Spinster

This is my “I hate school” post. In the next two weeks, I have to write two 20-page papers, write a take-home final (which includes a 7-page paper), finish a database assignment that I don’t even understand, and… well. I guess that’s it. But still! I also have to go to work AND I have to be fabulous, which takes up a considerable amount of time. And of course, all I really want to do is hang out and read and knit and spin and sew and enjoy the insanely beautiful weather we’ve been having.

Speaking of reading, I started The Miracle in the Andes the other day and it’s quite gripping. I’m such a sucker for compelling non-fiction. I love travel literature and adventure stories. I even like the books that movies are eventually made out of, like Under the Tuscan Sun (kinda crappy movie, pretty good book). One of my favorites is Chris Stewart’s Driving Over Lemons. He’s a sheep-shearing Englishman who moved to Spain with his wife to live on a small farm in the Alpujarras (south of Granada). I know that the Anglo ex-pat is a theme that’s been explored and re-explored–it seems like everyone is leaving the US or the UK or Canada or Australia to live in some sun-drenched Mediterranean country–but Stewart’s books are humble and insightful and funny. I think that the reason that I love those books is because those people are living the ultimate dream. Who wouldn’t want to live in Tuscany or Provence or the south of Spain? Even when the writers mention the hardships they go through, like Stewart’s winter from hell, or Mayes’ trials and tribulations with her house, I’m still like, “But dude, you get to eat fresh-baked bread drizzled with olive oil from your own grove and in the afternoon, have a siesta under a lemon tree,” or whatever.