But Call Me Betsy

Finished reading Dope by Sara Gran last night. It was definitely a page turner, but on the very last page, I wanted to throw the book across the room. The story is set in Manhattan in the 1950s and the female protagonist is a former junkie in her mid-thirties. The story is told in her sardonic and jaded voice, and the plot revolves around her trying to track down a missing girl, a blond Barnard College drop out who has started shooting up and gotten mixed up with a low life drug dealer/pimp. Searching for the woman takes the private eye back to her old haunts and temptations; she meets up with her ex-husband who got her hooked on drugs and he's still using, having shrunken down to a skeletal version of his younger, healthier self. Etc., etc., and I was relieved that the author didn't let the narrator give in and start using again, though she's thinking about it all the time. However...here's where I tell the ending, okay? Just skip forward to the Huffington Post blog ...

My mom is moving to Philadelphia at the end of the September. She's been here all along, at least in pictures. Here's a sampling from around my house. The last one is her and me on Christmas. I believe I have been just given a toy blender. I'm as mystified by kitchen items now as I was at age four.

My friend Liz lent me a library book that I devoured in two nights, Claire Dewitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran. It's a first person female detective novel sent in New Orleans shortly after hurricane Katrina. Funny, depressing, engaging. Go get it. My plan today is to hit the Penn library for Dope, an earlier novel. Here is the cover:

I saw one this morning on my way to work--an old terrier of some kind with arthritic back legs and white muzzle. The day before, it was a fuzzy golden retriever named Cooper (if I must talk to the owners to be allowed to pet the dog, I try to find out the animal's  name). Lisa Marie lived with an old dog at her last place and I had to ask her almost every day if the dogs was still alive. Luckily, she moved out before the dog died and I can now pretend that Sweetie lived forever--I never have to grieve for this dog I barely knew when she dies.

On my way to see Dan and Luke and to look at more apartments. This idea of moving again is becoming more and more real and a little freaky. Boxes. I will begin to obsess about boxes. Books. I am determined to be ruthless about giving away books. As much as I might like the idea of reading it, I will never crack the spine of The Collected Letters of E.B. White. Or that biography of Sylvia Plath. Knick-knacks? I will keep moving those small items of sentimental value, like the china doll my grandma gave me, my high school yearbooks, a little wooden block from my first boyfriend. We keep moving forward. Eddington next stop.

1. Yesterday, I spent $19 on a magic shampoo and about the same amount on hair-shine gel from Blue Sapphire or whatever it's called--this beauty product store near where I work. I do not care, because I am not the type of person who does this often. I don't get manis or pedis or massages or body waxes, so sometimes, I spend some money on hair care. And, if you must know, I have a trip planned to the MAC store at some point in the near future. 2. Ernesto still loves his perch and uses it to escape Emma Carol, who chases after him when she gets overstimulated (which happens at least three times a day). EC can't get him when he's up there, because she has a little bit of weight problem. 3. I recently learned how to sync up my phone with Dan's i-Tunes account and so have been able to listen to tons of Bruce Springsteen. I've also come to realize (somewhat late in the game) how easy it is to download single songs myself for a mere 99 cents or $1.29. Here...

Doing projects on the planets with Saturn being the hardest planet to draw. Christmas pageants after hours at school and how totally different school seemed at nighttime. Making clay vases in art class that tipped over under their own weight. Book reports done the night before and trying to make the illustrations really large to take up extra space. Playing Ghosts in the Graveyard in the dark in someone's yard. Slumber parties. Making long fingernails out of Scotch tape. Candy cigarettes (do they even still make those)? Spelling bees. Getting in trouble at school and feeling like it's going to go on your permanent record for the rest of your life: "Frankly, we'd hire you in a second if it weren't for that nasty business about your behavior at a certain spelling bee." Drawing princesses and trying to find ways to avoid drawing the hands and feet like perhaps having the hands clasped behind the back and the feet hidden by a giant hoop skirt. Making ...