Madison > Recent Status Updates

me, reading the premise of this book: why tf does percy have to do more for the gods? were the first 10 books of saving the world not enough??
percy, in the first 20-ish pages of the book: why tf do I have to do more for the gods? were the first 10 books of saving the world not enough??

I got in the mood to read, most likely spurred by the 30+ memos I'm supposed to grade this weekend, and this felt like an easy one to just pick up and run with. I got this as a "blind date with a book" from my partner's sister for Christmas, and just reading the back cover remind of the Serial podcast. I'm not sure how I'll feel about this, but I'm happy to be making time to read!

my mounting to-do list before classes start vs finally having the desire and willpower and time to read for the first time in months

The Moment I Saw a Pelican Devour - this one blends the animal imagery with whimsy but also grounds it in history and sexism, and it's *chef kiss*

omg ivory-billed woodpeckers - tbt to the rabbit hole I feel down like 2 weeks ago about this animal that may or may not be extinct

"I feel / as if I'm on the moon listening to the air hiss / out of my spacesuit, and I can't find the hole. I'm / the vice president of panic, and the president is missing." - I literally got this book to read this section right here, it's just so good

I’m old enough to recognize that Gatsby’s love for Daisy is childish/immature/misplaced, but I’m young enough to to empathize with his yearning to make sense of his complicated present through a return to a simpler past

this has been on my tbr for literal years, so when Kri asked if I wanted to buddy read it, I said absolutely!!

“And I think about the many broad seas that have roared between me and the past - seas of neglect, seas of time, seas of death. I’ll never again speak to many of the people who loved me into this moment, just as you will never speak to many of the people who loved you into your now. So we raise a glass to them - and hope that perhaps somewhere, they are raising a glass to us”

“You can’t see the future coming - not the terror, for sure, but you also can’t see the wonders that are coming, the moments of light-soaked joy that await each of us...and the light-soaked days are coming" 🥺🥺🥺

john green really explained marginal utility in this last chapter, and as someone taking econ, I appreciate that. also, "we were the sixth best Academic Decathlon team in the nation, we were getting just the right amount of utility out of our Zimas, and we loved each other. Rivers keep going, and we keep going, and there is no way back to the roof of that hotel. But the memory still holds me together” (94)

this last chapter on "canada geese" really led me to write a whole journal entry on his reflections, and I appreciate John Green for that