July 9, 2021

I wrote a post yesterday, but it looks like it didn't save. I just got distracted from writing and bought the Spike Milligan war memoirs, which is a set of seven books! I'm not sure my husband is going to be pleased. Where will we put these seven used books? I'll have to buy another book shelf. Crap. Now I'm shopping for bookshelves. This has not been a very focused morning. 

I left this up on my computer and came back to it four hours later. I bought the war memoirs - those are the seven books - so that I can fish the good jokes out of them. Oh, I'll blog about it below. But Spike Milligan does this thing where he says something, deliberately misunderstands it, then builds on it from there, as if he had correctly understood himself. It's got a slightly old timey feel, but I like it. I listened to the first two and the last book, and I want the physical copies so that I can actually remove those jokes and place them in a notebook or something. 

This! Town! Ain't! Big! Enough! For the both! Of us! dun-uh un-uh 

I am struggling with my sister-in-law's upcoming bachelorette party. Aren't I too old for a bachelorette party? Surely. I put people through a very disorganized and actually dangerous bachelorette party when I got married, so I'm sure having to go to other people's is karmic retribution. At mine, I thought having a penis cake was funny, but I was 23. My other sister-in-law who's organizing it, along with two other people, seems to want it to be a weekend of outpouring love. How awful. I listened to a podcast about bachelorette parties - because that is how I'm coping with this - and they were saying that the purpose is to cement friendships before this big transition. That seems nice. I'm not really friends with my sister-in-law, though, and I don't think I'm going to lose her to marriage. The in-laws are a kind of binding requirement, so I'm sure we'll continue to run into each other from time to time. (Look at me: salty.) I'm also anticipating being the odd one out, somewhat self-imposed because the planners want us to all dress the same for the whole weekend and I have no interest in that. But I'm worried the other women will be off-put by my lack of feminine enthusiasm. How I won't be spending ages on getting ready. How I won't be bubbly or fawning enough. I feel very stolid, like a troll, when I'm around groups of women in these circumstances. 

I think it will be important to remember that people will not be thinking about me. I look like a regular person, only slightly trollish. I think I'm also going to try to keep in mind that people are disappointing in general. That it doesn't need to be a shock or outrage if they're under-planned or if they're judgmental or narrow-minded. Too sure of themselves, too insecure, ready to have a meltdown. It's all fine. It's all a bit less than one might have hoped for. But that's okay. 

Blog Time! 

Milligan, Spike – PEACE WORK

Published: 1991

Read: 6/2021

Spike Milligan is a founding member of the Goon Show, and I don’t remember what I was searching but his war memoir came up on the library website. I listened to the first two – in his series of seven – and then the last one. I’m writing about Peace Work, the last one, because the first two are really short. I guess I’m not counting them. Peace Work picks up after World War Two. Spike is making money by traveling around England, Italy, and Germany in a trio. He plays the guitar. He would have been in his mid-to-late twenties, I think. He talks about how poor they were – very poor – and how much he got laid – very much. It’s an engaging picture of post-war Europe, of making money as a musician, and of being a man who’s so creative he basically never stops talking, never stops coming up with jokes. The memoir ends when his musical touring ends and he gets a writing job on a BBC radio program. Spike himself reads the audiobook, which is always nice. He speaks very fast. I just bought all seven memoirs online from used bookshops. I’m hoping to read through them again and this time be able to pull out the jokes I especially like. They went by too fast on the audiobooks. 

Rating: ★★★