I am overwhelmed with restlessness and cannot concentrate on my book. At some point this morning I truly felt my stress, and since the realization it has grown worse. I am trying to stay calm and collected, but it is so hard. I have the best things I can have this morning, my Isabel Allende book and my coffee. My Dunkin Donuts is so refreshing, my book so good, but I can't concentrate. I keep being so driven. I only want to relax.
I finished Marion Harland's guide tonight and I wonder ceaselessly at two things. 1. She is so down on America! Even more than I am. She complains of things in which I am so well-steeped I could not see them for what they were. In particular, American style and cookery. It is true that our food, which we count as so much more generous in portion than the overseas counterpart, is as coarse and indecorous as it is plentiful, but as an American woman I cast up my hands and declare I would rather spend my time on something else. She makes an interesting point about American women's fashions. In France women wear what looks good on them, and in America women wears what comes off the manufacturing line in the latest style. It is very conformist, and I have to admit I feel it in myself, for I would be embarrassed to wear something that is "out" even if it flattered me better. 2. Harland's other point I feel clearly from last night's experiences. I looked in my journ...