I touch your book and dream of our odyssey ...

Have officially had the most productive day in roughly three months. The last time I finished a day with a feeling like this, I was training for the call centre of a building society and feeling as though I was working towards something.

Today hasn't quite been as successful but has still made me feel smug deep down inside. I cleaned the entire house. Well ... the kitchen, the bathrooms, and half of my bedroom. But it's still about five times better than how I've been spending my time for the last month or so. It's astonishing how empowering one can feel after they've given the toilet and shower walls a good scrub down.

The house has been unashamedly traditional today what with my domestic duties keeping me busy, the better half working on fixing my poor baby (computer) with his techno-geek brain, and then our darling housemate coming home, saying hi, and disappearing into her room for the rest of the night. Have I turned into a housewife and mother of an adolescent already? *shudders* The other half and I fought the conformity by refusing to reinstall Windows on my poor, battered computer, and installing Ubuntu (look at me pretending I know what the hell I'm talking about). Apparently it's a free program, designed by nerds who decided they didn't want to have to submit to the capitalist values of the likes of Bill Gates. Woohoo! Go nerdom!

The anti-Capitalist movement is coinciding with the fact that it doesn't look like I'll be making it to the protest after all. I've decided to travel up to Bristol for the night for a friend's remembrance. One year since Leanne passed. The last 12 months have whizzed by.

Have made it to book number 16 on my "50 books for 2009" list which means I'm ahead of schedule. (Should be reading four books a month to keep on track - As it's not yet the end of April, I win!). Ended up reading "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg. Had never read anything by him before but have now delved into another world of literature. My man has always been into the beatnik generation and, although I've read On the Road, I've never really understood much about the movement. While reading Love, Janis by Laura Joplin, I'm now getting the chance to learn about the beats through a beginner's eyes. Janis is fed up with the conformity society presses on her (to be a good girl, go steady with a boy, get good grades, believe in God, get married, have babies) and has found a new group of friends (mainly guys) that are discovering the likes of Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs, while watching James Dean speak out to them in Rebel Without a Cause. I'm finally understanding why the beatniks play such a vital role in young people's lives. In my own way, I'm connecting to them too. Will definitely be on the lookout for more beat era books to read. Maybe even steal a few from the other half.