Doldrums

Well, hello there. I didn't forget. I keep a blog. Just not very well, of late.

We've had a bit of the doldrums here. Well, more than a bit. Really since...well, December. And since it's such a perfect word to describe what's going on in Burnstopia (for all of you who might be interested), I googled it.

dol⋅drums [dohl-drumz]--noun (usually plural)/ˈdoʊldrəmz, ˈdɒl-, ˈdɔl-/ Show Spelled Pronunciation

1.	a state of inactivity or stagnation, as in business or art: August is a time of doldrums for many enterprises.

2.	the doldrums, a. a belt of calms and light baffling winds north of the equator between the northern and southern trade winds in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. b. the weather prevailing in this area.

3.	a dull, listless, depressed mood; low spirits.

And that about sums it up. I do apologize if I have abandoned said blog, but it's starting to feel like I should be funny here, and well, there's nothing funny happening right now. There is a great deal of waiting. Waiting for the Husband to graduate, waiting for a job/fellowship, waiting for the Boy to crawl, waiting for the rest of our life to begin...

I know I should enjoy this relatively peaceful time. But people, I'm a PLANNER. I want to be planning for the FUTURE. I want, nay, I NEED to know where we're going to be and what we're going to be doing. The suspense, is literally KILLING me. Drowning by drops.

Which is probably what has led me back to Dickens. For some reason, when I'm feeling particularly listless and dreary, I turn to my lovely Friend Dickens. He makes me laugh, he makes me cry, he makes me think.

Three years ago (I think it was three years ago), I had reread this article about the declining readership of dear old Dickens and the author was saying that 100 years ago every middle class household would have had 3 staples in their libraries. The Bible, the collected works of Shakespeare and the collected works of Charles Dickens. The Bible was for edification, Shakespeare was for culture and Dickens was for FUN. She was lamenting the fact that since the advent of television, children are no longer raised on Dickens as they would have been at one time. And at that point I resolved that I would read ALL of Dickens. And I would raise any kids we should have on Dickens.

I started out fairly methodically, I read Sketches by Boz, Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, The Old Curiosity Shop and Nicholas Nickleby but then I got up to Barnaby Rudge, and well, I just didn't feel like reading Barnaby Rudge. So I moved on to Martin Chuzzlewit and I didn't really feel like reading that either so I switched to Dombey and Son and got so DEPRESSED that then I decided methodical shmodical--I reread the Christmas books every year so I would read the novels in the order I wanted. I reread Bleak House (an old favorite), I reread Tale of Two Cities (was BLOWN AWAY by its brilliance) and then moved on to Our Mutual Friend (a NEW favorite). I've now gone back to pick up David Copperfield.

And that is where I leave you for now. I had some interesting revelations during the first 100 pages of that lovely novel. But you'll have to stay tune to find out what I've learned.