Reading Meme

I thought a little insight to my soul would be a lovely change of pace to distract you from the fact that I keep forgetting to charge my camera battery and skip week in pictures. Ahem. Anyway. A meme! From...everywhere, but here's where I decided to bite the bullet.

1) What author do you own the most books by?
Probably Jane Green. Unless you count each of Shakespeare's plays separately.

2) What book do you own the most copies of?
Tender is the Night by F.Scott Fitzgerald? I think I may have three copies of it.

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No. But it probably should have.

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Sidney Carton from A Tale of Two Cities, but that isn't really "secretly"...

5) What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
Little Women

6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Little Women

7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
Um...Alice I Have Been ranks up there somewhere, but probably not the WORST.

9) If you could force everyone to read one book, what would it be?
The Great Gatsby, hands down. But only if I could also make everyone love it.

10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
Me? Hahahahahahahahaha...I'm so funny.

11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
Definitely excited for The Hunger Games, but that's a given. Um...I'm cautiously excited for the new Great Gatsby. And I really wish they would do Love is a Mix Tape, but I'm sincerely at a loss at what it would look like. I don't think it would ever transfer to film.

12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Can I retroactively say Twilight?

13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
Oh MAN. I always have weird dreams, but none I could coherently describe now.

14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
Ha! Anything by Nicholas Sparks. Which I think is only one book. But I hear they're all the same.

15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
The Complete Works of Shakespeare.

16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?
Seen? Nothing obscure, there. Though there's a few I wouldn't MIND seeing. Preferably in Central Park.

17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
Have I ever read anything by a Russian?

18) Roth or Updike?
Updike

19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Neither? Though I would choose Sedaris if I HAD to. But only if I had to.

20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare, though I have a soft spot for Chaucer

21) Austen or Eliot?
Austen (however...Eliot? T.S.? George? Why not Austen or Bronte? That seems a more logical question...)

22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
See answer to #17

23) What is your favorite novel?
The Great Gatsby

24) Play?
The Taming of the Shrew

25) Poem?
Um...Oh! Actually I've been reading through the love poems of Pablo Neruda and some of them are quite lovely.

26) Essay?
Anything by Ayelet Waldman. Seriously.

27) Short story?
Brady Udall has a book of short stories that I love very much.

28) Work of nonfiction?
The Happiness Project

29) Who is your favorite writer?
Fitzgerald and Jane Green (just keeping it real!)

30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Stephenie Meyer. Ok. Maybe not. OH! David Sedaris. I don't get the love.

31) What is your desert island book?
My nook?

32) And … what are you reading right now?
I just finished Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and I'm also reading The Last Letter from Your Lover


(tell me what we're gonna do now, joss stone)

The Ebb and The Flow

(via pinterest here)

I've been thinking of friends, lately. Probably because they have been my lifeline more than once and my sanity this year.

I've mentioned before that in college I made two friends. They are my life long best of friends. When I married and moved away, I struggled to make that type of friend again. I oft lamented (here, even!) that maybe those types of friends were a special college only thing and the older you got, the more difficult it became to find those "drop by for hot chocolate and a chat" kind of friends. And I don't think I'm entirely wrong. With schedules and families and to do's a mile long, it IS tough to have that insta-bonding and carefree time you had in college.

I've tried to become close to a LOT of people in the past 15 years with varying degrees of friendship and success. I had resigned myself to a lot of 'good' friendships and a LOT of great acquaintances, but none I would call in the middle of the night to cry with should the worst happen. Until recently.

I've written that I've found myself in a very unexpected friendship this year and it's true. Against all odds, I find myself with not one, but two of the 'drop by and chat / middle of the night the worst is happening' kind of friends. And it wasn't until a chat with one of them last week that I really, honestly let myself believe that these women are here to stay. Permanently. That we'll be laughing and telling stories while sipping hot chocolate when we're 80. That we will be, no we ARE ALREADY, the kind of friends I thought I was too old to find. That came along once in a lifetime and my lifetime quota had been met. But no. I'm not. And it wasn't. And I will forever be grateful. Because there is nothing in this life like a couple of best girlfriends to see you through. To keep you sane and grounded. To stand by your side or to weep with you. I'm so blessed and I know it. And I firmly blame them for my recent softening around the edges and bursting heart.

But I'm not really complaining.


(guns n roses, welcome to the jungle)

There Is Ugly All Around

I'm sitting here heart sick. Some days I feel I'm surrounded by ugly behavior, many I'm related to, many I am not. And most days I feel the only sane one in a sea of crazy. Which, given my own set of crazy is saying something. I know how people get here, but I'm saddened when they do. By the parent who thinks teasing to the point of meanness and tears is appropriate. By the siblings who poke and poke and poke to the point of unfunny and abuse. By the people I've known forever who lets life turn them and rear the true colors of contempt and ugly. By those who know better but fail to do better.

I feel this year has been such a year of growing up for me. I've crossed some threshold of tolerance for the crazy in my life. I've spent time lately shedding the excess from facebook and twitter and blogs. I've hidden those I can't outright delete. I've deleted those I can. I've tried to employ the same "only those things of beauty or those I need" rule to the people I let into my life. Why do I waste time on people - related or not - that don't make me feel my best - more alive - better? That don't feel the need to elevate themselves to the plane they could be on...should be on? I already feel lighter. I already feel better. My feeds aren't clogged with the negative and the juvenile. With the passive aggressive and nit-picking. It's filled with those who are wanted and needed.

I'm old enough to know better, so I try to do better. I don't tease to the point of tears. I don't cloak barbs with false sincerity. I try to be elevated in word and thought. I don't always make it and I'm CERTAINLY a work in progress, but I'm trying. And this year I've come to realize that simplicity isn't something held for possessions only. Simplicity is a way of life in possession, in thought, in relationships. Ugly behavior isn't accepted in my life anymore. I have no need nor time for it. Life is fleeting and good. I don't want to sully it anymore than I have to.


(no stars, figures on a beach)

Update...Because Once I START Talking Fibro...

We will NOT be going back to the doctor that 'treats' fibro. The entire time it felt as though we were being sold a crappy condo in Bermuda. He had a lot of points that resonated, but his set up screamed "scam-ish". It was a set 12 or 17 week program, with no variation for individuality and it was around $5000 upfront, with no refund should the program not work. So...armed with that and a little more, we went home and Isaac did a lot of research.

A lot of his theories seemed sound. Some of them a little more than sound. Some sounded a little off. And so we talked. A lot. About all of it. And by the time the weekend was over, we'd decided to cancel our follow up consult and leave it. We also decided that regular appointments with my chiropractor and maybe some time with a physical therapist or strength training along with Isaac would do just as much as the other doctor's $5000 may or may not work treatment would.

I talked to my chiro, got his take on things and we made a plan. I started yesterday. Hopefully this will help get my neck back in order and started on the road to MEANINGFUL help. Fingers crossed, anyway. A little.


(journey, separate ways...this is for you Lacy! :)

Four Down...

This year was our fourth Thanksgiving back in Utah. Which means it was our fourth annual "day o' Thanksgiving" with my sister. Thanksgiving is one of those absolutely perfect days of the year. Not a lot can mess it up. Our tradition is simple: comfy clothes, only food that is requested makes an appearance, I buy the turkey and my sister cooks it, games are played, movies are watched and a lot of laughing ensues.

Thursday was no different. Other than a misstep with my dill dip, the food was lovely. Even if I did end up buying a 27 pound turkey that my sister may or may not have had to wrestle into her oven. But, oh! OH! What a turkey. We decided to splurge on a free range organic heritage turkey raised in the hills above our town. I wondered if it would be worth it and, remembering I don't love turkey, I would say completely yes. Worth every penny. That was a really good turkey. A little smaller next year, perhaps, but I think we'll go the heritage route again.

The rest of the day was spent playing games with my brother and his girlfriend and my nephew and his wife, watching a movie and noshing the evening away. I think everyone left fat and happy, anyway. It was a really good day. I wouldn't change our little tradition for anything. It's simply, absolutely, my favorite day. Every year.

One 'funny' moment - I kept pestering Sammy to eat his (raw) broccoli and he kept telling me that it hurt his bottom teeth every time he tried. So me, being the STELLAR parent I am, told him to suck it up and eat it anyway because that meant that he's too soft and needed to toughen up his teeth. The next day Isaac mentioned that he had a new tooth coming in. Whoops! Guess I now know why it hurt for him to bite down on broccoli on that particular bottom tooth...Wiggling has commenced!

Do you know how much "or if you're a monkey hum" gets stuck in your head? No? Here...try it out. Since it's all I've heard for three days straight and I'm in the mood to share!