POSTCARD FROM THE ABBEY

I can hardly keep my eyes open.  Don't you just hate that feeling?  All day long, I wanted to put my head down on a table and close my eyes.  Now I'm writing this blog to keep myself awake until I have to rally and get up and go out to dinner with family.  Not a hardship at all, my favorite steak place.   

Sleep has not been my friend lately.  Four hours at one time is about my max but certainly not my optimum.  I try not to get up out of bed but after awhile I think a glass of milk would help.  Sometimes I'm hot and thirsty and craving a Coke at 3 a.m.  But not very often.  A couple of swigs can hit the spot.

This very early morning my eyelids opened before 2 a.m.  Tiptoeing into the kitchen, I turned on my middle of the night lights and grabbed a glass of water.  I sat down in my chair, wide awake.   The dog wouldn't even recognize my presence.  I picked up a piece of stitching lying on my ottoman.  I love to cross-stitch and started this new piece last week.  Recently, Cate said, "Your stitching is probably missing you" because of all my writing these days.  I worked a few stitches on my linen and stopped. 

Then I spied my Nook HD, a very indulgent, improper gift for an English Major to purchase for herself.  Books, books, books has been my rallying cry for years.  I would put my fingers in my ears and start singing Tea for Two whenever anyone tried to sell me on an E-book.  After two Writer's Conferences extolling the virtues and the necessities of owning and using such a system, my underdog sad face knew I couldn't stay ignorant forever.  Choosing stubborn ignorance is a lovely way of hiding out from pushing myself to try the new and different.   A place that is tried and true and ancient is my favorite dwelling place.  I talk a big game about change but...

Hesitantly, I have to say that getting my Nook has been a good thing (said very swiftly and running all the words together so as not to be understood).  Yes, change is good.  My reading has quadrupled in the past few weeks.  One of my favorite tools is the e-dictionary.  Any word available at my lazy fingertips.  How many times did my mother tell me to look it up?  I think this still counts because I am looking up new words, which is like chewing meat for a writer, feasting on the protein need to fuel my mind.  And the Nook keeps a record of the words I look up.

But there is one item I didn't consider when I purchased my new fancy reading book!  I've always considered a person using a cell phone or an Ipad as a movie or television screen absolutely nuts.  How in the world would a little bitty screen serve up anything of entertainment value?

This morning, at 3 a.m., I was holding the Nook in my lap, mesmerized by the little jewel box of Downton Abbey on a screen as big as the "add extra postage" size postcard.  It was a tiny version of my old television but I have to admit, still charming and interesting.  All the brilliance of the show seemed to be magnified even on this Lilliputan network.  I wouldn't want to do all my viewing in that format because I am usually cross-stitching while I watch any t.v.

Now it is Friday.  Yesterday I found out that D.A. will be returning to the American screen in January 2014.  Whew.  A relief because I will have more time to watch Season 3.  We were out of town and I was showing my father-in-law my Nook with all of its bells and whistles.  And it froze up entirely.  Zilch.  No turn off or any change of anykind.  The battery heated up and it died.

When you are becoming accustomed to a new gadget, sudden death is debilitating.  This Nook had already made me say in writing how much I was enjoying the e-process.  It's like being in sixth grade again, and having this cute boy walk me to class for a couple of days and tell me how much he likes me and how impressed he is that I'm on page 175 out of 610 pages of Look Homeward Angel, oh, I

mean that he might want to go steady and then poof.  Zilch.  Heartbreak.  Jerk.  The joke is on me.

However, this story has a better middling.  We aren't to the ending.  The store where I purchased the dropped dead device (I never dropped it, in truth) replaced it with a newer, better conditioned version, we hope.  I still have not been home long enough to figure out how to transfer my 1st Nook library into my 2nd Nook Book.  But between blogging and nooking, I'm learning new tricks, I hope. 

Lessons learned:  Change is good.  New words bring new ideas.  Downton Abbey is delightful and entertaining even on a postcard.  Many happy returns occur.  No caffeine after six.  A mean boy's name is easily forgotten.   


The summer before sixth grade, vacationing in Colorado

THE DOG HOUSES

Rainy days and Tuesdays.  What a combo.  A person could just take a nap or watch a few Downton Abbey episodes of Season 2.  And eat popcorn like I'm at a movie.  A few million years ago when Dallas was THE rage, microwave popcorn was the new thing.  Every Friday night, Pam and I would watch the show, eat microwave popcorn and drink Tab or Diet Pepsi.  Everything stopped when it was time for Dallas.  You couldn't watch it on your phone five days later at your convenience.  

Now Downton Abbey has my attention, although I'm late to the party.  The new season begins January 5, 2014.  I think I have enough time to catch up.  It's like eating a potato chip while reading a good book.  I can't watch just one and I can't put it down.  D.M. and I watched the very first two episodes when we visited Princess and Finn over the Easter holiday. 
 
I thought we (husband and me) were going to make it "our" show.  Roadshow, The Middle, Doc Martin and Undercover Boss are the only shows we watch together and not always with regularity.  He sleeps during Roadshow.  Basketball preempts The Middle way too much.  Doc Martin is a new find and that just ended.  He is amazed by Undercover Boss and the generosity of its main characters.  And then last night, I found out he was watching a PBS wrap-up on Downton Abbey's last three seasons.  I was crushed, a little bit.  He said I wouldn't have liked it because there were no spoiler alerts.  This comment from a person who reads the ending of a book first.

 A couple of weeks ago while doing a Flea Market day, I found a first edition John Grisham, The Painted House.   We had not read it so I picked it up.  I let him read it first which is sometimes a good idea.  I am very picky about my new magazines and books.  I do not like anyone else to even touch them before me.  At some point in our new life together, I discovered he was reading my books on the sneak while I was reading them!  He is sly. 

 When I finally began The Painted House, he wanted so badly to tell me something about it.  After I was into the book , I found that one thing.  I forgot to mention that he didn't start this book at the beginning.  He liked it so much he had to backtrack and spent a very late evening in reverse.  Life is just easier when you start at the beginning.

 All my boys are in the dog house today.  The four-legged variety sent me tripping down the stairs and onto the garage floor (I’m okay) and the one that talks just talked himself out of all those pleasant evenings sitting next to me, catching up to Season 4.  I think I’ll go make some homemade popcorn, pour my beverage of choice and get started on Season 2.  Afterall, over 85,000,000 searches on Google can’t be wrong.

signed,
a woman eating popcorn in bed watching Downton Abbey

 
Recipe for popcorn (I don’t buy microwave.)

      2 tablespoons of vegetable oil/  1/3 c. popcorn kernels

 
Pour oil in pot.  Add 4 kernels. Turn between medium and high, more towards medium.  Never leave oil unattended.  When 4 kernels pop, oil is hot.  Add rest of corn.  Shake pot, using potholders.   Pop, pop, pop.  Do leave lid a little bit open so steam can escape and not toughen popcorn.  I’ve tried generic and brand.  My favorite is Orville.  Shake again.  Remove from heat.  Turn off stove.  Pour popcorn into large bowl.  Melt some butter in the pan and pour over.