Hi bug. I finished reading The Dogs of Babel recently by Carolyn Parkhurst. I really enjoyed the book! It's about a husband's quest to figure out his wife's death after she breaks her neck from a fall. The only witness is their dog, Lorelei. He tries to teach Lorelei words to see if she can tell him anything about the accident. I don't want to spoil the ending if anyone is going to read it, but of course he doesn't succeed. But he does suceed in solving the mystery because of the process. It's amazing to see how two so very different persons can come to fall in love and accept each other for their differences. The main character, Paul, was in love with his depressed wife, who in turn, loved him back with all her heart. To me, Lexy was crazy and depressed. But I could also rationalize with her at the same time. I think everyone knows what it feels like to be depressed, if not often, at least once in a while. Suicide is something I thought about in my much younger days and never thought about again. I would say that I'm definitely not suicidal, and certainly never will be. But at the same time, I can understand it. Very perfectly. It's quite a sad and memorable read. I loved it very much.
Weekend was busy and lazy at the same time. I'll start with Thursday night. Mike and I went to Rene's to pick her up for dinner and a movie. We ended up eating McDonalds because the movie time came up so quick, so we snuck it in. We watched Cars, the latest Pixar movie, and it was very funny. I enjoyed it immensely. On Friday, I met Mike at his internship site and brought him lunch. We watched part of the disappointing World Cup match between Korea and Switzerland. I went home afterwards and finished watching the game in upset. Friday night I went to Little Temple with Mike, Jason, Ben, Rene and Patty. It was very fun! I think I've already indulged in what happened there. I woke up Saturday with an unhappy stomach and called in sick to work. After resting up the tummy, Mike and I ate dim sum and went back home to watch more World Cup games. We had dinner at In n' Out and went out to meet Rene, Jason and to see Ben one last time before he is off for Japan. We called it an early night and went home. Sunday morning consisted of more World Cup games. We ordered Papa John's Hawaiian pizza and stuffed ourselves. After the food coma had passed and the games were over, we went to KB's to set up his fish aquarium, which actually took a lot longer than we thought. We also had a short trip to PetSmart and I also napped a bit at his place before we went to get dinner with Eric. Then we gymed it and went back home. It was a pretty productive weekend!!
I'll end with a short story I liked, discovered from The Dogs of Babel.
The Case of the Sixteenth-Century Child-Dog of Lyons
"This dog, by most accounts a keeshond brought into the area by Dutch traders, was adopted at birth by a grieving mother whose baby had died soon after childbirth. The woman suckled the dog like a child and dressed him in little nighties and bonnets. As the pup grew, his "mother" took great pains to teach him to speak and succeeded to some degree by sheer perseverance, though listeners often had to ask the woman to translate. The dog became a celebrated member of the community but never learned to frolic and play like other dogs. The dog and his mother lived happily together for thirteen years, until the woman grew ill, and when she lay on her deathbed, the dog never left her side. On the night the woman closed her eyes for the last time, the dog spoke his last words: "Without your ear, I have no tongue." (I need hardly point out the double meaning of both the English "tongue" and the French langue, which refer both to the physical tongue and to language.) Though the dog lived another year after his mother's death, he never made another noise, either canine or human. After his death, the people of Lyons erected a statue in his honor, with his final words engraved on the base."
<3 Karen
Moving - Sunday, Mar. 02, 2008
Rambles and Kansas! - Thursday, Feb. 07, 2008
In Manhattan, Kansas! - Sunday, Jan. 20, 2008
Minnesota! - Saturday, Jan. 12, 2008
First Interview!!! - Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007
