I’ve been doing a lot of nothing lately, and I’m loving it. I spent the better part of a couple days wandering around downtown and going places I haven’t really gone before. I went to an IMAX at the Royal BC Museum on Thursday (was that only yesterday?!?). It was on “Mystic India” and it made me want to go to India even more. The IMAX was mainly about a young Yogi and his spiritual journey. Not that I am thinking of converting or anything, but there are some aspects of other religions that I really do admire. But that is a whole other story line.
After the IMAX, I walked home to Oak Bay. It took about a half an hour, or at least that’s how long I estimate it would have taken if I had walked direct. But I didn’t walk direct; instead I walked up Fort Street and stopped at just about every single antique/collectible store and gallery on the street (if you’ve ever been down Antique Row on Fort Street, you’ll have an appreciation for how long I must have spent there…). I love looking at old jewelry, especially the rings, broaches, and earrings. They are so much fun! Possibly the best I saw was a hat pin from the 40s with a huge deep blue swastika on the end. Crazy stuff! Possibly the worst I saw (not because of what it was but of how it made me feel) was my favourite mug that I always drink my apple juice from when I am at Dad’s. Yes, my mug, that I got when I was a pipsqueak was in an Antique store. I am getting old: one more nail in the coffin.
Anyway, the real reason for my title today of “catching up” is because I am now catching up on all the reading I have been wanting to do over the last year. Unfortunately, I packed my list of books I wanted to read, so I’m having to do with whatever looks good at the library. I have just been reading “A Complicated Kindness” by Miriam Toews. Its won a bunch of awards over the last couple of years. Its about a girl growing up in an fundamentalist Mennonite community in Manitoba. It was good, interesting, compelling, haunting, thought-provoking (…). Go read it sometime. Next on my list are a couple of other Canadian books (by that I mean by Canadian authors although I think they are all set in Canada as well). I just started one which was a little odd – took place in a small town north of Kingston (yay Kingston) and seems to be about a few disfunctional families in a disfunctional town. I’m sensing a trend in my books. It has failed to grasp my attention – I don’t know that I feel like being engulfed by disfunction at the moment. I’d rather be uplifted. I’ve packed one that my sister really liked, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, to take with me to China because it is long and I have a stinking long flight and train ride (x2) to take care of. I’d rather just take one book and have it last the whole time than take a bunch. I usually take a book in French with me on a trip like that because I read much slower in French, but I decided that for China I’ll have enough crazy culture and language stuff to deal with that I will likely rather just relax when I read then have to think in French. I love to read.