I can tell spring has pretty much arrived in D.C. because of the burning of my eyes, the tickle in my throat, and the snuffliness of my head.
May spring soon arrive where you are, but may the allergies pass you by.
Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic invites participants to consider some of the one-off books we love that we’d enjoy revisiting. While recognizing that authors may not do kind things with beloved characters once they hit the keyboard again (see To Kill a Mockingbird), then, are ten standalone books I still mostly wish had a sequel (or two):
How about you? Are there standalones you’ve read that you wish would suddenly become a series.
Last week, I shared with a song from one of the cds I bought at our bookstore’s member sale. Today, I thought I’d share a song off the other.
New York City jazz instrumentalist and composer Bobby Sanabria has reimagined the soundtrack to West Side Story by emphasizing and emboldening the Latin American musical roots of story. The bones of Leonard Bernstein’s score is still there, but it’s now more authentically Puerto Rican thanks to the 21-piece Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band.
If you’re familiar at all with the movie or show (and probably even if you aren’t), you’ll know “America.” But maybe this “America” is a more representative one:
If you like what you hear, this mostly instrumental version of West Side Story Reimagined is for sale as both a double cd and as a download. Partial proceeds from the Grammy-nominated album go to the Jazz Foundation of America’s Puerto Rico Relief Fund, so you can really feel good while dancing around your living room or bopping along in your car (although maybe not so much once you get to the ending — SPOILER — of the doomed love story).
[March 23: I was just looking at my calendar and was confused to see an empty spot for the 10th. I’d written a post — what had happened? I don’t know. But here is the post that was scheduled for 1:39 a.m. that day that didn’t publish. -sprite]
Earlier in the week, I was feeling under the weather — mostly just exhausted and irritable. Tonight, Rudi had the same thing, so he went to bed early (a wise move, since he has to be in Pennsylvania at 7 a.m., which his body thinks is 6) and I spent the time working on my sock, watching an episode of Agatha Raisin, and listening to the end of Geekerella.
Next up on audio is either resuming Creative Quest or starting A Boy Called Bat (Kare, did Marshall ever read it and if he did, does he think I’d like it? If he didn’t, no worries…) or Aru Shah and the End of Time. Or, you know, something totally different.
It’s a shorter weekend than usual with Daylight Savings Time subtracting an hour in favor of evening light. I know some of you have trouble with it, but I am always in favor of this change.
This weekend is a change from usual in that not only do we get less of it, but that Rudi is actually home at night! He hasn’t been here for a Saturday night since early January — and he’ll be gone starting next Friday for ten days coaching the post-season in upstate New York. He is excited for both races — and to see where the Lake Placid Olympics were held, so I’m pleased for him. And I’m pleased for me that that will be the last road trip for the ski season.
We’ve got the dvd of The Hate U Give penciled in for tomorrow night, although friends may be in from out of town, in which case seeing them will obviously take priority and the dvd can get bumped to Sunday night.
The rain picked up this afternoon just as I was going to run some errands, so I decided to put them off until tomorrow. Tomorrow looks to be dry and Sunday’s forecast is for highs nearing 70, so I think it was an okay tradeoff. Plus, one of them is over at the Navy Yard, so I can take a stroll through Eastern Market’s weekend stalls while I’m over there.
I may stop by the garden to plant some more peas and see if anything is sprouting yet. I wonder if I should wait before planting some seeds for greens — chard and kale and spinach — or if I feel optimistic about my odds now that it’s March.
I’m nearly done listening to Geekerella, so I’ll definitely be spending some time finishing it up while knitting my socks. I’d like to make a little time to paint my nails, too, so that’s some additional time I probably shouldn’t spend using my fingers…
And then there’s the usual farmers market and laundry and tidying.
But mostly I’m just looking forward to seeing Rudi tomorrow evening.
What do you have planned for the weekend?
<Three beautiful things from this past week:
1. The librarian at the info desk was so patient with an older woman who’d recently added a Kindle to her life. He answered her questions (including, “Is it a phone?”), let her use his computer to access Amazon, and even read her the Captcha on the login.
2. The National Park Service announced their first stab at the dates for the peak cherry blossom season. They refine it based on the upcoming weather, but right now it’s set for the very beginning of April.
3. The bikeshare dock by the metro station nearest my book club had one of the system’s e-assist bikes, which I greatly appreciated, since the road to the library was cold and uphill and I was a little later than I’d hoped to be.
How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?