Friday, March 31, 2006

A good book, nice weather and uninterrupted time

These are the three things needed to help renew the soul.

I just finished spending the last two hours, on my back deck, reading while my daughter is in pre-school. The sun is out and it is a rather balmy 70 degrees for a March day in New Jersey. I picked up Hypocrite in a pouffy white dress, tales of growing up groovy and clueless from Target earlier today and am really enjoying it. If you are a child of the late 60s and early 70s, then you will definitely get a kick out of all the tv and pop culture references.

The author Susan Jane Gilman writes about what she wanted to be when she grew up. One of the many things on her list is stewardess. This is what she writes:

What it really boiled down to, I realize now, was the "-ess" in the word "stewardess." Somehow, my five-year-old brain had grasped the idea that "-ess" was the culmination of all thing feminine and highly desirable. It was a suffix that separated the girls from the boys in the best of all possible ways. Princess, goddess, actress, countess. What was there not to love? A flight attendant, feh. But a stewardess? "-Ess" made any profession sound glamorous. A laundress, a sorceress, an adulteress. To this day, I'm convinced that, if someone had only been enterprising enough to call female MDs "doctresses" and female scientist "nuclear biologesses," I would have been equally enthusiastic about becoming those too.

Nicole and Tracy - I would be happy to share the book once I am finished!

7 comments:

Kristin said...

Sounds like a great afternoon... I've loved, "Hypocrite"... have you read, "Kiss My TIara"? It is in the same vein...

MrsFortune said...

Oh, HYPOCRITE!!! It is soooooo damn funny, I was laughing out loud on the train reading it and people were looking at me like I was totally nuts. That whole thing about what girls wanted to be when they grew up. Priceless.

Michelle said...

Sounds like a good day! I will have to give that book a read.

Lisa and Tate said...

What a great day!!! I would add only one thing.... CHOCOLATE!!! It sounds like a book I would like to read...

Lisa

Juliet said...

Time to myself to read sounds wonderful! Maybe when William starts preschool. The book sounds good, too. I may be too young to get some of the pop culture references, but I am sure I would enjoy it just the same.

Kim M. said...

Sounds good. I've been making time to read lately. I'll have to check this book out. Glad you had some me time!!!!

Karen and Jon said...

Sounds great. Any book that makes you laugh out loud is a winner for me. I'm putting it on my list.