Book read, dinner made, baseball game almost won, Real Time's back!

Y'all! I actually finished a book last night: Unorthodox can be moved to the Has Been Read shelf. Amazing! I couldn't have enjoyed it more. Feldman's writing is honest and compelling, drawing me in and leaving a lasting sense of "oh, man" when I closed the back cover: "a good one done." I reviewed some of the negative reviews today and found many of them to be vaguely considered at best. One suggested Feldman had fictionalized most of the manuscript but offered no source or way of authenticating that claim. In any case, I found it to be a brave book, an open consideration of the strengths (not as many) and weaknesses (quite a few) of the insular community in which she was raised. If you believe in Feldman's portrayal, it's also an incredibly sexist and misogynistic society. I do recommend this read! Towards the end of my writing class this afternoon (as we're all over the country, we call in twice-monthly via uberconference), Jack came down to the basement, clad in his Blue Devils team baseball uniform, to kiss my goodbye. He and Tom were headed off to Game 2 of the fall season, and my darling blond pencil looked so handsome and old-school baseball sweet. He scored a run, knocked in another and came home exuberant from his team's most serious almost-win. In the meantime, I wrapped up a wonderful "class-time" with my group, read the entire Otis series to Oliver, tucked him in and got dinner started.

My fagiole umido was just not nearly as wonderful as Ghibellina's, but I will admit that my fresh flat beans were perfectly cooked. The last of summer's cantaloupe was a second side, and excellently salt-and-pepper crusted steaks were the main. I wasn't much in the mood for la boeuf tonight but enjoyed my veggie sides and leftover blackberry-peach crisp enormously. And the cream? Bill Maher was back as of Friday. Yay! Yay!