Blue

We have a gray day today. I live in a beautiful place, surrounded by a green and leafy landscape, which has some disadvantages such as the weather. It is rainy most of the time. We seldom see the sunlight, only in the summer, and our summer is a very short one.

It is incredible the influence that weather has on people’s mood. They say people around my place are quiet and depressive. I do not think so. The thing with rain is that you do not feel like going partying if it is raining. You feel like staying at home, sipping your coffee and looking through the window at the falling rain. I don’t hate rain, as many people seem to. In fact, I like to watch it falling smoothly, as it often does here. I also enjoy running in the rain. As long as it isn’t pouring, of course. Rain is really nice when it cools your skin, while you are jogging. Another really good sensation is when you get up on a Sunday morning and you find out that it is really dark and wet outside, but you don’t give a shit because there is nowhere you need to go, so you climb back to your bed and enjoy a nice cup of hot chocolate while reading. Of course, this sensation turns into one of absolute misery if it is Monday instead of Sunday! L

Although my mood isn’t usually influenced by the weather, I am feeling a little blue today. The clouds are fluffy, with that quality that seems to promise an evening of rain. What makes me sad is not the necessary rain, but what it implies. It is the end of the summer. Grey skies, shortening days, gold and brown in trees. Fall is a transitional period in my place, short and extremely beautiful while the woods around change their façade. And then the long, cold winter. With wooden hats and scarfs and warm coats. Frosty mornings, hot pot for lunch, afternoons reading at home. I love Autumns and Winters, but I know I am going to miss the sun so much. I’ve enjoyed these precious afternoons reading outside. The long days, the nights out, the sea, the beach, my parent’s house with its shiny flowers and siestas in the garden. There are so many good things you can do when it is hot. Summer is precious because it is short. And it is always sad to have to say goodbye to something you love.

Book review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (contains spoilers)

I’ve just finished reading Catching Fire, book two in The Hunger Games Trilogy. The book is divided in three parts: In the first part, we find Katniss preparing the Victory Tour, and we find out how her life has been since she and Peeta won the Games. Instead of enjoying her new status and advantages, we find a distressed Katniss, uncertain about her feelings towards Peeta and Gale, and worried by the possible repercussions that her rebellious behavior in the games can bring about. All her fears are confirmed by a visit from President Snow himself, who subtly threatens her family and Gale. So a very unhappy Katniss starts the Victory tour with Peeta and Haymitch, and things get worse as she realizes of the different consequences of her act: The uprising of several districts, and the knowledge that she will have to marry Peeta to keep the charade. So the tour ends with a proposal of marriage, but Katniss knows it is useless because they are condemned anyway. So she designs a plan to run away but Gale’s jealousy brings it down, ending in an argument between them. Gale is then caught hunting and publically punished in the square. Katniss arrives in time to save him, with the help of Peeta and Haymitch. While Gale is recovering at her place she finds out that her feelings for him are stronger than what she thought, so she decides to stay and fight, instead of running away. This way, she is choosing Gale over Peeta. Things get worse in District 12, with a new Head Peacemaker repressing and punishing hard any illegal behavior. In the second part, things move faster. Katniss finds two runaways from District 8, where there has been an uprising, and finds out that District 13 may not have vanished as thoroughly as she thought. She also discovers that she has become some kind of symbol for the new rebels. Back at home, while she is preparing her wedding, the Quarter Quell takes part: It is a special Game to celebrate the anniversary of the first Hunger Games, it is the 75^th anniversary, so it is the third Quarter Quell, and it is decided that the tributes are to be chosen from the existing victors. That puts Katniss and Peeta or Haymitch back on the arena. Peeta volunteers to replace Haymitch, so we are back in the Capitol, where they meet the other tributes and negotiate alliances. Katniss continues to defy the Gamemakers with their attitude, and Cima wins himself a really hard punishment when he turns Katniss bride dress into a mockingjay in her last interview. The third part takes place in the arena, where everything happens really quickly. We see Katniss and Peeta teaming up with Finnick and Mags on the first day, when eight tributes finish dead. On the second day, Mags dies and they add Johanna, Wiress and Beetee to their team. With their help, they plan a trap to finish with the remaining tributes, only eight by the end of the second day. In a furiously-paced final, we see how Katniss is rescued, together with Finnick and Beetee, but Peeta and Johanna are lost to the Capitol. There is a rebellion going on, and Katniss has become an unknowing tool.

Ok, the summary is a bit long, so I’ll try to keep my opinion short. I have utterly enjoyed this book. It has all the ingredients to compose a perfectly readable book: A plot that is at the same time entertaining and easy to follow, a rhythm that prevents you from stopping reading, and characters you get to love right from the start. I’ve found myself reading non-stop for three hours, and then stopping and brooding over Katniss problems in choosing a love. Personally, I think it is only a matter of her fear to face a future, to make a long term commitment. In fact, when she is in the arena, convinced that there is nothing ahead for her, she seems to find a perfect happiness with Peeta. Anyway, I will have to wait to book three to find out how she solves her dilemma. In the meanwhile, I recommend Catching Fire to those who like a classic adventure, with heroes and a heroine, wicked characters and lots of action.

Friday night

Today is Friday night, and I’m in an excellent mood. I love the perspective of having two days off work. Fridays are happy days, in the same way Sundays are sad days. You cannot enjoy them because you get up with the feeling that the weekend is almost over, and every single hour makes you more conscious of that terrible reality: Monday is relentlessly approaching.

Anyway, it is Friday and I am happy, and I think it is the perfect day to tell a funny story, for example how my friend Reb helped her son to swallow up some terrible antibiotic pills… Though her very creative solution was maaaaybe a bit extreme. On second thoughts, maybe it is better that I explain why I am sitting on the computer on a Friday night, instead of being out dancing, drinking, and having fun with friends. In other words, why I gave up going out at nights. Let's make this explanation fast and easy: I got bored. There was a time that I couldn't stay at home later than 20:00, I went out in such an eager way you would think that the roof of my house was in the verge of collapsing on my head . I had the feeling that I couldn’t miss one night out, because something really important could happen and I had to be there to see it. I really do not know what I expected of those nights out. I have never been a drinker, and as for my social abilities, well, I hold my friends dear and I tend to ignore the rest of the people. You can think I was looking for a little romance, or even real love. No way: never thought you can find someone interesting at night. People who seem really charming and attractive while you are in a pub, turn out to be completely different when the sunlight strikes and clears your mind from any intoxicating substance you were into. Whatever the reasons, for a long time I went out every Friday and Saturday night, to the same old places, with the same friends, and sit in the same spot as most of the people used to do. Week after week, month after month, nothing ever happened, always the same places, the same people, even the same songs. And one day I realized I couldn’t tell my weekends apart, they were all the same for me, and they weren’t amusing any more.   So I quitted going out. Completely. With a single exception, a New Year’s Eve a couple of years ago. After a stressing dinner I decided that I needed to drink something… And obviously it was a too big something for me, according to the hangover I hosted during two entire days. The definite backup for my decision of giving up night life.

So what do I do now? I stay at home, read, write, listen to music I like, relax.. Weekends last longer if you do not spend half of them sleeping. And there are Saturday and Sunday morning full of street markets and all kinds of fairs to explore. And now, at least I can tell my weekends apart.

running

Today I've been running. It is something I would like to do thrice a week, but as I am lazy cow, I only do it from time to time, not as often as I should. I like to run not because I think it helps me keep fit (I've already clarified that chocolate biscuits will always prevent that from ever happening). Running helps me reset my mind. As a general rule, I use music to help me survive through my thirty minute ripping effort... I mean, it is a ripping effort for me, but you can be sure that any granddad with a walking stick can overtake me easily. Anyway, music is perfect to lend your mind wander free, get yourself lost in the songs and forget about whatever problems you have in mind.

But today, my MP3 has decided to desert me, that's why I've been lost in reflections, in order to forget about the pain in every stride. I've been brooding about Catching Fire, the book I am reading these days. I am really intrigued by the love story between Katniss, Peete and Gale (by the way, when I started the first book, the hunger games, I looked up the word Katniss in the dictionary... no comments). I can't really understand why this apparently boring girl has two incredible handsome young men panting at her feet. Apparently it is because she can sing (that made Peeta fall in love with her, as he confesses in the first book) and hunt (that's everything she seems to have in common with Gale). Personally I do not find any of those abitities specially rapturing, and obviously I can do neither, I am the worst singer in the world, and completely useless in whatever activity which implies to be a good shot so maybe that's why I do not have such suitors... and what a pair. A sweet blondie, and a wild dark haired man waiting to be chosen. She seems unable to choose. There is an old proverb, I do not where it hails from which says that if you cannot choose between two lovers it is because you do not love either of them. I read it time ago in a Herman Hesse book. I know she will choose at the end, or she will let life choose for her (it would be perfect if one of the men died... drastical and emotional). But I keep thinking that it is a pity that the book was written by an American, that way preventing the perfect ending from my point of view. A threesome ( a wave of lust makes my toes curl at the mere thought of it). Both men seem to be complementary and are able to make her happy in a different way. Choosing one will always make her to miss the other. She is condemned to unhappiness, poor Katniss.  Oh, yes, I am sure that a threesome would never work in the real world, with all the jealousy and the testosterone playing their role. But this is a book. And in a book everything can work perfectly. I wish I could read a happy ending, with the trio happy ever after. But I am so sure I am going to be disappointed, and Katniss as well. Pity us!

September

September is a month of changes. You get the feeling that summer is over, and you must go back: Back to school, back to work, back to your own life. You seem to forget a little about yourself during the summer. You trespass limits. You stay up late, dance a lot, put on weight. That's unavoidable. I mean the weight. At least it always happens to me. So, when September arrives, and you discover that you do not fit in your winter jeans any more, you decide you need a change. A change in your diet, to lose that weight. And if you can change your diet, why not changing all your life, by the way? So you decide that you are going to take on sports, study againg, change your habits, aim for higher purposes (why can you try and save the world?). Of course, you rarely achieve your goals. Most of them are forgotten by the second week. When you decide that you enjoy too much eating to give up chocolate and biscuits just for some old jeans sake. So you forget about the diet and, to cheer yourself up, go shopping.

Anyway, my goal for this September was to keep up with my blog. I wanted to write every single day, even a line. As you may see, it has taken me five days to sit and write something,namely a justification of why I haven't written anything yet. You know, I was too busy trying not to eat chocolate, it was taking all my will to keep myself from raiding the fridge... But that battle was doomed from the start. Today I polished off all the chocolate. And, out of a merciless remorse, I decided to sit and write.

So this is my commitment: As long as there is chocolate cookie close at hand, I will continue writing. Everyday. That's my payback to my conscience for not being able to keep a diet. I will make my brain burn that surplus of calories into producing a piece of writing every day. Don't expect anything big or impressive, though. My life isn't that interesting. Just my feelings and impressions, and I am a very common person. I hope not to disappoint any possible reader, as much as I hope not to disappoint myself