Death, death, and travel

A whirlwind of road trips and family visits have kept me from reading much or posting at all. Here's what I have read and seen lately. (I'm afraid crafting has been completely nonexistant but I did get all the puppet theatres off to the recipients).

I listened to The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion on tape. Its a very moving read and I can't imagine going through everything the author did all at once. Such an honest voice! This passage particularly touched me:

"People who have recently lost someone have a certain look recognizable only to those who have seen that look on their own faces. I've noticed it on my face and I notice it now on others. The look is one of extreme vulnerability, nakedness, openness. It is the look of someone who walks from the opthamologists office into daylight with dilated eyes or the look of someone who usually wears glasses and is made to take them off. These people who have lost someone look naked because they think themselves invisible. I myself felt invisible for a period of time. Incorporeal."

I read Into the Wild by John Krakauer after my husband enjoyed it so well. Its very well-written, but I can't help having a lack of sympathy for Chris McCandless. His treatment of his family seems so cruel and childish. But I particularly enjoyed the author's brief backgrounds of other adventurers who traveled into the wild and perished. It was pretty darn interesting.

We watched the first video from Michael Palin's Pole to Pole series last night. I'm enjoying it. Even when his jokes fall flat, I find Palin pretty endearing.

We're also still watching the Monarch of the Glen series. Why can I not track down who sells the hat Lexie wears for her wedding? Its so damn cute!