#7: Read Brave New World (wherein the author blows her mind)

Nate has been on my case to read Aldous Huxley's "Doors of Perception" for quite some time, ever since he read it while writing his honours' paper last year and found it unbelievably profound and mind-altering.

I had tried to get a copy for myself in the summer, but when Chapters didn't have it in stock, I picked up Huxley's "Brave New World" instead, thinking it would be a good primer for "Doors".

It took me quite a while to get into, as I started and stopped reading it several times since then. But last week I decided to push myself and finally finish it (a clear influence of having this list, as I was driven mostly by wanting to find something easy to 'cross off').

I am so glad that I did. I don't think I have finished fully processing it yet, as there have been several times in the last week where I suddenly have a new thought or realization about the book's meaning.

But this is a truly staggeringly good book. Peeling back the onion-layers of its meaning, I find myself thinking and feeling about the various connections it has produced within my mind, as I find the articulation of thoughts that I have never myself been able to put into words.

The most obvious of these are the book's thoughts and implications about religion versus sprituality, and the human soul's need for a God. Huxley is able to so indirectly and without the usual self-consciousness of these type of futuristic, apocalyptic novels, make such piercingly honest statements about spirituality. One passage that almost literally knocked the wind out of me when I first read it was this:

"They say that it is the fear of death and of what comes after death that makes men turn to religion as they advance in years. But my own experience has given me the conviction that, quite apart from any such terrors or imaginings, the religious sentiment tends to develop as we grow older; to develop because, as the passions grow calm, as the fancy and sensibilities are less excited and less excitable, our reason becomes less troubled in its working, less obscured by the images, desires and distractions, in which it used to be absorbed; whereupon God emerges as from behind a cloud; our soul feels, sees, turns towards the source of all light; turns naturally and inevitably; for now that all that gave to the world of sensations its life and charms has begun to leak away from us, now that phenomenal existence is no more bolstered up by impressions from within or from without, we feel the need to lean on something that abides, something that will never play us false–a reality, an absolute and everlasting truth. Yes, we inevitably turn to God; for this religious sentiment is of its nature so pure, so delightful to the soul that experiences it, that it makes up to us for all our other losses."

If I'm not mistaken, the above passage was actually written by Cardinal Newman, and not Huxley. But the passage is so much more brilliantly underscored and heightened in its meaning by Huxley's narrative around it. The world that he creates, and its similarities and differences from our own, makes such a fertile ground for proving and disproving so many of our conceptions of God, spirituality, religion, love, society and government.

I can't imagine why this book is used in high-school curriculum though. I don't think I can truly appreciate its various messages at age 23 and after having already wrestled with some of these issues on my own; I can't imagine many 17 year olds who would do better.

I'd love to hear comments from anyone else who has read the book; as I said, I feel there's still a lot that I need to 'work through' in its meaning, and would love to hear others' takes on it.

#66: Make a quilt (wherein the author reassesses her timeline)

One down, 19 to go.

#35: Finish decorating the living room (wherein the author 'branches out')

Okay, so I've always loved learning about decor, architecture, interior design, etc. Except, my ability to actually apply this love to my own apartment has always been lacking. I have serious trouble actually translating the creative ideas I have in my mind into an actual decor scheme.

But since we have quickly fallen in love with our new Boston apartment, it seemed only appropriate that I try to finally apply myself to bringing my ideas to fruition. The apartment is just lovely; we've often remarked that even without a lot of furniture, and at times very little actual lighting, this apartment has felt more like home than our apartment in Ottawa ever did. The Ottawa apartment always seemed great on paper, but was never cozy or homey the way this place feels. We're lucky to have a south-facing position and a wall of beautiful windows running along one entire wall of the apartment, from the living room through the kitchen and bathroom to the bedroom. All the rooms have beautiful original hardwood and original plaster moulding, and the entire effect is one of an airy, light, slightly-deco cloud.

My recent decor obsession has been focused towards mid-century modern basics updated with some Edwardian architectural touches. I have a very clear idea of how I can combine these two seemingly disparate styles in this apartment, inspired by many hours skulking on Apartment Therapy. For a specific idea of what I'm going for, see here and here.

Here's a sampling of where I'm drawing my inspiration from:





In the spirit of trying to slowly gather pieces that will fit into this style, I convinced Nate to come with me on a hunt through some local used furniture stores. After suffering through a few disgustingly-odoured glorified junk yards, we stumbled across "Cheap Chic" on Harvard Ave. I think we will be spending many a Sunday afternoon here in the future, as both Nate and I got lost in the treasure trove of amazing antiques, old-school electronics and funky furniture. And we certainly did not leave empty-handed on this first visit, as I managed to convince Nate to let us add these two glorious new additions to our family:




















They obviously need some cleaning up and some new shades, but I'm very excited to begin planning the living room around these two works of art (which were only $10 each!). I'm thinking a plain, oval drum shade for the wood and tin lamp (something like this) and a graphic drum shade for the brass candlestick (maybe like this but in a different colour).

I've already picked out a few new pieces of furniture for the far-off day when we actually have money again:







I'll keep you posted!

#9: Read The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (wherein the author becomes apoplexed)

I have wanted to read the Lord of the Rings trilogy for ages. Although I started it from the beginning on many occasions, I never seemed to be able to get past the middle of the first book, as I found the complex and dense 'world' of Middle Earth, with its various names, adjectives, languages and geographical locations, to be very hard to keep straight and thus hold my interest.

So at the end of November, after having watched all three movies over the course of three days (thank-you Thanksgiving movie marathon channel!) I decided that if I was ever going to be able to get through the books, it would be best to do it when the characters and general plot outline were fresh in my mind from the movies.

Last weekend, I finally got to the end of the trilogy, having been reading the three books sporadically over the last two and a half months. While I greatly enjoyed the books (more of that below), I need to begin this post by expressing my extreme outrage towards the publishers of said trilogy.

Internet, I present you with Exhibit A:



If you guessed that the photo above is of the very last page of the 1,350 page trilogy, then you would be correct. Moreover, you would be correct if you guessed that the strategically placed smudge is located in the very last sentence of the very last page of the 1,350 page trilogy. Finally, you would also be correct if you guessed that this smudge made it impossible to know what were the final words of the best character at the end of the 1,350 page trilogy.

Internet, am I wrong to be outraged by this? Am I wrong to feel that, in exchange for having invested two and a half months of my time, the publishers owe me, at the very least, the confidence that at the end of such an investment, I can count on being able to read the final words of the book? That I need not spend hours after the fact wondering about the elusive message of the great J.R.R. Tolkien?

Anyway, once I had recovered from my aneurysm, I was able to actually reflect on the books themselves, and decided that I actually enjoyed the movie more than the books. This is quite unusual for me, because most of the time books are able to conjure a much more detailed and deep reality in which I can lose myself and my consciousness over the course of the reading. While I did enjoy the books, I found them to be overly complicated and long-winded, with some parts that seemed to be included merely for the sake of making the book longer.

The movie however, seemed to do a good job of streamlining the most important elements of the plot, without losing the underlying spirit and purpose of the book. Moreover, and I find this to be a rare accomplishment for movie-adaptations, I feel like the characters were much more fully developed and realized on screen than on the page (the only exception to this being the characters of Merry and Pippin).

While there were definitely some parts or characters that I wish had played a larger role in the film, or any role at all in the case of Tom Bombadil, I think Peter Jackson made all the right decisions in deciding how to pare down one of literature's most notoriously rambling and densely-packed books.

Now, if someone could just tell me the last words of book three, I would be much obliged.

#66: Make a quilt (wherein the author considers abandoning her current profession to take up a career in textiles)

I love fabric stores. I could spend days in them. I love turning a corner and having a new fabric catch my eye and instantly inspire in my mind a fantastic creation. The only thing more passionate than my love for fabric stores is my wish that I could do justice to even one tenth of the projects that I dream up.

Fortunately, quilting is a fairly easy way for me to get my fabric fix, as it doesn't require too much skill and allows for the pairing of multiple fabrics in one go. Picking these fabrics out, comparing their various tones and patterns to find the perfect combination of harmony and contrast, is my favourite part of the whole quilt-making process, and may go towards explaining why only a small portion of my quilts ever get finished.

This 'thing' will definitely take close to the full 1001 days to complete, as my aim is to produce a fully functional, queen-sized 'real' quilt. I'm super-excited about it and think that, as long as I don't hold myself to any unrealistic expectations of its final form or quality, it will turn out quite well.

The pattern for the quilt that I've chosen is here and looks to be fairly simple, although time consuming.

Unfortunately I couldn't seem to capture the fabrics on film to properly do them justice, but here is my best shot:



I've found (through frustrating trial and error) that the best way to keep my quilt pieces organized over the course of the process is to clearly label the various sizes/shapes and keep them in baggies:



While I have gotten a little more diligent and thorough about following all the proper steps in quilt-making, one habit that I doubt I'll ever break is cutting enough pieces to start the first block and then diving right in. The feeling of sitting in front of so much beautiful fabric and then being told to spend several hours painstakingly cutting tiny squares instead of getting to actually put needle to cloth is, in my mind, much like being told to carefully fold and put away wrapping paper before being able to see what present you got.

So instead of taking the time to cut out 320 3.5" x 3.5" squares, 100 2.5" x 2.5" squares, and 80 4.5" x 4.5" squares, I only cut what was necessary and went to it. Here is the first corner of my first block:



This is less than 1/4 of 1 of 20 blocks that will be needed to create the final quilt. A full bear-claw block looks like this:



I'm hoping that I can average 1 block a week, meaning I'll have all the blocks in about 20-22 weeks. Add in another 3-4 weeks for sashing and binding and the quilt top will be ready by sometime around August. And then, my friend, the actual 'quilting' can begin. Ack!

#92: Start a cooking blog (wherein the author discovers her potential addiction to searching for blog templates)

(Before I start, I want to point out that if I were a truly committed and vigilant blogger, I would have taken the time to manually change all of the numbers on the list so that any new additions from the 'Things to be Decided' section would move up to their appropriate category. Internet: I am not such a committed and vigilant blogger. Deal with it.)

A few people have mentioned to me in the past that they would like to get a few of my recipes or see photos of my more creative culinary experiments. So, I figured, what better way than to set up a blog, to serve not only as a new 'thing' but also to make it easier to complete #25, self-publishing my own cookbook.

So after several hours searching for the perfect template (which, to be honest, I still haven't found) I've set up Barely Barefoot, an homage to one of my favourite TV chefs and also a dig at some of my friends who enjoy joking about my fast descent into a trailer-living, barefoot-and-pregnant lifestyle.

Feel free to come on over and take a peek! I promise I won't be cooking moose, rabbit or any other kind of would-be roadkill!

#12: Start a journal (wherein the author takes pleasure in small victories)

Okay, so this one is a bit of a 'gimme'...the original list only said 'START a journal', so after having completed two entries, I'm calling this one a success.

I have to thank my mother for making this one possible, because if she hadn't so serendipitously purchased me a journal for Christmas, this probably would have lingered for months in the 'Easy things that require very little effort to complete but somehow aren't getting crossed off' pile.

I was hesitant to add this 'thing' to the list, because my forays into personal journaling as a child were so painfully self-aware and self-impressed; I remember very clearly sitting on my bed at age 11, chronicling the very torrid events of my middle-schooler life in such a way that, if ever my diary were to be found by future generations, I would be remembered on-par with Anne Frank. I don't think anyone had really explained to me what actually happened during the Holocaust, or else I was just so wrapped up in the daily goings-on of play-ground romances that I thought they were of equal importance. Not sure which.

Anyway, this go-around has already has proved interesting; yesterday's entry was a summation of my thoughts about President Obama's innauguration. Again I found myself slipping into a style and metre that was way too self-conscious of who might be reading my 'prophetic prose' in some distant future, but I'm working on that.