Skip to main content

Grafton Novels and Me .

I've read Sue Grafton mystery novels from A - W. I've devoured them within the last few years one after the other since finally acting upon a recommendation from an acquaintance at water aerobics. I immediately connected with her protagonist, Kinsey Millhone. Not because I'm like her but because I admire her. She's a loner. Confident but not arrogant. Fit but not a super-healthy eater. Runs her own business, supports herself, doesn't need a man. Decent integrity, but not unrealistically virtuous. I like that she can and will pick a lock when it's right but not necessarily when it's legal.

I don't get her aversion to pets and children but it works for her character. I liked her observations and eventual acceptance of Ed the cat. It's beyond me why she didn't snap up the gorgeous Chaney and dump the commitment-phobe P.I. But I appreciate her not simpering about for a man. I like her habits, non-smoker, light drinker, tidy, industrious, and light exerciser.

I have not been as confident in my abilities. I've always had to have a safety net. Always had to have a mate. I never felt complete alone. I always used my mate as a mirror. If they were good, I was good. If they were desireable, then so was I. I've never been a loner but I learned how to be alone. A skill, I attained through practice at the behest of women in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous. They called it "getting comfortable in your own skin". Kinsey didn't have to do that. In fact, she doesn't appear to have a drinking problem. Hella nice for her!

Kinsey doesn't have an eating problem or weight problem. She exercises regularly enough to stay in shape to do her job well. She relies on her wits and solves problems. I did that, too. I was no slacker, still not. I drive people nuts now that I cannot do for myself. I have high expectations. Kinsey allows people to be who they are. I have trouble with that. I'm upset that people don't visit me, particularly family. I hold it against them. On the eating front, I'm a foodie! And I've struggled with my weight and self-image my whole life.

I've also been tidy and industrious. Difficulty dealing with not-so-tidy caregivers in my space. I've really had to cultivate a greater degree of patience than ever before. Anyway, no great earth-shattering message here. Just some musings about one of my favorite characters and me. By the way, I just finished listening to "Kinsey and Me" by Sue Grafton. Very illuminating peek at a favored author.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I Remember...

I remember catching fireflies,  putting them in a jar, as a girl of five. I picked pears off a tree that overhung an alleyway on my route home from school, then enjoyed the forbidden fruit. .I had a golden cat who chased a gray mouse through our living room sending my mother, 3-year old sister, and me screaming atop the sofa and chairs. We lived in a farmhouse and I watched Romper Room. A daddy longlegs skittered across my dirty kid legs as I teeter-tottered on a broken kitchen chair back. I played grocery store and laid out a bedroll for group nap time in preschool. We lived in an apartment attached to a bakery. My maternal grandparents visited and a photo was snapped. Grandma held Dawn and Grandpa held me. I held Grandpa's chin. Walking through the back of the flour-caked kitchen, I saw scrumptious pastries and colorful toys stuck in the cupcakes with my hungry kids eyes. We lived in a two-story apartment building next door to a large farmer's field.  That field was my...

I Heart Trellis

Early in our relationship, though we were traditional nine-to-fivers, we were driven to create something together. At 36 and 43-years old, respectively, we were beyond creating babies. Besides, we came into our relationship with a perfect daughter each. Mine was 13 and his, twenty-three. Both blonde, bright, and beautiful and his came with a bonus, a baby! I came into the relationship with a condo that needed no work. He had a work-in-progress in the woods, actually two. We would spend our lives together redesigning and improving these "cabins in the woods". But, before that we took an afternoon cutting down young alders to use to make a trellis. Working together, we .wove supple, young branches into a nine-foot tall trellis with two hearts stacked one atop the other. We were in the gooey, sickeningly sweet, first months of love, forging a new life together. Here we are seventeen years later, separated by circumstance, through no fault of our own. I live in a hospice faci...

Tuesday

Tuesday is shaping up to be my best day of the week. Every day holds the requisite eating, changing, television, and napping. But Tuesday, I got a glorious, hot bath in a handicap-accessible bathtub with my Angela and Lisa, reorganized my shower caddy with my Lisa, read "The White Album" by Joan Didion with my Lindsey, "supervised" doughnut-making and sampled same with my Sandra among others, and listened to Ryan Feng play classical piano. A new book fell into my lap today. Of course, I mean that figuratively. "Play It As It Lays" by Joan Didion was just laying on top of the informal Bailey Boushay House library cart, so I borrowed it. .Guess what we'll be reading? I feel very blessed!