Happy November

I've finally started scanning photos from my grandfather's WWII scrapbook. It's something I've wanted to do for a very long time. These photos are of or by Jack Cravens during his service in the USA Army, serving in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, some time in the 1940s during the second World War.

More than 20 years ago, I interviewed my grandfather about his service. It took him years to finally talk to me about it -- I think he didn't believe girls should talk about such things. But I pestered him for years, and finally wore him down. I recorded it and years later, and then transcribed it.

Project after this? Transcribing two tapes of my grandmother talking about the Great Depression, the home front, etc. With all this incredible technology at our fingertips, it's so easy to record your family history!

I'm also still cleaning out papers. I'm now tackling my collection of theatre programs. Yes, some of them are going to go. I'm making a spreadsheet of every professional or university production I've seen, and including information about who was in the production or other notable things for later reference. I found out that I've seen Jane Krakowski twice on stage (most recently in Guys and Dolls with Ewan McGregor, and the first time back in the 1990s, when she was just 21, in Grand Hotel), that I saw Elisabeth Shue (in Some Americans Abroad) and James Fleet (in a supporting role in the Taming of the Shrew in Stratford-Upon-Avon). I remember everyone from Williamstown, but not necessarily from Broadway.

Halloween was a disappointment. I'd been told that the area took the holiday hugely seriously, and there were many houses in our neighborhood that went all out with their decorations, so we were expecting hordes. But we live on a loop, and most of our immediate neighbors don't celebrate Halloween (they kept their houses dark and didn't answer the door). So the hordes stayed on the main street. I bet I didn't have 100 kids. I did have four pre-teens with no costumes show up five minutes before the end of official trick-or-treating time, and I turned them away for not having costumes. They were angry but walked away because, you know, with fierce guard dog Albi ready to attack....

I've ridden my motorcycle just one day, and then just up and down the street and a few times around the block. I want to do that for several days before I head out into something more ambitious (like the grocery!). I won't ride it unless Stefan is here, and right now, Stefan is not here right now. He's on a quest to Colorado.

Stefan starts his job in two weeks. Me -- I'm about to run out of jobs to apply for... my sector has been hit hugely by the recession, and I now know just how much. Tell me why I left Germany, please? I've forgotten.

Currently re-reading: Pride and Prejudice. I'm on a diet of no book buying until I get a job, so in the meantime, I'm re-reading things, or reading gift books I haven't gotten to yet. I so long to be as witty and poised as Elizabeth Bennett... if you don't want to read it, or if you want to see the best movie version of it, here ya go.