Awake

Easy, now.

I'm just gonna ease back into to this, here. Nothing fancy. No funny business. And definitely nothing serious. Just nice and easy. I figure I better write something soon before my head explodes. (The mess would be atrocious and there's already enough mess around here to keep me occupied for some time.)

Needed a little time alone with the bookstore yesterday afternoon. Wandered the fiction aisles for a while looking for something that might rekindle even the tiniest measure of inspiration. Considered The Looking Glass Wars for a few minutes. Thought about picking up Inkheart. Marveled (and shuddered) at the books intended for young girls. (Would I be inspired to conjure up fantasies laced with visions of hope as an alternative if I had my own read-a-holic daughter? I think it likely.)

Wandered into Fiction & Literature. Just picked up three classics a couple weeks ago which I can't quite bring myself to read yet for ridiculously sentimental reasons, so I thought better of adding A Tale of Two Cities or War and Peace to my collection. Decided what I really wanted was a page-turning mystery, but a step removed from popular serials. So I bypassed Grisham and Grafton and found Michael Gruber's The Book of Air and Shadows. Hmm. Rare manuscripts and cryptography. Ancient and modern cryptography. Well, then. I hardly had a choice in the matter, did I?

In the check-out line (which consisted of me and my book of air and shadows), I glanced over at the CD display. Joshua Bell has a new album? Well, that required little consideration at all. I snatched it without more than a moment's thought.

Haven't bought an actual compact disc in a while. (You know, with the wrappings and the what-not.) This time, the "what-not" included calendar poster. Whoa. A nice idea, I suppose, and if I was in college I would definitely put it up in my dorm room. But I'm not. So into the recycle bin it went. Is that cold? I hardly care. I'm trying to de-clutter. It's not like I let my new shredder cut its teeth on it. (And Shredder would have thought it so delicious.) Oh yeah, the music. Listening to it now. It's the Four Seasons, which is actually one of my favorite pieces. Seems popular and cliché? If it is, it deserves it. It's a beautiful suite of music and difficult to master. Some groups really miss the passion and energy of it and just churn it out. But I have found (now) two excellent recordings of it (although I'm sure there are many excellent renditions out there). My absolute favorite is Anne-Sophie Mütter's. The passion and energy behind that recording is palpable. Bell's recording has a different flavor altogether and it's hard not to compare it to Mütter's—of which I am very familiar. But I am enjoying it and had been wanting something new from him for a while now.

Interestingly enough (and I suppose not surprisingly), Joshua Bell is on tour again. The last time I saw him play was in Portland at the Schnitzer. Having just recently seen The Nutcraker at Seattle's Benaroya, I wonder where I'd most like to see him play this time around. San Antonio seems like it should have been a nice idea. But I am to be content with Portland or Seattle. I think I'll wait a bit before deciding. Not that I don't wish every concert of his to be sold out and should probably take action now to secure a ticket, but I am in no present mood to make any plans further off than five or maybe ten minutes from now. Anyway, who am I kidding? A single seat has never been that difficult to procure.

It's sunny out. Probably a good time to get to work on de-stuffing the storage units. My goal is to get back to just one space (instead of two). But what to do with all those bookcases?...I haven't a clue. I should sell everything I can. Is it really worth it to keep all this stuff around? My doubt increases daily.

Like I said, I'm easing back into this. I promise to be more cheerful next time. Really. I do.

Happy Friday.