A Tale of Two Books

(or: I really need some fucking sleep)

This week I finished two excellent books that are nothing alike. At all. Please note that I'm somewhat giddy from insomnia, so this might not make a lot of sense.

Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenidies is... so beautiful. Everyone and their great aunt in the progressive blogosphere has recommended this book at some point since it won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 - for good reason. No description i can give can do the epic-ness of this story justice, or the intimacy. It's gorgeous and sweeping and somehow about one remarkable person who started life as Calliope and narrates as Cal. Trust me, this book is worth it.

But here's the deal: You know how it's going to end. It's right there in the intro. And there's nothing wrong with that - the joy of this book is watching the story unfold, from a village on Mount Olympus in the 1920's to Detroit in the 1960's to Berlin in the 2000's.

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson is a bit more difficult. You really have no clue what the fuck is going on until about halfway through, and even then nothing becomes clear until almost the end. The first bits are the hardest - the characters aren't exactly relateable. But once the Spin itself comes into the picture, things get interesting. As in glued to my Kindle, holy fuck, it's way to early, I need some damn sleep interesting. There are sequels being downloaded as I type.

As I said above, I found Middlesex through friends. But Spin came to me in a much more roundabout fashion. NPR runs a series called You Must Read This, in which authors give their recommendations for 'buttonhole books' - books you will literally flag a person down in the middle of the street and give them a copy of it. I had heard a segment that sounded interesting, and wanted to check out the promised excerpt. The rec fizzled - seriously, present tense, second person? Could there be anything more annoying? BUT, there are 'if you like this...' links on the page, and one of them was for the final book in the Spin trilogy.

So, which book will I buttonhole for? Middlesex. Go. Buy a copy. Spin? IF you like hard SF and can live with characters that aren't exactly up to snuff, then go for it. (and you have a few extra hours you don't mind giving up to a hell of a rollercoaster) But for fuck's sake, read Middlesex.

Shit has happened

I have an enlarged left ovary. The ER (long story. suffice it to say that you don't need to know how they get the contrast material into you for an appendix CT scan) said it was a cyst, but my NP wanted to check. Grumble,grumble, etc. Went in for an ultrasound. Pelvic ultrasounds are NOT FUN when you're female.

Turns out that the radiologist didn't get the results back in time for my NP to review them before the long weekend, so I'm stuck. Waiting until Tuesday to find out WTF is up with my ladybits. The odd of it being just a cyst are very, very good. I know this. I also know that nearly every woman gets an ovarian syst at some point in her life. But that doesn't change the fact that I'm flipped the fuck out. Not sleeping tonight hasn't exactly helped, either.

The gods have no fucking sense of proportion

Dad didn't get out of his (outpatient) blood transfusion until midnight. We got him up the stairs, got our books together, and headed to Meijer to grab some food on the Bridge card. Get checked out, and the self scanner machine spits out a receipt for a bout double what our actual order was. The math worked, the time stamp was plausible... Long story short, I got a leeetle bit bitchy at the clerk. When I apologized after checking the balance on our card, she just told me, "Girl, I didn't pay you no mind." We're late night regulars at that particular store, to the point where this clerk comments if she sees us during the day. So very, very glad she wasn't offended.

We get home, hauling our crap up the stairs, and find that grandma's front door is wide open. Had to wake her up to make sure everything was okay. It was. Yay.

So now, it's ass early and we have to go get dad down the steps again because heaven forefend they scedule a decent amount of time between transfusions... The only silver lining in thie particular cloud is that my parents have a memory foam mattress topper. I might actually get some sleep.

Yo ho, Yo Ho, an insomniacs life for me

What could be better when you can't sleep than hot tuna casserole and Stargate Atlantis? I'll tell you: Not very much.

There are three thing, however, that i could do without:

1) A mother who seems to think that helping her daughter keep her commitments despite plan changes 'isn't really' her 'problem.'
2) An hysterical aunt who calls from her cell while driving our van, screaming that it's not working and how do I get where I'm' going and WASN'T IT WORKING FINE FOR YOU?!?!!11
3) a broken down mode of transport.

But I have tuna casserole and SGA - it can't be all bad. And if I'm very, very luck, I'll have caramel fudge brownies tomorrow.