THIS WEEK IN REFLECTION
For those of you who were hoping I would finish final exams and then be restful, I regret to inform you how very wrong you were. The last day of finals was April 28, and the first day of summer classes — which are a 14-week semester crammed into 7 weeks — was Sunday, April 30. I have lots of experience with summer classes from circa 2004, so I had an idea of what to expect. However, I haven’t done a lot of online summer classes. Unfortunately, I didn’t realized that my Psychology course would have work due on Wednesday, which is no big deal, but the homework would ask questions as if you’d finished the entire two weeks’-worth of reading. We were busy travelling all Sunday and spent all Monday in the city-county building trying to work out why we received our neighbor’s property taxes after several plat revisions. Thus, I realized I had to do two weeks’ work of work by midnight Wednesday on . . . Tuesday morning. It all worked out as it does, but there was certainly a bizarre rhythm to this week. I’m also taking Sociology, but the professor, so far, requires less work and reading, and everything is due on Saturdays at midnight.
I did invest quite a bit of time in visiting with friends, too, spending about a hour on video chat with Cupcakes & Machetes and another two hours with my girlfriend Morgan, who started the horror movie group I’m in. She’s getting married in two weeks, so we’ll finally be meeting face to face when Nick and I travel down to Alabama.
Speaking of Nick, every time I go to a Deaf event, they ask where he is. So, I brought him to the latest event on Friday. Although Nick knows some signs, he’s also shy and gets flustered. So I taught him to sign ME SHY. Instead, he accidentally signed ME PROSTITUTE, so things didn’t go according to plan. However, I told everyone he is my shy prostitute.
Are any of you interested in the coronation of the British fella? I’m not, but it was all over TV, so when Nick noticed all the pomp and circumstance, he said, “Headline: Old Man Gets New Hat.” And I almost died laughing. It seems the British people feel similarly, as it’s a lot of money to give one old man a new hat, especially when basic needs of the citizens are not being met.
THIS WEEK’S BLOG POST
I was hoping more folks would read my review of The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell and decide to pick it up, but the review didn’t get much traction. That’s alright; weeks ebb and flow based on what we’re all up to. I will say it’s a baking murder mystery that is neither cozy nor gory, and I think all of you would enjoy it. Oddly, the TV show filmed in the book is like The Great British Baking Show but set in America, and I just discovered Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood have done The Great American Baking Show. Like, that really exists.
NEXT WEEK’S BLOG POST
I’m going to mix things up a bit and share two reviews in one post. Both are of adult comic books, though one is literary and the other is irreverent. I enjoyed both, and I know when I shared the covers on my TBR, there was interest in them from some of you.
BOOKS I BOUGHT
Books Bought Since January 2023: 1
Running Cost: $1
BOOKS ADDED TO THE TBR PILE
Grab the Lapels 
Ha, your story about Nick accidentally mis-signing definitely sounds like something I would do!
I’m not fussed either way about the coronation – I didn’t watch it, but I’m not especially bothered by the cost. I think rituals and ceremony are important, and republics also spend lots of money on similar ceremonies – often with a much greater frequency! I quite like the pomp and circumstance being split off from actual governmental power. And I think it’s a nice excuse for people to have street parties and get to know their neighbours etc.
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True; in the U.S. no one complains about the money spent on fireworks every 4th of July, even though the cost is great. It really is an excuse to take a break, and it’s something to look forward to.
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Poor Nick and his mistake! At least you all got a laugh out of it. Hopefully he’ll have the signs figured out for next time.
I agree with you on the coronation. It was indeed a lot of money to give an old man a new hat, especially with the financial straights many English people are in. They could have scaled it back a bunch and saved money, but nope.
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My mom used to work in county government, and truly, the wasteful spending starts small and just gets bigger. If your city ever erected a fountain or had some local history appreciation thing, they put a load of tax dollars into it. I try to remember that the royals actually bring in tourism dollars and do a lot of fundraising, so they’re not just sitting around with new hats, draining the economy. But it doesn’t look good.
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I did the right sign, but the lady I was signing with was a hearing participant who sensed that I was doing my best, but was nervous and shy. I think it was almost like the sign analog of a Dad joke intended to put me at ease. Little did she know that my secret is this, I’m nervous and shy with hearing people just as often as I am with D/deaf people!
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I’m so sorry about your review but I am barely surviving at present. We are hoping the worst will be over by the end of June but that’s another 8 weeks approximately. Meanwhile, I’m trying to manage writing two posts a week and keeping roughly up with other blogs.
You have a big summer ahead of you, but your Nick Signing story is a lovely bit of light relief.
I watched snippets of the coronation, but see above! No time or energy for watching the whole lot. An alternative, indie musician here – Nick Cave – was questioned (on Twitter l think) about why he was going, and he essentially said that it’s one of the big events of the age and he was not so incurious or inflexible as to not be interested. Made sense to me. Why pass up such an experience? But, watching hours of it on TV? Not the same thing!
Have a good week!
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Sue, no need to apologize! In the summer (well, winter for you guys) everything slows down in blog land. People are traveling, etc. But what is happening with you?? What do you mean the worst? Are you talking about your big move to the new house?
Keep in mind that even if you do one post per week, we will all still be here enjoying what you’ve written. Don’t push yourself so hard that you get stressed out. Many people even taking a blogging hiatus and come back refreshed.
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Oh yes, I mean the big move. I am finding it very difficult. I am not a hoarder in the sense that my life becomes unworkable. I do get rid of stuff. But I am sentimental (so keep things that have memories) and I am a librarian by profession (so keep things that record our lives!) Between the two, I have kept a lot of stuff that is taking time to let go after 26 years in the one pretty spacious house! I am getting better about not stressing myself re the blog .. but support like yours helps that a lot.
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Hey, no problem! Just keep in mind that I’m frequently thinking of you, even when you or I are not blogging. In fact, I turned down a job offer to teach a class yesterday because I thought of what you (and Bill and Milly) might say.
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That’s so lovely of you … but oh no … what were we going to say!? Something kind and useful I hope.
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You guys would say that whatever amount of money that I would make from this job wouldn’t be worth it in comparison to focusing on my studies and doing my very best. It was definitely supportive and helpful ☺️
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Of course we were supportive and helpful – even if we didn’t know it! Anyhow, good decision.
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About your comic books, I misread “one is literary and one is irrelevant,” LOL!
I just want the gossip about the coronation, I’m not ashamed to say. I want the tea!
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Go for it! Tell me all the gossip about the king person! I’m listening, and I have my coffee. ☺️
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Phew, you got zero break after your finals! I’m glad you did have some relaxing things even though you had to gulp down two weeks of work in 24 hours. I laughed at Nick’s goof! It reminds me of when I was in Spanish class in junior high. We’d put on a short play at the end of the year for parents. In class one day I had to read a part that I had not read before because the person who was going to perform was out, and instead of saying “cocinero” when I asked to speak to the chef, I said “cochinero” which means mess, or in slang, “pig” as in when we call a messy person a pig. Oops! At least Nick called himself a prostitute and not someone else one!
Also, all the coronation stuff, couldn’t have cared less. Love Nick’s quip!
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You’re right, I didn’t really get a break. However, I don’t want to be one of those people who are always talking about how they’re constantly doing something, or constantly busy, or constantly behind. I’ll see what I can do about that, because right now I’m behind, lol. However, next week, we’re going on a 7-day vacation. It will be our first and many years!
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Oh, I hope you are going somewhere fun and relaxing!
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Oh lord did I LOL when I read ME PROSTITUE!!! That’s too good.
I’m sorry your Golden Spoon review didn’t get more traction because I loved that book! it’s so fun. And after reading your review I started to google images of the real baking hosts just to see the parallels 🙂
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I should have asked you if you’d ever seen the show before I posted my review. I was pretty firm on thinking that this book would appeal mostly to fans of the Great British baking show, but since you never seen it, I’m thinking anybody could read it. Still, I do think it’d be a good idea to look up pictures of the tent and how it looks to have a kitchen outside.
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Yes I will look that up!
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Whoa, you went right on into the next thing! Though sometimes it feels good to keep the momentum and energy going.
I find the royal family sort of fascinating and I watched a few highlights. But watching them ride in a golden carriage while knowing that there are people who don’t have safe places to sleep is fairly infuriating. And then it was also announced that Charles will be on our $20 bills (which had Elizabeth) even though there was talk of replacing her with a Canadian figure instead – preferably an Indigenous historical figure. We don’t really need another old white man on our money, you know?
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I don’t know why it bothers me so much that neither of them could be bothered to smile. I will say, in the U.S. we are obsessed with the fact that Camilla went from being the side chick to queen.
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Yes, I’ve seen a few memes about that! I feel like the not smiling thing is in line with it being a serious occasion and sort of a generational thing maybe. Like how people used to not smile in photographs. But looking at Charles’ official portrait he seems more confused and tired than serious.
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Me prostitute – brilliant! Ha! I did watch the coronation – on someone else’s phone on a coach (bus) down to the south coast where I had a family party to go to. I was pleased at the (very small) progress, talking about having people of all faiths in the country (but he is only defender of the faith not faiths as far as I could hear), having a Black woman carrying the sceptre, having women choristers and a woman carrying the Sword of Whatever, and a little gospel choir. But when the archbish said we could do the swearing of allegiance silently in our heads or in a great shout aloud I carefully recited a Shakespeare sonnet to myself inside my head in case I accidentally did an oath of allegiance!
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I love that you know all the little details of the pomp and circumstance and thus are able to see progress away from the homogeneity of the royals. I wonder what Meghan would have made of the woman carrying the sceptre.
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Well I noticed some details (I’m a big Floella Benjamin fan, she was on telly when I was a child and here she is in the House of Lords and doing brilliant stuff for the Windrush Generation and now carrying the sceptre). I would think Meghan would think it’s little tiny increments, to be honest, and not enough. And too many jewels raped from countries we’d no right to be in in silly hats and too much dead animal even if recycled.
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