2015: Year of the (Poor) House + Good Book Rec

2015 will be a markedly different year for dawrighthouse.  If we could establish our own zodiac or Chinese symbol for it, it would be known as The Year of The House.  Instead of taking a big trip or vacation, we are dedicating this year - in loin cloth and ashes if we have to - to selling the VA house.  Nothing will happen until this summer, but we are crossing our fingers and Lucy's toes that we can quickly make some improvements, get it on the market, and get it sold.

This will also be the year of the Denver house, in a smaller way.  We are fast approaching our least favorite time of the year.  No big holidays, no expected time off, nothing super exciting going on.  So, we're going to spend the time indoors doing some painting, some decorating, some re-arranging.

And - to stick with the house theme - we are starting the year off in the poor house.  Over the past few months, all of our devices have, one by one, given up the ghost.  First it was our Mac laptop that stores all of our vacation pics (they are backed up to an external hard drive, but it is programmed for a Mac, not my PC laptop).  Not that big of a deal, but we knew eventually we were going to get another laptop so G could use it, since mine is off limits because of all the school and work stuff on it.

Then my iPod died.  And I must say, in its defense, that it lasted over six years!  Remember, I basically live in my car, so I'm all about my music, and I lost access to it.  I didn't feel comfortable downloading it onto my phone, because that, too, was on its last leg.  All of our tech stuff was years old, and it was rapidly going downhill.

Long story short, on the first day of the new year, G's phone died, and we ended up getting - all at once - new phones, a new laptop, and a new iPod.

Hence, the poor house.

I haven't blogged because I've been in such a funk about spending our life savings and also figuring out all the new devices.  Two of my least favorite things besides car trouble.

But, there's also been this:

This book has been recommended to me so many times. The only reason I can think of in my defense for not reading it until this week is that I totally judged a book by its cover. Reader Cardinal Sin #1, I know. Despite high recommendations from book peeps, it just seemed boring and stuffy and way too historical for me.

Boy, was I wrong.

I couldn't put this book down.  It has consumed the last few days of my life. I just looked up from it this morning to realize that I have a full week of tutoring ahead of me once again, and then I start my new writing consultant job, and then classes start. I spent the remainder of my break in sixteenth century England and I don't regret one minute of it.

The story is about the infamous Boleyn family, told from the perspective of the "lesser" of the two sisters, Mary. Essentially, the entire book is about the awesome amount of work, cunning, and sheer will (and luck!) that it takes to survive and thrive within the King's court. I tend to think of the royals of that time period (certainly not the commoners) as cushy, bored, sitting around in a parlor listening to the lute and sewing. And while they did this, it turns out it was mostly a cover for all the plotting and seducing and betrayal that was constantly going on. All with the intention of gaining the king's attention, and favor, and then conceiving a boy.

Man, is it always about conceiving a boy. Even in writing this, I know it doesn't come across as all that interesting. But I could not put it down. And I feel now that I have a much more accurate understanding - or at least, appreciation - of how difficult and exhausting life in the court must have been.

Drop what you're doing and read it immediately.  Meanwhile, G and I will be moving all of our electronic devices into our cardboard box on the corner.