(no subject)

[cahn]

I am still alive, I promise! And the work crunch time is even over, but somehow my life still seems absurdly busy. I don't even know how all the other parents I know do this with multiple kids, I'm having enough trouble with one. (I have the bad feeling that it isn't actually possible: something gives.)

-invisible-ficathon has opened, so I keep trying to read things and comment, though erratically and randomly.

-Both church music programs I am doing are in times of flux, both of which are mostly vast improvements (K, this all happened pretty much right after I complained to you how much I was disliking both of them). My church got a new choir director who is one of two professional singers in the ward (the other is his wife), and we are doing Stainer's "God So Loved the World," which is... a piece that I actually enjoy, which is a huge change. I have been released from my calling as Music Coordinator (translation: do not have to deal with Christmas program drama directly anymore HOORAY). (I am now a Relief Society teacher, which I really enjoy, and may start posting about my lessons if anyone is interested. So far it's been The Plan of Salvation and Faith and Repentance.) Other church is undergoing reorganization in the fall and we may get to do polyphony again and sit in the choir loft, both of which would make me much happier.

-We are thinking about changing E's preschool for next year. I actually like many, many things about her current school, but even they agree that it might be just a little too out of her comfort zone and that she might like something a little more structured and academic. (Which is part of why I picked that preschool -- that it would be good for her to be exposed to a less structured, less academic preschool -- but oh well.)

-Her nanny/babysitter has gotten really sick really quickly; it is in fact quite frightening how quickly it all happened. One day she seemed totally fine, the next day she was assuredly not fine, and a couple of days later she was in the hospital. She is with her family, so that's good. I have no idea what the prognosis is like, but it sometimes sounds pretty bad. I just don't even know.

-To be selfish about the whole thing, I now have to figure out how to take care of E two more days a week. Fortunately her current preschool has been really accomodating (one of the things I really like about them).

-Apparently these days I'm dealing with stress by making a lot of chainmaille instead of doing the stuff I'm supposed to be doing.

-I'm reading Hild, which I love love love. More on that later, probably.

Comments

[cahn]

Thank you. I too hope that she gets better soon; although she is stable, long-term functioning is unknown, which must be extremely scary for her family.

Hild is amazing. Question for you, because it came up on my flist: is the concept of gemaecce a real thing? (I mean, I assumed it was, just because everything else in the book was so carefully researched? But I have no context for it.)

[thistleingrey]

Gemæcca: in the way that Griffith uses it, no, I don't think so. It's certainly attested in written OE--modern cousin-word is "match"--but usually means (hetero) spouse. I think she wants its oblique echo for the life-partner mutual support aspect, someone with whom you weave your life, especially in a context (both historical and in-book) in which you cannot trust or choose your marital partner.

[cahn]

Ah, okay, I very much appreciate the clarification. *nods* It does seem like such a good idea, the sort of thing where I would like to think that it did happen. But it's good to know it isn't known to be a historical thing before I start believing it is :)

(Reminds me of reading The Wind in the Door at an early age and being convinced farandolae were real -- and then, on finding out they weren't, being convinced mitochondria weren't real either.)

[thistleingrey]

For that matter, Hild's mother is convinced that one ought not to choose a gemæcca and that one is matched up by Those Who Know Better....

(Yes! Me too.)

[cahn]

Hee. Yes, it's an interesting parallel to marriage. I am curious as to whom Hild's mother would have chosen (perhaps she says this and I have forgotten; it's a pretty dense book)... Begu is one of my favorite characters.

(Oh, I am glad I'm not the only one!)

[thistleingrey]

Griffith has commented upon it now....

[cahn]

...I blame you that I ended up reading all sorts of things from her blog today instead of doing, well, the stuff I probably should have been doing :) Thanks... a fascinating post, and a fascinating blog in general.

(And also, I didn't know that a Beowulf translation by Tolkien was coming out!)

And also, Cian is so dead, both in terms of history (since he clearly wasn't in the picture when she became Abbess) and in terms of the narrative (Paulinus' gleeful reaction at the end, I feel, has got to be going somewhere in the next book).

[thistleingrey]

Heh heh.

He really is--and though Cian doesn't know, Hild knows, and others have figured it out; eventually someone unsympathetic will as well. Perhaps Paulinus, as you say. Book two ought to land us in Francia somewhere, at least by its end, and though her sister is there, I expect a bereft-of-home wanderer/exile echo or three to bring the tone down....

[morbane]

"...reading The Wind in the Door at an early age and being convinced farandolae were real -- and then, on finding out they weren't, being convinced mitochondria weren't real either…"

Oh gosh, I did this. That was so confusing.

Also, I had to explain tesseracts to someone a few years ago. I did a rather poor job, partly because I was coming from the position of, "wait, doesn't everyone know this?"

[cahn]

Oh, man, I'm glad I'm not the only one. I felt pretty stupid when I got to biology and finally worked out what was going on.

Tesseracts are another one where L'Engle kind of screwed me up for what the actual meaning was :)

[cahn]

Hey, when I write up my Hild entry, can I reference you on this? I bet I'm not the only one who thought it was a real thing.

[thistleingrey]

Yes.