Let the boring roll

Think I was better company stressed out about the end-of-course essay and whiney... (Or whiney about that.) I've posted a few (boring and bad-quality) pics on flickr of the knitting adventures of recent days. I'm trying to view my now almost-a-cardigan in a very detached way, as a learning process - indeed, as all about the learning and the process, and not about the product. I was all set to frog the whole thing, had just got into a frogging place mentally, when Older Daughter (who would NOT say something soothing she didn't believe) told me she liked it. So I'll probably finish it, wear it until I spill the first splosh of tea on it, try over-dying it... and then felt it for a tea-cozy or hot-water bottle or something. Despite my angst over this WIP, knitting is still playing a good part in keeping me marginally on the sane side.

Recently finished Maureen Johnson's The Bermudez Triangle, and wish I were feeling a bit more inspired to say good things about good books. It was a little bit slow to grip me, which may just have been my Devilish love (that's a book title, not an italicized self-descriptive adjective). Then I stayed up way too late the next night to finish it, so I compensated. Could have been a bit standard chick-lit, with the three long-time friends, each with her quirkiness and slightly off-kilter family set-up - and especially Nina - the super-organized, studious and ambitious one. But it isn't - and not just because one of the summer romances is between Mel and Avery. (Not a spoiler, as it tells this on the inside cover.) Two quick quotes just to show the light touch with the humour. (Indenting will return to Lady Schrapnell when things are a little less hectic. Or when full brain-capacity returns.) First is Mel alone in her room...

"I'm gay", she told her reflection.
The girl she saw staring back at her looked puzzled.
"I'm a lesbian", she tried again. Somehow she drew out the word in such a way it sounded French. She tried it more slowly. She put the emphasis on every syllable in turn - LES-bi-an, les-BI-an, les-bi-AN.
Nope. The girl in the mirror still wasn't buying it.
"You, Melanie Forrest", she said firmly. "You are a lesbian."
This caused her to involuntarily raise her eyebrows and move back. She'd actually startled herself.


Okay, so I was rooting for one person to end up with another person and she didn't, but the second person's going to be okay. One of those who doesn't realise their own huge attractiveness until later, but it'll work out for him. And that was part of the attractiveness of the book - things were messy, people weren't all sorted by the end and even the ones who were dealing beautifully with one aspect of life might not do so well in another. All, of course, with that great humour.

Second is an email to Nina from her bf.

"Anyway, a few lesbians that I know were there, so I went over and explained your situation. Most of them were pretty mad on your behalf because they thought Mel and Avery should have told you instead of making out at the mall. The girls here thought they were trying to get caught, which in their opinion was really lame. So, the lesbians of Portland are totally with you."

Thanks go again to sartorias for her recommendation of Devilish, which served as my introduction to Maureen Johnson. (Not that others hadn't been talking about her, but that rec got me ordering, and I'm very grateful.) Still have Girl at Sea here to read too.