Book Reports - Page 4

After she picks up Aiden and two of his friends from school, they stop at a panini restaurant for a snack. When they get home Rita Beghosian helps Helen with getting the house ready for showing at an open house event. Aiden also manages to skip water polo practice. Helen started crying when she reflected on what happened to her since New Year’s Day – Merritt’s affair, loss of assets and the financial crisis, Aiden’s grades, and her new job. She then met her two sisters in law, Mary Claire (Mimi) ad Madeleine Grace (Mikki) at the Petit Petals Patisserie. Merritt had been their hero and father figure after their father died early. The sisters agreed to help Helen with clearing out the house of Merritt’s things, and to keep Rochelle from getting any of Merritt’s things. In chapter 9 she arrived at her new job at around 8:55. Dr. Patrick offers her some Turkish coffee (much stronger than what she was used to) and some flattery. Patrick then tells her about Troy Number 10, another city on the site in addition to the ones that Heinrich Schliemann discovered in the 19th century. Troy #10 was supposed to have been around until around 850 AD. He tried to show her the vestiges of #10 and also tries to come on to her. Later they go to lunch at In Vino Veritas, which is owned by Jan Gamble’s husband Ted. Patrick and Ted hit it off and soon all 3 of them are talking about Ancient Greece and soon Patrick is talking about his family – a wife and at least one daughter (named Cassandra) who are not with him in California. Then the men change the subject and start to talk about the English Premier League, Bruce Springsteen, restaurants and politics. Then we learn that Patrick is going to Santa Barbara for the weekend and he learns that he is supposed to give a presentation on Ancient Troy at the Millington School. He showed her the power point slides and asked her to give him a gut check opinion. She tells him that the way he was going to give it may be too academic for tweens. The basic premise of the slides was the history of the Trojan War and Heinrich Schliemann and his work at the site. She told Patrick that Schliemann was a con artist and pariah and basically a kind of loser who happened to luck out and discover the site of ancient Troy. He should liven it up a bit for the tweens. Patrick will mail the presentation to Helen and Aiden for them to look over. Helen also had to use DSP on the notebooks over the weekend. Soon Patrick will be driving to Santa Barbara to visit a female colleague. At the start of chapter 10 Helen and Candy are walking around the Rose Bowl stadium and talking. Candy soon tells her that she may need therapy after she vetted her feelings to Candy, like that Merritt had died and left her a slew of problems. After the walk she went to the office to do some work. But after Merritt she started to act more quickly and rashly. Maybe she would grieve later. And now she was not really concentrating on her work and avoided the DSP procedures. While using the copier a page of a Rudy Schliemann notebook got torn badly. She hoped that Karen the Librarian would not come in and check on her or the notebooks. She hid the torn notebook in the couch cushions and decided to play dumb. Then Sarah White came into the office to see Patrick but then asked Helen what she was doing. She had to convince Sarah that Patrick is away on business in Santa Barbara. Sarah wanted to know what Patrick had said to her when she went with him to In Vino Veritas. But Helen’s relationship with Patrick was professional, about Ancient Troy. Then Sarah elaborates about Patrick’s ex-wife, a fabric designer named Susanna Ashford, and that they have a daughter named Cassandra. Sarah talked about an article in The Guardian where Susanna was interviewed about her family and she mentioned that Patrick was an archaeologist but did not give his name. Sarah then left the office but asked Helen to tell Patrick that she had stopped by. Helen still was trying to minimize the damage to the notebook. Later when she went home, she started to transcribe the notebook by typing. She thought that its contents were boring, except for the part that mentioned what his wife Sophie might be wearing. In chapter 11 she took Aiden to the Ignatius school for his interview with the admissions officer and also describes the history of the school (a former Jesuit seminary) and that before endowments, poorer boys were sponsored by wealthy alumni for their 4 year tenure there. It is a prep school but not like the ones in New England. Once at the school Aiden met with Mr. Hank Pfister who asked him several questions and Aiden did not do very well. He blew the interview and made a bad impression. She was not happy with the interview and concluded that Aiden was not Ignatius material. There was dead silence on the way home – the kind when she learned about Rochelle and when she learned about the fact that she was now broke. When they arrived home her friends were getting the house ready for show. But she was not mad at Aiden. Then they started to work on Patrick’s Power Point to make it more palatable for adolescents. She also would talk to Billy Owens, Esq. an Ignatius alumnus on Aiden’s behalf. She then went to Mission Viejo to watch Millington play Mission Viejo in a water polo match. Millington was the underdog but they won in the end, 3-1. While in the stands Helen tried to avoid the other Millington moms after the situation with Ignatius School. She was texting her friends at the house on the progress of the possible sale. She texted them that she did not want to sell it to Melanie Martin, even though she offer almost $70,000 more than a gay couple, who she preferred, and would buy it. At the beginning of chapter 12 Patrick is at the Word Write lecture and gave his presentation on Ancient Troy to the middle school kids, and also had the mothers interested as well. When the talk was over, he thanked Aiden and Helen for their help. The headmistress Adele Arnett also congratulated Helen for her work. Patrick then walked over to Helen, Candy and Tina and was introduced to Helen’s two friends. Melanie Martin also walked by and Helen introduced her to Patrick. Now Melanie wanted to know about his foundation. The Five Schools Benefit is 8 weeks away and Mr. Rex Thurman, a chemistry teacher and track coach who is retiring after 45 years, is supposed to be the honoree. But now some people want to change the honoree to Patrick, even though the benefit is only 8 weeks away. But was learned that some of the track team members were using steroids so that is an excuse to change the honoree from Rex to Patrick. And Melanie insists that they name Patrick and make the theme Ancient Troy. Then Patrick asks Helen to be his date. When it is lunch time the two go out to a restaurant in Laguna Beach called the Casa de Sol. She describes Patrick’s at-home type of attitude wherever he went. She told him about the origin of her name (Mount St. Helen) and that of her brother (the Deschutes River). She then talked about the relationship of Rudy Schliemann with his aunt Sophia. After the dinner and walking around to sober up, they arrive back at the Huntington Library a 9 PM after being away for 5 hours. Patrick does make a stab for Helen but she says no. She admitted to us that she had not thought about sex since Merritt died. She also felt that men like Patrick would prefer younger richer women. It did not cross her mind until now. When Merritt was alive, they had a normal marriage and sex life. She concluded that he liked Rochelle because she was younger, shinier, and thinner. But she still felt that some men would find her attractive. Helen reports to work at the start of chapter 13 at the Huntington Library and is surprised to find fellow Willamette University alumna Annabeth Sturges in the office. She is a worldly traveler, the daughter of missionaries. While her parents spread the Word, Annabeth immersed herself in the culture and languages of the places she lived in. While at the university she also had the male students eating out of her hand. Helen considered Annabeth her nemesis, but it was one way. Helen was envious of her and several other successful alumni while in college. Probably why she had lost contact with her classmates. She also never finished her thesis that she had started while at Berkeley. Meanwhile Annabeth worked with Patrick at Troy and studied at Oxford University; Helen dropped out of school and got married while Helen became a professor at University of California – Santa Barbara. After Annabeth leaves to go back to Santa Barbara Patrick was pissed off that Helen did not tell him about her fellowship at Corinth or grad school at Berkeley. She told him that she chose marriage & family over school and a professorship. She also reminded him that school is 15 years in the past. Patrick wanted to free Helen from domestic shackles by teaching her about Ancient Troy. And she is now a lonely widow. When he learned about Corinth and Berkeley, he realized why she know so much about Troy. But he felt that she had wasted his time. But she felt that she wasted 15 years of her life. Soon Sarah White walks int the cottage and told them about anew TV show called The Dirty Archaeologist, and the producers were interested in Patrick research. But the producers found out about the Schliemann journals covering Rudy’s affair with his step-aunt, but nobody knew from whom. Helen then tells Sarah about Rudy’s affair and Sarah was impressed – a real dirty archaeologist. But the shooting for the show is in 6 weeks and Helen has to scan the journals while Patrick has to make Heinrich Schliemann look like a cuckold husband. But there will no longer be wine lunches at Laguna Beach for them. And it looks like Annabeth told the producers about Rudy’s affair. At the start of chapter 14 Tina, Candy and Helen are talking about weight loss and evening wear. Helen then narrates about the time Aiden got accepted to Millington 9 years earlier. Possibly Merritt’s family influence may have helped. With “Decision Day” coming up in a few days, she is now concerned about Aiden’s getting accepted into Ignatius. In addition, Tina is concerned about her daughter Lilly’s getting accepted into Martindale because the school possibly shows preference to siblings of current students and also those with certain family backgrounds. But Lilly has been active in many worthwhile activities and that should count for something. Candy is concerned about her daughter Mariah and admission into Raleigh. The chapter ends with telling her friends that her mother is coming down for a visit. Nell Castor arrived in Pasadena from Sisters OR at the start of chapter 15. While at the house she brewed some Kombucha mushroom tea which smelled and tasted awful. Then she and Helen started to talk about Aiden’s possible admission to Ignatius Prep. She told Helen that even if he did not get in, there are good public schools in Pasadena. Nell felt that all of the class structure was bullshit – the opposite of Mitsy who was class conscious. Nell then suggested that they all move back to Oregon. Helen did not like the idea. They would be going from a metropolitan area to a hick town and the fun would be over in 5 minutes. Aiden could now have a dog, though, which is something he did not have in Pasadena because of Merritt’s allergies. Soon Tran, the letter carrier, arrived with the admission package from Ignatius. It turned out that Aiden did get accepted. And Tran’s son Bernie got into Raleigh on a scholarship. So Aiden is now Ignatius Prep, Class of 2013 (so we are now in 2009 and not 2008). However Candy’s daughter Mariah only made the waiting list for Raleigh. She thinks that it is because of her posing in Playboy 20 years earlier, and that affected Mariah’s chances of being accepted. Helen mentioned a second choice – Sacred Sisters. Then Tina texted her to say that Lilly got into Martindale. Candy had ranted about all o f the other Pasadena tweens and the schools that they got into. Helen advised Candy not to publish that in her column, ‘candysdish’ because that could ruin Mariah’s chances. After Candy left Helen went into Aiden’s room and he told her about some of his classmates and where they got accepted. But Aiden is still interested in Oregon and the dog. Then Helen gives Aiden a bag with Merritt’s varsity jacket from Ignatius Prep. It is now Aiden’s. When chapter 16 opens up Helen is back at work and discussing family, including the Schliemann’s and the relationship of Helen of Troy & Paris. Later on she had to contact the producers of The Dirty Archaeologist about the Schliemann journals and Priam’s Treasure. It is possible that Priam’s Treasure is a hoax planted by Heinrich Schliemann to win back Sophia. Patrick even compared the Helen of Troy and the Sophia Schliemann affairs as being similar in many ways. These affairs could have changed history. She also thinks that Patrick knew about Merritt and Shelly Sleazy’s affair. Helen also felt that he is belittling her while he was rehearsing for the TV interviews. It had reminded her of the differences between Merritt and her – counter-culture versus preppy. She then left the Library for the Millington School’s 8th Grade Mothers Luncheon – a thank you for 9 years of support. She had not been at the school for several months. Candy and Tina were there along with the other moms. Adele Arnett congratulated her on Aiden’s acceptance into Ignatius. Tina had to borrow a dress and later went to the Korean Day Spa in LA’s Koreatown for a message and other treatments and Helen described the place. Helen then went back to the office and Patrick apologized to her and she to him as she had a lot on her mind. Patrick said that his ex-wife accused him of being too deep into his work. Helen then went to research the connection between Helen of Troy & Sophia Schliemann Patrick then came and put his hands on her shoulders and that surprised here. He wanted to take her out to a dinner that evening but she had to go to Aiden’s water polo practice. Melanie Martin wand to talk about a live auction item with Pat and if he could donate something to the Five Schools Fete. Later on Patrick left for Santa Barbara. Chapter 17 starts with Helen and Rita the Armenian looking at houses – downsizing because it will be cheaper and she does not need all that space. But she does not seem to like what she has been shown so far. This is for when the dream house is sold. She later met with Billy the attorney and Bruno the accountant to learn that her financial situation is grim but not hopeless. Once the house and furnishings are sold, she can pay off Merritt’s debts Nell suggested that she and Aiden move to Oregon – lots of land at a much lower price. A couple of days later it was Merritt’s birthday celebration. They went to a Mass at St. Perpetua’s Church with Billy & Lacey Owens and their kids, Merritt’s sisters and their husbands, and Mitsy. Monsignor Flaherty gave a nice speech about Merritt and Helen realized that it was BS. Then they went to the Pasadena Town Club for a dinner and a roast. Billy was the MC. Helen realized that Merritt’s friends and family members had better memories of him than she had. Helen and Mitsy stepped outside and spoke about her financial and employment situations. Helen told her that Patrick would give her a good reference. Later Helen and Aiden took Nell to the Bob Hope Airport so she could head back to Oregon. At the start of chapter 18 Helen explained to Sarah White about what the set up for The Dirty Archaeologist would entail. She does impress Sarah with her ability to organize and get things done (came from all of the parent student events of the last several years). Sarah was also impressed with Helen’s ability to help Pat with his work and her ability to get the project done. Sarah then asked her if she knew Olympia Sutton - Majors, a British actress and Bond girl. Sarah then told her that she would be coming to the Five Schools Benefit with Patrick. Helen was shocked and Sarah was disappointed. Helen was a bit upset that Pat would be taking Olympia. Later on Helen tells us about the two roads to take – the go road or the slow one (instead of high versus low). The slow road is passive and you wait for someone to rescue you. The go road says to gather information and to make an informed decision. Helen is certain that Pat will pick Olympia over her after weighing the situation. Then she learned that Annabeth and Olympia are lesbian lovers when she walked in on them. They tell her that they would be each other’s date for the Benefit but so far, they have not come out. Annabeth was a research person for Patrick. She then tells Helen how she and Olympia met (on Crete) and how their two continent romance flourished. Later the 3 ladies headed over to Mujeres Mexican Cantina for drinks and lunch. While there Helen texted Candy to join them. And Candy can talk with Annabeth and Olympia for a story to put into her column, and maybe Candy’s life story would be shown on Aphrodite Productions as a series. Candy then drove the somewhat drunk Annabeth and Olympia to their hotel and got invited to The Dirty Archaeologist show. Helen is still wondering if there is something between Pat and with her. Chapter 19: Helen and Pat are getting for the interview on The Dirty Archaeologist. Then she narrates about the Huntington Library grounds being used for movie sets on numerous occasions. Sometimes it was an inconvenience for the residents of Pasadena. Meanwhile Sarah was trying for Pat’s attention and also for kudos from the Library Board of Directors Melanie Martin was hanging around as well. Helen was with the inner circle and had to explain what they did the day before and gave out copies of it to Pat and others. Annabeth was great on camera but Pat was not – came across as too stiff and lacking energy. Olympia asked Helen to talk with him and she did that. She old Pat to be less fact laden and tell Annabeth the story of Troy and the Schliemann’s like he told her. Pat did that and was good on the camera. He then announced on camera that he had received permission to visit the Pushkin Museum in Moscow to find out more about Priam’s Treasure. Helen was not happy, as he was leaving in 5 days. Was he leaving Pasadena for good? After Moscow it was Troy but maybe no return to Pasadena. Later at the craft services table Helen was stressed out over Pat’s leaving. But she did congratulate him on his upcoming trip to Moscow and she would be available until the contract for her job expired. He asked Helen if she was going to return to grad school and she told him that she was not interested – she has her son to take care of and a somewhat precarious financial position. Later at the Team Room in the Huntington Library there was a post shooting celebration. Sarah White was tipsy and Helen was too tired to join in. Candy then tells her that Olympia and Annabeth want to announce their relationship in an exclusive with Candy in her candysdish column and that would put it on the map. Helen told her that she was perfect for the announcement. When the part is over Helen and Pat talk in the parking lot and Helen was taking home goodies from the food table. Patrick thanked her for all that she did for him. Then she headed home. On the morning before the Benefit in chapter 20, Helen headed to Stephen Stephens, a very upscale beauty salon in Pasadena. Her appointment was with Sammi, but this will be her last time there. With the poor shape of her finances, she can no longer afford a $300 appointment, and this visit was only possible because Olympia and Annabeth gave her a gift card in appreciation for her work on the show. Helen told us about some of the other moms there with her, like Sonia Michelson who is in charge of the music for the Benefit; Nancy and Neici, a pair of twins from a food industry family who were in charge of the food. The Olympia-Annabeth story broke thanks to Candy’s interview with the two lovers and now she is on the talk show circuit. Her interview with the two ladies also brought a lot of traffic to candysdish.com. Once Helen sat in the chair at Sammi’s station she started to think about the events of the past few days. She also has to find a way to tell Sammi that this is her last time there. Helen also had her hair dyed and Rinda, Sammi’s assistant, helped out. A couple of days ago there was the Scholar’s Lecture and Pat was the guest, presenting his research to a very enthusiastic crowd, from the material used on The Dirty Archaeologist. Helen provided moral support to him. Then she thought about her meeting up with Cissy Montague (the pool moving lady) who had manned the refreshments table tuning the Lecture. They talked about going back to graduate school, but Helen cannot do it now. Mitsy also was at the Lecture and spoke with Pat since she really wanted to meet him. When the hair work was done, she left the salon and ran into Jennifer Barnham, who replaced her on the Benefit Committee. Jennifer was able to get some great people to come and fill the tables. She tells Helen that the big auction item was a two week stay with Pat at Troy and Mycenae. Melanie must have been the one to persuade Pat to offer it as a prize. When Helen gets home Tran the letter carrier had a large envelope for Aiden from the Los Angeles County High School for the Performing Arts. Tran told Helen that his son Bernard applied to that school and despite being a violinist, was not accepted. But he did get into Raleigh. Aiden had done a skit from Romeo & Juliet with Lydia as his audition piece. Aiden had worked with Nell who signed the paperwork instead of Helen so as to keep this from her. When she found out she was not pleased. But Aiden got accepted on his own so she is very pleased with that. They still have five days to decide. But how will he commute? They do plan to visit the Performing Arts High School. Later on in the evening Mrs. Gamble came by to pick up Aiden so he could stay at her house while Helen is at the Benefit. Then Tina arrived with the dress for Helen and it turns out that she looks quite good in it. Tina also asked Helen if she had ever scored with Patrick (she hadn’t). Helen was still in mourning after Merritt’s death and she had been out of circulation for almost 25 years. Chapter 21 is the night of the Five Schools Benefit. She first stops at the wine bar – In Vino Veritas for some wine and getting together with the Gambles, Pat, and some other friends. Here is when Pat called her “Helen of Pasadena” as a play on words and reference to Helen of Troy. He gave her a nice jeweled cuff, like the one in Priam’s Treasure. It was to show her his gratitude for all of her work that she did for him. It turns out that Ted Gamble and Pat formed a friendship and a business alliance - Ted is on the Board of Directors of Pat’s foundation and will finance his research. Helen tells Pat about the people in Pasadena, as they are not what they seem to be at first glance. Then everyone leaves for the Huntington Library where the Benefit is taking place. The grounds were made to look like Ancient Troy, including a Trojan Horse lent to them by a movie studio. Several media outlets were on hand, including the L.A. Times and Entertainment Tonight. Sarah White tells Pat to mention the Huntington when he speaks later since all of the media outlets are there. Helen got a chance to talk with Candy who was there since she would be writing in candysdish.com. Candy complimented her on the rental dress. Helen had tried to avoid gossip about Pat and her. Soon Sarah tells her how and when to present Patrick – at 9:08 for a certain number of minutes on stage. Helen told us that it was torture to be around the people form her married life – Merritt’s family, the Millington moms, water polo dads, Billy Owens, and Mikki & Mimi. These people collided with the people in her widowhood life – Patrick, Team Aphrodite, and the Huntington Director. So she is stuck in between two crowds. But the people from her married life kept grilling her. Luckily, Jennifer Barnham appeared and prodded her to talk Pat backstage, where Melanie was sniping at the auctioneer and the stage manager. The weatherman who was supposed to be the MC did not make it so Rochelle was chosen to take his place. Helen gave Pat a card with he names of the people whose names he was supposed to read off. Melanie then introduced Rochelle to pat and also to Helen but Helen told her that she and Rochelle had met before. Helen did regain her composure after the introduction and after Pat’s speech. Helen will survive Rochelle like she did the other crises after Merritt’s death. Now the auction has started. But Melanie was told to halt the bidding after a short while, because an anonymous bidder put up $250,000 for the Treasures of Troy and the Glories of Greece (the two weeks with Patrick on his research). Naturally, everyone jumped for joy. Finally Mitsy Fairchild stood up to say that she was the one who made the bid. Then she and her daughters Mikki & Mimi went up onto the stage and it turns out that it was all scripted. Mitsy won the two weeks with Pat thanks to her bid. Pat and Helen leave the Benefit at the start of chapter 22 and go to his suite at the Langham Hotel, where they order room service. Helen was angry that Mitsy could spend $250,000 on a bid to help people she does not know but wouldn’t help fund Aiden’s education. Now she wants to get out of that dress and Pat helped her at first and then she was able to finish it herself and change into sweatpants and a nubby sweater. She talked with Pat about her life since Merritt was killed, and worried to herself that she would become a woman with no man, no house and no job. But meeting Pat changed her as he was impressed by her unexpected story. He then invited her to spend the night with him and soon he started some foreplay. And it looks like they really wanted each other. So it looks like he scored with Helen. Later in the morning he went off on a run. Helen realized that Patrick was leaving Pasadena on Tuesday but both of their lives would go on. When Pat returned from his run Helen was sitting on the balcony, and she had checked text messages from Rita, Candy and Tina. There would be a brunch at the Langham’s restaurant and people form the Benefit would be there. She said that Patrick would be integrated into Pasadena if he recognized anyone from the Benefit. He explained about living in Athens and Troy and the large amount of travelling that he does. She realized that her life is not too relationship friendly either. She cannot integrate him into her life in Pasadena because his departure would hurt even more now. They agreed that the timing of their meeting was not the best. But it looks like he scored with her one more time. Then Helen went back to her house and saw that Annabeth called her twice. Aiden was studying since school would be out soon. Her calendar is pretty full over the next few weeks – Pat’s departure, artwork being auctioned, Aiden graduates Millington, and then close on the Sunset Street house (?). This house would be perfect for Aiden and her. Rita told her to make an offer because it may not be another “forever” house but it’s perfect for now. Later on she went to Pat’s suite at the Langham to see him off but she learned that he was gone and she was furious. Pat left her a note saying that he wanted to stop in London to see his daughter. But he also left her a bag with the scented nubby sweater. She cried. At the start of chapter 23 Helen, Tina & Candy are walking around the Rose Bowl and talking about vacations, and then schools for their kids. Tina also started on a new career as a lawyer/life coach. Helen tells her friends that Olympia and Annabeth offered her the position as Executive Producer of The Dirty Archaeologist show because she proved her worth and skills while she was a research assistant for Pat and knew how to get things done. Her office was in Burbank and not in Pasadena. Annabeth and Olympia wanted Helen to go to Troy to follow up with Pat, especially about the visit to the museum and Priam’s Treasure. But she didn’t want to see Pat again at first since it would be too awkward. She is still in grief therapy and also had Aiden stay with her parents in Oregon. Candy and Tina tell her to go to Troy. Later on Sarah White and Helen run into each other and Sarah fills her in about what has been taking place at the Huntington: Meanie is the new Director of Development and there is a new Distinguished Scholar by the name of Milton Westbrook. Milton is a professor of Lithographic History and Ephemera, especially from the 19th century. Sarah is hooked on him, so maybe this will be hew new guy. Sarah also told Helen that everyone felt that Part and Helen made a good couple, She also told her that Pat told Sarah that Helen broke it off. Also that Pat’s daughter had meningitis and was hospitalized and that is why he left a day earlier. Sarah also told her that it was Helen who said that the timing was off. Helen thought that that was what Patrick wanted to hear. Helen was later at home in her new downsized bungalow with only one A/C unit, in the window. So it’s hot and to keep cool she took a lot of cold shower and dress as scantily as custom would allow. One day Mitsy came by to visit. Helen related that she and Mitsy did get through social events over the last several months like Mother’s & Father’s Day and Aiden’s graduation. Mitsy was not too keen on Aiden’s going to Los Angeles County for the Performing Arts. She did bring over the prize from the auction that she won and told her that the tickets were for Aiden and her. Mitsy wanted to do something for the kinds of Pasadena so that is why she had bid $250 grand. Mitsy also told her that she knew what Merritt had done to her and how Helen cleaned it up. She also wanted Helen to get up when she was down after Merritt’s death and his infidelity and do it on her own. She did not want Helen to do the same thing that she did when Merritt’s father died and sit and mope. She commended Helen for bouncing back and moving on with the job, new house and a new environment for Aiden. And Helen finally won Mitsy’s approval. She told Helen that when Merritt’s father died, he learned to cope but not with honor. So Mitsy wanted Helen and Aiden to go on the trip to troy. She ended the visit by inviting them to her club’s Lobster Cookout on Labor Day. Helen and Pat later exchange e-mails She first tells him about why Mitsy bid for the two tickets. And she learned about his daughter’s illness. Pat replied and told her the Gambles are coning to Troy and the 4 of them should coordinate the visit. It turns out that Helen will arrive on August 7th and the Gambles and Aiden will arrive 5 days later. At the start of chapter 24 Helen arrived in Turkey and is on a boat crossing the Dardanelles to the site of Troy and is a bit seasick. But she was thinking about the history there, from the Trojan War to when the Schliemann’s arrived in the 19th century. But she was getting nervous thinking about Pat and being alone with him for 5 days. She also realized what a difference a year made. Once she got onto dry land she headed to Pat’s tent and he is happy to see her and he will spend time with her. After her shower she thought about the pull of history at this site from Helen of Troy to Sophia Schliemann. Then she and Pat talked about the day Helen told Pat that the timing was off. Pat told her that he could not offer a traditional life. But he did want her to be part of his life and make it work. Soon Helen puts her scarf into her pocket and Pat puts it around her neck and they go off together.

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On July 20th I started to read Get Your Shit Together by Sarah Knight. The book is a bit profane, but we are adults and have heard shit and fuck several times before. It will show us how to de-clutter your mind, and I could use that. The introduction tells us we all have those “oh shit“ moments. She says that there is so much more that we could be doing with our lives if we stopped worrying about what we should be doing with them. We can start with mental de-cluttering. We discard the things or people or obligations that annoy us and making room for those where you are delighted to spend your time with. Then we organize what is left (time, energy, money) and use them wisely on things that you need to do and also want to do. Change starts with cleaning out your mind. And it’s a solo mission. Chapter 1 starts with telling us who needs to get it together and why. Sarah uses the Three Chipmunks as examples and what has to be done to correct it. For the Theodores (who is always making life different for himself), we have to show up on time, follow directions, remembering where to put stuff, and keep our calendars up to date. The Alvins can’t do big things on their own. They fake it. What Alvins have to do is hit the deadline, stick to a budget and a diet, plan events and anything more than a week in advance. The Simons appear have it together, but usually do not. They think that winning includes being in demand, booked up and under the gun. For them, they have to prioritize, set boundaries, send some relationships, switch careers and maintain their sanity. Doing things all day does not mean that you have your shit together. It does not mean packing your calendar and sucking it up and doing everything on your list and other’s lists too. And don’t sacrifice your mental and physical health. To win you just have to manage your calendar and to-do list so that when it needs to be done, it does not drive you crazy. Winning at life does not mean being a prick. You are competing against yourself and nobody else. It’s getting what you want out of your time on Earth – a house, car, partner for example. It’s living your best life and not denying others theirs. So to do that we have 3 steps:

Strategize – set a goal and make a plan to achieve it;
Focus – set aside time to complete each chunk;
Commit – do what you need to do to check off the chunks.

Break off a task into manageable chunks and spread over time. She also talks out three things that are important in your life: keys, your phone and your wallet and she linked them like this: keys & strategy, cell phone & focus, and wallet & commitment. Strategy is a plan of action to achieve a goal. Your own plan should be unique. Focus is putting work into small manageable chunks, one at a time. And give yourself time and space. And you are only as good as the last step that you took. Commit all of the way and go all out. There are degrees of difficulty along the continuum of goals. Goal setting is also working to put an end to what you don’t want to be. Channel your rage against things that annoy you. Sarah also say that we should harness the power of negative thinking and channel your feelings into action. Kill cockroaches instead of chasing butterflies. Ask yourself what is wrong with your life. And why? And in setting goals, lower the bar a bit. Sarah says that managing time is one way to get it together. And know how long it will take to do something. The next points are prioritization versus procrastination. The three most important things needed to tame your to do list are health, finances and work since they are the 3 biggest problem areas. Giving too many fucks without time, energy and money to devote to them gets you overbooked and a Fuck Overload. The to do list also has a must do priority. Those tasks must be done first. So we

Make a to do list
Prioritize items base on urgency
Move what has to be done today to a must do list
Do that first and save the rest for tomorrow
Repeat steps 1 to 4.

A Fuck Overload can come from doing the low priority tasks and none of the high priority ones - things not on your list. Assign things a priority level – every single thing. Prioritize by setting a time frame, and what is in the to do list. Each entry is its own hierarchy. Put a handle on your priorities and you can schedule them. We also have to worry about distraction, which is the opposite of focus. Focus is the cell phone, distraction is losing the phone. You have to distance yourself from distraction by taking evasive action. Distance yourself from the source of the distraction. A mental break can help. Impulse control is necessary to focusing and commitment and impulses are controlled by us alone. Get rid of the Wizard who is going willy-nilly on your brain. The Wizard gets the night off when you make sober decisions. Keeping our shit together also means managing social sites like e/mail,. Facebook, Instagram and so on. Of course, we have too much e/mail because we don’t deal with it in a timely and efficient manner – like lowering the amount that you send. We can consolidate a set of messages into one – add to in in draft mode and send it once a week. Sometimes keep them short and simple. As for purging the inbox, strategize to get to zero items, then focus on the time to do it, and commit to it by hitting classifying them into delete, file or reply It is time management and knowing what the inbox volume is. Sarah goes on to endorse the power of negative thinking to show that someone can stop having to work late, using the goals and strategizing. We need a must do list. Time management is needed to focus, and then we can single task. Then we make a commitment to do the must do tasks. She also talks about the power of money – the money shot. We don’t have to be money’s bitch. She then talks about how big spenders can control their spending habits (something I had learned to do years ago. Frugal is better). She talks about passing up on trips to Starbucks every day, saving $100 per month and $25 per week. And $3.57 per day. Don’t buy stuff on impulse. Think of spending habits as part of the whole. We pay money and wait for shit to happen – seasons tickets, Netflix or Hulu. The last component that she talks about in chapter 2 (called Little Shit) is willpower. This is up to us. If you are motivated by money, use the Scrooge McDuck strategy and envision yourself rolling in money that you are saving; if you are motivated by vanity, then use the photo finish and look at a photo of a thinner you; if you are motivated by adulation, use the ego boost and have your peers admire you; if you have getting pissed odd, use the power of negative thinking and light a fire and keep it hot; and accountability – use the ”who raised You” strategy, which is very powerful. You don’t have to give a fuck about what other people think of my life choices – I don’t someone’s approval if I am acting in my best interests.. Who raised you? Works like this: if you wonder why I can’t score with a girl, ask why I still have a pile of dirty laundry near my bed. If you ask why is everyone getting promoted except me? Maybe you should spend less time on the Internet. Why can’t I afford nice things? Maybe you should stop spending most of your paycheck on pot and Visine. We start chapter 3 (Tough Shit) with 3 sets of life goals: responsibilities & relationships, work & finances, and health, home & lifestyle. Responsibilities & relationships involve adulting – being an adult. You have to be ready for any curve life throws at you, like an unusual expense or a serious illness. It also means sending out thank you notes, updating important documents, and doing the annoying chore. Adulting also means building relationships. And you have you maintain and improve them. You may also have to dissolve them. It takes effort and prioritizing to keep relationship going. Like single tasking to make yourself available. You have to keep in touch with your friends, and it is a challenge to maintain and improve relationships that matter. But are relationships worth it? Relatives are some people that you may not like but still have a relationship, like going to their weddings or their kids’ recitals. Your inner competitor can help a romantic relationship – and you can be the best partners that you can be. Healthy competition goes into other aspects of your life. The three main components come into play here. Strategizing is ow to make your better half feel good. Focusing is small kindnesses every day; and Commitment is doing it. Not giving a fuck goes a long way to eliminate people from your life (at least toxic people). You can dissolve a relationship and get it together to leave a toxic one, even if it is hard to do so. No matter how complex the relationship is you can break it down into small chunks. Then commit or do the opposite and de-commit. You can be not committed to a relationship. You can do hot shit by yourself. But don’t do things because they are expected of you (go to college, get married , have kids, et al). When it comes to work and finance, it turns out that we have to impress some people to work our way to the top. The best way is to have your shit together. You have to look confident (even if you are shitting bricks). Master confidence with certain phrases like “no problem” or “got you covered”. Check out your coworkers and see which ones have it together. Is it their demeanor?, or that their clothes are clean? Sometimes you have to ask for what you want. Or ask the boss what you have to do to get what you want. Some ways to show that you have it together:

Following instructions;
Owing up to your mistakes
Being proactive;
Not being a prick.

Vacations should be just that - vacations – in which you don’t take your work with you or keep in touch with the office. Also get you shit together and not worry about anybody else’s. Learn to delegate to make your job less stressful. Or ask for help or accept help when others offer it to you. Also, don’t ask for extra work. Remember to prepare for retirement, and you should start early. Compound interest on your 401 (k) account is like free money. Starting on page 185 Sarah talks about keeping your body in decent shape by fitness. It can be done if we reduce time spent om less important stuff, and some exercises will be more demanding. But you can prioritize it. If you have saddle bags on you (bulging waists) then maybe squat thrusts and other exercises many be doable. If you really hate exercising then try a different way, such as watching your diet more closely. And get enough sleep. A good diet is not complicated. Strategize by figuring out how much less to eat; focus on time necessary to shed pounds; make a commitment not to eat unhealthy food. You can also work on tidying up the house, if your goal is a clean house. Strategize with one step cleanups – do it in stages; focus on a mini goal; and commit to the mini goals. Make the work as easy as possible for yourself. Having your shit together is the only way to improve your living space. Break up a big deal into smaller ones. Getting it together for big stuff is just getting shit together for a lot of small stuff over time. Don’t try to do it all at once. Maybe delegate someone else, like a professional, to do some of the tasks. Maybe we have to admit that we don’t have it all together in some areas of expertise. If you don’t know what to do In a certain area, like electrical work, don’t waste time and money trying to do it yourself. It is easier to hire a professional if you can afford it. And if your plate is full, having someone else to do some of the tasks can help you get all of your other tasks accomplished. I should make time for myself in doing things like crossword puzzles. Fun stuff is as important as what you need to do. Hobbies are part of maintaining happiness and balance the annoyance of arduous tasks. Consider hobbies as a reward for doing annoying stuff. Let yourself spend time on a hobby to remind yourself how much joy it brings. When in doubt, don’t think, just do it. You have to have your shit together to be able to write a novel or play an instrument. We have scheduling to worry about and have to make up the time. We have to find out when the creative urge strikes. If it does strike, then we have to stop thinking that creative stuff has no value. It may result in a finished product or it may not. The best way is to find time and allowing yourself to use it. Making room for hobbies is an example of getting your shit together and practicing overlapping with a no-fucks-given philosophy. Being selfish in pursuit of your health and well-being can be a good thing for you and others. You cannot give of yourself if there is nothing left of you to give. Happiness is a goal in and of itself. The last part, called Deep Shit, starts by telling us that life’s deepest shit gets washed away in manageable chunks, one chunk at a time. Emotions and attitude are part of mental dust. Deep shit is what gets in your own way. Anxiety can go away if you stop worrying about what people think about your life choice’s. Without pharmaceutical assistance we can help ourselves to rip off the band aid and just do what you have to do and think that it may just go away. Anxiety may be in your head – conversations in your head instead of with the real person. Write it down on paper. Avoidance can cause more problems, like hating to do laundry will led to having no clean clothes. You may have to confront that other person to resolve an issue. Strategize, focus and commit to having the talk. The other F-words are fear and failure. Fear of failure can be worse than failure itself. Fear of having a possible bad outcome could cause more agony. Fer can cause people to lose sight of their goals and strategy to reach the goals. You’ll blame “them” instead of “me”. A remedy is to accept that failure is an option. So to get our shit together you will have to stop giving a fuck about failure. Say no to being perfect since it’s a self-defeating strategy. We cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the win. There are 12 steps to deal with perfectionism:

You are powerless to perfection;
A power greater than you can restore you to sanity;
Decide to turn your will over to a lady who curses a lot;
Reduce your to-do list to a must-do list;
Confess to the exact nature of your perfectionism;
Be ready to banish perfectionism from your life;
Ask someone if you are being ridiculous;
Make a list of people your perfectionism had harmed;
Make direct amends;
Take inventory of your actions and remember the world did not end due to your lack of perfection;
Improve your understanding of giving fewer fucks and getting your shit together;
Pass this on.

If no combination of strategy, focus, and commitment helps to keep the shitstorm at bay, call in reinforcements. We can identify pitfalls – from time management, fear of failure, distractions. Big life changes are made in small manageable chunks. Become less of a perfectionist and more confident. Don’t make big changes just for the hell of it. Big changes are there for the making, though. There is GYST Bingo which lists 10 things to do, like saving money, being on time, not being a prick, and prioritizing. Some people are too self-aware – they bemoan their state in life but have nor done anything about it. Sarah gives a list of faults and we could identify why we know does them. Such as being late, being disorganized, putting everything off. Out with annoyance and in comes joy. In the epilogue she says that life is messy. Get your shit together and start winning at life.

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On July 31st I started to read The Bright Lands by John Fram. The chapters are designated by people's names and days of the week. Joel Whitley has fled Bentley TX for New York City because he is gay and Bentley is ultra-conservative. His younger brother Dylan is in high school and is the star quarterback for the Bentley High School Bison. Dylan texted Joel one evening and asked him to come back to Bentley for a visit. Joel is soon back in Bentley and the Friday night football game he meets up with people he knew before he left. After the game, Dylan heads off with his girlfriend Bethany for a weekend trip to Galveston. Joel went home after the game and his brother Dylan left for Galveston. The next morning Dylan is not home yet and Joel, Paulette (the mother) and Darren (Paulette's boyfriend) were wondering where he is. Joel texted him and got a reply with poor punctuation. Someone else is typing on his phone. Joel then goes out for a jog. Later an Investigator and a deputy come by the house asking about Dylan. On that Saturday evening Deputy Starsha Clark goes to a bar and runs into Joel. They share a bottle of whisky and recant an incident from 10 years earlier in which naked pix of Joel were put into the Sunday Bentley Beacon. Clark then recants about how her brother Randy disappeared 10 years prior after leaving his house to go to a convenience store. On Sunday while Paulette and Darren went to church – the Methodist Church since the First Baptist Church had burned down, Joel goes into Dylan’s room and checked out the drawers and closets. In one drawer he finds a Movado watch (which nobody in the house could afford) and oxycodone. To find out more about Dylan, Joel visits Lott’s Hardware and talks with the owner’s daughter, Kimbra (KT Staler’s girlfriend). She can’t tell him anything. He then goes to the CVS store and learned that Dylan has no prescriptions of any kind there. Later he had breakfast at Hash & Brown’s Egg House and was reading the Beacon. The waitress remembered Joel from the nude photos scandal 10 years prior. Now Joel realizes her needs help from a Bentley friend, and there are not too many there. He does visit a man name Wesley at his home in a development owned by the Evers family (Luke is their son, and Dylan’s rival for Bethany Tanner). Joel tells Wesley about Jason Orvelle’s being arrested Friday evening at the game, and that he was Savannah Staler’s boyfriend. Savannah was a coke head. But is the sister of Dylan’s good friend KT. Later Joel checked out possible dates on Grindr.com – profiles with no photos. Joel also got a text from Dylan’s number: I LOVED U TOO. Deputy Clark has a dream about Dylan coming into her bedroom but when she wakes up she is called and told to meet another deputy and they drive about 30 miles from Bentley and meet up with Sheriff Lopez and a trucker named Jack Spearson. They get into an ATV and drive around some land owned by the Evers family and soon discover Dylan’s body laying at the edge of a creek. Back in Bentley the cheerleaders are talking about Dylan and Joel. Deputy Clark changes into regular clothes and visits the high school with Investigator Mayfield. They bring KT Staler and Jamal Reynolds into separate rooms and question them about the fishing weekend in Galveston. Dylan kept complaining about Bentley and how he want to get out. KT got tired of hearing about it and soon Dylan and Jamal leave Galveston and head back. Clark breaks the news about Dylan’s death to KT. KT and Jamal both said that they were home by nine PM on Sunday. Mayfield believes that Jamal may have had something to do with Dylan’s death because with Dylan gone, he would be first string quarterback. Later the principal cancelled class for the rest of the day. Joel had to go to the funeral home to view Dylan’s body, and checked out the wounds and the slashed throat. He learned that Darren had given Dylan $2,000 to start up a bank account. Clark and Mayfield headed to Galveston to visit KT’s half-brother. They also visited County Attorney Harlan Boone to discuss Dylan’s death and the manner in which he was found. It is not likely to have been a suicide. Bethany Tanner has her friend Jasmine Lopez at her house when her dad arrives home. When Clark and Mayfield arrive on the coast they inspect the house that supposedly the boys stayed at and since it was in bad condition, they conclude that the 3 of them did not stay over in Galveston. Kimbra was interviewed by Clark and Mayfield, and apparently lied through it all. Brittany and Kimbra talked in the ladies room about Dylan and KT and she tells Bethany that KT knows more about Dylan than Bethany realized. Benny Garcia talked to Deputy Clark about Jamal approaching him at the recent game during half time to ask for a condom. Then the deputy and the investigator interviewed Brittany Tanner. Brittany came across as a bit arrogant. They asked her about the recent trip that Dylan, Jamal and KT made to Galveston. And was Dylan’s cell phone locked, because if not, anyone can use it to e/mail or text. She tells then that Dylan headed north from Bentley, the opposite direction from Galveston. They discussed the fact that Dylan and KT had regularly drove to Galveston on the weekends, and they asked Bethany if she did not suspect maybe another girl in his life. On the last trip over the prior weekend they took KT’s and Dylan’s trucks. Bethany told Clark that Dylan wanted to get away from Bentley over the weekends to relieve stress from being a quarterback and an idol. Bethany told Clark that she and Dylan each had their own circles of friends. But she did not like KT’s family since she though that they were trash. Clark then asked her what she did over the most recent weekend, and she said that she was home alone. *

*This reading stopped at page 138. Since I am in a book club, I will be reading a different book that they voted on. I will return to The Bright Lands when that reading and discussion are over.

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In between the next book club reading requirements, I read part of Bob Schron’s Taking a Knee; Taking a Stand. I read the first few chapters and it talked about boxers Jack Johnson, and Joe Lewis, and track star Jesse Owens. Despite their accomplishments, Jim Crow America and racist media marginalized and demonized them. The next chapter talked about Jack Robinson and his feat in breaking the Major League Baseball color line in 1947 and how brave and courageous he was. The next chapter was about Bill Russell and Jim Brown and what they went through as members of the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Browns. The following chapter was about Muhammad Ali and his standing up for what he believed in, as well as his feats in the ring. Chapter 6 is about Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Kareem is one of the greatest basketball players in NBA & NCAA history. The chapter describes his growing up in New York City as Lew Alcindor, where in 1964 he stumbled upon the riots in Harlem that summer, and later in 1967 being at the Ali Summit with Muhammad Ali and Jim Brown among others then Muhammad announced his stand on refusing draft induction. Later in 1969 he was recruited by UCLA and while there converted to Islam. The chapter described the Texas West Miners team beating Kentucky in 1966 – an all-Black team beat an all-White team. The book also describes the segregated televising in the South – only the ACC & SEC (all white) and no NBA (integrated). Kareem said that understanding our history can help us empathize the plights of others (true). The chapter also says that athletes like Kareem helped schools like UCLA and hundreds of others make millions on sports but the athlete does not share in it. Kareem has had the opportunity to confront the establishment and lead by word and example.

I will put this book on hold for now while I concentrate on Ibram Kendi’s How to be an Anti-Racist, since this one is for the book club.

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