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December 31 Best of 2007As a great reader of books (242 this past year-I counted), I've compiled a list of the best books I've read this year. Note that these are books I have read during the calendar year, but they weren't necessarily published in 2007.
Sharp Objects- Gillian Flynn
The Thirteenth Tale- Diane Setterfield
Water for Elephants- Sara Gruen
We Need to Talk about Kevin- Lionel Shriver
The Kite Runner- Khaled Hasseini
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince- JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- JK Rowling
The Abstinence Teacher- Tom Perrotta
The Redemption of Althalus- David and Leigh Eddings
The Stolen Child- Keith Donohue
Special Topics in Calamity Physics- Marisha Pessl
Saturday- Ian McEwan
Family and Other Accidents- Shari Goldhagen
The Children of Men- PD James
Can't Wait to Get to Heaven- Fannie Flagg
The Last Time They Met- Anita Shreve
Local Girls- Alice Hoffman
Skylight Confessions- Alice Hoffman
Practical Magic- Alice Hoffman
Eleanor Rigby- Douglas Copeland
Heart-Shaped Box- Joe Hill
Rant- Chuck Palahniuk
Promise Not to Tell- Jennifer McMahon
The End of Faith- Sam Harris
The Declaration- Gemma Malley
On Chesil Beach- Ian McEwan
Peony in Love- Lisa See
The Historian- Elizabeth Kostova
Truth and Beauty- Ann Patchett
Feel free to disagree with me-or better yet, give me book suggestions. I'm always looking something new to read. November 15 Officially FallIt is truly and officially fall-at least on the Zoe calendar.
I've finally got everyone switched over from spring/summer clothes to fall/winter ones. In the process, I found about a dozen single gloves. It's not like the dryer is eating them-does the closet snack on them and then produce a hoard of wire hangers?
Spotted the constellation Orion for the first time yesterday. It's almost like getting a letter from a long lost friend.
I've given up my sandals and open-toed pumps for Frye boots.
Still waiting for the first official scraping-of-the-windows-after-a-shitty-night-shift- I know it's around the corner, but this is the one time global warming might not be such a bad thing.
I made a bowl of Coco-Wheats for breakfast the other day, and I'm stocking up on instant oatmeal/raisin packs. I may be too lazy to cook myself up a genuine hot breakfast, but I can nuke water for instant cereal. November 05 Too Much TogethernessThey say "absence makes the heart grow fonder." That may be true, but they also say "familiarity breeds contempt." That one I know to be true.
Since my husband's accident, he's been home all the time. The only respite I get are work and when he goes on his daily walks. Every time I turn around, he's hovering over my shoulder.
He hates to do anything on his own- he can't seem to do anything without recruiting some kind of company. He won't even go to see a movie that he really wants to see if he has to go by himself. Me- I've been to so many movies on my own that I've forgotten what it's like to whisper to the person sitting next to me.
He needs to cling. I need space. This seems like a disaster waiting to happen.
The best pre-husband boyfriend I ever had was a laid back medical student we'll call Daniel. When he went away on a spring break vacation with his friends, I didn't miss him or obscess over him. He bought me earrings while he was away. We picked up where we left off, dropping in and out of each other's lives. We got together when we could, and didn't get upset when the other had other plans. It was the most stress-free relationship I've ever been in.
The only unfortunate thing was that neither of us told each other how we really felt about our being a couple-was this something we could carry on indefinitely or was it just a short-term relationship? I loved him for being Daniel, but I never told him that.
Because neither one of us had told the other that we had penciled each other into our future lives, I drifted away. That was that-one day we were together and the next we were apart. We never talked about it or argued over it. It was what it was and we both accepted that.
And then I fucked up-literally. With my 20/20 hindsight, I think I would have drifted back to him if I hadn't accidently gotten pregnant by the now-husband. He came to my wedding reception, and I hugged and kissed him for the last time. Less than a year later, he was engaged to someone he met after I had gotten married. I wonder if that was true love or just a rebound.
Now that my familiarity with my husband is breeding contempt, is Daniel's absence making my heart fonder for him? Can't turn back time-although right now, I wish I could. November 02 A very strange happy birthdayToday I remembered something-today is the birthday of my new boobs.
It seems hard to believe that it's been an entire year since I've had my breast augmentation, but I only have good things to say about the experience. I was very fortunate in my selection of a plastic surgeon-he did an awesome job, and I would recommend him without reservation. I know where to look, and even I have a hard time finding my surgical scars.
The surgery has given me a new confidence in my looks and has really boosted my self esteem- I should have done this years ago! (But then again, years ago, I was even poorer than I am today-I wouldn't have been able to afford high quality boobs.)
So, happy birthday, Boobs! May all your birthdays be this good. October 12 Life SoundtracksIf you could put a soundtrack to your life, what would you choose?
Here are a few that I would have on mine:
Romantic Symphony- Howard Hanson
The Planets- Gustav Holst
Peter and the Wolf- Sergei Prokofiev (I'm an oboe player-what do you expect?)
Venus and Mars (reprise)- Paul McCartney
This is the Day- the The
Water Music- Handel
Sewn- the Feeling
Come Home to the Sea- Mannheim Steamroller
Day By Day- Julian Lennon
Tainted Love- Soft Cell September 29 World's Cutest NieceI have finally met my newest niece-it only took me 11 months!
Of course, she is adorable. And she took to me like a duck to water-it was like she knew who I was. I must have smelled right or something. Mom told me that she's usually wary of strangers, but the two of us got on like a house of fire (which means I fetched her binky off the floor every time she threw it down).
It was tough to give her back after only an hour or so with her. I've learned that I've got to make the most with my time. September 28 Summer VacationI lead such a pathetic life- here it is the end of September, and I've just gotten to take my summer vacation.
I'm not sure that sitting for eight hours a day and listening to lectures actually constitutes a vacation, but I am out of the stifling house, I'm sleeping in a very soft bed with down pillows and I haven't had to cook for the past week. I haven't got much sleep either, but this is beside the point.
Only one more day of the conference-and then life will go back to normal- work, work and tedious boredom.
To the state of Florida- you've got some mighty cute doctors, but does your SFU team always have to beat my beloved Mountaineers? September 04 Mother-in-Law on BoardMy mother-in-law has been visiting for the past two weeks-needless to say, I'm so glad my doctor upped my dose of Lexapro.
My husband was hurt in an accident (don't worry, nothing serious or permanently disabling) and he's not allowed to do any lifting, so he asked his mother to come stay with us during his initial stage of recovery.
With his mother around, my husband has dissolved into a son-helplessness. He hasn't driven a car yet (which he has been allowed to do since day one as long as he wasn't taking any narcotics), or done much of anything else except for micromanaging the checkbook and going on walks with his mum.
I will say one thing- at least she does housework. I haven't done many dishes or made many dinners since she arrived, and she even washed the kids' clothes. When she leaves, all the housework will fall back on me-again. Well, at least I'm used to it.
I've managed to make a small dent in my book stack-my husband and MIL are busy keeping each other company so I'm totally ignored and I can read my books in peace. (Can't watch my movies, though, because they talk loudly and walk in front of the TV during the good bits.) August 26 I Can't Believe I'm Saying This.....I can't believe I'm saying this, but......
I think I have too many books.
Let me amend that-I have too many books that need to be read. Somehow, I've accumulated books faster than I can read them. I have four stacks on my little endtable to be read-four stacks that are each three feet tall and threatening to topple over at any second. (Thank goodness that the cats haven't tried to climb Mt. St. Bookins.) And then there are the books on the dining room table-if I put them all together, they would probably make another three foot stack. (We won't mention the pile on the laundry room toilet tank or the stack I bring home from the library every week.)
I need about three weeks of uninterrupted time to seriously make a dent in my stacks. I do have a conference to go to next month-I'll need at least two feet of books just for the airports alone. (Only bad thing about books is the weight-I've got little bird arms that can't manage heavy loads for long periods of time.)
Why can't I kick the habit? How come I can't go into a library and not bring home a stack of books? I should show some self control, but it just seems wrong to go to a library and NOT bring home at least one book. ( I feel the same way about book stores......)
August 19 Hospital PornThe bane of many hospital employees existance is the ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Saving) class. Every two years you have to retake the class to keep your certification current.
After the seventh or eighth time (in my case, the third or fourth time) you take the class, it becomes a kind of cerebral anesthetic. As I use ACLS all the time with my job, the classes can be agonizing. ( I just took the class! My two years can't be up already! Say it isn't so!) Thankfully (I guess), the experienced provider can update using a computer program, which is what I did last week.
It was an experience.
Part of the exam is proving that you can provide efficient chest compressions, and there is a CPR manequin (sp) attached to the computer.
So there I am, performing chest compressions on Chester (I'm calling it Chester as I can't remember how to spell manequin), and all you can hear in the room is a rhythmic thump-thump-thump. It reminds me of my noggin hitting the headboard......
If the thump-thump-thump wasn't enough, it turned out that Chester talked to me-giving me little tips to improve my performance. "Push harder!" Chester said. "Push faster!" "That's right!"
"Good!" "Push deeper!" I thought I was in a porno film-all I would have needed was the waan-waah boom chicka music playing in the background.
After passing my exam, I had the strangest urge to go out and smoke a cigarette...... August 10 Wish I Had Written ThisFirst- a disclaimer. I did NOT write this-but I wish I had. When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning ... uphill BOTH ways ..yadda, yadda, yadda And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it! But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it but you kids today you don't know how good you've got it! I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!! There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter ...with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there! There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to go to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it! And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister! We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600 With games like "Space Invaders" and "Asteroids" and the graphics sucked a**! Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE! When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you were just screwed! Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no onscreen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards! And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove or go build a frigging fire ... imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot. That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980! Regards, The over 30 Crowd August 08 Short Thought for the DayNever read Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" during a heat wave. It's like reading Thomas Hardy to cheer yourself up after a suicide attempt. August 06 Things You Learn Too LateOwning pets and painting the basement should be mutally exclusive. I haven't decided which animal creates more havoc, the dog or the cat.
The dogs like to race around the house and try to slam into the ladder. The cats like to climb up the ladder and bat at the paint roller pan.
The dogs like to lie down in the spot where you want to place your ladder. The cats like to lie down in the spot where you want to place your feet.
A dog isn't happy unless he's thumping his tail against a freshly painted wall. The cat with the furriest feet likes to trod in the roller pan and leave bright yellow footprints on the bathroom vanity.
Close the basement door and the animals will practically knock the door down to get into the basement. It's a lose-lose situation. August 03 Journal MusingsOccasionally, I go back and read old journal entries. Sometimes, I find that I've written something almost semi-good.
From March 2006
There comes a time when we all must ask ourselves-who am I? And what happens when we don't know the answer to that question? What becomes of us then?
Do we float about in the limbo of the living, waiting for divine intervention- or do we play God and try to create something out of the dust that we are? And what if we have not the talent to create, to sculpt, to mold? Shall we forever be condemned to be a shapeless lump of clay?
Who am I? Who am I really?
All I know is that this is not it- I am not the person I want to be. I've been left no instruction manual, no blueprint- I'm making this up as I go along.
August 2007
Nothing's really changed. Still don't know how to get to where-to who- I want to be. I guess that's the beauty of this universe-some things never change. July 31 Observations on a Life with CatsThere are times when I feel like I'm living in a cathedral. I'll look up, and looming overhead is a cat staring at me from her perch. The only difference between my cats and gargoyles is that my cats occasionally blink.
My cats believe in a rigid time schedule. If the small cat is not fed within five minutes of my dragging myself out of bed, she will bite at my ankles until I feel compelled to feed her. Due to her razor sharp little teeth, I make feeding her my number one priority in the morning.
The more interesting the book, the more my cat feels the need to stretch out on my lap and be loved. With the large cat, loving her means your complete, undivided attention for as long as she deems necessary. As she is a large, extremely fluffy cat, she can completely obstruct a book as big as a church altar bible. Sometimes she lies down directly on the book, and takes it as a personal insult when she is removed from said book. The big cat will then take a page out of the small cat's manual and bite me on the ankle.
The cats believe that the dogs are annoyances who should be left outside for as long as possible. At least the cats and I agree on something.
The small cat and the psycho dog (do they make Prozac for dogs?) are alike in their mistaken delusion that all food in the house belongs to them. They have agreed on a division of labor-the psycho dog gets anything that comes close to the floor and the small cat gets whatever is on the countertop and stove. Needless to say, a ham sandwich is safe nowhere in my house.
The cats tend to nap in places that cannot be described as comfortable. As I am writing this, one cat is sleeping on top of the rolltop desk and the other is stretched out on the junk mail-littered dining room table. Other favorite napping places include a tiled window ledge, the seat of a wooden chair and a box full of mailing envelopes and packing tape. The dogs, however, prefer the couches and my bed. July 22 Hurray for JKR!JK Rowling has done it again-literary cuisine disguised as a kiddie meal.
Some may dismiss Harry Potter as just a children's book, but JKR packs more literary punch than most adult books (especially those on Oprah's book club) {If you haven't guessed, I'm not a big fan of Oprah's choices-I've only liked 3 books she recommended- "Drowning Ruth", "Anna Karenina" and "The Road."}
It's difficult to blog about this book without giving it away, so I'll stay away from plot points. I liked how small details from previous books turned out to be very important in later ones. I'm particularly pleased that I was about 85% correct on my predictions on book 7- I got who RAB was, which student ends up as a professor at Hogwarts and why Dumbledore was so sure why Snape was loyal to the Order-among others. Where I erred was who was going to die. JKR killed off a few people I wanted to live and some I hadn't even considered as targets. What I want to know is who was the character who was spared? (And was Crookshanks once the Potters' cat? I'll have to read it closer the second time around-maybe I'll find the answer to that one.)
And yes, I stayed up most of the night reading the book. Got home at 12:30 AM, finished around 5:15 AM and was rudely awakened by my daughter at 7:00 AM-she needed me to drive her to band camp. (Seeing as she's only 13 years old, I'll forgive her for not driving herself.)
Time to stop blogging and get back to reading-I'm rotating through 6 books right now, and I'd like to finish off at least two of them tonight. July 19 CountdownOnly 24 more hours until I have "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is in my hot little hands. (Okay, so it's more like 24.5 hours, depending on how long the lines are at Hastings at midnight)
I plan on putting the kids to bed as soon as we return home (they like dressing up in their Hogwarts robes and playing the games at the release party), kick the cats off the couch, pour myself a very large glass of diet Pepsi, set the i-Pod for random play, and read until the crack of dawn. By the time the kids wake up for breakfast, I should have the book finished, and be ready to start a more leisurely second reading.
I am a very fast reader. I polished off Book 6 in about 5 hours (including bathroom breaks and one mini cat nap). My speed depends upon how dense the writing is. James Patterson-2 hours tops. Tami Hoag or Lisa Gardner-3 hours. "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" however, took three days of fairly solid reading. ( I tend to like dense books, ones where you have to pay attention to every sentence.) JK Rowling's books take some time-there's always more than meets the eye- I have to pay close attention to details, so I can't breeze through the book.
And no, I am not planning on reading the ending first. I don't do that. That would be cheating. I want the story to unfold, however, I will admit that the temptation to peek at the ending will be strong with this book, but I do have some will power.
And now for something completely different- I just came across this saying. I think it's wickedly clever.
" Some people are like the slinky toy. They have no apparent use, yet they can bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs." July 12 Famous CatWent to see "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and discovered that I'm living with a celebrity look-alike.
Yes, it's true. My cat looks exactly like Mrs. Norris (acts like her too). Unfortunately, there are many mornings when I look exactly like Filch......
July 09 Bizarre Mating RitualsI read that there were 38,000 weddings planned for 7-7-07. I managed to go to two of them.
The first one was a Catholic wedding. Being a Methodist, this was a whole new experience to me. Personally, I was a bit surprised that I didn't get smote by a bolt of lightning when I entered the church. The atonal chanting got to me, the Lord's Prayer is a bit longer in the Methodist version (yes, I kept going when everyone else stopped), and I was a bit miffed that I couldn't participate in communion.
It seemed like the whole upshot of the wedding was "Go out and get knocked up-NOW!" and the bride and groom didn't kiss until they were half-way down the aisle, and this was mostly due to the promptings of the non-Catholics in the crowd-those of us who didn't use the kneelers. (Tripping over the kneeler apparently doesn't count.)
I was a bit weirded out by all the statues and the stations of the cross, but I did like how colorful the sanctuary was, even though I like the stained glass windows better at the Methodist church.
The second wedding was at a nondenominational church. The super cushy chairs were a great improvement over the wooden pews, but it seemed odd not to have a well-defined center aisle. Again, I was a bit surprised when I didn't get struck by lightning when I entered a church for the second time in one day. (My church attendance has been spotty at best since I've left my parents' home- I like the Christmas eve candlelight service-that's the only one I make an effort to go to.)
This minister told bad jokes, read patronizing scriptures, but had a smile on his face the entire time. The decor was basic real estate agent-all beige and ecru and a bright red cross. No scary statues, but no windows in the sanctuary-stained glass or otherwise-that was a bit depressing.
Only went to one reception-the one where I knew that there would be large amounts of alcohol served. The entire male portion of the wedding party had been drinking since 11 AM, so that made for some interesting dancing as well as speeches. It's a good thing those tuxes were rentals, because by the end of the reception, the best man was wearing more alcohol than he was consuming. Still, it was quite amusing to watch him perform the chicken dance, the Flying Dutchman and the hokey-pokey. (All these dances were banned at my own wedding reception- I was the dance Nazi.)
Folks out here don't dress up much for weddings. Where I'm from, if you're female and wearing pants, you are woefully underdressed. I bought a dress for the weddings, a cute black, lacey affair, but I looked like such a cow in it, I decided to wear something else. My daughter suggested an outfit I had worn earlier in the week-a pair of wide legged black pants and a fancy tube top. Sorry, but I just can't wear a tube top to a wedding (although, if I had, I wouldn't have been alone....) so I decided to throw on a black and pink camisole top which showed off the new boobs nicely without being obscene.
I was way overdressed. I am so glad I looked fat in the dress.
At both weddings there was a mix. Summer dresses and capris. Jeans and John Deere ballcaps. Shorts and knit tops. Cartoon teeshirts and the occasional tie. It was like a huge episode of "What Not to Wear" .
One word of advice-try not to be the last one to get to the reception, otherwise, your M&M favor will be used to extinguish a table candle, and you'll spend the rest of the night picking wax off the M&M's. July 06 Augmentation UpdateIt's been over six months since I've had the surgery, and I am still glad I had it done. I've surprised several people when I tell them that I had surgery done. I think I look pretty much the same, only I don't have to wear a padded bra to get the same effect.
My plastic surgeon did such a great job. I can't even see my scars-and I know where to look. Hooray for board-certified plastic surgeons! |
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