Stalled

The heat and humidity has stalled my progress on my dresser.  It's now almost entirely stripped of paint.  Once I get the remaining bits off, using more Citristrip, I'll then wash everything thoroughly, and give it time to dry.  That's my next step.

Is it possible the heat and humidity have stalled my progress on the book I'm reading (still The Savage Detectives)?  I got through Part One, and liked it, but I'm having trouble finding the plot.  And now Part Two seems to be dealing with different characters, and I'm not being absorbed by it as easily as I would like to be.

Absorbed is an apt word for how I feel when I read good books - like the book is a sponge and I'm being sucked up inside it, inhabiting it.  Finishing a book I love is a jarring wringing-out.

Refinishing

I've started refinishing my dresser.  Here are the steps I've taken so far, steps you, too, could take if you'd like to refinish something:

1. Take everything off the top of it and out of the drawers, and put those things somewhere else (on top of the dog crate and in some garbage bags, in my case).
2. Take off the handles.  Keep the handles and hardware in a bag together (also on top of the dog crate), but contemplate buying new, outrageously overpriced ones from Anthropologie.
(Interlaced Twigs Handle, only $18 apiece)
3. Lay down drop cloth outside.
4. Set drawers outside.
5. Drag dresser outside.
6. Apply Citristrip all over dresser.  Citristrip is a theoretically non-toxic paint stripper made from orange peels.  It's an orange goo, and I think it smells good, kind of like futuristic Push-Ups.  It should be applied in thick coats -comparable to how much Nutella any normal person would apply to a slice of bread.
7. After 30-45 minutes, start scraping it off with a putty knife.  If the paint doesn't want to come all the way off, apply more Citristrip.

That's where I am now.  I'm going to apply more goo to the un-scraped pieces tomorrow, then start washing and sanding.  It's all very exciting, though a little unnerving, as a ton of my stuff is now in plastic bags scattered throughout my living room and kitchen, and my dresser is dissembled on my deck, covered in goo.  There's no going back (though the thought of dragging it to the curb and buying a new dresser has flitted through my mind once or twice...).

Blouse Pattern

Here's the 1930s blouse pattern I bought.  It's from a company called Decades of Style that rewrites vintage patterns for contemporary sewers (sewers? is that a word in this context? looks like I'm talking about where the Ninja Turtles live...)  Anyway, this is a picture of the blouse, and this is the website: www.decadesofstyle.com

New Books

I bought a new book at Borders today, and then acquired a free one a couple hours later.  First up, The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano.  Then The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith.

I had heard of The Savage Detectives a long time ago but had somehow gotten the impression that it was about a family in upstate New York solving crimes.  (To pinpoint it, I believe I conflated the concept of detectives with the characters and setting of a 2007 Laura Linney movie called "The Savages.")  In reality, it was written in Spanish and translated to English, and so far is narrated by a seventeen-year-old Chilean aspiring poet.

I can usually tell if I will like a novel by the end of the first or second sentence.  This isn't ALWAYS true - I wasn't immediately grabbed by The Good German, for example, but ended up really enjoying it.  However, the inverse does seem to be reliable: I have never fallen in love with an opening line but ended up hating the book.  This is how I picked out The Savage Detectives.  I happened to be sitting by it, opened it up, decided I liked what I read, and concluded that it would be a good book to own.  Here's what enticed me to buy it:

"I've been cordially invited to join the visceral realists.  I accepted, of course.  There was no initiation ceremony.  It was better that way."

Bridget Jones

I just re-read Bridget Jones's Diary while trying to decide what new book to read next.  I have to go to the library today, so I may pick up a new one then.  As far as Bridget Jones, it's always a good book to read if you want to feel better about your own life.  Any neurotic things I do pale in comparison to Bridget's behavior.

Today while eating lunch I began a re-read of the sequel (Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason), which is hilarious.  It's a book, however, best read in small doses.  For some reason her crazy thoughts about life and romance and relationships seem to stick in my head a bit too much if I devour the book a couple hours at a time.

I recommend both of them without hesitation - they're so funny and spot-on with the characters' behavior and observations.  Just always keep in mind that they're meant as humor, not to reflect any genuine good relationship advice.

The Freedom of Quitting

Oh, I don't like this Raymond Chandler book.  Maybe at some point I'll finish it, but for now, I'm done.  It's not too long, and it's wayyyyy better than that Dan Simmons book I struggled with a couple of months ago, but I still don't want to continue.  Life is finite.  Time to move on to something more interesting.

Speaking of quitting, I effectively gave up on my "Sleepyhead" scarf.  The ribbon was a lot stiffer than the knitted fabric, so it felt weird and wouldn't drape nicely, plus it wasn't as beautiful as I'd wanted it to be.  But I don't want to abandon the idea altogether.  I started knitting another scarf out of the same yarn (gray and white, made from recycled pop bottles) and am hoping I can turn it into something.  We'll see.

Marlowe

I don't like Philip Marlowe.  Maybe I just don't care for the style of the whole book - it's all cool customers with snappy retorts being mean to each other, embroiled in various crimes.  I'll finish the book (it's skinny) but these noir-ish detective stories aren't for me.  I like protagonists with a little self-deprecation and emotion.

I bought a pattern for a 1930s blouse.  Work will commence on that soon, once the semester ends.  I'll also be refinishing my dresser.  I'll post some before and after photos - I've never refinished a thing, so we'll see how it goes.  Right now the most intimidating part is the question of where to put all the stuff currently inside and on top of it.  Bags or boxes, I guess.  For some reason I'm dreading that.

Jeeves and Wooster and Philip Marlowe

I finished Very Good, Jeeves, the second book of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster short stories I've read.  They're great, absolutely the perfect tone for light, pleasant reading, and are the perfect length to read one a night in bed before falling asleep.  I may order another one on inter-library loan soon.

I've started The Little Sister, a Raymond Chandler book about Philip Marlowe, his famous detective in The Big Sleep and a million other books.  It's interesting so far, but it's not anything I'm used to.  Marlowe acts tough - is tough, apparently - and has lots of clever, contemptuous things to say to those who oppose him.  I feel sure that Philip Marlowe and I wouldn't be buddies if we met, but I'm still curious about the mystery. So far there's just an innocent young woman trying to find her brother, who was living in L.A. and has now disappeared.  But Marlowe thinks she's hiding something, so I assume she must be, and I'm waiting to find out what.

It's interesting - the Jeeves stories and The Little Sister were written about 20 years apart (the former in 1926, the latter in 1949) and although the plots are completely dissimilar, I still notice things they have in common just from being in nearby eras.  These things stand out because they're no longer used today.  One example off the top of my head: calling people "birds."  Not just women, in a swinging sixties Austin Powers sort of way, just anyone.  Sort of the way one might say "dudes" or "guys" today.

Game theory and the underdog

I just read an interesting article on Slate about why people love to root for the underdog.  I support the White Sox and the Brewers against any other team (when they play each other every three years, I root for the White Sox), but if I have no real knowledge of the teams involved, I'll root for whoever is losing.  I know some of my friends do this, too.

That didn't strike me as weird until Daniel Engber, the author of the article, noted that it's counter-intuitive that we would always root for the losers, because it means we're more likely to be disappointed.  He goes on to examine this and summarize several interesting studies.  A lot of it relates to the ideas brought up in A Beautiful Math, that book I read on game theory.

It's an interesting article.  Here's the link: http://www.slate.com/id/2252372/

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the movie

I saw the film version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo tonight.  It was an incredibly faithful, skillful adaptation of the book.  But I can't recommend it.  There were some really disturbing parts in the book, and the film doesn't flinch from showing them.  It was hard to handle.  I kind of wish I could un-see it.  Doesn't it often seem that things are slightly easier to read about than they are to see?

Now I'm watching Mystery Science Theater 3000, the best antidote I can find.