In the Here and Now

Skipping over the last year…

I just finished Season 5 of Drop Dead Diva. Loved it.
I also just read Where'd You Go, Bernadette? Best book I've read in awhile. And I've read a lot of interesting books recently.

Writing has been on my mind a lot recently. Maybe I'll get beyond a blog post soon.

Journeys

My life's journey seems to be going through a pretty nice prairie for the moment. I can see for miles and it is all the same. Pleasant. Not entirely interesting and perhaps a little...what is the word I'm looking for?...not boring exactly, but maybe rut-ish. But looks can be deceiving when it comes to the future, so I will keep moving forward and see what comes.

As for more literal journeys...I have a big trip planned in the coming months. And I'm über excited. It is the 10-year trip. The "I've been dying to go there for so long" trip. I'm a little stressed with planning, but most of the big stuff is out of the way, and next up is the fun part: what exactly to see.

And of course—a literary journey. I started reading The Wheel of Time series again in January. Oh so many years ago, my cousin introduced me to this fantasy series (and there is always a journey of one kind or another in those) and I fell of the slowly moving wagon years ago. I promised myself that I would jump back on the minute Mr. Jordan finished it. Well, Mr. Jordan died (our joking seems a little prescient now.) But, much to my relief, he had outlined the rest of the story with his wife and in notes, and the family hired another writer to flesh the rest of it out. The last book (14 when we thought there would be 10 back in the 1990s) came out in January. And now I am back on the wagon resuming my literary journey. It's weird reading books I read many years ago; I have this dim memory of certain things and no memory of others. I keep waiting for things to happen, only to have to wait more (because it happened two books later.) I'm currently at the tail end of book 4; once I get to 7 or 8 I should be past this weird memory part. And then it will be me impatiently reading to find out how it ends. Can't wait!

And lastly, little ladies' journeys: In February I was asked to be the godmother to a beautiful baby girl. And yesterday, my first niece began her life's journeys. I'm excited to be a part of these ladies' lives. Oh, quite serendipitously—they both have the same middle name! Love.

The Night Circus

I don't recommend things very often, because it is so much about taste. So, unless I know your taste, I probably won't recommend books, movies, etc., to you. I might say how I felt about it, but I will make sure you know I have broad taste. You may not. And I don't want to be responsible for your investing a decent amount of time in something you don't like.

That being said...

Read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. It's just that good. The mood, the description, even the things I don't understand about the ending. Still really, really good. 

Fault x 2

Well, I inadvertently fell off the blogging (train, bandwagon, rail?) for awhile there. No one's fault but my own (I don't even have a good excuse.) Best just to dive back in, right? Just finished The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Great book. I have read a few other John Green books after the recommendation of a friend, who also suggested I check out his and his brother's vlog...and I finally did and wished I had earlier. Funny stuff. Back to the book...their are many things to take away in this book, but the thing that stands out most clearly for me is the treatment of the parents. So many children's and YA books find a way to kill off, vilify, or ignore the parents, and this one doesn't. And I found that refreshing. Biggest thought provoker: (spoiler here) this book is about childhood cancer, so a lot of the book discusses the meaning of life and facing death. And I found this discussion enlightening and disheartening. I have a very firm Christian belief about life after death, and I found it fascinating to be in the mind of people who don't who are having such honest discussions about it. But sad, too.

Side note: I'm obsessed with names and how people and things are named. And I watched one the vlogs where John Green answered questions about this book...and discussed the main character's name. The answer made my heart really happy. Well chosen, sir, well chosen.

Books

The last 5 books I've read:
Bite Club by Rachel Caine
Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris
The Shack by William P. Young
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
What Can't Wait by Ashley Hope Perez

It was book club night--always a good time. The Shack was the book for this month. We even managed to discuss it for awhile. I was surprised by this book. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. And it was a great conversation starter.

Cinderella

I was in a fairy tale mood this week, so I reread a book from a kid lit class I took in college: Ella Enchanted. Very satisfying retelling of the Cinderella tale. Smart girl; realistic growing of a relationship, and some fairy godmothers who aren't perfect.

And now I'm watching the classic: Walt Disney's Cinderella. It's funny the things you notice when you rewatch a movie from your childhood. Here's the line in Cinderella that stood out to me: "Leave the sewing to the women." I'm pretty sure the outcry at such a line would stop it from being included now, no matter how well it fits the song. Of course, the entire outline of this movie follows along those same lines. But you know what? I still like it. Whether it is the nostalgia or the happily ever after, I'm a fan.

Hello 2011

I'm starting off 2011 right. I think. With The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. So far, so fantastic. I spent most of December reading the Morganville Vampire series. Really good for what it was; the main characters were engaging and flawed but likable. And the action was unending and still managed to be believable and not get old. I also read The Freak Observer. Although it too is YA, it was a bit of a head spinner after reading the Morganville books. There was a lot of depth and psychology in it. Dense I would say; I will need to read it again to make a final judgment.

I'm also in the midst of both season 3 of Friday Night Lights and season 2 of Fringe. Great TV (on DVD)! And I'm excited for new TV to start airing this week.

I also watched The Town and Letters to Juliet this past week, which is more of an ending to 2010, but a worthwhile run up for 2011. The Town was well done, gritty. I enjoyed the accents. And Jeremy Renner's character...yikes. Letters to Juliet had a lot going for it...but the producers should have gone for a less cheesy ending. I still liked it, but a balcony scene wasn't actually necessary even though the name Juliet was in the title. (And I listened/watched to The Untouchables on TV this weekend. Chicago was scary.)

I also recently bought some tunes (Christmas shopping is dangerous!) and now can listen to some classic Nirvana, old Hawk Nelson, and new NeedtoBreath. And I thoroughly enjoyed a Christmas CD that I got as a gift last Christmas of Straight No Chaser. A Capella = awesome.

Also, as a final word on 2010, I just have to say that having an extended family all in one place is a truly awesome thing. My grandmother remarried this fall and decided to gather her family and reaffirm her vows over Christmas--and everyone made it. All of her children and their spouses, grandchildren and their spouses, and greatgrandchildren made it from all over the country. It was a special event to be a part of.

patience

Patience is a virtue they say...mine is wearing thin. You see, I finally bought a new dishwasher (step 2.5 in home updating) and it is being delivered this morning. But they haven't called yet, and I'm getting very impatient...because I have to go to work and I have many, many things to do there. Ack!

In the meantime, I'm trying to make the best of my 1/2 day off by accomplishing some projects...and then I just decided to update this instead. So here's what I'm inputting these days...

holidays: I came up with a fun idea for a Christmas card...I will show it to you if I manage to pull it off. (This begs the question why do I make it so complicated, right?)

sports: The Twins clinched this week. I can not tell you how obsessed I am, because it would be embarrassing :) I can, however, tell you that I both went to a game this week and am wearing a Twins sweatshirt right now (if that gives you any idea.) I love them all and I can't wait to watch/listen to them keep winning!

TV on DVD: FNL update--I just finished season 2 and it was excellent. I love the evolution some of the characters are taking. It is incredibly realistic. I also just started watching The Vampire Diaries season 1. I started watching it last season, but got too far behind. Now I'm catching up. It may seem cheesy--but it's a very well done dramatic cheesy.

TV: Glee started this week, and sadly that is the only currently airing show I found time to watch this week. The new TV season looks excellent, but I don't have tivo/dvr or the time to keep up. I am hoping to watch Hawaii 5-0 though.

travels: I went to or through South Dakota twice this month. You may ask why I would do that...well, it's all about the people really. The first weekend was for Lifelight south of Sioux Falls. It is an excellent (and free!) Christian music festival: favorite performers of the weekend=Group 1 Crew. I went with a few really good friends and we had a fantastic time. The second weekend was traveling through SD with a few friends to go to a Christian women's retreat in Nebraska. The retreat was excellent and very renewing.

music: The newest disc to catch my fancy: Rebel by Lecrae. This is one of my favorites so far.

books: I read Water for Elephants earlier this month. Very interesting and quick read. Now I'm reading A Concise History of China. It's a little dry and there are lots of names (really hard to keep straight!) but it is really interesting and about a subject that I know very little about. I'm powering through and should be done next week.

Got any recommendations for me? I would love to hear them.

effects

I've been in a bit of a funk* recently--a multi-faceted funk (which is my way of saying it is too complicated to explain.) But, for me, funks often spur a greater desire than usual to escape in a good book, movie, TV show, concert, or game...(I don't actually recommend this plan, however, because it rarely clears up the reason for the funk. Avoidance is not really helpful, but it can be entertaining :)

books
Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead
The House of Night series by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

movies
Daybreakers
Valentine's Day
Sweet Land
Leap Year
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
It's Complicated
The Other Man
Post Grad
Public Enemies
The Hangover

TV shows
Lost (see previous post)
Glee
The Good Wife
random channel flipping :)

TV on DVD
Battlestar Gallactica (I have one disc and one movie left--if only blockbuster had sent them in the right order!)

concert
Glee Live!

games
I'm currently really obsessed with soduku (which goes hand-in-hand with listening to baseball...)

videos
I watch random videos that people post on FB or tweet about all the time, but this one is definitely worth sharing: http://tiny.cc/77gtw (courtesy of NPH) and it kinda connects to the next subject...

sports
baseball (go Twins! Oh, and I got a surprise trip to the game today; even though they lost, it was still fun!)
soccer: I'm a World Cup fan, I admit it...there is something really beautiful about an event that brings together people from all over the world; I love feeling like I'm part of it.

*When I first wrote this I just used this word because it was appropriate. But when I went and reread it, I realized it could be construed as a very clever homage to a much debated (or much maligned?) Glee episode. Just wanted to clear up that I'm not actually that witty, but I wish I were. :)

the quick list

What I'm inputting right now...

TV
Fringe, season 1 (on DVD)
Battlestar Galactica, season 3 (on DVD)
Angel, season 5 (on DVD)
Lost (you should hear the way I say this in my head...)
The Good Wife (sometimes)
Castle (most weeks)

movies
Avatar
Precious
The Blind Side
Best in Show
Coraline

books
The Late Bloomer's Revolution (Amy Cohen)
Blue Bloods series (Melissa de la Cruz)
Unveiled (Francine Rivers)
Size 10 Is Not Fat/Size 12 Is Not Fat Either/Big Boned (Meg Cabot)
Vampire Academy (Richelle Mead)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)
Great Than (Mark Tabb)
In the Woods (starting soon)

music
cds:
Mute Math
Paramore
Parachute
Casting Crowns
concerts:
VOTA
Stellar Kart
Barlow Girl
Remedy Drive
Run Kid Run
Family Force Five

Blogs/sites/social networking
Living the Swell Life
Rinse Repeat
Food for My Family
FB
Twitter
Lerner/Carolrhoda
Shelftalker
Publishers Weekly
Axe Cop

Thankful for Women's Rights

Went to Bible study tonight, at which one of my friends offered up her thanks for women's rights being what they are for our lifetimes. (Amen to that.) This immediately made me think of what I'm reading right now: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. A professor of mine recommended it, and so far I'm really enjoying it. It's crazy and intriguing...and totally different from the books I've been reading, which were...
Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot--enjoyable but took a little bit to get into it; I think Cabot overdoes the unique features for her main character by restating them too often.
Maisie Dobbs (various): The names of the individual books aren't coming to me, but this series by Jacqueline Winspeare has a very unique tone and a strong sense of place and time.
Splitting Harriet and Perfecting Kate by Tamara Leigh: these are well-written Christian chic lit with a wonderful look at how women of faith live it every day.
I also read Reconstructing Natalie by Laura Jensen Walker about a woman of approximately my age who fights breast cancer and finds herself. I enjoyed it (and found out a few things I didn't know) but sometimes it was too obvious what was going to happen down the road.

Late Nights

I'm a night person living in a daytime world. Or at least working a daytime job. Which means I have this pesky problem of staying up too late during vacations, which is why I'm typing this in the wee hours of the morning.

Anyway...

Keeping me busy these days is the television show Angel, which I'm thoroughly enjoying even though they can't ever let anything go well for more than 1/4 of an episode.

I'm also making my way through Battlestar Galactica. Great show; I hope I remember which disc to get when I go to the video store in the morning.

I also watched The Apartment today, which I thought was a pretty surprising premise for when the movie was made. And it came through my online subscription so I have no idea what possessed me to add it to my cue. It was very watchable though. Jack Lemmon in his younger years--still makes me think of Grumpy Old Men.

Also on the screen today was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. These later books are definitely helped in my mind by greater distance from the books. When I watched movie 5 (I think it was that one...) I couldn't help but compare everything, but this time, since I barely remembered what was happening, I couldn't pick it apart. Good thing! (This also helped New Moon, which I saw a little while ago.)

Also, I discovered an author I like recently: Tamara Leigh writes some great Christian chic lit. And Jen introduced me to Maisie Dobbs awhile ago, and I started up the series again. The series feels very realistic to me, which most of the time is great and sometimes frustrates me because it doesn't have as many happy endings :)

And the project of the moment is Christmas cards...more on that next time.

In the Waves

I've had lots of ups and downs recently...this buying a home thing is intense. Don't get me wrong, nothing has gone wrong. Just intense.

In the meantime, I've been reading and watching...and dressing up. Yep, I actually participated in Halloween this year, and I have the partially used can of fake blood to prove it. For the record, when you tell someone, without context, that you are going to be a "dead grandma" for Halloween, they look at you kinda strangely and then brush past the subject.

So the story goes that a few friends from work and I have recently (for the last few months actually) been quite enrapt in the world of Sookie Stackhouse. I read all the books, including the short stories last week--that last one was a strange one!, and my friends all read the books and watch True Blood on HBO, which is based on the books. So, we had the brilliant idea to dress up as the characters for Halloween. I was Sookie's poor, murdered grandmother Adele (hence the fake blood), EJ was Sookie, CG was "Foiled Hair" Eric, JG was "Vampy" Pam, JH was "Flapper" Lorena, DH was "Crispy" Bill, AG was Andy Bellefleur, B was Jason Stackhouse, J&N were Sam and Mary Ann. Sorry, you're going to have to bribe me for a picture...

Watch and Read

Had the chance to watch a few movies in the last few weeks.
Two weekends ago I watched The Secret Life of Bees. Pretty good. I started reading the book shortly afterward and it seems the movie followed the book closely.

Then a group of us had a girls' night and watched My Life in Ruins. Nothing new here, but entertaining enough and chock full of beautiful scenery...I think I need to start planning a trip to Greece.

This past weekend I watched Away We Go. Definitely one of the best movies I've seen recently. It felt really fresh. It was a perspective you don't often see in movies--two people actually in love figuring out life together.

And since I mentioned what I'm reading, I will mention that I'm also reading unChristian, which has been illuminating in a way. I don't agree with everything the book puts forth, but the authors make some excellent points. Finding the actions to go along with the new ways my mind views things will be the challenge.

Negligence

I've been very negligent. And now I will have to catch up, which will be even more time consuming than usual because my memory isn't that great (hence starting this blog) so I will have to retrace a few steps to figure out what has been entertaining me recently. Let's go for the current highlights and I will work my way back:

Music: Mat Kearney has a new album coming out in May. The single is awesome and I'm looking forward to the new record. Listen here.

TV: After watching very little TV for the last eight months or so, I have suddenly become much more engrossed again. Top picks are Lost (still) and Castle and The Unusuals (more on those at a later date.)

Books: I went on a self-imposed fiction fast for Lent, reading only news magazines, specifically Newsweek and Time. Some great articles and a lot of not so happy news. Sometimes you just have to say "ugh." I decided to reenter the world of fiction on Easter Monday with Wuthering Heights, a classic that I had not read. This doesn't really up the good news factor, but I'm almost done and the ending promises to have a glimmer. Next up is a book my uncle wrote about growing up in South Dakota in the 1930s and 1940s, It Takes Cow Chips to Make Dinner. Should be interesting.

Internet: I joined Twitter and am finding it fascinating. I haven't figured out all of the ins and outs yet, but let's just say the entertainment factor is make or break based on who you are following. JM is random and funny, which I find wildly entertaining. I also watched a video of a Charlie Rose interview with The Dave Matthews Band tonight. Charlie Rose is special. It's just him and a guest talking and yet his fascination and adept questioning just draw me in every time. Still, I don't manage to figure out when he is on normally...Finally, I discovered, when looking for info on new albums, that John Mayer is chronicling the writing of his forthcoming album on a newly-revamped sight. I love this kind of insider stuff. Creative people and the creative industries fascinate and entertain me, and I like to get inside their creative sphere...if you feel the same, check it out.

Movies: There has been more than this, but the most recent is Traitor. Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce are great actors and this movie was wonderfully layered and honest. Worth a second watch when I have more time to devote more attention. I also recently watched HSM3 with my roommates--another example of cheesy entertainment at its best. I preferred the first one I think, but this one had its moments too.

Output: I inherited (in a manor of speaking) a guitar. And now I want to learn how to play it. It is a goal for the coming year.

As a last gift, I bring you a link to hilarity that my roommate shared with me.

Stephanie Plum

My Janet Evanovich obsession is nearing its hiatus. I have one and a half of the between the numbers books left and then I have to wait with the rest of the world until she writes another one. That means I read all 14 books in the series plus 3 of the 4 extra ones in about 5 weeks. Yikes! These books are massively entertaining and I'm sure at some point I will re-read them all--maybe multiple times. They have a few minuses to them--beware if you dislike strong language or some sexual content--but the pluses, mostly the colorful characters, are very strong.

Janet E, Stephenie Meyer, and C.S. Lewis

I recently started reading (due to the encouragement of a friend) the Janet Evanovich series about Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter extraordinaire. These books are seriously addictive, as is evidenced by my being on book 7 after approximately 15 days of having them. Mostly they are just funny. She is inept; the men are gorgeous; the criminals are ready to shoot, maim, and slap. Overall, very entertaining.

Also on the hit list currently...Stephenie Meyer's tag on to the Twilight Series, Midnight Sun. It got leaked, she posted it so that people like me could read it without feeling guilty about it being out there without permission (gotta love that.) I only read one chapter (I read the saga about 6 weeks ago) but it is already fantastic...and this is without editing. She has yet to finish it, but with what I've read so far, even after reading the rest, I'm sure I will purchase this as a companion to the rest of the series. Fabulous!

I'm also reading The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis with a few friends. So far, it is hazy. It hasn't gotten discussion going yet, but I have great hopes for next week.