Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

SO.  If you were assuming I’d be reviewing one of the previously-mentioned books I’d already finished two days ago, well–you’d be wrong.  Instead, you get a review of Boy-Crazy Stacey, the 7th and latest of the Baby-Sitters Club graphic novels and the 3rd by Gale Galligan (Raina Telgemeier did the first four), because graphic novels are short reads and my girls will be pushing me to pass it on.  (The two that can read, that is.)  If I review it tonight, they’ll both finish it this weekend, and then back it goes to the library on Monday.  What’s not to love?

Anyway.  I remembered very little of Ann M. Martin’s original novel other than the premise, which seems to be faithfully recreated here:  Stacey and Mary Anne accompanying the Pike family on their beach vacation as paid babysitters to help with the kids.  The graphic novel is on par with its predecessors, I think, with one or two exceptions–as a parent, I didn’t love Mary Anne’s comment about her dad at the very end, and Stacey’s turnaround time made my head spin.  (It’s not that I found her emotional state unrealistic, mind you; it’s just that what happened with it by the end wasn’t quite the message I’d prefer the target age group to get.  That’s the best I can do without spoilers.)  On the other hand, I think the timing and treatment of the chore hat was a lovely message, so there’s that.

Ultimately, the target audience is going to be pleased, and the nostalgia factor makes for a fun read.  Ah, the trip down Memory Lane!

It’s hard to beat going out of town two weekends in a row for turning you into a tired, overwhelmed lump.  And while both trips–the one to Idaho two weekends ago and the one my friend Britt and I took to New England last weekend–were so, so worth it, that doesn’t actually lessen any of the coming home madness.  Laundry?  Kitchen?  School papers and projects for the kids?  Unpacking?

Blog posts?

Yeah, I dropped the ball there before I left, didn’t I?  I was going to try and post on Thursday before leaving for the airport, but that clearly didn’t happen.  (I was also going to try and mail cards to my sister from the different places we went to, but my brain is apparently too old to hold on to ALL of the things it wants to do.)  So here I am, home since Monday evening, trying to decide if I’ve got the will to write about my trip AND review a book, or if I should stick to one or the other.  I’d like to review a book–say, one of the 3 or 4 on my Goodreads “Currently Reading” shelf that I’ve actually finished, so it can move on to one of the various places that my completed books go–but that doesn’t feel nearly as doable as I want it to tonight.  I also want to actually write about my trip, and yet I think what I’ve got motivation enough to do is list out more of an itinerary–while feeling guilty for not being up to more.

Thursday, Oct. 3rd:  Arrived in RI after midnight local time.  Survived with Britt my first ever renting of a car.  (We adulted so hard!)  Managed to drive it safely to our destination and go to bed sometime after 3 am.

Friday, Oct. 4th:  Slept in.  Headed out to Newport around 11-ish and toured Rosecliff.  Successfully found a parking place near the beginning of the Cliff Walk (the parking meter took credit cards) and did a mile or so of it before returning to the car and desperately seeking seafood.  It wasn’t the best I’ve had, but we thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless.  Made it home in one piece, but I slept badly.

Saturday, Oct. 5th:  On the road before 7.  Breakfast courtesy of a Dunkin drive-though.  Drove up to Sharon, VT to visit the birthplace of the prophet Joseph Smith.  Beautiful weather!  From Sharon to Rutland–paying for the Norman Rockwell museum didn’t feel worth it, but lunch at Coach’s Deli was AMAZING.  From Rutland to Bennington–the Robert Frost museum was closed, but we wandered around the grounds and took pictures before heading to his grave.  The church was open past closing time because a couple was there preparing for an event the next day, and so we got to wander around both inside and out.  (They were completely lovely people.)  We hit Amherst, Massachusetts in the dark and Britt took pictures of Emily Dickinson’s house with her flash because we were listening to the Women’s Session of General Conference on my phone.  Home late, but it was a beautiful day.

Sunday, Oct. 6th:  Allie’s doughnuts for breakfast and then a drive around Scituate before heading to the Boston temple to walk around the grounds.  From there we went to York, Maine, and wandered around the rocks at Nubble Light (aka Cape Neddick) in some impressive wind.  The salt spray made us sticky, but the view was no less beautiful for being in shades of grey.  We stopped at Stonewall Kitchen on the way home–no purchases, it being Sunday, but we sampled and pondered the possibility of ordering various products online.  Made it home at a civilized hour and took a stroll in the dark before enjoying some music and turning in.

Monday, Oct. 7th:  Survived the drive to the airport and the returning of the rental car (so much adulting!) before embarking on an uneventful flight home.  It’s always hard for me to fly away from the color and into the brown–but my family was happy to see me.

Book reviews to follow, folks–but tonight, I’m turning in.

I don’t have internet.  AGAIN.

This is after not having internet for most of the day before we left for Idaho last week, on a day when my hubby was out of town (he being the technical talent in our relationship).  My junior high student now has homework for which she must be able to access the internet, by the way.  And she stresses about things.  AND she had hours–quite literally–of homework to do last night.  Could she have done some of it earlier?  Probably.  But still.  When it went out (again) last night, my hubby called Comcast and spent a good part of his evening working on the problem.  The upshot?  They have to send a tech out to do something with the line, and that tech can’t get there until tomorrow morning, and in the meantime, I DON’T HAVE INTERNET.

I am CRANKY about this.

Thankfully, I have good friends; I’m sitting at one of their houses right now, because I didn’t want to skip today’s post.  I finished listening to The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict yesterday, and if I review it, I can return it to the library before my daughter’s hold on the brand-new Mysterious Benedict book comes in.  And everybody wins!

So, the book review.  I did like Extraordinary Education; I don’t know that I loved it, though.  It has a lonelier feel–which is unavoidable, yes, given Nicholas’s story–that affects me as a parent more than it would have affected me as a child.  I ‘m not going to dock it stars for that, but it was definitely a factor in MY reading experience.  Orphaned Nicholas is a lonely, cynical 9-year-old, and his fixation on treasure hunting rather than being a friend lasts longer than I want it to.  (Not unrealistically longer, necessarily, but still.)  My other issue may also be a function of my stage in life, because I also felt the book dragged a bit.  The target audience has more time to read and often likes its mystery/adventure stories to be fat, but I was getting impatient for resolution with more than a hundred pages left to go.  I might be more enthralled with the intricacies of the mystery if that were more my thing, but I’m a historical fiction lover at heart; I’m reading this series more because my oldest LOVES mysteries.  (And puzzles.  And adventure stories).  Ultimately, I think this prequel is best suited for fans of the series, but then again…I’m cranky today.  So I guess you can do with that what you will.