well done!
Nov. 21st, 2006 10:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luciabAh, the luxury of a week with no classes, and a week and a half before the next project is due, though it is a big one, and you WILL be hearing more about it. I also had the luxury of finishing my paper yesterday without a migraine, which was bliss.
This morning, however, I woke up with a migraine again. My mother, back in the days when she was doing stuff like having guests for meals, or people to stay for a couple of days, would always do fine while she was getting stuff ready. As soon as it was done, though, (the meal prepared, the house cleaned) she got a migraine. I think it started about the time the guests were to arrive; I just remember that it wasn't the pressure of preparing that caused the migraine, but it was almost like she couldn't allow herself to relax and enjoy. Or maybe the stress for her was the entertaining and not the preparation? Me, I get 'em when I'm trying to work on stuff, like the four major projects that were due within the last four days. I was therefore kinda surprised when it let up the last day before I was done, and dismayed when it hit this morning. If I start getting migraines while I'm under pressure AND when it lets up, we're going back to the bad old days in a big hurry. And I say "back to the bad old days" because things really have been better the last three months or so: I've had 4 or 5 pills left at the end of each prescription-month, which means at least 8-10 days without a migraine that month. Yay, me! And yes, I say that with both irony and bitterness. But still, 8-10 days is way better than none. So, yay, indeed.
I was also thinking about how I used to be a Type A personality-- always lots going on, doing several different things at once-- and how much I've eased up. Still, when I do stuff I tend to get extremely... shall we say invested? So, if I still have that obsessive sort of tendency but it's about fewer things at once, am I a Type A- personality?
Since the migraine this AM wouldn't let me lie flat, which is all I wanted to do, and I certainly wasn't ready to face a glowing computer monitor, which, after all, is light, I sat in bed and started reading (after taking my meds and making coffee, of course.) I've been enjoying Patricia McKillip's fantasy novels, and I suggest (probably again) that if you like fantasy at all and haven't read her, you should definitely hie your ass out to the nearest library or book store (depending on the state of your wallet) and get some. The ones I've read are stand alone; she has a series but I haven't read it yet. I'm trying not to overdose. The two I've liked best are Ombria in Shadow and Od Magic. This morning, though, I wasn't up to dealing with alternate realities. (No idea why I went off on that tangent, but the recommendations still stand.)
Instead, I picked up Hardscrabble Road, a mystery by Jane Haddam, (here is a good interview with her) and was immediately hooked. (I do like the books she's written as Orania Papazoglou, too; they take off on romance-writers. Heh.) I've read her work before, and upon starting this one, I wondered why I haven't read everything she's ever written. I think I have gone on Haddam-sprees in the past and read several of her books, but for some reason the name just doesn't spring to mind when I'm looking for something to read. Odd. Anyway, what struck me this morning is how lively and intelligent her work is.
She starts this book with a prologue that's 50 pages long, in which she introduces the people who will be the major players in the case the detective will be dealing with; he is an Armenian ex-FBI agent named Gregor Demarkian. Each character has a very distinctive view point; even the ones on the "same side" in the legal battle are all there for different reasons. Some of them are very witty and make interesting word plays, some are intelligent, cynical, and/or bitter. The ones who aren't so bright are very clear about what they want, how they analyse the world and the goings-on, and how they act dumber than they think they really are to manipulate those around them. There are lovely little details, like one woman who, in her internal dialog, says she has "noun disease" because she forgets the names of things. It's very interesting, then, to meet the characters anew through Demarkian and see them through his eyes instead of seeing what they think they are. It's very well done.
All of which makes me very glad that I can afford to take today and enjoy this book. Never mind that I was planning to do things like dishes, laundry, and color my hair, which is looking distinctly two-toned these days. (At least I had the self-control not to take time for such frivolity before this set of projects was in.) And hell, at the rate I'm zipping through this delight, I'll have time to do at least some of that, anyway.
So. Now you have your assignments: McKillip and/or Haddam, depending on whether you're in the mood for fantasy or mystery. Now go.
This morning, however, I woke up with a migraine again. My mother, back in the days when she was doing stuff like having guests for meals, or people to stay for a couple of days, would always do fine while she was getting stuff ready. As soon as it was done, though, (the meal prepared, the house cleaned) she got a migraine. I think it started about the time the guests were to arrive; I just remember that it wasn't the pressure of preparing that caused the migraine, but it was almost like she couldn't allow herself to relax and enjoy. Or maybe the stress for her was the entertaining and not the preparation? Me, I get 'em when I'm trying to work on stuff, like the four major projects that were due within the last four days. I was therefore kinda surprised when it let up the last day before I was done, and dismayed when it hit this morning. If I start getting migraines while I'm under pressure AND when it lets up, we're going back to the bad old days in a big hurry. And I say "back to the bad old days" because things really have been better the last three months or so: I've had 4 or 5 pills left at the end of each prescription-month, which means at least 8-10 days without a migraine that month. Yay, me! And yes, I say that with both irony and bitterness. But still, 8-10 days is way better than none. So, yay, indeed.
I was also thinking about how I used to be a Type A personality-- always lots going on, doing several different things at once-- and how much I've eased up. Still, when I do stuff I tend to get extremely... shall we say invested? So, if I still have that obsessive sort of tendency but it's about fewer things at once, am I a Type A- personality?
Since the migraine this AM wouldn't let me lie flat, which is all I wanted to do, and I certainly wasn't ready to face a glowing computer monitor, which, after all, is light, I sat in bed and started reading (after taking my meds and making coffee, of course.) I've been enjoying Patricia McKillip's fantasy novels, and I suggest (probably again) that if you like fantasy at all and haven't read her, you should definitely hie your ass out to the nearest library or book store (depending on the state of your wallet) and get some. The ones I've read are stand alone; she has a series but I haven't read it yet. I'm trying not to overdose. The two I've liked best are Ombria in Shadow and Od Magic. This morning, though, I wasn't up to dealing with alternate realities. (No idea why I went off on that tangent, but the recommendations still stand.)
Instead, I picked up Hardscrabble Road, a mystery by Jane Haddam, (here is a good interview with her) and was immediately hooked. (I do like the books she's written as Orania Papazoglou, too; they take off on romance-writers. Heh.) I've read her work before, and upon starting this one, I wondered why I haven't read everything she's ever written. I think I have gone on Haddam-sprees in the past and read several of her books, but for some reason the name just doesn't spring to mind when I'm looking for something to read. Odd. Anyway, what struck me this morning is how lively and intelligent her work is.
She starts this book with a prologue that's 50 pages long, in which she introduces the people who will be the major players in the case the detective will be dealing with; he is an Armenian ex-FBI agent named Gregor Demarkian. Each character has a very distinctive view point; even the ones on the "same side" in the legal battle are all there for different reasons. Some of them are very witty and make interesting word plays, some are intelligent, cynical, and/or bitter. The ones who aren't so bright are very clear about what they want, how they analyse the world and the goings-on, and how they act dumber than they think they really are to manipulate those around them. There are lovely little details, like one woman who, in her internal dialog, says she has "noun disease" because she forgets the names of things. It's very interesting, then, to meet the characters anew through Demarkian and see them through his eyes instead of seeing what they think they are. It's very well done.
All of which makes me very glad that I can afford to take today and enjoy this book. Never mind that I was planning to do things like dishes, laundry, and color my hair, which is looking distinctly two-toned these days. (At least I had the self-control not to take time for such frivolity before this set of projects was in.) And hell, at the rate I'm zipping through this delight, I'll have time to do at least some of that, anyway.
So. Now you have your assignments: McKillip and/or Haddam, depending on whether you're in the mood for fantasy or mystery. Now go.
