Julia Sweeney

June 5, 2014

I’m still mad for Middlemarch. For the month of May, I continued to swim in George Eliot’s “Middlemarch.” I finished it about a week ago. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything more slowly. I also reread “My Life in Middlemarch” by Rebecca Mead, the book that started the whole decent into Eliot-filia. I’m just…

May 1, 2014

Mulan made these cupcakes for Easter. One of her career dreams is to have a cupcake food truck that’s painted pink. When you’re 14, the whole world is one big possibility. When you’re 54, I find - life is… has… small possibilities. And yet. Possibilities. Overall, with the exception of the inevitable dark moments, dreary

April 10, 2014

The beach transforms itself. Spring is inching its way toward us. Michigan has all our ice. Yes. The wind came from the north and blew east, across Wisconsin towards Michigan. Now all the ice that’s left on Lake Michigan is on the Michigan side. As if Illinois just shoved it all over. I have

March 15, 2014

Happy Ides of March. Winter is still upon us. I took this pic a week ago. This is my view of Lake Michigan, at the turn-around of my walk, on Thursday, March 6th. The lake was 91% frozen. Boats couldn’t navigate easily. I long for spring like it’s an absent friend who used to

February 6, 2014

My view of our back porch. I shovelled for three hours yesterday. I didn’t do it all at once, I broke it up. An hour and then an hour to rest, that kind of thing. I stretched. I shovelled from my right side and I shovelled from my left side. Michael was out-of-town and our

January 13, 2014

View of The Forbidden City from across the moat, Beijing, China, December 2013. Michael took this picture. We went to China and Thailand over the winter holidays. In Beijing, we stayed in an Airbnb place. Do you know Airbnb.com? It’s a website that manages and promotes individuals who want to rent out rooms or apartments

December 10, 2013

I looked through my photos, trying to find one to use for this month’s blog entry. I came across this. That’s me and Daniel Dennet and Mulan, who looks about four years old. (I guess that means the pic is ten years old.) Since just yesterday I was telling Mulan (and my niece Emily) about

November 13, 2013

To my left, please find sexy, smouldering, Rudolph Valentino, circa 1926. This photo is from The Son of the Sheik. I watched my first Valentino film at the suggestion of my mother-in-law, Norma. I was bit by the Valentino bug and have just started the Valentino biography “Dark Lover” by Emily W.

October 11, 2013

Hello, Hello. It’s October, and I’m enjoying being home in Illinois. This is my favorite time of year. The image to the left is an ad that was made by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. It’s going to be on display in NYC’s Times Square starting today. I guess there was an ad up last

September 4, 2013

I took this picture of Lake Michigan, near my house, one early morning last week. Well people. I’m spent. Utterly spent. The travelling has taken a larger toll than I thought it would. I lost all my notes of what books I read, of what films I watched. Between doing publicity for my book, doing

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