As spring reluctantly gives way to summer in season if not truly in actual weather, I find myself wholly and completely immersed in the world of Jane Austen, searing sacro-illiac pain on the right side and a houseguest who arrived and appears to not be leaving.
I decided to do a 'Jane Austen' summer, reading my way through her books, which is something I had yet to ever do. Oh sure, I read Pride and Prejuidice way back when I was in late grade school. However, I must confess to really having not remembered much of it at all.
I am reading them in order of publishing date and have made my way through Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejuidice and Mansfield Park in the last month. I am currently about 1/5 of the way through Emma. The thing about immersing yourself in classics of that sort is that you begin thinking in the manner of language in which they are written and I find it incredibly amusing when my thoughts take on the flow and flavor of Austen.
I have to say although I rated S&S as three stars, I did so only because I do think it is worthy of reading. But, I truly could not wrap my mind or heart around the heroines. I do recall this being the case when I saw the Hugh Grant/Emma Thompson/Ang Lee movie in the 90's. I was not all that impressed with it and the same is somewhat true for the book. I did find myself around halfway through, reading compulsively and quickly because I did want to know what was going to happen, but the end result was decidedly unsatisfying to me because I really did not care whether or not Elinor ended up with Edward, her character being such that she seemed completely divorced from her own emotions and consequently, so was I.
I was far more impressed with P&P and genuinely liked the heroine, Elizabeth and cared what happened to her. Mansfield Park irritated me until about halfway through the book and then I wound up truly loving it.
What I am finding, though, is that it genuinely does take me about half the book to get engrossed in the story and not want to put it down...for all of her books. It's not that I am bored with them, I just don't care all that much about the story as a whole for about the first half of the book, even though they are all worthy of reading.
The fact that we currently have a houseguest who arrived 2 days early for what I thought was a 2-3 day stay, almost a week ago, seems incredibly fitting for my Jane Austen summer. It feels like a subplot right out of her head. My mother-in-law arrived last Wednesday and I 'think' she is leaving on Thursday. I put 'think' in quotes because I thought she was arriving on Friday and staying till Sunday. She arrived Wednesday and I assumed she was leaving on Sunday. Then I thought she was leaving on Monday when I was informed Saturday night she wanted to do a day trip on Sunday. Then I thought she was leaving on Tuesday, when I found out Sunday she was doing another day trip on Monday. Last night, I found out she is supposedly leaving on Thursday.
However, when Moose asked her when she was leaving yesterday her response was, "Wednesday.... no Thursday. Wait... am I leaving Wednesday or Thursday? Thursday. Yes, Thursday at 2:50."
This does not make me feel very confident.
I shouldn't complain and I am not really complaining. I just get irritated about not knowing how long someone is intending to stay and I get the feeling that this is a moving target based upon her whims of the moment. But, she's incredibly good with the kids and she did cook dinner for us last night with enough for left overs tonight. She also got another meal's worth of food for tomorrow. She's contributing....
And like I said.... she's great with the boys. It is good for them to be around grandparents. I firmly believe this. But, I'm not one of those people that goes with the flow with people in my house very easily. It was cool until around yesterday morning. Now, I'm beginning to feel as if my house has been somewhat invaded and I am longing to have it back to ourselves once again.
That's not unreasonable, is it?
It would be one thing to have expected a 9 day or longer visit. It is quite another to have it foisted upon you and earlier than expected, at that.
Right?
Right.
Let's all do a little chant for a Thursday departure, shall we?
The final item plaguing me of late is that my unborn baby girl has officially become an awful pain in my ass that no amount of yoga seems to truly hold at bay. I had this with both of the boys, as well and while yoga helps a great deal.... it seems to only help for a short period of time. After an hour or so, I am back to feeling like a cripple.
All I can say is at least we are not having a god-awful hot summer so far. The warmest it has been was 84 and that was just this last Saturday. So far, I am relatively comfortable from a heat perspective. I'd be really happy if that could continue....
We could all do a little chant for that, as well....
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