days until I return home
I’ve been reading the Harry Potter textbooks, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and Quidditch Through the Ages. They’ve very clever, but also very thin, and I think I’d have been upset at having paid for them if it weren’t that all proceeds go to a good cause (Comic Relief UK). Not only J.K. Rowling but also the printers, publishers, and everyone else (including Albus Dumbledore, who wrote the forewords) donated their work, so it really is "the proceeds", not just "the profits", that go to charity. The satisfying end result is that HP fans get to troll for possible hints as to Harry’s future adventures while feeling virtuous (for giving tzedakah) instead of guilty (for spending yet more money on Potterbilia).
Last night I went with a coworker, who will here be known as Hello Kitty, also out here from AZ, in search of wedding dresses. Said dresses require 6-8 months (!) to be delivered, plus time for fittings and alterations, so it’s difficult for her to know whether to buy one here or at home, since she may end up out here again for a second stint. Dress styles have changed for the better since I bought one 8 years ago, and they definitely looked good on HK, who is tiny but well-shaped and graceful. It does worry me just a bit that she seems to be happier about and more interested in the dress than in the man she’ll be wearing it to marry.
Reading Mechaieh’s account of a weekend in New Orleans reminds me that I recently bought the middle book in Barbara Hambly’s Ben January mysteries -- turns out I had originally bought the 1st and 3rd. They’re set in New Orleans in 1833, and seem to have involved a lot of very careful research. January, also addressed as Monsieur Janvier, or Michie Janvier in the more colloquial variety of local French, is a very sympathetic character, a ‘free man of color’ as in the eponymous first book, but it is the Creole milieu that makes the stories so fascinating. Unfortunately, I can’t remember when the big fire hit New Orleans and burned down most of the other buildings, so am not sure if I should recognize any of the places. It’s clear, though, that the place where January stops for coffee and beignets in the French Market is the same as today’s Cafe du Monde, a required stop for tourists today, but also for locals venturing (or living) in the Vieux Carre.
I expected this diary to become more of a series of essays, but instead it has been more of a true journal, so far, which surprises me since I’ve never kept one before. It’s a little too seductive to be able to record passing thoughts in a paragraph instead of developing ideas into a complete essay. The latter demands much more structured thinking. There’s nothing wrong with the journal form, of course, but I think I do need to write a few more of these entries as essays on an idea in addition to the simple "how my day went and what I read" sort of thing above. Maybe later!
Posted by dichroic at March 23, 2001 10:31 AM