School Days, Booklust

So on Monday I started school again. Well, kind of. I'm taking an online French class and will be doing some work (hopefully, a lot) on my thesis. I don't have to actually attend classes on campus, which is awesome, because going up to campus totally kicked my ass last quarter.

Actually, the whole quarter kicked my ass, which makes me wonder if I'm just a bit crazy for continuing on with this school thing while being pregnant. But if I could graduate with my MA before Bunlet is born, that would be awesome!

I'm not going to kill myself trying, but it's something that I would like to see happen. So wish me luck. And while you're doing that, have a gander at my gangly toenails that desperately need a pedicure:



Now that you're done staring in awe at my toes, hop on over to our Amazon store to check out some of our wares. We're not even close to done with putting all the books up for sale. It is such a huge project and will take awhile to get each title listed. I'm happy to say, though, that we've had about twenty orders since getting started last week.

We are so not in this for the money. We just want to get rid of these books. So feel free to buy one or seven if you've got the urge. I will personally call you up and sing, "I Will Always Love You" (Whitney Houston style) if you do so.

Still

I joined the Photo Trade this month. Basically, it's just as it sounds - trading photos with a partner each month. The photos are all based on a theme. The theme for September is "Still."

Here are the two photos I'm going to send out. I hope my partner likes them!




You can see other people's photos here.

In other news:

1) Roy and I worked out again tonight. I cussed at the TV quite a bit.

2) My computer is still being kind of a douchebag.

3) Last night I actually wrote a couple of poems that didn't suck sweaty balls.

4) I am reading a really good book.

5) I actually haven't been hating my job these days.

The end, for tonight.

Things That Make Me Go "Wow"

1) Web Without Sense is a collection of complaints about websites. Needless to say, it's hilarious. Here's a good one:



2) And in keeping the Grammar Nazi spirit alive, Brandy made my day when she sent the picture below to me.



3) This video totally brings on the awesome.



4) And this one is so sweet.



5) The Book of Leviathan by Peter Blegvad is a visual treat for anyone who likes to think. This is a collection of comic strips featuring Leviathan, a faceless and overly philosophical baby, his stuffed rabbit, and the family cat. The gang go on many adventures, including a long trip to Hell, in this dark comedy of a story.



6) Love, love, LOVE this video. It's the funniest thing I've seen in awhile.



7) I also love this penis iceberg. Article here.



8) Lastly, I got my computer back! I've spent the last couple of days trying to get it the way it was before I took it in to be fixed (minus the spyware, of course). I'm still trying to import all my email, as well as figuring out how to convert my external hard drive to a more stable format. It's a work in progress, that's for sure. But hopefully I will have some new photos to share soon and will be able to be a better blog commenter.

A Very Literary Meme

This meme has been making the blogosphere rounds, so I thought I'd do it too. I'm such a follower.

Anyway, here are the rules:

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline (or mark in a different color) the books you LOVE.


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Looks like I've read almost half of these - not bad.

Thanks to Amy, who told me how to change the color of the font in this post.

Rampant Consumerism! Voracious Reading! Free-Flowing Alcohol!: Day Four of Our Anniversary Trip

Roy and I were left to our own devices for most of the fourth day of our trip, as Wade had to work that day. We decided to go to the famed Mall of America. Wade was nice enough to write out explicit instructions for catching the correct bus to get to the mall, since we are (correction: were) bus-tarded.

But before we left, I took this picture of Wade's apartment. I like it. I think it captures the energy of his bachelor pad well.



I expected a lot more from the Mall of America than it turned out to be. Basically it's this massive four-story mall with a theme park in the middle of it. Sure, the theme park was cool, but we weren't prepared to ride any rides. (I had my obnoxiously bulky camera with me, and plus I get awful vertigo.) We decided to walk around, but soon I got bored. Bored! At a four-story mall. Imagine that.

















I also decided I really wanted shrimp, so we went to Bubba Gump. I was kind of disappointed in our food, but at least my drink was good.





Overall, there wasn't much for us at the mall. Despite all its bells and whistles, it was still just a mall. I found this hilarious, though, considering the horrific nature of the shoes.



And this was cool.



We caught the bus like a couple of old pros and went back to Wade's place. We settled down to watch Borat, and soon Wade came home from work. That evening he decided to take us (fellow nerds) out to some of Minneapolis' independent bookstores.



I found a half-off copy of this book, which I have been drooling over for years now but could never justify spending $30 on. So I bought it and was happy.

Afterwards, Wade took us to a local dive bar called CC Club, where we had cheese curds (awesome) and copious amounts of alcohol (well, for me, anyway). We sat in a booth for two or three hours and just laughed and talked.





Another Minneapolis night came to an end as we found our way back to Wade's place and fell asleep on the sofa bed.

General Monday Randomness

-I normally can't stand summer, but this year in particular I am very grateful for it. The evenings are long and peaceful instead of rushed like they were during the school year.

-Day 1 of the cleanse is done and went well. The hardest time was lunchtime and the afternoon. I got tempted quite a few times, but I managed to avoid most of it. I did have a bit of peanut butter with my celery when I got home, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it. At least I didn't eat the pan dulce in the break room at work.

-This is my new favorite song. It is amazing. I listen to it over and over. The whole album is worth checking out.

-I started reading this book. I'm not one for self-help, but this one called to me last week.

-I meditated tonight. Actually, I have no idea if I did it right. It felt a lot like I took a short nap. Is there a wrong way to meditate?

-I got my grade in my fairy tales class: A-. The perfectionist in me is not happy with this grade, especially because of what happened before. This is my third A- in grad school. I got two last year, but I earned them rightfully. I really should have gotten an A in this class. I busted my ass. Apparently I didn't deliver. I emailed her and inquired. We'll see what she says.

-At least I got an A in my internship.

-Roy and I went for a walk tonight. I haven't really been inspired to take any photos recently, because I've been in kind of a funk. But I decided to bring my camera along on our walk, and here are a few things we came across.







Yes, that's a headstone for a person with Shrimp as his last name. Talk about random.

The Road

I love books that are unflinchingly honest. I love it when a writer stares at the disturbing (albeit subjective) truth and doesn't back down. Such is the case in Cormac McCarthy's The Road. I have read several books by McCarthy, and he never disappoints me. His writing is phenomenal, his vision compelling.

This particular book is a postapocalyptic glimpse into the lives of a man and his son traveling by foot (along a road, obviously) towards the ocean. Their story is a quiet one, but it's also fraught with conflict and tension. In a world where almost everyone else is dead, these two continue to push on. While reading it, I asked myself lots of existential questions, one of them being "Why go on when the rest of the world has died? What, really, is the point?"

The Road really emphasizes the survival instinct that we all possess - and our desire to be just a little bit heroic. In typical McCarthy fashion, it offers no morals or rationalization. It just drops you into this dying world and leaves you to decide whether or not you would follow the road or abandon it.

On Love, Of Time

Two of the books I've read this month are definitely blog-worthy, because of their original storylines and beautiful writing. Surprisingly (to me at least), they are also bestsellers. Call me a lit snob (I'll gladly own up to it), but most bestsellers aren't that great. The craft of writing is often neglected for the plot (prime example: The Da Vinci Code): it's a constant battle between form and content, with content often winning the war. I love a good story as much as the next person, but when the writing sucks, that's a definite dealbreaker for me.

Anyway, I'm getting off my literary soapbox now and am moving on to The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. This book begins with the murder of young Susie Salmon at the hands of her highly disturbed neighbor, George Harvey. Sebold manages to pull off this grisly event with graceful prose, and the rest of the story unfolds just as beautifully. Susie remains the narrator, watching over her family, her friends, her town (and yes, even her murderer) from her heaven. (I love how Sebold gives Susie her own heaven instead of imposing the "normal" Christian ideal upon the story.) The story spans many years, and the audience sees Susie's siblings grow up, the eventual death of George Harvey, and the impact Susie's murder has on her town.

So, it was a great story, and the writing wasn't too shabby either. All in all, I really enjoyed the book. But sadly, it really fell apart in the end. I think it could've ended much sooner. And Sebold had Susie do something (that I won't spoil for you) that just didn't make any damn sense. I was disappointed at how it all kind of unravelled and trailed off into this nonsensical interlude. However, I would still recommend this book - with the warning that the ending leaves much to be desired. It's a great meditation on love, time, family, and death.

Right after finishing The Lovely Bones, I started reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. This book is enormously popular, and I was so glad to see that it actually lived up to the hype. In short, this is an amazing book. I can't think of a thing that I would change about it (and coming from me, that means a lot). The writing is just gorgeous, so incredibly poignant. The story is bittersweet, heartbreaking, and refreshingly unique.

But let me back up. The Time Traveler's Wife is a story about Henry, a man who travels through time, and his wife, Clare. The story jumps back and forth in time and through the eyes of both Henry and Clare. I almost immediately began to believe in the love that existed between Henry and Clare from the start of the book - it was just that real to me. It really delivered the message that love is timeless, that it can exist and remain strong even past death. By the end, I was a sobbing mess, but I was so touched by the story of Henry and Clare. You must read it. You won't be sorry.

And now I'm revisiting an old favorite: I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb. I first read this book when I was 21 and depressed. I could relate to it so much that it was more than just a little heartbreaking - the story pretty much devastated me (in a good way). I'm not sure what to expect now that I'm rereading it as a much more emotionally stable person, but hopefully it will still hold up as a great read.

My name is not Veslie, and other random thoughts on a Friday morning.

1) Everytime I get correspondence from DSW, it's addressed to Veslie. Hello, people! Have you ever met anyone named Veslie? The one thing that makes this okay is that said correspondence usually contains a coupon for $10 or $20 off a pair of shoes.

2) I'm wearing all black today. I don't think I've worn all black since high school.

3) I brought my camera to work with me. I spend all the light hours of the day in the office, so I figure I can at least try to take some pictures during my lunch hour.

4) This has been the most enjoyable work week I've had in quite some time. I've been productive and have felt useful and utilized. I've still had quite a bit of downtime (obviously, since I'm writing this at work), but overall, I feel like I can keep hanging in there if this keeps up.

5) My classes are going great. I have enjoyed this quarter immensely so far. I hope to have a completed thesis proposal by the end of the quarter.

6) I have no big plans for the weekend, and I am perfectly fine with that. My weekend will be ruled by studying, writing for class, hopefully taking tons of pictures, cleaning, doing laundry, and going grocery shopping. It's not glamorous, but I'm still looking forward to it.

7) I am currently reading So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld. Even though it's a young adult book, I have found very enjoyable so far.

8) As I mentioned previously, the third season of Veronica Mars is a total letdown, so much so that Roy and I didn't realize that the final episode was the series finale at first. That's how anticlimactic it was. I am hugely disappointed, especially because the first 2 seasons were so good.

9) I really want a cheeseburger for lunch.

I think I'm done.

Reading chick lit novels, that is. I read Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Takes Manhattan last year. I enjoyed both, but by the time I got to the latter, the formulaic tendencies of the author (Sophie Kinsella) had already become very clear to me, and thus, I ended up getting annoyed with it.

I started reading Can You Keep a Secret? (by the same author) last night. I'm already over halfway through, and it's entertaining. But I can't help myself; I want more. I get tired of the same ditzy heroines, the men who love them, and the mistakes they make. I grow weary of entirely plot-driven books where character development takes a backseat. Oh, the curses of having an English degree - I overanalyze everything and tend to be a bit of a literature snob.

But I don't exactly feel like reading War and Peace either. A balance must be found.

But still - no more chick lit for me. Sophie Kinsella has ruined the genre for me.

Memory Month: The Best Books of 2007

At the start of 2007, I told myself that I would read 10 books each month. Believe it or not, this used to be an easy accomplishment for me, as I read extremely fast. However, 2007 was an entirely different animal than years past, so reading took a back seat to everything else. I have managed, though, to read 75 books as of this posting and am hoping to finish off a couple more before the end of the year, as I have quite a few in progress right now. One thing I did this year was reread quite a few books, so I won't be including the books that I reread on my list of best books of the year.

Without further ado, here is the list of books that I enjoyed most this year (in the order I read them), along with the reasons why. I didn't force myself to pick 10 books; it just happened that way.

1) What No One Tells the Bride by Marg Stark
One thing every bride needs is a good book that helps her understand her many conflicting feelings that she encounters as she plans her wedding. This is one of those books that I'm so glad I read before getting married. I was one of those moody brides who had very happy highs and really depressing lows. I felt a lot of confusion about all my different emotions, and reading this book (as well as The Conscious Bride) really helped make sense of it all. I ended up embracing all these feelings (even the negative ones), and even though they were hard to handle sometimes, I count myself a better person for having gone through planning a wedding. Books like What No One Tells the Bride really helped me keep a firm grip on my sanity in dealing with family, friends, vendors, Roy, and even myself and my own expectations.

2) No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy is an amazing writer, and this is an amazing book. The story is compelling (and violent), the writing is top-notch, and I couldn't put this one down. It was suspenseful and interesting. I would love to see the movie, but I'm afraid it just won't live up to the book. However, I could just see the book unfolding in my mind as I read it, so maybe it'll make a good movie after all.


3) The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
Sue Monk Kidd is a delicious writer, particularly in this book. Her writing style makes me want to engage in all things sensual. Her descriptions are incredibly vivid, so much so that her writing sometimes contains echoes of the Latino/a tradition. The story is one that every person can relate to, where the protagonist goes searching for something she can't quite put her finger on and ends up with a better understanding of herself and her life. The myths and legends within the story really gave it its punch and depth. The ending was surprising, which is always welcomed.

4) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
This was probably the most anticipated book of the year, and I am so happy that it lived up to the hype. It answered all my questions and tied up all the loose ends. It also brought up some relevant issues, giving this fantasy story a strong basis in reality. It was a definite page-turner. I laughed, I cried, I got angry. Despite the epilogue (which I thought was unnecessary) and very weak concluding sentence, I was completely satisfied with this book - and also happy to see how the series matured and found its real theme and subject.

5) Was by Geoff Ryman
This was an excellent book. It's The Hours meets The Wizard of Oz, with an obvious twist of Wicked. The story was powerful, complicated, and challenging. The writing was great. All in all, Was is a very brave book that seeks to reexamine stories and characters we've all grown to know and love.



6) One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry
I highly enjoyed this graphic novel. I could relate to it very much. Each of the stories/chapters contained within struck a nerve with me, because they showcased the demons that latch onto us and follow us around all our lives. In a sense, this book reminded me very much of PostSecret, in that its very personal revelations felt like they were about me personally, not about some woman (the author) I've never met. The writing was good, and so were the accompanying graphics/pictures/illustrations. I highly recommend this book for everyone. Remember - graphic novels aren't just for nerds!

7) Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin
I thought this book was pretty amazing, and I've actually already talked about it in another blog entry. It actually forced me to reexamine my eating habits by telling it how it is. This book explores the horrific happenings in slaughterhouses, how different foods affects our body, and what we can do to make ourselves healthy. Essentially, the book is all about diet and exercise, but there's no feel-good spin to it. It's very matter-of-fact. Some would even call it bitchy. But I liked the attitude - it helped drive home the main points the authors were trying to make.

8) Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler
Every woman should read this book. It taught me so much about my body and really made me realize how lacking my health/sex ed classes really were. It is amazing how ignorant most women are about the processes of their bodies - well, this book demystifies it all. It also explains a natural method of birth control, which sounded far-fetched to me at first. But it really works if you know how to do it correctly. I would recommend this book to any and every woman out there. Even though it was first published 10+ years ago, it is still groundbreaking.

9) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
This book was an easy, fast, and gripping read. For the most part, it lives up to its critical acclaim. It is a great book. But it's not the best book I've ever read, and it won't be going on my "best books of all time" list. It's pretty easy to guess the ending, and I wouldn't say the writing is absolutely phenomenal. What I would say, though, is that this book is extremely relevant. It offers a look into Afghanistan through the eyes of its natives and reveals a timeless story of love, friendship, and family.

10) The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
This is a hefty young adult book. At 500+ pages, it's quite daunting. However, I read this book in the space of a day or 2, mainly because much of the story is told through pictures. These pictures are pretty amazing works, and they are composed entirely of pencil. The story would be nothing without the drawings. It's not just a book with illustrations added in for fluff - the drawings simply make the book. Although there's a strong story behind the drawings, both story and drawings would be incomplete without each other. This is a really fascinating read.

*****

As much as I enjoyed these books, I doubt any of them are going to make my Favorite Books of All Time list. If I had to choose any, though, I would probably choose No Country for Old Men and/or Was.

I am not really going to make any reading goals for 2008. I would really like to make a dent in my unread books though, but the only way I'm going to be able to do that is if I stop buying books (yeah, right) or get rid of the ones that have been on my to-be-read pile for years (which I do quite often, actually). So, who knows what 2008 will bring?

Busy, busy, busy

My weekend was incredibly busy but incredibly fun. It started off on a downer note as I began stressing over my paper, but I got it all done before the deadline on Saturday. I think it's a decent paper too, but I could only go so much detail as it was only supposed to be around 10 pages.

Saturday was also my mommy's birthday! I hate not being able to spend time in person with my mom on her birthday. But still, we got to talk on the phone a bit, and I'm so glad we did. I love my mom to pieces. She's really been an amazing influence on me throughout my life.



Anyway, after I finished, Roy and I went to the bank to change his name. I thought it was going to be a real pain in the ass, involving opening a new account, but we were able to avoid that and were out in 30 minutes. We ended up at Coco's for breakfast, because Ruby's was too busy (we're not the waiting kind). While we were waiting for our breakfast, Roy snapped this picture of me:



I find this picture humorous for a couple of reasons. For starters, my fingers look like sausages. I also look really young, like I'm a kid coloring in a coloring book. Also, my hair is in a state of disarray, which is truly nothing new. Yep, this picture pretty much sums me up. (However, the sausage fingers thing is a new one on me.)

After breakfast, Mandy and our friends Laura and Amy met me at home, and we drove out to Orange County for the Scholastic Book Fair. Mandy and Laura are both teachers, so they were able to get us in and get us awesome discounts on all kinds of books. The book fair was held in a huge warehouse:



There were so many people there, and the line was insanely long. I normally avoid crowds like the plague, but to me, being in the presence of so many books was heaven and thus cancelled out the annoying crowd factors. Most of the books were for kids or young adults, but there are so many good ones out now that I actually really enjoy reading them. I was able to get quite a few books for $70. Everything was 30 to 50 percent off. We stood in line for at least an hour, but it might have been closer to 2 hours. We did it in shifts, so none of us got too antsy.

Afterwards, we headed back to the hood and dropped Laura off so she could work on her paper. Mandy, Amy, and I drove out to Costco, Target, and Golden Spoon for various things. However, the conversation we had while driving was the best part. We all have plans to move up to Oregon or Washington, and up until this point, we had really talked in general terms about it. But this time we started talking about how we actually wanted to live, how we wanted to raise our kids, and our hopes for the future. I love these kinds of conversations because they make me realize that I'm not alone or crazy in what I want or believe. It's nice to have people around me who feel the same way about certain things.

Then we went back to Mandy's, and Roy ended up joining us. We played Racko, which is a really simple (but really fun) card game and then retired for the night.

Today was less about fun and more about getting things done. Mandy and I went grocery shopping at Trader Joe's, while Roy stayed home and worked on cleaning and doing the laundry (our divide-and-conquer strategy). We also went back to Target, and I scored a Dora the Explorer comforter for a needy family my company is sponsoring for Christmas:



Afterwards, I came home, cooked salmon for dinner, and settled down with Roy to watch Waitress. I enjoyed it very much, because it got away from all the special effects and bells and whistles and just told a good, heart-warming story. I even teared up a bit, but what's to be expected from li'l ol' hormonal me?



Afterwards, Roy and I popped open a bottle of champagne (the same kind we had at our wedding) for no good reason, but I won't tell you what we toasted to. Now he's ironing his clothes like a good husband, and I sit here blogging while buzzed. I'm behind on my blogging and everything else in life, but I'll catch up.

Truth be told, I'm an insanely happy camper right now. I have an awesome life. I'll definitely drink to that.

Skinny Bitch

I started reading Skinny Bitch tonight. I'm only 3 chapters into it, but I like the way it's written. It's good motivation. I've already learned so much. I hope to put this knowledge to good use.

Due to recent doctor visits and finding out about my high cholesterol, some serious changes are in order. I have already made a great deal of progress in cutting way down on caffeine and eating more fruits and vegetables. But there is still a long way to go on the road to becoming healthy. I need to change my entire diet and develop an exercise regimen. Yep, I still haven't tackled those monsters.

Looks can be deceiving. Almost everyone who sees me tells me how small or skinny I am (although I don't get these comments nearly as much as I used to). I can still count all my ribs, and my hipbones are still the main thing holding up my pants (although I do have a booty). But I weigh about 142 pounds, and I do have flab and cellulite. I have to admit that my weight is distributed well, and thus I don't see the need to lose any poundage. I do see the need to firm up though, because in the last few years (especially in the last year), I've really softened up. I think, like so many, that I secretly was expecting my extremely high metabolism to hang around forever. I was considered underweight until around the age of 24. I could eat anything I wanted and not worry. It's time for me to change my way of thinking in that regard...and in so many others.

I just want to be healthy. I really do. I have truly been neglecting my body for years, and only recently I've realized that I only have this one body. How sad for me, knowing how many years I may have taken off my life by being ignorant and careless.

I'd like to be/remain a skinny bitch too. Oh, the vanity.

One Hundred Demons

Thanks to a book exchange on the book club board on the Nest, I received a brand spanking new copy of One Hundred Demons in the mail (thanks, Amy!). I had been eyeing this book for quite some time, and thankfully, I was not disappointed. It was an enriching experience to read this book. And this isn't just any ordinary book: it's a graphic novel. You know, it's one of those that can be found in the section that almost entirely consists of teenage pimply guys who can only dream of losing their virginity. I happen to love graphic novels (so much that I'm writing my thesis on a series of them - but that's a subject for another time).

Here's a excerpt from a review from MadInkBeard:

Autobiographical comics (and their partially fictional brethren) are nothing new, and perhaps are even rather played out these days, the refuge of an artist with little to say. That doesn’t take away from the power of a well-done and original spin on the genre. Barry brings a unique voice to the material filled with humor, joy, regret, and acceptance. She tells her stories with the partial wisdom of experience and age looking back at the hazily remembered days of pre- adulthood. She plays on the friction between those days (as best as we remember them) and the altered view we hold looking back. These are not stories of a woman growing up. They are stories of a woman looking back on growing up, putting some of those demons to rest, and realizing how some still haunt the present.

The rest of the review can be found here.

I felt this review was a really good one and gave attention to all aspects of the book. One of the things that I love about graphic novels is the added visual component. The juxtaposition of cartoon-like drawings and serious subject matter is not always easy to grapple with, but I prefer to have a challenging reading experience over an easy one. This book really took me back to my own childhood and my own demons - and did so with surprising poetic ability.