Book Reviews Gone Awry

Okay, so instead of doing the weekly book review (which I have obviously not been doing anyways) I just signed up on GoodReads.com. So, here is a list of the books I've read in my 52-books in 52-weeks journey (not in chronological order of when I read them). In the future I'll just be updating my Good Reads profile and not blogging about the books I've read unless I have strong feelings about them one way or another.

-Twilight by Stephenie Meyers
-New Moon by Stephenie Meyers
-Eclipse by Stephenie Meyers
-The Five People You Meet in Heavern by Mitch Albom
-L'Ecole des Femmes by Moliere
-Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
-Anthem by Ayn Rand
-Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
-Atonement by Ian McEwan

I am currently reading 1984 by George Orwell and Le Roman de Silence by Heldris of Cornwall (pen name of an unknown Medieval French writer).

A few things...

A few things I do poorly:
-blog
-remember dates, events, and peoples' names (I have a TERRIBLE memory)
-make big decisions - though I'm getting better at this

A few things I do well:
-cook
-listen
-teach
-drive
-mediate

A few things I love:
-Puppies... but I don't want one, so don't anyone get any fancy ideas...
-People who make me laugh and think about things I never would have without speaking to them
-Indian food
-Color!!
-Order
-Change
-Heart rate monitors
-Reading

A few things I... don't love:
-People who treat me like I'm 5
-Passive aggression
-Getting stuck in the snow (and while we're at it, Spring that turns back into Winter. Boo and hiss)
-Not having a built-in dishwasher and an actual laundry room
-Being the HOA president

A few things I want to do before my life is over:
-Learn how to Oil paint
-Travel to India, Australia, Ireland, Brazil, Tahiti...
-Take ballroom lessons
-Learn how to sew well enough to make something even moderately attractive or useful
-Live in France at least once
-Learn how to (and actually) plant, maintain, and 'harvest' a great vegetable garden

Week 4 Book

For my fourth week I decided to read Here's Your Hat, What's Your Hurry by Elizabeth McCracken (another collection of short stories). She's very creative, but her stories were hit and miss for me--some I enjoyed, some were a bit sluggish, and they were all slightly wierd. So I gave up about 2/3 of the way through the book. It felt a little odd to not actually finish the book, but I couldn't really be bothered. Plua Jessica gave me permission to stop. :)

Book a Week Challenge: Weeks 1-3

My guess is that many of you will recognize that Jeremy and Britnie's website is where I got my inspiration for this posting. It is, in fact, the homepage on Jessica's compuer. I have decided to take the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge, so here's my report of the first three books:

Book 1:: This is Not Chick Lit: Original Stories by America's Best Women Writers by Elizabeth Merrick
I originally thought this book might just be angry responses to the modern Harlequin-type smut in their cotton-candy covers that adorn bookstore shelves these days, but when I picked it up in the bookstore and really enjoyed the first story, I decided to buy it and check out the rest of the contents. For me, this was a very entertaining read, and the stories were varied, interesting, and mostly smut-free. I don't know about "America's Best Women Writers," though. Talented, to be sure, but "best..." I'm not quite convinced.

Book 2:: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (writer of The Namesake)
I actually loved this book. I didn't realize when I first bought it that it is a collection of short stories, but it was fascinating. Indian culture is not something I am extremely familiar with, so there were some references that I didn't fully understand, but this is a book I would easily recommend regardless of that fact. Lahiri's style was very familiar and engaging, and it made the cultures of her characters very accessible.

Book 3:: Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World by Leah Hager Cohen
This book was sort of a mix between memoirs and relaying the personal accounts of others. The author is a woman who grew up as a part of--or surrounded by--the deaf community because her granparents were deaf and her father was the superintendent of a school for the deaf in New York City. She (and her father) are both hearing individuals, but she gives very personal and detailed insight into the culture of the school and the politics of the larger community that her family was so involved in. She shows in detail how individuals were/are affected by legislation, stereotyping, and conflict between hearing people and deaf people.

Snowshoeing: My (only) winter sport

Having grown up in Utah, people have certain expectations of me--one of them being that I "naturally" love to ski or snowboard. Not so, my friends.

There was a time when I loved downhill skiing, and my dad would always take us on the KSL free ski nights. I loved it--the crisp air, the bright lights on the slopes, the freezing ride up to the top of the run, the sound of the skis in the snow... all that jazz.

But free ski nights only happened every so often, and eventually they either stopped happening or we just stopped going. Several years later I tried downhill skiing again with my Knight cousins, and I ended up losing control, heading straight down a slope--my eyes watering because I was going so fast (and goggle-less)-- and colliding with some poor girl who was just learning to snowboard.

So last year a friend e-mailed me an online ad for some snowshoes, and the rest is history. The great thing about snowshoeing is that you can do it anywhere (no season pass required), anyone who is reasonably un-klutsy can do it, and it's a great workout without consciously having to think about exercise (yesterday, according to my heart rate monitor, I burned 1350 calories in 2.5 hours). In fact, another great thing about snowshoeing is that you are working hard enough tramping through the snow that coats are more of a formality (just in case the wind should pick up). So for those of you who are anti-cold, this is a winter sport that might help you get out and enjoy the beauty of nature in all of its pure white loveliness.

Do you really need an excuse to have a pary? No, just a good theme!

In early December, my roomies and I hosted a Hairspray party. Everyone was encouraged to do their hair like a character in the movie. We had treats, we watched the movie, we sang along... we basically had an all-around good time. You can see in the picture that my hair "deflated" during the course of the night, but Hap and Jessica pulled offAmber von Tussle and Penny Pingleton's do's rather well.

The week after Christmas was full of fun. Our stake YSA group went ice skating at Seven Peaks Ice Arena on Thursday, which was really fun. I hadn't been ice skating in YEARS, so it was a little bit awkward at first, but we all got the hang of it sooner or later.

That Saturday night we hosted a crepe party at our place and christened the crepe pan that my sister Amy gave me for Christmas. I tried a new crepe recipe that uses sparkling water(who knew?), and it was fantastic. Everyone brought their favorite crepe filling, and we all had a good time talking and laughing.

Next up? Tubing at Soldier's Hollow, my birthday... and a curry party sometime in the next month.

Furniture, Frolicking and Football

Okay, I am going to try uploading pictures with this posting, so cross your fingers...About a week and a half ago I decided that I was going to pull an old cheap-o bookshelf out of storage, sand off the laminate, and paint it aqua so I could stand to have it in my house. I think laminate is so ugly, and this particular bookcase was quite hideous, but we really need some more space for movies and books in this little place I call home. So I got on the internet, downloaded some instructions for painting over laminate, and chose a paint color.

I finally finished the bookcase on Saturday and moved it to its new home on the second landing in my stairwell.

I left work a little bit early on Friday and had a girls night out with Heather and Amy. We first went to get Halloween costumes (fun period costumes to wear with our Venetian masks), and then drove over to Gardner Village for Witches Night. I was a little skeptical when Heather first told me about it, but it was actually really fun. Hundreds of women, every single one dressed up as a witch. Some of these women went all out on their costumes, it was amazing.

Heather, Amy and I got dressed up (hats, capes, and tights), and joined in the fun. We had soup in breadbowls, shopped around Gardner Village, and took lots of pictures. I'm going to have to go back there on a slower night, because there were some really great shops there!

And last but not least, the fabulous BYU vs. Eastern Washington game on Saturday. The Cougs won 42-7, and it was a fun game to watch, but it was COLD. It rained for a majority of the game, and there was some wind, but by the last 10 minutes of the game, there were snowflakes the size of quarters falling and we were all afraid that we had frosbite on our toes.

An Update... Finally

So, I recognize that it's been over 7 months since I've contributed to the world of blogging, but here I am, letting you all know that I'm still alive and kicking.

Since March, so much has happened that I can't be bothered to write about anything in very much detail, so glance over the bulleted list below and just e-mail me or call me if you actually want details. (Disclaimer: These are not in any specified order, because I also can't be bothered to put them in chronological order or rank them by importance).

• I did two new paintings that I love and I'm currently working on 6 more. If you read Jessica's blog, I think she posted pics of the 2 that are already done.


• I went to Europe with my family for two weeks. I decided that one day I must live in France, and that Italy is going to be revisited some time in the near future (meaning in the next few years of my life--I'm too poor to go anywhere right now).


• I found out that one of my dear, dear mission companions passed away while I was gone on vacation. She would have been 63 or 64, I think.


• I got two raises at work. Wahoo! (That still doesn't change the being poor issue, though).


• I went on my first business trip to Phoenix. It was supposed to last two days and ended up being a week long. I will never live in Arizona unless I become suddenly allergic to everything except the sun and dirt.


• My siblings and I established 'Ticket to Ride Night,' and we now play every Sunday.


• I went on a road trip to Boise for the funeral of a good friend. The funeral was beautiful.


• The drive to Boise was horrible, though. What boring terrain. I thought only the midwest was supposed to be that flat and uninteresting.


• I finally got my Bachelor's Degree in French with a minor in English. Useless? It's debatable.


• I decided that I should probably go to grad school. That won't be for a while, though.


• Went to see Hairspray in the movie theater. Three times. I'm addicted to the soundtrack, and I hope people on the road enjoy watching me sing to my steering wheel on my way to and from work.


• I tried tofu for the first time ever and absolutely loved it.


• I still can't do sushi.


• Heather pointed out to me how often I say the word "awesome," so now every time I say it I smile to myself and the people around me think I'm nutso.


• I discovered how much I love Baroque music like Watermusic, Xerxes, and Vivaldi's Four Seasons. I don't like the harpsichord that much, though, so that limits the options for listening.


• I realized that life really is fragile, and I need to be better at keeping in touch with the people I love. So here's the first in a series of attempts.

Perspective in Prose and Poetry

Today I spent five and a half hours at the library trying to get through my British Lit. class. While reading the introduction to one of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poems, I read the following quote, which he had adapted from Thomas Burnet's Archarologiae Philosophicae:

"... It is helpful sometimes to contemplate in the mind, as on a tablet, the image of a greater and better world, lest the intellect, habituated to the petty things of daily life, narrow itself and sink wholly into trivial thoughts."

It was an unexpected and beautiful reminder about putting life in perspective.

And That's Why They Call It Impressionism...

Yesterday I went to the Museum of Art on BYU campus to see a new exhibit with Mom, Amy, Heather, and Easton (who is 2). The exhibit was designedto highlight the influence of French Impressionism on American painters in the 1840's and 50's.

So there we were... wandering through the exhibit, thoughtfully gazing at each painting, when Easton delightedly exclaimed, "Horsey!"

Thrilled at the thought of Easton actually enjoying himself, we all leaned in to see what he was pointing at so we could praise his intelligence in our own sing-songy, baby-talk voices. Heather was standing--Easton in her arms--in front of a beautiful lanscape depicting grass and trees bending and waving in the breeze of a beautiful, sunny day.

Strangely, there wasn't an animal to be found on the canvas. There was, however, a series of brush strokes in the green grass that looked strangely like the shadow of a galloping horse if you looked at it with a forgiving eye.

After a moment we moved on to the next painting, and to our surprise heard Easton exclaim once again, "Horsey!"

No, I promise, darling boy... even though it might look like a horse, it's not actually a horse.

But it couldn't be helped. If he saw a horse, he saw a horse, and who were we to tell him otherwise?