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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Date a girl who reads

Apparently this has been making the internet rounds for a good long while, but it's new to me, and I found it positively heartwarming. Of course I would. Please forgive the re-post.

Date a Girl who Reads
by Rosemarie Urquico

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilightseries.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.



Friday, August 19, 2011

"Mark but this flea"

So we had to take Calvin and Susie to the vet last week for their yearly shots. The cat carrier is a lot heavier when it's holding two overweight full-grown cats, rather than two kittens! Anyway, as we were leaving, the cashier asked us if we needed any products - any food, medicines, flea protection. I declined, since they're indoor cats and we've never had any problems with pests.

I had to say it. Of course we never had any problems with pests. Until I took our cats to the vet. And now they both have FLEAS.

At first, Jon and I couldn't figure out where all the red itchy bumps were coming from. He didn't even notice any bumps on himself until about a week went by and I insisted that he must have some, if I keep getting bitten. So we checked the cats, and sure enough - fleas.

Of course it was after office hours for the vet, and I insisted that we had to start addressing this flea problem RIGHT NOW. So I went to the store to survey the options. Shampoo? Yeah right. Susie doesn't even let us brush her half the time. Powder seemed risky, so we went with the over-the-counter gel.

Do not ever buy the over-the-counter, under $20 flea control. Just don't. It was on the cats for about 60 seconds before they licked near it and started twitching and foaming at their tiny little mouths. I panicked.

"Jon, we have to wash it off! It's going to kill the kitties!"

The cats were already going crazy by this point, but we eventually wrangled them into the tub, rubbed some soap on the spot, and hosed them down. Thank goodness for removable massaging shower heads.

Did I mention my husband is a saint? My husband is a saint.

So I went to the vet today and bought the good stuff. In addition, we're removing the fleas the old-fashioned way - a comb and a cup of rubbing alcohol + water (to drown the little blood-sucking buggers). We're also vacuuming and washing the sheets. A lot.

Mean little things.

Love,

Katie