Hi there - in These titles mean nothing.

Where have I been? What have I been doing?

Well I’ve been wallowing in words. And pictures.
In some kind of order.

I finished James Frey’s book about Los Angeles, Bright Shiny Morning. I guess I told you about that. Anyway it made me want more. So… I tracked him down on you tube. Not that I remember a lot, (I stayed away from his Oprah confrontations), he said his next book was Katerina. I found it Sunday at Pearl Street Books. I just read the beginning. Just as good as BSM. Turns out he likes Henry Miller -The Tropic of Cancer. And Paris. Paris of course. You gotta like Paris. He includes a list of his favorite Paris places. It might be all made up. Like Million Little Pieces, it might be a little true and a little fiction. No one says anything is a memoir after the first time. Except Mary Karr who can write memoir after memoir. In her case she may have receipts.

Then after or in the middle of Frey, I dig up an old old friend by the name of Nabokov. I used to read him. Mainly what I read was Ada, a big fat novel about love and butterflies. I read it when it was new and when I was young. Nabokov is crystal and mountain streams with the Riviera on the side. Pearl Street Books had a big fat paperback of a book written by Brian Boyd called Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years, the man and his books.

So I told you - I’m wallowing.

Then there’s good old youtube in the middle of the night. Less intellectual perhaps. But seductive in a grosser way.

First I came across Dave Ramsey. Remembering his name is a triumph of my faded memory. I start by thinking of the neighbor who lives down the valley and used to have a barn the cousin of ours - whose name is DAVE!!. After I get the Dave I can remember the Ramsey. I’m so grateful. I thought I was going to have to get a tattoo, and you know how much I don’t want to get a tattoo. Dave Ramsey, if the name is familiar but you can’t remember what he does, is a money guru. I think I just watch him out of boredom. He’s ok. Not great. He advocates paying off debt. I’m not sure I got much else out of him. But I’m not through with him yet.

Nummber two on youtube is the Hoarder series. I knew of its existence but I never felt compelled to watch. I don’t think I will stick to them. They aren’t as long term an obsession as my Harry and Meghan, but they lead to questions. After I watched the first bunch I got to wondering if all the stuff that they haul our of those houses isn’t the exact same stuff just taken from one place to the next. I also wondered if there wasn’t good stuff thrown out with the bad? I wonder at the people who watch the Hoarder show. How hoarded up are they?
At first I just thought it was women of about my age, women who god forgive me reminded me of myself, who had houses filled with junk. But later I found there were men who were about my age and who also reminded me a bit of myself who had all that junk. Retired school teachers seem to have a lot of stuff. Of course I think the tv show puts some effort into choosing who they help. I think they stay away from poor people or those without resources.

Also on youtube I’ve discovered a library in Camden Maine which has a man who reads parts of books to us, a new one every Friday. His name is Joseph Cote - with an accent over the e. We have people with that name living around here - and it’s pronounced Co - ta. I think he says it different, perhaps more Frenchly. Also strangely, I have no trouble remembering his name. He also answers any notes I leave on his posts.

So …
So .....
So .......

It’s almost Valentine’s Day. So happy Valentine’s Day. The world is full of various kinds of love. We may as well share it all around.