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I understand that I may not see a lot of feedback to this, given that it took me about a dozen (I lost count) attempts just to login, but my needs are more immediate than LJ's tech support.
Day after tomorrow, I leave for Tidewater Virginia. Yes, this is a family. My sister hopes that, without any of our stepsiblings present, there'll be less tension than there was in Utah two years back, but I don't understand how, since the most powerful and damaging tension was between my father and my older brother, both of whom will be there.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
monshu isn't coming (there isn't enough money in all of the Commonwealth), so my tension level may be reduced, but so will my level of enjoyment. I will have bunj and e. and their precious godchild and his precocious brother, so that should carry me through five days.
I'm expecting the same weather STL suffers at this time (why do I always end up leaving Chicago when she's at her best?), so I've packed mostly beach wear. There's a gift for my neph in there, possibly one for e. (or would you rather have it when you get back?), and I'm working on one for my hosts as well. I'll be taking along a Chinese grammar and scads of flash cards to try to plug the three-week gap between classes (no session on Independence Monday) and a few tapes (how retro!) for when I'm too bleary to read.
But what am I taking to read? I can't decide, so I'm throwing the floor open to suggestions. We'll be retracing the footsteps of our colonial forebearers, so should I be reading some stirring narrative of American progress? We'll be in the head, if not the heart, of the Confederacy, so maybe something Civil War? Also, I think I could slip in pirates on a technicality. (Didn't they predate that far north?) Miscellaneous, less site-appropriate possibilities include Genji monogatari, my bilingual edition of Lu Xun, and my newly-acquired Arthur Machen (to give me shivers on balmy nights).
Bonus question: Them good ol' boys what was listenin' to CDB in the 70's, REO in the 80's, and Black Crowes in the 90's are listenin' to ________ today.
Day after tomorrow, I leave for Tidewater Virginia. Yes, this is a family. My sister hopes that, without any of our stepsiblings present, there'll be less tension than there was in Utah two years back, but I don't understand how, since the most powerful and damaging tension was between my father and my older brother, both of whom will be there.
monshu isn't coming (there isn't enough money in all of the Commonwealth), so my tension level may be reduced, but so will my level of enjoyment. I will have bunj and e. and their precious godchild and his precocious brother, so that should carry me through five days.I'm expecting the same weather STL suffers at this time (why do I always end up leaving Chicago when she's at her best?), so I've packed mostly beach wear. There's a gift for my neph in there, possibly one for e. (or would you rather have it when you get back?), and I'm working on one for my hosts as well. I'll be taking along a Chinese grammar and scads of flash cards to try to plug the three-week gap between classes (no session on Independence Monday) and a few tapes (how retro!) for when I'm too bleary to read.
But what am I taking to read? I can't decide, so I'm throwing the floor open to suggestions. We'll be retracing the footsteps of our colonial forebearers, so should I be reading some stirring narrative of American progress? We'll be in the head, if not the heart, of the Confederacy, so maybe something Civil War? Also, I think I could slip in pirates on a technicality. (Didn't they predate that far north?) Miscellaneous, less site-appropriate possibilities include Genji monogatari, my bilingual edition of Lu Xun, and my newly-acquired Arthur Machen (to give me shivers on balmy nights).
Bonus question: Them good ol' boys what was listenin' to CDB in the 70's, REO in the 80's, and Black Crowes in the 90's are listenin' to ________ today.