Life lately

It has been a while since I've blogged in earnest. A lot has been going on lately.

I was sick for over a week. It was weird because my nose wasn't even stuffed up. I had one of the worst headaches ever and I was sore all over and got this awful fever. It all came on so fast, too. I felt fine at breakfast but by dinner I was delirious. I thought it was the flu. My mom took me to a doctor and it turned out to be bronchitis. I've never had bronchitis. I felt sick for over a week but I feel fine now.

I haven't read much over the past six months other than a photography book, but in the past week I devoured three books. The first was The Dictator Pope, a book about all the scandals and issues associated with Pope Francis. Honestly, I wouldn't recommend it, unless you want a recap of many of the concerning stories that have come out over the past few years. I guess what I found most interesting was some of the backstory on Pope Francis, the conclaves before his election, and some of the figures he has clashed with. It was fascinating in parts, but perhaps indulged too much in unsavory curiosity. The author's purpose, though, he said, was to convince Cardinals to be more careful about choosing an unknown figure at the next conclave. He argues that Pope Francis is one of the most capricious, divisive, and authoritarian popes since the middle ages, and that Bergoglio from his youth was formed along the lines of Argentine dictator Juan Peron, hence the title of the book.

The next was a book on the history and general concepts of nonviolence, The Nonviolence Handbook: A Guide for Practical Action by Michael Nagler. It traces nonviolence from Gandhi through MLK and beyond and explains the concepts involved in applying nonviolence to life. I really enjoyed it.

On Thursday I saw the new Star Wars. Which, by the way, I really liked, although I got home and read all the devastating critiques and began to question whether I should have liked it. I guess I would say I liked it as a stand alone movie but I don't like what it means for the overall Star Wars universe.

Anyway, while I was waiting for my friend to get to the theater, I was looking at movie posters. One stood out, which was Love, Simon. When I went home I watched the trailer on YouTube and was even more drawn in. Then I saw it was based on a book called Simon vs. The Homo sapiens Agenda, a young adult romance novel. The reviews were all about how good it was, mostly by women. So, stepping out of my comfort zone a little, I got it on my Kindle (I've never read a young adult book, or a romance novel, much less a gay romance novel). It's true, though, I loved it. I think it's about 300 pages and I read it in two days. I started Thursday night and finished it after lunch today. I could not put it down, and I had to force myself not to skim through it since I wanted to see what would happen next so eagerly.

I think I needed something light. No intricate plot, no obscure vocabulary, no heavy subjects. Just a simple love story. I had the hardest time with the pop culture references, but this was mitigated by all the references to places in Atlanta that I'm familiar with. The book took me back to the first time I fell in love. It took me back to my old friendships and late nights hanging out with my sister in high school. I think it would have been good for me to read in high school, but things were so different even back then.

I don't know, Simon seemed so real I feel sad now that the book is done. I just want him to be okay and be happy.

A song mentioned in the book that I liked:

In other news, my sister learned yesterday that she'll be having a boy in June!