Sunday Salon: Hopscotch






Happy Sunday!  It is the oddest thing....whenever the time changes I feel jetlagged?  The cats have been trying to get me up an hour earlier for the past couple weeks so they've already adjusted.  My body won't adjust until April which is when DST used to start until congress changed it in 2007.  My internal clock really is still geared to that. I know...whine, moan, complain when it's only an hour. 

Life wise, with 7th grade, comes STAR testing for James since we are now involved in  the school district's charter home school.  He's never done any of the star tests before so  we arranged to have him do the tests at home. Why?  Because of his aspergers he is easily distracted and can't concentrate in a new environment.  He also very sociable and put him in a new environment with 20 new kids and forget getting anything done. Hey! A new audience and they haven't heard any of his stories and....  He would be as much as distraction as he would be distracted.  

The writing test was this past week and our counselor/teacher is so wonderful and patient with him.   I sat in the living room while they worked in the kitchen, listening to their conversation.  He'd write for a few minutes, then stop and ask her an off topic question. She'd patiently answer, then steer him back to his work.  Next month is the 2nd part which involves the English and math testing. Meanwhile, we'll do a couple practice tests so he knows what to expect.  

Reading wise, I just finished Tana French's The Likeness.  Booklist says it best so not going to reinvent the wheel right now:  

 "French’s debut novel, In the Woods (2007), introduced Dublin Murder Squad detective Cassie Maddox and earned unanimous critical praise. Cassie is back, and French has written another winner. The body of a young woman is found in the ruins of a old stone cottage in a dying village outside of Dublin, and the dead woman and Cassie are virtual twins. Lacking suspects or leads, the victim is reported by the police to be injured but alive, leaving Cassie to step into the dead woman’s life as a Trinity College graduate student and the housemate of four other students. Despite the tensions of being undercover, Cassie quickly learns to love her quirky, insular housemates and her new life in a once-grand house, even as the Murder Squad investigation yields little. Someone stabbed her doppelganger to death, and Cassie must find the killer. The Likeness has everything: memorable characters, crisp dialogue, shrewd psychological insight, mounting tension, a palpable sense of place, and wonderfully evocative, painterly prose."
One of those unputdownable books, at least for me.  So much so, when I should have been writing the 52 Books blog post for week 11, I was reading instead.   Today is the start of the Hopscotch Readalong by Julio Cortazar which is really two books in one. You can either read in regular chapter order or follow his hopscotch order and start with chapter 73.  I'm going to follow his order and see what happens.

Life beckons. Happy Sunday!  

  

6 comments:

  1. The time change really kicked my butt today too. I slept on and off all day! Can't wait to see how I feel in the morning. ;O)

    It's good that your son has a good counselor to work with. Sometimes I think about home schooling mine. If things were to get too bad, I just might.

    I have been wanting to read Tana French for a long time. I have her books in my home library so no real excuse, except just not having time to pick one up. Maybe this year...

    How's the writing going? I decided to take this round of ROW80 off so I could work on getting settled after my separation and move over the past three months. Hopefully, I'll be ready to go for the next one. I'm also going to host another Sit Down and Write challenge in April, I think.

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    1. Hey Michelle, good to 'see' you. The writing - meh! I dropped out of this round of row80 because I really haven't been writing much. Trying to get back into it now. I'll be right with you there in April, fingers crossed, so hope things settle down for you.

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  2. What is STAR??? I don't get too caught up in the time change but I do understand your feelings about it!! :)

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    1. Star is California Standardized testing which all the kids have to do.

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  3. I'm always a bit off too when we change the clocks but I love having the daylight after work.

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    1. The extra daylight is great. Makes me feel more energized. Now I just need to act on that and start going walking.

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