Recent reads

Recent reads I have enjoyed. Clearly slanted to the Japanese cozy fiction sub-genre:

Feb 2025 – The Restaurant of Lost Recipes, by Hisashi Kashiwai - so fun and makes you want to go ask them to cook for you. They are food detectives who help you get lost experiences back in the most delicious ways.

Dec 2024 – Before Your Memory Fades, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - part of the series.

Oct 2024 - I'm Glad My Mom Died, by Jennette McCurdy - not as harsh as the title might suggest. A very honest account of a child actress and how she was "mothered."

Oct 2024 – Inside Out, by Demi Moore - there's more to her than what we all know. Intense, difficult childhood. 

Oct 2024 - Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata - she's an outlier who finds peace in her work.

Oct 2024 - Strange Weather in Tokyo, by Hiromi Kawakami - a sweet love story.

Sept 2024 - What You Are Looking For is in the Library, by Michiko Aoyama - more magic; the main character, Sayuri, is a large, calm, and perceptive woman who creates felted trinkets.

July 2024 - A Quitter's Paradise: A Novel, by Elysha Chang - a professional woman who didn't want what everyone expected her to want.

Nov 2024 - Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner - I hung on every word. So good, and you can almost smell the bubbling soups she describes.

Nov 2024 – Kitchen, by Banana Yoshimoto - more delicious food descriptions, and a great story.

Nov 2023 – Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - magical, about time travel. It's part of the series. I read them all.

A little magic

Sometimes you find actual magic in the world, or it finds you. On Friday, the 13th, which I consider a lucky day, I had a scan for a long-standing "thing" that requires monitoring. This being the 4th scan. The previous 3 all showed growth. This one showed a decrease. I am full of joy and thanks. Is it the mantra, "my body is self-healing" that I have said over and over many times over the four years since the last scan? I kind of put it out there that I'd be ever so grateful if this thing healed, grew smaller, remained so very stable. And it is stable. Is it a reprieve of my body saying, it's okay, we're quieting down and this is a result of that, perhaps after a long stint at a desk writing. Whatever it is, I am feeling so much gratitude. Thank you, Divine energy. Thank you.

Time

Is time passing faster? Did some clock change speed when I "retired?" We've had almost no winter, and now its March 11th. My dear friend has been gone over a month (how can that be?) and I just want to slow it all down and go back. That is not the nature of time though, or life, and forward is the only direction we can go. Must put more energy into filling the daily agenda. Upside: the sun is shining today.

Move this

I'm wondering if there are any takers out there who would help me move this couch out of a certain La Jolla library. I've coveted it for years. Even inquired about it after the "renovation" when it disappeared for a while. And then it reappeared. I'm thinking we distract the front desk and run it out a side door. What could go wrong?

San Francisco

Back in 2010, I went to San Francisco every other week for work. Here's a picture taken outside the window of the very tall building I worked in. The highlight of these trips was walking to The Ferry Building for lunch each day. It was filled with great shops and lunch spots. It was my first encounter with Blue Bottle Coffee; I loved the simple blue and white branding. 

De-evolution

This picture is the view as I wait outside the elevator of a place I go to get therapy on my back. I am the rare individual with upper back pain versus lower. It's usually lower backs that hurt, but I think I have upper pain resulting from bracing -- holding my shoulders up and tight. A general feeling of unsafety in this world. 

The world is in a state of de-evolution. The men in charge of nearly everything are for the most part greedy hydras who replicate indefinitely and have lost the ability to make good decisions. I think it's partly DNA (their pre-historic desire to kill and plunder and let's not forget rape), and partly because technology has eaten away any natural rhythm to their minds. Decisions, like going to war, are not made on a dime, using video game memes to express glee over the murder and mayhem unleashed, in the name of helping people. May this mindset be eradicated, not by death, but by isolation and containment where their harm, injustice and hatred are forever silenced.