Two days, two books. This is pleasure.
Made a plan to read lady books this year (so tired of writing about that, will NOT repeat all that here), and despite all my careful list-making the first book just sort of fell into my lap. It wasn't on my list.
It ended up being Beauty by Robin McKinley. I think I was just looking for something light and entertaining to read the day before I meant to crack into my "serious" list of books. Anyway, spent all day Thursday tearing through that. SO pleasant. And not nearly as much of a throwaway read as I was expecting (expectations were revised once McKinley got Amanda's enthusiastic endorsement). Enjoyed her style, still didn't feel like anything serious on Friday, so I grabbed her other book, Sunshine. Both better and worse than Beauty. I enjoyed the more adult tone, but where Beauty had lacked some detail Sunshine had *way* too much. I could forgive all the elaborate world-building if this was going to be a series, but the book was written 8 years ago, and still no follow up (though she's written other stuff in that time) so i've got to assume it will remain a standalone.
Still, two very pleasant days. Was supposed to go to Sanctuary with Anastasia and Jeremy tonight (last night? Er, Friday night) but I still wasn't feeling quite social. That extreme social cluster about a week and a half ago really did a number on me. I'm going to remember not to do that to myself again, even if it does sound fun. Now I'm finally feeling like I've had my fill of books and hermiting and i'm ready to do some hanging out.
Later today I have to stop by the tailor, then Chris and I are off to his Huggins, after which we go to give Laura (not Anastassia's Laura, Little Laura) a pep/sex talk. For dinner, we're supposed to do Korean BBQ with Shin and Leon (Leon has had this giant hardon for Korean BBQ for WEEKS now, so looks like we are finally doing it.)
Really sleepy, but I'm having trouble actually sleeping. Not sure, but maybe it's because Victoria is spending the night...this is the first time any of Chris' girlfriends have stayed the night in the same room as him. I mean, usually, when they crash it is after a party, and Chris sleeps in my room, with me. This is just post-date sleeping. Feels kind of strange knowing Chris is down the hall but at the same time kind of in a space cut off from me. Not bad, just...weird. Makes me restless, I think. Or maybe it's just strangers in the house while I sleep; usually not a big fan of that. Most of the time, when strangers sleep over (really, ALL of the time) it's after parties, and i'm so drunk and exhausted I go right to sleep. I wonder if it's a girlfriend-spending-the-night-thing or a stranger-in-the-house thing. Now I'm curious. Going to have to find a way to test this.
Anyway, poor Laura. All this madness with her parents discovering that she's having sex at the "tender" age of 17, threatening her, threatening him, having to call social services (Chris did anyway, thank god he didn't ask me to. I don't think I would have held up as well doing it.) As Chris put it, he never needed to hear the phrase, "For child abuse, press #2". The social workers and cops went out today, and thank god they didn't try to take her (Chris was right, and I'm glad), and did talk to her parents. They packed her off to her Grandmother's for the weekend instead of Utah for the next year (as they originally intended). I'm hoping sanity prevails. Really, things look to be stabilizing, so we're mostly going out there tomorrow to offer Laura some support, as kids who have dealt with nutty parents/social workers/child abuse, too. And to teach her to freaking use condoms, my god, kids.
Chris and I have such different reactions to different branches of the system. To me, social workers are the bad guys (not always, sure, but usually) and cops are the good guys (they scare the parents straight/calm the situation down). To Chris, social workers are the good guys (he was lucky enough to have a great one) and cops are the bad guys (being a big, strong dude means he gets handcuffed a lot when cops arrive on a scene, even if he was doing nothing other than trying to break it up.) Chris really wanted to *talk* about all the issues with Laura's family and social services, while I really just wanted him to *stop* talking about it so I never had to think of that sort of awful shit again, and how awful it is to be a helpless teenager without legal autonomy in the middle of that sort of mess. Sometimes it's stressful that Chris and I process discomfort in opposite ways, but we seem to manage. We're getting better at finding a middle ground of mutual support.
Okay, bone tired now. Headed to bed.
Made a plan to read lady books this year (so tired of writing about that, will NOT repeat all that here), and despite all my careful list-making the first book just sort of fell into my lap. It wasn't on my list.
It ended up being Beauty by Robin McKinley. I think I was just looking for something light and entertaining to read the day before I meant to crack into my "serious" list of books. Anyway, spent all day Thursday tearing through that. SO pleasant. And not nearly as much of a throwaway read as I was expecting (expectations were revised once McKinley got Amanda's enthusiastic endorsement). Enjoyed her style, still didn't feel like anything serious on Friday, so I grabbed her other book, Sunshine. Both better and worse than Beauty. I enjoyed the more adult tone, but where Beauty had lacked some detail Sunshine had *way* too much. I could forgive all the elaborate world-building if this was going to be a series, but the book was written 8 years ago, and still no follow up (though she's written other stuff in that time) so i've got to assume it will remain a standalone.
Still, two very pleasant days. Was supposed to go to Sanctuary with Anastasia and Jeremy tonight (last night? Er, Friday night) but I still wasn't feeling quite social. That extreme social cluster about a week and a half ago really did a number on me. I'm going to remember not to do that to myself again, even if it does sound fun. Now I'm finally feeling like I've had my fill of books and hermiting and i'm ready to do some hanging out.
Later today I have to stop by the tailor, then Chris and I are off to his Huggins, after which we go to give Laura (not Anastassia's Laura, Little Laura) a pep/sex talk. For dinner, we're supposed to do Korean BBQ with Shin and Leon (Leon has had this giant hardon for Korean BBQ for WEEKS now, so looks like we are finally doing it.)
Really sleepy, but I'm having trouble actually sleeping. Not sure, but maybe it's because Victoria is spending the night...this is the first time any of Chris' girlfriends have stayed the night in the same room as him. I mean, usually, when they crash it is after a party, and Chris sleeps in my room, with me. This is just post-date sleeping. Feels kind of strange knowing Chris is down the hall but at the same time kind of in a space cut off from me. Not bad, just...weird. Makes me restless, I think. Or maybe it's just strangers in the house while I sleep; usually not a big fan of that. Most of the time, when strangers sleep over (really, ALL of the time) it's after parties, and i'm so drunk and exhausted I go right to sleep. I wonder if it's a girlfriend-spending-the-night-thing or a stranger-in-the-house thing. Now I'm curious. Going to have to find a way to test this.
Anyway, poor Laura. All this madness with her parents discovering that she's having sex at the "tender" age of 17, threatening her, threatening him, having to call social services (Chris did anyway, thank god he didn't ask me to. I don't think I would have held up as well doing it.) As Chris put it, he never needed to hear the phrase, "For child abuse, press #2". The social workers and cops went out today, and thank god they didn't try to take her (Chris was right, and I'm glad), and did talk to her parents. They packed her off to her Grandmother's for the weekend instead of Utah for the next year (as they originally intended). I'm hoping sanity prevails. Really, things look to be stabilizing, so we're mostly going out there tomorrow to offer Laura some support, as kids who have dealt with nutty parents/social workers/child abuse, too. And to teach her to freaking use condoms, my god, kids.
Chris and I have such different reactions to different branches of the system. To me, social workers are the bad guys (not always, sure, but usually) and cops are the good guys (they scare the parents straight/calm the situation down). To Chris, social workers are the good guys (he was lucky enough to have a great one) and cops are the bad guys (being a big, strong dude means he gets handcuffed a lot when cops arrive on a scene, even if he was doing nothing other than trying to break it up.) Chris really wanted to *talk* about all the issues with Laura's family and social services, while I really just wanted him to *stop* talking about it so I never had to think of that sort of awful shit again, and how awful it is to be a helpless teenager without legal autonomy in the middle of that sort of mess. Sometimes it's stressful that Chris and I process discomfort in opposite ways, but we seem to manage. We're getting better at finding a middle ground of mutual support.
Okay, bone tired now. Headed to bed.