Ode to the Things I love

I want to write. I have the need to put my words down on paper. However, when I try, my mind draws a blank. The words are totally forgotten.

Here I sit, in front of my computer - with a list an arm's length long of things I should be doing. However, instead I am thinking of all the projects that I simply can not wait to attend to.
This is an ode to the things I love:

Sneakers. Purses.
There are two ways to tackle this. I love buying them, and I love the idea of organizing them. In my closet, I have shelves dedicated to the seasons. I have a winter, spring, and summer shelf for my purses and shoes.

Secondly, I like the idea of MAKING my own purses. I feel like there are so many patterns, fabrics and ideas out in the world - just waiting for me to grab on and create!

Recycling bags.
Mr. calls me a bag lady. I love to put things in bags. Our bills - in a plastic bag. Our junk mail - in a plastic bag. My gym clothes, my lunch, my graded papers, the one sock missing its twin - all in plastic bags. Perhaps I should invest in fancy pants recycling bags.

Books.
What to say? I love books. I love the smell, the feel, the texture - and the shelves full. I like organizing them, rearranging them, and stacking them accordingly to date, author and genre. I toyed with the idea of getting the Kindle - but the thought of not having the pages between my fingers was enough to draw a tear to my eye - I decided against it.

Board games.
As a child I remember fondly of all the board games I would play with my family. I still have my favorites, locked tight in a box under my bed - awaiting for when future allows my children (unborn) to play.
I like finding websites pertaining to board games and dreaming of the day that I will one day have a closet, or room, big enough to hold everything. My favorite site must be Lime Green. They have the neatest toys, but I especially like the board game listed here called Quelf. We put this on our registry - I hope we get it!

My last two words -Stationery supply.

The Time Traveler's Wife chills me

I am in the process of reading "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I first picked up a copy (and I hate to admit it but after $6 in library fines, and three separate times checking the book AND audio book out - I am ALMOST finished.)

I started this post over a year ago, yet I just couldn't find the time to finish the book - or the post. When the book came out on the big silver screen, I thought "this is the swift kick in the pants I need to finish!". Yet, now the movie is OUT of the theaters, and I am still only on disc 10 of the audio version.

I know my current post is not selling the book, but what I mean to say is - I SHOULD have made time. Though I am STILL not finished, I couldn't help but want to write about it.

I admit, the book had me at time travel. I am a sucker for "A Wrinkle in Time" - and to maybe have the adult romantic version of this, tickled my fancy.

The story introduces Henry, a librarian (my 2nd favorite job choice - next to a Blockbuster employee), who suffers from CDP (Chrono-Displacement Disorder) which carries him away from the present time to some time in the past or future. One moment you are reading how he is walking across the street to meet his wife Claire, then he is standing (naked) in a corn field circa 1980.

Originally the book was a little hard to follow, but the book technically follows the life line of Claire, Henry's wife - from her childhood to middle age. Henry appears and disappears time and again, at various ages and stages of his life - but Claire continually ages.

I would recommend this book to everyone, but I would make sure you have a set amount of time to read - as you don't want to put it down (and it could be confusing to restart!).

Happy travels!

Love your Honey with No Money

Not everyone can shower their love with candies and flowers (though it would be nice!) - so finding cheap ways to show your love on the 14th is ideal.

The typical date on Valentine's Day consists of dinner and a movie. To make this a little easier on the wallet, why not decide on cooking at home?

If you are looking for a little wine and chocolate, how about the Alba Wine/Chocolate Tasting? My kind of event - get to sample different wines and chocolates....all for a whooping $5! I did this last year, and their dessert wines were so delicious - I dreamt about them for many nights after.

How to be single without being such

Since writing last, I have finished that horrid book (if you didn't catch what I was reading- please don't even waste your time finding out) and started a new book - "How to be Single".
I started this book last Tuesday, the night before Mr. went on his work trip. He didn't have a chance to be briefed on my latest novel. When he came back Friday afternoon, I was still at work. He came upstairs to find the book laying on our bed. He told me later, he thought to himself "Gee - she sure got comfortable with the idea of me being away!" I laughed because the book was not a "How-to" yet a fictionalized story about a group of middle-aged women who have yet to find love in their lives.

This story is refreshing, funny and very addictive. I find myself taking it with me wherever I go. This book is very much like "Sex in the City", its outlandish scenes that make you wonder if its really possible in the world to be that outgoing (for I, myself, am not).

The past reminds you

I sometimes get caught up in things that used to be. Either past friendships, broken relationships - or situations that I never really quite understood. Tonight I found myself in that same place. I often can go back in time and read through old journal entries, blog sayings - and reconnect with the person I used to be. I often feel like I am two people. I think about the girl, who when put to the limit, expresses her feelings in such a way - that even years later, I still can remember the moment I wrote it. Then there is the modern me, I feel = but I feel I don't have time to write about it...or the emotions are strong enough to get a grasp on WHAT to write....

This is something I found, I almost wanted to give myself a pat on the back...because I remember the moment I realized I was worth more that what I was given. I thank God everyday that I finally realized that.

Tuesday, January 11, 2005
you say i talk too much. that i think too much - that i read into everything and I look for trouble.
the truth is what you are hiding from - we dont talk enough. we dont talk at all. you dont know me. you dont know what happens each day -
we hide from ourselves the truth that we have grown apart. we are different people than what we were when we first started. I was foolish always to believe something like this would last.
I need more. i crave the attention that you withhold from me. i talk too much. i think too much. im just too much of everything for you. and you are just too little of anything for me. - kmw

I think about the me, now. I don't think I would even like Mr. tell me those things, but then again I don't think he would even think it. He likes that I talk. alot. enough sometimes for the both of us. Or that I read, and think, and ponder.

I'm with.....

Stupid.
Yes, that would be the name of the current book, by Elaine Szewczyk, I am reading. I would have to say it was the title at the library that won me over. That is, simply because the man ( I assumed) she was referring to is wearing green sneaks.

I started the book last night. I was immediately entertained. The "have to have" gay friend Max discusses with the main character, twenty-three year old, Kas, the way he is taking revenge on her X. From disguising himself as a police officer and knocking on all his neighbors' doors asking if they have seen any suspicious activity coming from his apartment, to handing out flyers with his phone number for Male Companion - who wouldn't want a friend who would find humor in making the person who broke your heart miserable?

Though, this book set in NYC, and most of the characters in their early 20s, I find this book hard to believe. I found her best friends to be rather immature. Max doesn't need to work - his father makes enough money to support him; mind you, the rather petty revenge he seeks on Richard in Kas's behalf was really funny. Libby, on the other hand, would rather not and simply lounge around all day doing just about nothing. For people in their early twenties, especially in a city like New York, I thought they'd be a little more mature and sophisticated than how they were portrayed. The story line, so far, is entertaining - but I am unsure how long that will last for.

Rain rain go away...

and come again maybe tomorrow! (Or at least when I can fashion these ultra-hip umbrellas).

I was somewhat productive at work today, that is - until I wandered across the website Umbrellas.net - then all was lost. I love the sun and bright weather, but after seeing all the adorable umbrellas - I wished it would rain more often!

Having not often used an umbrella in my former "run from house to car and from car to building" kind of life, the concept of investing in a good rain shield has never occurred to me. I believe it is time to not only shower myself with something that is durable, but cute.

new year - new deals

I can not believe it is 2009. I have started out this year right. I have been going to the gym, eating better, trying to stay in better contact with people - and just basically, trying to not have it flew by! I also felt that in years psat, I let my creative gene slip away - and I am attempting to contact it this year :)

On an intellectual standpoint, I decided I was going to read a book a week. Now, though I can read a book in a day (putting all work aside - in a few short hours!) but I thought I would cut myself a break, and attempt at a book a week.
There are other projects on the table as well, but I will get to that later.


Therefore, since this is the first FULL week of January - I have started a book called "Spellman Files"by Lisa Lutz. It is a clever mid 20s drunken Nancy Drew story. The book is a real easy read and the chapters are short, so in one short sitting - you can read through five chapters and feel you've accomplished something!
Is it really a mystery? Not really. But it is a hilarious, entertaining read with "snarky characters". Izzy is a private eye in a Royal Tanenbaum-esque family of private eyes who don't know boundaries when it comes to privacy or the invasion of it. One of the beginning scenes captures the lack of boundaries: Izzy, sensing she's being followed in a parking garage, gets in her car and screeches out of the garage. A car chase through the streets of San Francisco follows and, after Izzy can't shake her tail, she stops the car, gets out, walks over to the car chasing her and, as the window rolls down, says, "Mom. Dad. This has to stop."
Sadly enough, it was the cover that got me...like most books - I found it on m bookshelf one afternoon - and I thought the bright red cover looked modestly interesting. I also liked that the family of spies were hiding behind a newspaper - but looking at the characters a bit closer, they have different shoes which matched their personalities as I later read in the book...and it made me giggle.
The book is quirky and definitely worth the read :)

Reason #103 and beyond - TV moments

As Mr. and I were watching TV the other night, a character on our favorite show, Gossip Girl, did something really stupid (I can't remember the ACTUAL act - but nonetheless - I do remember it was something "Chuck" said to a girl). It was a really unwise statement, so as we watched, we both feel the need to shout at the TV when something doesn't go the way WE think it should.

So on this very night, after the character "Chuck" insulted another character, instead of calling him a typical rude insult- Mr. instead called him a "dumbbell." I just melted. It was an insult that you would use when you were in 1st grade (and maybe in the 1950s because I think 1st graders are really harsh in modern times). Mr. was cute about it, as he was so involved with the show - that his one small comment reaffirmed a hundred times over the many reasons why I love him.
To add to that fact, at the end of the show, the "villian" character's parent died - and being a 17 year old, the character did not handle it well. He would drink excessively and just had a complete meltdown. The last scene he was sitting on the bed of the girl he goes back and forth with, and he looked so pitiful. I looked over at Mr, and he was in fact, crying. And in a cracked voice, he tells me that he just feels so bad for him....again.

I don't know who my future husband is turning into - but every day he surprises me and amazes me....

A change in the world

"Sometimes it seems like we're all living in some kind of prison, and the crime is how much we all hate ourselves. It's good to get really dressed up once in a while and admit the truth -- that when you really look closely, people are so strange and so complicated that they're actually beautiful. Possibly even me."

When you stand on that oppression line - and you look at your neighbor, you realize you both have the same insecurities - you both go to work or school each day - holding in all the anxieties from the previous. You both think you are totally alone - that no one can relate - that you will never match up, you will never be who they expect you to be - then one day - you take a look around, and you realize all t hose people you pass in the halls -they are just like you, they are hiding something deep inside. All scared to truly be themselves.

Today at work, we had a workshop a few years ago for the new students/freshman - and I have never been through something like this before. It was called Challenge Day (www.challengeday.org) I strongly encourage anyone to look this up, It truly changed my life. If we had this when I was in high school, I don't think I would have felt so alone - so isolated - so different. So many students said that day they never realized that each of their peers experienced the same pains and fears, or the same heartache.

I challenge each of you that reads this to STOP judging people - to take a look at who they really are - who they really can be. I challenge you to listen. just listen with your heart and open your eyes to the possibilities that we aren't so different after all.

*Unfortunately, not everyone sees this program as beneficial. It takes a certain type of person to loo inside themselves and try make it better. This program is no longer used in our school systems. Adminstration didn't like what message it was sending to students. And most teachers didn't want to "feel" anything - they thought it was silly and most teacher didn't understand the message. The day I found out about the cancellation, I felt letdown by our school. I was dissappointed in the adults who felt the program was a joke.**