TGI - F minor Concerto

 

 

I look forward to Friday mornings, not only because they lead up to the weekend. The pushing and shoving and general lack of consideration that comes with commuting is forgotten when I get off the 7 train at Grand Central and start making the climb up the steep escalator. There is a tall, thin man, in all black, with ashy blond hair playing his violin. He has a little radio that plays an accompaniment as he sways back and forth in tune with the music. Dancing a little duet with his bow as he lets the emotions swell with every movement and note. I love hearing the soft strings grow louder as we ascend. I don't know why, but it kind of lulls us all into a state of happiness and calm before we bustle off the stairs and snap back into commuter mode. 

 

Here's to a happy and calm-inducing Friday! 

Paper Anniversary

Book: The Paper Anniversary by Joan Wickersham
Rating: C+/B
NYPL Loan (Recommended by my boss)


I wish I could say that it took me almost three weeks to finish this because I was feverishly working on my novel....But I'm not going to lie to you.

This book was smart. And not in a SAT word/philosophical kind of way. It's hard to explain. And I don't know if "smart" is the right word. Maybe "real". It was a love story with real problems and real situations. It wasn't sentimental and it wasn't full of bullshit like other, lighter chick lit.

At first, I didn't like the characters (unhappily married Harvard grads) because they were selfish and annoying. But then I realized that I didn't like them because they were too human. This wasn't a book I was reading to escape the real world. This was a book that made me think about important, everyday things. Like when your mom calls you and starts asking you about bills or exercising or dating - all the things you think about on a daily basis, but try to avoid...

Anyway. This is not a throw-in-your-bag book that you can easily pick up on the subway and dive back in. You definitely have to allow for a hefty chunk of time in your day to enjoy the story.

If you had asked me if I liked the book while I was reading it, I would have shrugged my shoulders and said, "Eh...I'm just trying to through it." But when I got to the end, I was surprised when I felt satisfied - I had actually really liked it and didn't know until I finished it.

It's cold.

It's cold. Just another autumn morning. The streets are quiet - the city is just beginning to wake up. Passing the bakery on the corner, she reminds herself to pick up some fresh bread on her way back home, but right now, she must not forget she is on a mission.

The door jingles - the only sound that breaks the calm in the simple coffee shop. He wonders if she will show up again. He had needed some peace last week - too many worries waiting for him at the office. Avoiding this he had entered the coffee shop across from his apartment building - a place he usually ignored. And that is when he saw her for the first time. Her long brown hair, her hand brushing her bangs out of her eyes - such an automatic movement. Those brown eyes searching for an open table by the window. Her stone colored bag, the one with all the pockets - for her pens, her notebook. He watched her write for hours from behind his wrinkled copy of The Stranger. Would she come again today?

Pulling her scarf a little tighter she crosses the street, mentally checking off what part of the story she will revise today, what part she will try tackling. Everyday is exciting - her dedication is paying off. And for just a moment she lets herself think that maybe, after all these years, she has finally become a writer...


He spots her through the steamy window. Watches as she waits for the crosswalk light to change. He shudders at the thought of another day at the office, under the harsh fluorescent lights.

Heat greets her as she opens the door. "Oh excuse me," she moves out of the way as a young man in a trench coat pushes his way outside. Hasn't she seen him before?

NaNo WriMo 2010

It's that time of year again! November is National Novel Writing Month - which gives me a reason to really try to hunker down and write. It may not be a novel in the end, but at least I will have written everyday for a whole month, right?