(no subject)

ARGH. I had a great time in Hawaii, and thanks to everyone who commented before.

Unfortunately, came back and found out instead of transferring my internet account on Sat., like they were supposed to, Comcast has already cancelled it. Which is really, incredibly annoying, and has turned into something that feels insurmountably frustrating because I have two informational interviews and a dinner party to network (ugh) in the next three days, and I need the info about them that I cannot get because they have cancelled my email account and can't put it back up till Sat.!!

ARGH. And WTF?! And WHY ME?! And can I please go back to Hawaii?

Ginsberg, Debra - Waiting

A memoir of someone who spent twenty years as a waitress. I am perpetually interested in waiting because I sort of was a waitress in college, and it's always fun to read other people's experience.

I think the thing that struck me the most about this book was just how non-bitter she was! I was quite impressed. Of course, I also got the sense that Ginsberg had a personality much more suited to waiting than mine (extreme introvert) -- she honestly likes seeing different kinds of people and doesn't mind interacting with them. So while there were the usual waiting horror stories, including a time when someone vomited at her table and she had vomit-laden tissues handed to her (yuck!!), they lacked a certain vicious sting that really burnt out people have. That was rather pleasant, actually. Because while I was pretty burnt out considering how little crap I had to deal with, reading constantly burnt out people can be a bit dispiriting after a while.

Anyhow, I just had a great deal of fun reading about the hierarchies of restaurants, various crazy experiences she had, and the like. I was a bit more iffy on the chapter on the social construction of the waitress, or the waitress in film -- granted, Ginsberg doesn't put herself up as any sort of social expert or cultural expert of the sort, but I felt the chapter was just much more... floppy? not as well-documented or even as interesting as her own personal experiences.

McKillip, Patricia A. - Ombria in Shadow

I feel particularly stupid writing about some McKillip books... I mean, what do I say?

I loved the thought of a shadow city hidden amidst Ombria, I loved Mag in particular with her pin-laden straw-gold hair, I loved Faey and Domina Pearl's mustiness and Ducon and his charcoal. It has the same sort of non-logical-logic that pervades The Changeling Sea and Winter Rose, and while the strangest, dreamiest things happen, it all makes a sort of twisted sense.

And now I am basically repeating everything I said about Changeling Sea!

I wasn't that big of a fan of Lydea, but I didn't dislike her. I particularly adored Mag (as mentioned above) and her Magness, even though, stripped of McKillip's prose, she very easily could have been the stupid romance novel heroine who is always in the wrong place at the wrong time.

So it was a beautiful, lovely book, and now I want to pick up more, but I also want to sort of keep them as especially rich chocolates to binge on once in a while.

Links:
- sophia_helix's review
- pocketgarden's review