Welcome to the 21st Century!

I did it. I finally got a smart phone. 

A Samsung Fascinate to be exact.

Yay.

Beatrice and Virgil

Beatrice and Virgil

by Yann Martel

This morning I checked off another book from my seemingly endless to-read book list — Beatrice and Virgil, by Yann Martel (author of Life of Pi).

I've been excited about this book since it first came out in hardcover last April, when I immediately put it on my "to buy when in paperback" list. I did buy it, but unfortunately like so many other books I buy it sat for several months on my bookshelf while life constantly got in the way of me reading it. But I did, finally, and it was worth the wait.

Beatrice and Virgil is a novel, about a man (a famous writer actually) who tries to write a book about the holocaust, fails, and gives up writing. Following his failure, this man, Henry, and his wife decide to pack up and take an adventure. "They settled in one of those great cities of the world that is a world unto itself... Perhaps it was New York. Perhaps it was Paris. Perhaps it was Berlin." His wife gets a job as a nurse under a work visa and he began taking music lessons, learning Spanish, acting with an amateur acting troupe, and working at a local chocolateria.

All the time, he's getting letters from people who have read his book (the one he's famous for). His book (as far as I can tell) uses animals to tell the story rather than humans. One day, he receives a letter that is more like a packet... inside it contains a photocopy of Gustave Flaubert's short story "The Legend of Saint Julian Hospitator," a ext from a play, and a short note.

Flaubert's story — a tale about a boy who loves killing animals, eventually kills his parents, repents and then is borne to heaven as a saint — has been heavily highlighted by the sender, but only those sections dealing with the killing of the animals. Henry is intrigued, but only mildly so. The play extract is of a scene where two characters, Beatrice and Virgil, discuss a pear, or more to the point, Virgil describes a pear to Beatrice, who has never seen one before. (This made me want to eat a pear so badly I ached inside.) The note asks for his help.

Henry decides to respond to the letter, and since its writer happens to live only a few blocks away, he decides to deliver it in person, although he's only planning to anonymously drop the letter off. But, the address takes him to a taxidermy shop and he's curious, so he goes in.

What follows that fateful decision is a journey through the twisted mind of an old taxidermist and his play "A 20th Century Shirt: A Play in Two Acts," about a donkey named Beatrice and a howler monkey named Virgil. As the book progresses, we get to read more and more snippets of the play, and start gaining small insights into the taxidermist. What starts out as an innocent examination of a pear, and a strange, yet slightly whimsical story about two animals that live on a shirt, progresses to more sinister scenes and allusions to the holocaust, and we, as readers, soon start to suspect that something really horrible has happened to these two characters and that the taxidermist is hiding something important.

Beatrice and Virgil is an excellent read and very well written. It has no chapters, only small breaks occasionally, but I never felt put off by that. I wouldn't exactly call it a page turner, because the action in the story is more intellectual than anything else, but I certainly had a hard time putting it down. Although, I do feel I should warn you that by the end of the book, I had become so engrossed in the story that even when I did want to put it down, (mostly because I was disturbed or mildly horrified by what I was reading — thank you Boy in the Striped Pajamas) I couldn't because I had to see it through. And, like Life of Pi, which I absolutely loved, it starts a little slow, but it gets interesting much faster.

Can't Get Enough?

Check out these other animal-centric books...

Life of Pi by Yann Martel — young Pi Patel takes two epic journeys in this 422 page book. In the first, an exploration of religion, Pi is searching for a way to get closer to God. He visits several authorities on several religions and gains insight on each. In the second, a journey across the ocean, Pi is trapped in a life boat with an injured zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a 450-pound bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Book one (the religion one) is pretty slow, but book two (the ocean one) is so worth the effort. Then, the twist at the end of the book makes you question everything.

 Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne — The ultimate talking animals books that aren't just for kids! I love Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and all their friends. These two books, along with the poetry in When We Were Very Young and Now we are Six, are the perfect way to unwind after the intensity you'll experience while reading Life of Pi and Beatrice and Virgil.

Lost in the Smithsonian...

I got together with Mik and Jenny again for a Memorial Day weekend filled with culture, food, and a little bit of chili sauce.

We started our adventure at the Smithsonian Castle, which I'd never actually be in before. Since it takes about 30 seconds to see the whole thing, we then quickly headed over to the Sackler Gallery to look at Asian Art. The Sackler Gallery is really cool because its three stories of art are completely underground. It's also very confusing because (while underground) it connects to the Freer Gallery, which also houses lots of Asian Art, and it also connects (again underground) to the African Art Museum. The divisions between the three museums are not very well marked, so after wandering aimlessly and getting very turned around, we were quite confused when we wound up on the first floor of the African Art Museum, when we had started out in the Sackler. Oh well.

 Smithsonian Castle from the side not facing the Mall

 African Art Museum (above) and cool elephant sculpture

from inside the African Art Museum (below)

After our adventures in the three aforementioned art museums, Mik had to go home to catch a very important soccer game, so Jenny and I were left to our own devices. We decided to check out the American History Museum because neither one of us had been there recently.

Pretty trees on the Mall

What a mistake! Being Memorial Day weekend about every one and their mom, uncle, sister, and great-grandmother were in DC and I think about 3/4 of them where in the American History Museum. So, after fighting the crowds to catch a glimpse of Michelle Obama's inauguration gown, headed down to Chinatown to grab some lunch and then navigated the Metro back to Mik's place.

We saw Pirates 4 (not in 3D) that evening, which was really good and then ate dinner at a cool restaurant and called it a day.

On Sunday, we went out to brunch with a few of Mik's friends at this British Pub called The Queen Vic, it was interesting, but my cornmeal pancakes were surprisingly good! Since we were feeling pretty full we decided to walk the 10ish blocks to Union Station instead of taking a taxi. Jenny's phone was acting funny so we crisscrossed DC looking for an open Verizon, eventually finding one and finding out that her battery was just acting wonky.

Jenny and I still wanted to see the American Indian Museum, so we dragged Mik back down to the Mall to see it. That museum has the coolest architecture ever. The inside's pretty cool too, but the outside is awesome.

For dinner that night, we finally went to Sticky Rice, which is a restaurant I found on the internet somewhere and have wanted to go to ever since. It did not disappoint! Dinner was phenomenal, with the exception of the time that Mik squeezed the bottle of chili sauce and accidentally squirted it all over my head and back. Fail.

I had to go home on Monday, but before we did we when to Eggspectations for breakfast. I love that place. Our waiter was amazing too... he brought me free orange juice because everyone else at the table was getting their Vitamin C and he felt bad for me. Haha. It was fresh squeezed and seriously amazing. Like an orange in a glass. Then he brought us free cake too. A perfect way to end the trip!

This Shouldn't Be Allowed

On Monday when I was driving home from my weekend in DC, I stopped at the Leesburg Outlets to grab a few pairs of flip-flops and shorts from J. Crew. It was hot.

So hot, in fact, that when I got back to my car after battling the Memorial Day crowds for 3 or so hours, the thermometer said it was 107 degrees.

That's right. 107. In May.

I forgot to take a picture of that particular event. Fortunately for this blog (and unfortunately for heat hating me) when I got in my car after work yesterday, I was yet again graced by a three-digit temperature reading. 103 degrees. Gross.

It's not even summer yet.

Homer's Odyssey

I first heard about this book while I was at the Publishing Institute at the University of Denver two summers ago and have wanted to read it ever since. Last month, I finally borrowed it from my friend Jenny. Since I'm going to give it back to her when I see her this weekend, I thought I'd go ahead and take this rainy afternoon opportunity to write about it!

Homer's Odyssey: 

A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned 

About Love and Life with A Blind Wonder Cat

by Gwen Cooper

Homer's Odyssey is a memoir about Gwen Cooper, but it's really a story about her kitten Homer.

When Gwen was in her twenties, she was contacted by her local vet about maybe adopting this kitten that had been abandoned at her clinic. The four-week-old kitten had had a virulent eye infection that required the vet to surgically remove both of his eyes, and his family had decided they couldn't handle taking care of him.

When the vet told Gwen about the kitten, she warned her that he would probably never really amount to much. They warned her that he would, in short, be an underachiever.

He was anything but. Without his sight, Homer's other senses sharpened dramatically. He could leap five feet in the air and catch a fly, he could scale seven-foot bookshelves with ease, he could case and memorize a new floor plan in minutes. He was a wonder cat.

What followed was an amazing adventure that would take Gwen, Homer, and her two other cats, Vashti and Scarlett, from their home in Florida to NYC. Together they would survive an attempted break-in, 9/11, boyfriends, sickness, and all sorts of other things. Through it all, Homer's unfailing sense of curiosity and adventure never failed to entertain and comfort.

Homer's Odyssey is not just a book for cat people. Sure, I loved reading about all of Homer's crazy antics because he reminds me so much of Little Kitty (aka Skits), and his love of being scratched and petted (which sends Homer into "veritable convulsions of delight") which reminds me so forcibly of Frisk, and when Gwen describes the interactions between her three cats, it reminds me of when Snickers was a kitten and how she used to terrorize Frisky and Figaro. 

But I think that anyone would love this book because the story is so good and because it helps you remember that miracles are still possible.

Read it! I know you'll love Homer just as much as I did.

Can't Get Enough?

Check out these other pet friendly memoirs...

Grayson by Lynne Cox — seventeen-year-old Lynn Cox was almost finished her training session in the California ocean (she's a big swimmer and at the time this happened, had already swum the English Channel twice) when she felt something strange in about the water. It turned out to be an eighteen-foot baby gray whale who had lost it's mother. Rather than risk the whale swimming towards the shore and beaching itself, Lynne took it upon herself to keep swimming with the whale (named Grayson) until he could be reunited with his mom. This 176 page memoir is a quick read, but a great story about facing insurmountable odds and beating them. 

Wesley the Owl by Stacey O'Brien — a highly informative and enjoyable memoir about a woman who adopts and raises a baby owl. Very similar to Homer's Odyssey.

It's Starting!

Well my journey my not be a thousand miles, but starting this summer/fall, I guess you could say that l'll be on a journey to the rest of my life.

Today I got a big envelope in the mail from GW! It wasn't the official "you've been accepted" one, but it was a quite hefty informational packet for new graduate students, so I guess my deferment worked and I'll really be going back to school this fall.

I'm terrified.

But so excited.

Dancin' Through the Pages

Last, last weekend (well Friday and Saturday actually) my ballet studio held its spring recital. This year, instead of doing a full length ballet, we did a themed recital with lots of different dances all based on the theme "Dancin' Through the Pages." So, each dance represented a book, like Don Quixote, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Miss. Muffet, or Guess How Much I Love You. The only exception was our "big girl" piece, which was called "The Classics Revisited" and not really based on anything.

"The Classics Revisited" was actually really cool. It was an almost 15 minute, three movement piece, done to Pachelbel's Canon, the third movement to Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, and Black Violin's Brandenburg (a crazy hip-hopized version of Brandenburg No. 3's second movement). See the videos below for the soundtrack. I apologize in advance for Brandenburg's crazy music video. 

  Pachelbel's Canon                                   Brandenburg No. 3 Mvt. 3

 

Brandenburg

Anyway, it was really cool. And we got to wear pretty costumes.

My other role in the recital was as Little Miss. Muffet. I got to wear a killer wig. (literally killer... I (and everyone else who got to witness the epic event) almost died from laughter the first time I tried to wear that thing. It was crazy. And it almost flew off my head while I was turning. But a slight haircut and several (hundred) well placed bobby pins later and it was much more wearable.

My spider was pretty darn adorable too.