sunrays

my trip downtown was excellent. the field museum is on the “museum campus” which sits on the southside of downtown on the lake. it was another beautiful lake day. i had to pause on the step and admire the view of navy pier and the blue, blue water. i went to see Margaret Atwood – who is my favorite writer. on friday i was reading the tribune and stumble across a blurb saying that she was going to be in town and giving a lecture. I was too late to order advance tickets – but according to the website for the festival even though something is technically sold out does not mean you might not get in. so i went not knowing wether or not her talk was sold out. it was, so i joined the “waiting for tickets” line. i got there fairly early – so i was close to the beginning of the line. it was an 918 seat auditorium and at some point they were going to take a seat count and let us in. so i figured that my probability was good becuase i was like of the first 15, and (2) tickets were $6 so people probably weren’t going to think twice about skipping if they didn’t want to go. so i sat in line and made friends with the people sitting around me. to my left was a lady probably around 50, a retired architect who had moved from new york 16 years previously. She and the 28 year old creative writing instructor recent transplant from new york to my right complained how chicago doesn’t have enough events like this – especially in comparison to new york. i chuckled silently to myself as this was an amazing opportunity that would rarely happen in atlanta. we all talked about atwood’s books – our favorites, comparison in between the different one – especially on the a time period theme. it made me want to find a book club. in fact, that might be my mission this week – to find a book club. i rarely have intelligent conversations about books and love them when i do.

so, we got in – i think that a lot of the line got in – at least i hope so becuase i saw empty seats during the performance. the funny thing is that they just let my group go in – they didn’t take our money or anything. so i got to see it for free. random. i guess they just wanted to let us in so they could start and that they had already gotten someone’s money for our seats. Atwood was amusing – she mostly talked about her upbringing. i didn’t take any real revelations away with me – but it was really cool to see her speak. it made me want to get everyone i know the handmaid’s tale for christmas. it is such an amazing book – especially timely now days. [read it]

i am currently reading Lady Oracle by Atwood. this quote got me – “Later I decided that his indifference at that time was probably not feigned at all. I also decided that passionate revelation scenes were better avoided and that hidden depths should remain hidden; facades were at least as truthful.”
though i don’t totally agree with the first statement – i do find the latter statement interesting. Maybe facades are how we wished we felt – and that desire makes them truthful.