My Year of Binchy – Week 34: TWO NEW THINGS

Before I even start reading, I must tell you about a thing I did.

I created a list on Bookshop.org with all the Maeve Binchy books I’ve read all year.

I get 10% of every book you purchase offa this list. It’s not much, but maybe it will buy me a bag of chips or something, you know?

Bookshop.org is an excellent alternative to Amazon. They support independent bookstores. Here is a bit more about them.

And again, if you want to read the Binchy books in order, here’s where you can buy them!

Monday, August 19

• Book: Evening Class
• Chapters: Fiona
• Location: Backyard in the freshly cut grass
• Smoking: Gorilla Zkittles

What I’m listening to:

Did I cry?

Okay, yes, but because I see myself in all these people.

Thoughts while reading (could be about the book, could not):

Today, I cut the grass after doing writing work, and that felt wrong in my brain.

You see, physical work comes before brain work, according to my entire life. I don’t know why that is, but I thought I’d fuck up my own algorithm a bit.

I think it worked. I cut the grass with no music again. I did, however, think deeply and longly about this reality show erotica I’m writing.

It’s windy and sunny today. I know how to say that in Irish now, and that feels weird to me.

Tá sé gaofar agus grianmhar inniu.

See? I have been doing Duolingo every morning for over a month now, and it’s become one of my favorite parts of the day.

My days are so much slower now; I truly don’t know how I did all the things I did before.

Right now, though, I am going to read.

brb (not birb related)

I think i love Maeve Binchy because she wrote about autistic characters without even realizing it. That’s why I see myself so much in it.

Fiona is painfully autistic, much the way I felt for a lot of my life. I want to get high with her and tell her it will all be okay (or hug her if she’s a hugger instead.)

And I want to do that to little Jacki, too. Except she was very anti-drinking or drugging of any sort and did not like to be touched, so maybe I will offer to sing with her or listen to her play her French horn or something.

Yeah, that last one, for sure. No one ever wanted to hear the trumpet or french horn or the song I was working on in chorus, they just wanted it to stop. So, I always stopped way earlier than I wanted to so I didn’t have to get to the point where someone would ask me to.

Welp, here is a thing I didn’t see happening today.

But I was bopping along reading, getting really into Fiona’s story, when this really boppy song came on.

Something in the back of my brain said, “This would make a great tap warm up”

Something even farther in the back of my brain said, “go get your tap shoes”

Even though I haven’t used them since I moved here, I knew exactly where they were.

So I put them on.

Opened up the garage and got to tapping.

A lot of it came back surprisingly fast.

I think I’m gonna keep these shoes nearby in case the need arises again.

I feel like it will.

The next chapter is the viaggio!!!!! I’m so close to the end of this one, but I’m not sad because I know I’ll see some of these folks again in upcoming books.

New birds heard:

Heard the Jack White rainbow of birbs again! Woohoo!

Tuesday, August 20

• Book: Evening Class
• Chapters: VIAGGIO
• Location: Back yard, in the grass, near the butterfly circle
• Smoking:mishmashpaddywhackgiveadogabone (idk, it’s all mixed up together)

What I’m listening to:

Did I cry?

Yes. I really wish we had enough money to travel.

Thoughts while reading (could be about the book, could not):

You might notice that I am listening to the Succession soundtrack, which is not my standard combo playlist that also includes Search Party. That is because I am feeling abundant today and not gloomy at all, so I wanted to reflect that in my music playing.

Plus, I like singing along with “L to the OG” when it comes on.

Yes, I know all the words.

Let’s go on Viaggio with all these fictional people I love. It’s 71 and sunny here. I am dressed like a stagehand in a play. Long sleeve shirt and long pants. Both black.

Let’s read.

The first garden bed you see is a mixed bag – there are dahlias that got all ate up by the animals that live here. We only got a few blooms this year. There are anemone that I am in love with, and I will be planting a full mixed bed of those and allium next year. It’s gonna look like Tim Burton before he got all Johnny Depped.

Beyond that is my vegetable patch where we have radishes, tomatoes, dill, potatoes, asparagus and I think that’s all that survived.

Next year we will fence in that back veggie patch. So WE can actually eat the veggies this year.

Even in the vacation part of this book I feel seen. I feel, like, braggy saying this. But put me in combination with certain people and when we go out… magical things happen.

KPerks and Jacki are gonna have at least three stories to tell after a Ferndale Friday. Me and Stevie can’t even ride a bus without making a new friend and exchanging phone numbers.

Me and Big Tim out on the town will have us hearing some of the best life stories we’ve heard in our lives.

And, hell, this makes me feel even more braggy. Mickey and I have that same kind of superpower. We went to the bakery to get a birthday cake the other day (shout out taco cake from roberto’s) and the person serving us was full of personality. She kept making us taste the “specialties of the house” and then give us free things, upsold us on buying a you-bake pizza there instead of Jack’s, which was our original plan. And we left with more glazed donuts than we ordered.

So, to see other people in this book show case that same magic is just, well, magical.

This is a great book to start with if you want to begin the Maeve Binchy journey.

New birds heard:

ZERO