It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
The other day I became overwhelmed with worry that I have failed my son, the high school senior. Like maybe I didn’t teach him enough or well enough during our six years of homeschooling. The last two years have been tough. He’s had senioritis both of those years. He’s so ready to be done with high school. Getting him to do his schoolwork has been torture.
I went to him a couple of nights ago while he was preparing his dinner plate and felt very overcome with emotions. I apologized to him and told him I hoped I had taught him what he needed for the future. I told him that I did my best but sometimes it was hard when he didn’t seem interested in learning so I would try to back off and let him explore the subjects he was really interested in. Maybe that was the wrong thing to do, I told him. Maybe I should have been more strict or —
I looked at him and my kid has this dumb grin on his face.
I’m practically crying and he’s grinning at me? What’s this about?
He’s not really looking at me either. So —
He laughs this really stupid laugh , looks up at me, and his smile fades. “What?” he asks. “What’s going on? Why do you look like you’re going to cry?”
That’s when I remember that my son’s long hair covers his ears and in his ears are probably . . . Yes. Earbuds.
He’s been listening to a podcast the entire time and didn’t hear even one part of my lamenting speech.
“Were you saying something serious?” he asks. “What happened?”
I fill him in briefly and he laughs another stupid laugh and sas, “I was totally not listening at all.”
Apparently he isn’t really concerned that I might have screwed up as a parent so I suppose I shouldn’t be either.
I told him not to worry about it and walked back into the living room shaking my head. Sheehs. Kids. *wink*
Did I write last week that I decided not to finish The Definitive Oral Biography of Anthony Bourdain? I could go back and look, I suppose, or I could just run the risk of repeating it. I’ll run the risk.
So, yes, I DNF’d that book on Anthony Bourdain. I was terribly bored and a few chapters in I realized that reading broken up tidbits of people’s memories of Anthony wasn’t very interesting. There really wasn’t a story to the book. It was more like random memories and thoughts and interviews just tossed together in written form. If it had been filmed and I had been watching it, I might have been a little more interested, but this simply did not hold my attention.
I did enjoy reading Kitchen Confidential by Anthony himself — even though I didn’t enjoy aspects of it (how many times did he need to share the crude nicknames he had for his co-workers or how many times he shot up or snorted something before going to work on the line at well-known restaurants?). I did not enjoy reading how others met him or what interactions they had with him as much.
Anyhow, moving on to my current reads. I am reading The Tuesday Night Club, a series of short stories with Miss Marple, by Agatha Christie.
I also decided I needed something sweet and light one night this past week and got caught up in Every Living Thing by James Herriot, so I am also reading that. I absolutely love the sweet and interesting stories in his books but this one, where he is now older with children, is especially endearing.
I am listening to Frankenstein but I keep getting distracted so I may switch to actually reading it. I do enjoy Dan Stevens narration.
Little Miss is getting close to the end of Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban.
The Boy is listening to Frankenstein. Okay, he isn’t, but he will be soon because even though I am “making” him do it for school he does actually want to read it.
This week I watched The Exile with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., The Victorian Farm, All Creatures Great and Small, and a couple episodes of The Dick VanDyke Show.
Up next in my Winter of Fairbanks Jr. movie marathon was supposed to be Chase a Crooked Shadow but I can’t find it streaming anywhere. I did find it on DVD and do plan to order it because it looks good from the trailer I found. Anyhow, I am switching to Angels Over Broadway, which I found on YouTube, for this week.
I really swear I checked some of these before I put them on the list and I swear that they were streaming but now they are not. I will update any of the movies I can’t find streaming in my Winter of Fairbanks Jr. post this week.
So far it looks like the rest are on Amazon, Hulu, or other streaming services.
I found the Sun Never Sets here: https://archive.org/details/sun.-never.-sets.-1939
I guess Fairbanks Jr. wasn’t in a ton of super popular movies because they are not easy to find.
Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree is out on Amazon and Barnes and Noble: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DW1VCWDD
Last week on the blog I shared:
- Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot!
- Winter of Fairbanks: The Exile (1947)
- Book Review/Recommendation: The Body in the Library
- Surprise! Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree is out in the world!
I am listening to Frankenstein, narrated by Dan Stevens, but I have a hard time focusing on it so we will see how that goes. I may have to switch back to the book again.
Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Stacking the Shelves with Reading Reality, The Sunday Salon with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date.
