lizzie sniffing Sheila's collar.  The dogs did not bark this morning, at all, though it was garbage day and they always bark at the garbage men.  They also didn't eat their breakfast.

By tonight, things were more back to normal, but we are all definitely trying to adjust to a Sheila-less life today.