the book mill

Since I wrote my last post about moving out and the amazing apartment in Brooklyn, all of my plans have fallen to pieces. Nothing worked out how I anticipated, everything became one big mess. And I'm afraid that nothing will be the same between me and my (former) perspective roommate, who also is (maybe was?) one of my closests friends. We have not spoken since the fall-out of our plans and I feel awful but at the same time proud of myself for making a decision that was best for me, not everyone else around me. However, as of today I still have no apartment and no roommate.

Through all this drama I have been reading Bless Me, Ultima and this book was completely captivating. I wanted to read it because it is one the boyfriend's favorite books and I wanted to read something that was important to him. I think this book is an example of magical realism, where things like witches, curses, forces of evil, spells, shamans and miracles are just a part of everyday life. This book asks questions that I have held to myself since childhood (for reference, I grew up in a strict Irish-Catholic family). If God is supposed to be all loving and forgiving, why is there still so much suffering and evil in the world? The main character, a seven year old by named Antonio, spends a great deal of time thinking about religion and the conflicts between native pagan Gods, the Catholic God, and the saints. How come a pagan healing ritual cured his sick uncle when prayers by the priest to the Catholic God failed? How come his mother prays to the Virgin of Guadalupe instead of to God? How can you believe in just one God if there are so many other forces at work?

I cannot do any work because I'm too excited about the possibility of moving out. Last night my potential roommate and I saw an amazing, renovated, beautiful apartment, with a dishwasher (!) in one of my favorite areas of Brooklyn. Problem was it was 3 bedrooms (with 2 bathrooms) so we have been asking everyone we know if they or their friends want to move in. Because with 3 people, the rent per person would be comfortable below our original budget.

I actually have exciting plans for my 3 day weekend and what to share them with you. Because most of the time my own plan for the weekend is sleep

• Tonight - dinner with my friends from high school who are meeting Manny for the first time, which is a pretty big deal since they have been waiting to meet him for 5 years
• Saturday - maybe working some overtime hours to help finance possible upcoming move, then maybe seeing some more apartments then maybe seeing my long lost friend Ada
• Sunday - attending this panel discussion "Embracing the Radical King" hosted by NPR on MLK, Jr at the Brooklyn Museum

I'm almost finished Breaking Out of Beginner Spanish and it's definitely one of the most interesting Spanish books I've ever read. Even though I'm still a beginner and do not not need to be breaking out anytime soon, still a very useful read and I'll probably read it again once I'm ready to break out of the beginner stage. This book is actually laugh-out-loud funny. I cannot stop myself from laughing sometimes on the train, and people look over to see what book I'm book I'm reading. They always give me raised-eyebrow strange look when they see it's just a Spanish book. More thoughts on it later.