What Century Is This Anyway?

I am caught in a time warp.  I'm having a difficult time figuring out what century I am living in.  This is a personal reflection, by the way, and has nothing to do with any current political policies or decisions!

I've mentioned several times that when I drive, here in the 21st Century, I listen to the Diana Gabaldon "Outlander" series of books.  This is a series of (so far) seven books which are, at the very, very minimum time travel books (but so much more!).  In 1945, Claire Randall is traveling with her husband Frank in Scotland.  While investigating the standing stones at Craigh na Dun (which is actually a fictional stone circle, though I can picture it well since we saw stone circles when we visited Scotland)

Unbeknownst to Claire, this circle is a time portal and at certain times of the year, if you go near the stones, you may be transported back in time.  In Claire's case, she finds herself in Scotland of 1743.  To make things VERY concise, she ends up married (not a choice for either of them) to a Scott warrior, James Frasier.   The two eventually fall madly, passionately in love in a time heading up to war in Scotand.  With a knowledge of history, Claire is able to let Jaimie know what is coming, especially the slaughter that will take place at Culloden, the final confrontation of the Jacobite Rebellion.

When they discover Claire is pregnant, Jamie insists she go back to her own time to save herself and the life of their child.  Claire leaves him behind, knowing she will never see him again (this is only Book 1, so we know that's not true!).   Husband Frank takes her back and when her daughter is born, he raises Brianna as his own child.

After Frank's death, Claire takes Brianna to Scotland and tells her of her real history.  When they find a grave for Jamie and see the date of his death, Claire realizes he lived through the bloody battle of Culloden and decides to go back through the stones to see if she can find him.   Since we have to get through 7 more books, of course she does and in one of the subsequent books, Brianna goes after her, followed a bit later by Roger Wakefield, who is in love with Brianna and who knows the whole story.

Miraculously they all find each other and through many adventures they find themselves in "the colonies" (North Carolina eventually) in the time leading up to the Revolutionary War, so that war plays a big role in the saga.  Bri and Roger have two children, but the youngest has a heart problem which can be easily cured in the 20th century, but not in the 18th, so they decide to return through the stones again, while Claire remains in the 1700s with Jaimie.

I have 3 hours left of book 7 and book 8 won't be released until Fall of 2013 (and who knows when the audio book will come out...I must have the audio book because I'm in love with the voice of narrator Davina Porter).

Anyway, in this audio book, I am straddling the 18th and 20th centuries while at the same time on my Kindle reading Doris Kearns Goodman's "Team of Rivals," on one chapter of which the movie Lincoln is based.  Obviously that puts me smack dab in the middle of the 19th century....with the background on some of the "rivals" extending back into the 18th century at the time of the time traveling Frasiers!

So I don't know what century I am in at the moment and today my credit for a free Audible book arrived. I very nearly ordered "Dissolution: a Novel of Tudor England" but decided I needed to extricate myself from at least one century before adding another!

Tonight the plan was to review a play called "The Mountain Top," which is based on the final day in the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.   However my "intestinal thing" is still giving me a difficult time.  I can sit OK, but when I stand up, I start to get chills (Underdog Syndrome again!)   I thought I'd give it a little time and see if things improved, but they did not, so I exchanged our tickets for next weekend and I have the night off.

(I did enjoy lying down in a patch of sun on the couch in the living room.  The dogs, bless them, let me share  their bit of warmth)

I finally remembered that there are medicines to take care of my problem, so I have popped a couple of generic Imodium and hope that I will feel better soon.  After all, tomorrow we have tickets (that we paid money for) to a Lamplighters show and reservations at a Fisherman's Wharf restaurant for a fancy crab dinner.  When I bought the Groupon, I had no idea I would have so much crab the week before we were going to this dinner, but really can you ever have too much crab?

I think not.