Day: June 22, 2003

While at the hospital, I finally finished The Hours, by Michael Cunningham. More famous, I think, for being made into a movie than anything else, but that’s not fair to a Pulitzer Prize winner, I guess — even if Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, and Julianne Moore were the leads. I didn’t enjoy the book. It was smoothly written, with interesting pacing, but since it’s built around Virginia Woolf, and deliberately includes her as a character while writing Mrs. Dalloway (whose original title was The Hours), perhaps I should have read that first. Per the academic site just cited: “Michael Cunningham’s novel of that title [The Hours] is a modern adaptation of Mrs. Dalloway, a fascinating read especially for those who know the Woolf novel.” Anyway, glad to have put this one behind me.

We’re home with Paton now, and it’s time to start again. This time, we know how it works with a new baby, but a few things are different. Most of all, Benjamin is here, and we’re trying to weave him into the Paton picture, and vice versa. Also, Paton will probably be different, although these earliest days of infanthood have to be pretty much the same. We have some help again, fortunately, in the form of my parents. Extra hands and more. Phew. Also, this time I cannot stay home for weeks. I was between jobs when Benjamin arrived (deliberately). I like my job now, and the economy isn’t in a place where I would deliberately risk something new just now.

That said, we have a sunny day in San Francisco, Benjamin and Paton are napping at the same time, and I have the computer to myself for a few minutes. Not bad.