I finished up Le Petit Prince last night. I loved it! Antoine de Saint-Exupery created one of the most enchanting characters I've ever read. His innocence and sweetness is positively endearing and the story carries the reader through a great range of feelings. I would say that each person could interpret aspects of the story, with its many symbolic characters and lessons on life in their own way. It was just magical and really gives you a reality check on what life is all about.
A poignant quote that hit home to me in particular,
"Here is my secret. It is very simple. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
And another that I love love love,
"Grown-ups love figures. When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you, What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies?" Instead, they demand: "How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?" Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him.
If you were to say to the grown-ups: "I saw a beautiful house made of rosy brick, with geraniums in the windows and doves on the roof," the would not be able to get an idea of that house at all. You have to say to them: "I saw a house that cost $20,000." Then they would exclaim: "Oh, what a pretty house that is!"'
Yesterday afternoon I was wandering about downtown. It was such a beautiful, sunny day and this time of year is just my favorite! Anyhow, I was walking past the Jesse Stuart Foundation and realized I had never been in it, nor did I really know what was in it. So I headed on in and found all sorts of delicious books! I've been reading alot lately, perhaps to distract myself from my awfully tedious first semester of engineering courses. It was heaven for me! They had all sorts of my favorite books to read about. First off, two words- The Shakers. Mesa, if you are reading this, bless you for taking that bullet for me, a.k.a. the enormous library fine from me checking out about 15 Shaker books and leaving them for you to return for me! Only you could know the extent of my sickness, my obsession with those simple, celibate, booty-shaking Shakers! This is where I should let my readers know that rather than let all that pent-up sexual energy go to waste, they put it right into their cooking! I'm about to bring out some of those recipes soon since the weather is changing and Woodford Pudding with hot caramel frosting sounds about right! I'll be sure to post pictures soon. But I digress!
The Jesse Stuart Foundation was filled to the brim with lovely books on Shakers and Kentucky ghost stories(!!!!!) and farming and gardening and Appalachia and just everything I love and want to love even more! And the real kicker was that after I had bought a couple of books that were must-haves, they casually mentioned to me the used book room. Almost all the books were a dollar each and they about had to catch me from fainting! I bought a whole box full of really great ones that were in perfect condition and best-sellers, book award winners, etc. Mesa, I know, I know. I will have to share. You probably don't even believe me at this point of my wild story, but it's true! Even our nonreading mother was impressed!
So, for today, my lovely, beautiful, wonderful day off from yucky boy classes (more about that for another post!) if the weather is nice, I might try to take one of our dogs for a walk. I've tried before and they really don't want to be asked to move their feet. For example, Maxine, our diabetic mini-schnauzer looked at me once I had scooted her down to the bottom of our driveway, gave me that "nuh uh, who are you freaking kidding? I am wearing a sweater vest and jean skirt and pearl necklace.", (which is sadly, just what she was wearing!) and proceeded to sit on my foot. She didn't budge until I had promised we would go back up to the house, and watch Desperate Housewives, give her her insulin, and surf QVC on the commercial breaks for a good deal on Bare Minerals. So, I may be pushing my luck on getting one of our lazy, silly suburbanite dogs to take in this first day of October with me!
Then, I will make Woodford Pudding. I've been just waiting for that perfect day. The day in which I can happily float on from this world from a food coma. When I say pudding, it's not a very good description... think more like, a hot, gooey cake hot from the oven, with blackberry jam and brown sugar and spice baked into it, and swathed in thick, sweet homemade caramel frosting that melts into the soft cake and then you eat and eat and die of happiness!
This my dear friends, is proof of our gallivanting, car-riding dogs. Pascal and Bandit hopped in, demanded I take them through the drive-thru at Taco Bell, and refused to put on their seat belts. AND they got cinnamon twist crumblies all over the seats. DIVAS!
This is our darling Carlie, who insists not only in sleeping in our beds, but pushing everyone else out of it, thinking that metal spoons are a litter of her newborn pups, and pooping in Mesa's shoes.
In closing, I feel I should note the similarities of the picture of Maxine at the top of this post, in all her skankydog glory, and Britney Spears, that one time she got caught leaving a gas station bathroom with no shoes on and pockets hanging out of the bottom of her jean skirt.
