I've had so little time for myself in the chaos of moving, I'm trying to make a walk down to the library boxes every Sunday a regular thing. I can go before anyone else is up and about, and I miss walking alone. Someday when I have more free time, I look forward to exploring the sidestreets. There was one street we looked at a house on, before we'd settled on here, and there was a library box there, too, so I intend to hunt it out sooner or later.

That said, I admit I did find time, at night before bed and finally while watching the Farmer's Market table yesterday, to finish the book that I borrowed.

It wasn't quite what I expected. I knew from the blurb that it was a variation based on the many older versions of the Cinderella story, and there were definite hints of Sapsorrow (as depicted in the Jim Henson Storyteller series). The focus was less on a wicked stepmother (replaced in this tale by a haunting portrait of her deceased mother) and stepsisters (there were none), and more about the conflict between her duties as a princess and her father.
There was a lot about rape, and recovering from it. That the rape was also incest almost seems secondary. I'm glad I didn't read this when I was younger, I'm not sure how I would have taken that. Now... the journey of the main character to rescue herself from what she had been through and how she'd been taught to think about it was interesting.
The story was also a lot about dogs, and the love of them, and about seasons. Winter was used as a metaphor through her recovery a lot. Maybe it was appropriate, then, that when I stepped out the door for my walk this morning, winter hit me full in the face. It was not winter yesterday. It was practically balmy by comparison. Today, I several times had to wipe tears off my face because the wind managed to bite at my eyes even behind sunglasses. It sent me longing for my winter coat, which needs dry cleaning and is hopefully salvageable, rather than another sacrificial victim to the damages the old apartment did to our belongings.

Picked up a new book today, and dropped off several more. After the heavy stuff in Deerskin, this is a book by Marguerite Henry, a horse book of course. It's indulging my inner child, I guess? Hopefully I'll have an update on that next week! Until then readers, keep warm.

Has it really been over two years?

I don't know what to say, except that the twists and turns of life have kept me busy. Went through a lot of depression. Went through the death of my cat of fifteen years, and that was a hard blow, although her face cancer gave us forewarning and time to ready ourselves emotionally. In the end, I'm not sure if that was the better or worse way to have to say goodbye. Some months later I got a new cat, and I love her but she was a rescue as an adult and it's been a long road, with her. I also went through one job, which was okay, just a job, then stumbled into another which is like a dream still, over a year later. I've been the receptionist at a small veterinary clinic for over a year, now, and I feel like I'm finally home.
This fall we managed to escape our crappy apartment that's been falling down around our ears, and moved into sharing a rental house with another couple. We have a yard. We have three cats in the house. We have space, my girlfriend has also gotten a job she's reasonably happy in, and life is finally in a place where I feel like I'm standing in the light again. I'm not saying everything is easy. I'm currently going through some self-image issues that feel incredibly awkward, in part because I'm thirty-five and of course I can't quite shake that illusion that I should have things mostly sorted out by now. I'm okay, though.
I don't know how regularly I'll post here, and if/when I resume the 365 project it will probably be at a slow pace, but this morning I felt like it was time to reopen this book.

Along with the joy and rapture of having a yard, our new home has other wonders. Within easy walking distance of the house I found these.

Not one, but two miniature lending libraries! My first walk around the neighborhood I was unprepared, but this morning I'm up before anybody else, and I selected a couple of extra books from what I've moved to the new place that I could stand to give up.
For the first library, the black and white one, I took a copy of Siddhartha because somehow I wound up with two, albeit different translations. This library has a little notepad and pen in it, so I added my gratitude for finding these. I also found a novel called 'Deerskin' by Robin McKinley and I remember liking her work when I was in High School, so I thought I'd give it a try. I don't think I ever read this one.
The second library is next to a phone pole and seems slightly more neglected, but the bottom shelf is entirely children's books. The idea of people taking their young children out for a stroll and to visit the neighborhood library boxes is awesome even to somebody who never wants children. I took a teen/preteen novel called 'Ghost Boy' about an albino boy who joins the circus. It was an okay book, but not one I'm sure I'll ever read again. Next chance I have I'll look for some younger age level books to bring, because I don't have quite everything moved to the new house and I know there's some odds and ends.

Seeing these makes me want to run my own, but we're only renting here, and the future a few years up the road remains uncertain. I'm hoping someday we'll have a house of our own, and the opportunity to set up one of these for our neighbors, but in the meantime I'll try to keep posting here about my good finds from these!