Version 2.117

I am stressed out again and I feel my back muscles so tight that they compress my skeleton. Of course, massages are not advisable during a pandemic, so I just scheduled a hair appointment for tomorrow. And I researched hotels by the beach that allow pets. The one I really would like to book only allows service animals and, I suppose, I could cheat and claim that Julian is for emotional support, considering how anxious I get when I'm not around him, but I am not that kind of person. Plus, it appears that the PetSmart hotel is open and Julian really likes staying there.

My first batch of books arrived today. I call it the first because I ordered the same books twice. On July 4, I placed an order with Bertrand online for two books: "O Resto do que Ficou" by Hugo Santos and the correspondence of Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen and Jorge de Sena. Since the books did not arrive within a month and CTT could not locate them, I went to Wook and bought them again. I know that it sounds insane to buy the same thing twice, but I was doing and experiment and you can only be confident in your results through repetition. 

The Bertrand order made it across the ocean in five weeks, although the normal amount of time is supposed to be 10 days. Funny enough, the tracking number indicates that it arrived at JFK airport on August 26, so it crossed the U.S. in less than 48 hours. I surmise that my package was vacationing in Lisbon from July 17 (the books had to be ordered from the publisher, which took over a week) to August 26.

I don't know if that's because Portugal was isolated, so very few flights were happening or if CTT workers just did not give priority to this package. But that's why I bought it twice: so that I could have two outcomes to compare. Plus LA-C also sent me the Alexandra Abranches book, so I have another one to add to my experiment.

After work today, I read Hugo Santos' whole book. It is short, an inner dialogue between the author and his alter ego, which is, in essence, a transcription of his thoughts. It's easy to relate to, since I also have a running inner dialogue. 

-- Os dias...
-- Uma eternidade.
-- O tempo é elástico. Tanto mais elástico quanto mais se detesta a vida.
-- Elástico, elástico...
-- É rápido quando a amamos.

~ "O Resto do que Ficou" de Hugo Santos

It feels good to alternate long and shorter books. Just yesterday I was watching Paulo Roberto Farias' Instagram stories and he had a video of a Brazilian author saying how much he loved short books, the kind with which you can lock yourself in a bedroom and finish it in one sitting. The kind that will knock yourself out in the end.