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Infinite Country by Patricia Engel | Thoughts

   Published : 2021   ||    Format : print   ||    Location : Colombia ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆   What was it about the country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous month, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise.. Thoughts : Infinite Country follows two characters - young Talia, who at the beginning of this book, escapes a girl’s reform school in North Colombia so that she can make her previously booked flight to the US. Before she can do that, she needs to travel many miles to reach her father and get her ticket to the rest of her family. As we follow Talia’s treacherous journey south, we learn about how she ended up in the reform school in the first place and why half her family resides in the US. Infinite Country tells the...

The Sunday Salon: About bad drivers, fever, weddings, and other things

The Sunday 
Salon.com

Whew, what a week! Busy at work, as usual. And then Friday night, I came down with a cold and mild temperature. I'm fighting both, the way I usually do - no meds, no rest, just sneeze, curse, and run/workout. I think it's somewhat working. But my thoughts are currently all over the place, and I don't feel like dwelling on any one topic for too long. So here's some randomness today.
  1. Don't careless drivers annoy you to death? Not literally, hopefully, but boy, this week, I came across two who probably shouldn't be driving. Two is a big number for a small town. One guy nearly rammed me into the sidewalk on Wednesday. He was trying to merge into my lane without checking if the lane was free. And I was rubbing my forehead while listening to what Harry Hole had to say about the latest gruesome murder in The Leopard. I had to brake and twist the wheels back and forth to make sure I didn't roll over the pavement. Suffice it to say that the guy was lucky to have just received a frustrated gesture from me. Another time, when I had stopped at a red light, the guy behind me kept honking on and on. The two guys in the car were dancing and laughing and having fun at the expense of the surrounding very annoyed drivers. Gah!
  2. Why can't authors call walking dead people zombies? Don't 99% of the population call them that anyways? Why then invent names like hungry, walker, biter, etc? I cringe at names like that, because it feels as if the author is trying to be too innovative, as if their characters never came across the word zombie. Or is zombie trademarked?
  3. Last week, I was doing some blog housekeeping. That in turn changed into reading some of my very old posts, written in my very first year of blogging. There sure were a lot of "blog award" memes in those days. Do you remember those?
  4. While doing the housekeeping, I also came across a ton of blogs I used to follow in those days that are not being updated anymore. Like, a lot. It was saddening really. Many of those blogs were a part of my blog-growing-up phase, and several of those taught me a thing or two about blogging and reading. I did see a few blogs that have evolved since into different styles, topics, and personalities, and that was welcome to see.
  5. It really is HARD to read when you are sick. I could never understand that when someone tells that. And I rarely get sick. But oh yeah, it IS hard and they are all right who say so. I did finish a book but only because I was in the last 10% and I wanted to know real bad how the book was going to end. If you are curious which book, it is The Girl with all the Gifts by M. R. Carey.
  6. American Airlines sucks. Big time. I had half a mind to send them an angry customer tweet but later decided that it was not worth spending negative energy on them. Two times in a row, my husband's flight got delayed. I was also checking their general tardiness for that day, and looks like they even canceled some flights. And the weather was not even to blame!
  7. Yesterday, the husband and I went to our very first American wedding. Yes, it is a big deal for me, and we've been in the US only 6 years. After seeing them only in movies, it definitely felt great to be able to attend one. The groom is one of my good friends from VT and later, colleague, and he was definitely shocked and thrilled to know that his is the first American wedding I was attending. He certainly had felt like doing the happy dance when he invited me months back and I felt like a celebrity. 
  8. Today we are planning to hike our favorite peak - Sharp Top. It's one strenuous climb and you can bet that the entire household (us and our parents) are going to crash into our beds once we reach home. But the views are so worth the effort.
Enough randomness for today. How's your day going?

Comments

JoAnn @ Lakeside Musing said…
Bad drivers are one of my pet peeves, so I definitely understand your frustration! I've been blogging since 2008 and when I look at old posts, I especially like looking at the comments - so many old friends that are no longer blogging. And all those award memes ;-)
Your first American wedding? How awesome!
bermudaonion(Kathy) said…
I'm so glad those blog award memes have gone away. I finally had to take the blog roll off of my blog because I couldn't keep up with blogs that were no longer updated.

All the airlines stink anymore. If you fly to/from a small airport or on a small airplane, they don't think anything of cancelling your flight in favor of a larger one once they get delayed.
bellezza said…
I miss old blogs, too, which aren't written any more. It's sad how even though I've never met the writer, they were in many ways a friend to me, still, life carries on, and I can hardly expect people to blog forever! ;)

Glad you weren't wounded in the traffic. Drivers are nuts where I live, or perhaps I should just say selfish.

Have a lovely week!
Diane D said…
You are so right about crazy drivers. The very old are as dangerous as some wild kids IMO

Hope u have a better week. (A few of my favorite bloggers have stopped posting -- it is kinda sad, but after 6 years I too understand.
Karen M said…
I hope you're feeling better! I agree with you - it's SUPER difficult to read when you're sick or have allergies, especially if you're sneezing a lot! It makes you feel so drowsy... I hope the blogs that I currently follow don't stop blogging because I've met SO many great bloggers so far! I'm glad that some of your blogs are still going though!
Sam_TinyLibrary said…
Hope you are feeling better soon :)
Careless drivers annoy me too. I've been driving extra carefully lately as I'm heavily pregnant, and I am fed up with idiots driving too close/ beeping me etc.
Why DON'T authors just call them zombies? They are zombies! If any version of zombies appeared in any version of the world we currently live in, everybody would call them zombies. That's what they are! I don't understand why authors are so allergic to the word. It is a serious pet peeve of mine also.
Helen Murdoch said…
I am so overwhelmed with my Feedly feed that I just can't go there; instead I am visiting my favorite blogs and trying to "catch up." This was the perfect post to do that with. I hope you are feeling better; a summer cold is no fun! And your first American wedding; I hope it lived up to the expectations!
Hope you feel better soon! Really enjoyed reading your post. I think zombies are not cool anymore so people give them other names. Silly!
literaryfeline said…
I hope you are feeling better, Athira! Something's going around here and I'm hoping to avoid it, but I doubt I will. My daughter's coughing so I imagine I will be next. :-( I can't really afford to be sick right now, so like you, I'll probably end up sucking it up and carrying on as usual.

Careless drivers annoy me too. Grr. I am glad neither instance you described resulted in an accident, but I can see that happening.

I am one of those people who cannot read when I am sick. Try as I might, I just can't focus enough.

I hope you had a nice hike and enjoy your week!
Kim Ukura said…
We have a lot of older people in our small town that probably shouldn't be driving anymore. It's frustrating!
Nishita said…
Looks like you are better now as you are off on a road trip. Your blog housekeeping reminds me I need to clean up mine a lot too. And yeah, I remember just a couple years back I used to be so enthu about blog awards, and I did quite a few of those posts. I am so over it now, it's sad because I still receive awards but just don't feel like actually doing those award posts anymore.
Athira / Aths said…
I remember a couple of bloggers who just vanished instantly. No final posts, no tweet, nothing. I had contacted them to check in on whether they were doing fine and there was no reply. It was just sad to see people go away like that. One day, they have a huge presence in the blog world and the next day, they are gone. No idea what happened even.
Athira / Aths said…
I'm glad to read that. There different names in many books is just a serious irritating distraction and then they have to justify the name also. When there are (unofficial) industry standards, why not just use that?