“There is a very old and beat up white armored truck that has been parked outside my house all morning,”* and I suspect an organization with three letters in its name is keeping an eye on my next door neighbors. For three weeks now they have mowed their yard at noon every day without regard to July’s heat and humidity. This, along with my observation that they never exit their cars without first closing the garage doors behind them, makes me wonder if they’re watching their backs.
Continue Reading July 25th, 2008
I took five minutes of my Thursday afternoon to retrieve the office mail from the post office, and on my return, I observed two forklifts driving down the road. I’d like to thank the employees at 68 Lumber for demonstrating the versatility of this equipment, for I am now considering it as my next mode of transportation. I don’t think anything can beat the ability to pick up slow-moving cars that are in one’s way. And they’re a lot like convertibles. And they come in orange.
July 17th, 2008
For most of my life, I have journaled using the journals given to me on birthdays and at Christmas, and until recently, I was fine going to Barnes & Noble every 6-9 months and picking out a new journal that fit my personality. My journals have been spiral bound and saddle-stitched. They have been large and small. They have been lined and unlined. They have been flowery and retro.
But something inside me was wholly unsatisfied with the pile of journals I was accumulating. They didn’t sit pretty. Standing beside one another on a bookshelf they looked like misfits—unmatched and tacky.
Continue Reading May 13th, 2008
I realize that yesterday was Mother’s Day, but it occurred to me that a few other women have made pretty big impacts on my life, and I thought I might share with you some of my favorite memories from my Grandma Helen, Grandma Irene, and Aunt Kathy.
Continue Reading May 12th, 2008
It’s Mother’s Day, and because I am horrible at buying cards (there are too many choices and they never say just the right thing), I have made a list of reasons why I love my Mom:
Continue Reading May 11th, 2008
In anticipation of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls , Chris and I hosted an Awesome Movie Fun Club meeting on Friday to watch Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark . Yea! And you can’t have an AMFC meeting at the Awesome household without a fun treat. This time around we had snake snacks ! (Thanks, Linden , for finding this great idea!)
OK, so the picture on the actual Rice Krispies site is much better, but my snakes (as you can see on the left) were pretty cool. I made blue frosting eyes, fruit roll-up tongues, and rainbow Nerd spots. If you make them on your own, I recommend spraying your hands down with Pam before rolling the mixture into snakes. And if make them again, I’m going to mix the Nerds into the Rice Krispie mix instead of rolling the snakes in the Nerds. They were a hit! Tune in next week to see what we serve with the Temple of Doom!
May 4th, 2008
My second guest-blogging entry at Search Engine Journal was published today! If you’re a web developer or blogger, you shouldn’t miss my “101 Ways to Publicize Your Web Site.” Some of my suggestions are cheap, and some are expensive. Some are serious, and some are fun. Some are obvious, and some will blow your mind!
And if you’re a reader, friend, or family member, I’d really appreciate your support on the World Wide Web: Diggs, Mixxes, Reddits, Stumbles, Tweets, and Facebook love are all appreciated! So are comments and bookmarks! If I win, I get over $10,000 in various prizes! W00t!
May 1st, 2008
I am a bibliophile. I’m not sure how I contracted the book-hoarding bug, but I’ve had it ever since I bought and read my first “chapter book” in second grade. That’s when I started buying every book I could get my hands on; I pilfered through my dad’s spare change at the end of every week, so I would have enough money for the next book order or book fair.
I am also a compulsive reader. I cannot not read. And I know that I owe many of my “smarts” to all the reading I’ve done over the years. I read absolutely everything (cereal boxes, signs, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, books) and retain much of what I read, including stuff from those essays on the ACT! What’s that all about?! Often I’ll find myself in a conversation, and some random fact will pop out of my mouth, and I’ll think to myself, “Where did that come from? I know I read it somewhere, but where?” However I got to be this way, I don’t really care. I love that I am a reader!
My fetishes have evolved since elementary school, and here’s a look at them over the years:
Sarah’s Card Catalog. At some point in school, I learned about the magic of card catalogs, and because my own library of books was growing, I created my own filing system. Every book had a unique number and an index card with its bibliographic information. I encouraged my family and friends to borrow books from Sarah’s Library. (Isn’t amazing that at even such a young age my love for office supplies and need to organize presented themselves?)
Jenny—The Other Bibliophile. In fourth grade, I met my best friend Jenny. She’s a bibliophile, too, and she had her own library, a sign that we are kindred spirits (bonus points if you know what book I’m referencing). We often borrowed books from one another, and we formed a book club at one point. We still recommend books to one another today, and I think she has me beat in the sheer number of books read ever.
First Bookshelves. When my parents built their current house—my childhood home—, they let me choose my bedroom because I was the oldest kid; I could have the bedroom with three windows or I could have the bedroom with two windows and a window seat. The window seat didn’t come until I was in junior high, but it was lovely once it was installed. Flanking both sides of the bench under my window were floor to ceiling shelves and storage, and I filled them with books, which were of course reorganized biannually.
Future Bookshelves. I still dream in bookshelves. I’ve visited the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina a handful of times, and the library in that house makes me yearn for one of my own. It has two levels, rolling ladders, a spiral staircase, and a passageway behind the chimney. And remember the scene in Beauty and the Beast when Beast gives Belle his library? Remember all those books? Oh, be still my heart! And please don’t let me look at a Levenger catalog; the temptation to lust is just too great. One day, Chris and I will be independently wealthy, and we can have a room just for our books. It will be marvelous.
Literature Classes. For my writing degrees, I had to take a few literature classes to round out my studies, and I loved all of them. My first was a survey of American literature before 1965, my second was a study of Toni Morrison and William Faulkner, and my last was a study of Edith Wharton. The Wharton summer class was one of my favorite classes of all time because I read excellent books all summer! If you have not read the House of Mirth, I beg you to do so immediately!
Barnes & Noble. I do not know how I grew up in a town without Barnes & Noble, but from here on out, I will live within BN driving distance. I don’t always have a lot of money to spend on books (thankfully, my family knows that BN gift cards are always gladly accepted), but when Chris and I are on a date or out putzing around, we almost always end up here. There’s just something about browsing all those titles that I love—maybe it’s the possibility that my next favorite book is waiting in one of those aisles.
Harry Potter. I cannot write a post about reading without mentioning Harry Potter. I love those books because they are wonderful, because they got my husband reading, and because I can connect with so many others because of those books. They tormented me night and day as I waited for book seven to come out last summer! In my book (pun intended), they’re up there with Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie, and Indian in the Cupboard.
Currently Reading. I got so many books for Christmas: Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens, Mary Shelley, Jane Austen! My hubby is uber smart, and I dropped lots of hints that I wanted some classics on my bookshelves. I don’t know how I made it through my childhood without reading Mark Twain, so to make up for lost time, I read Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, and Pudd’nhead Wilson last fall, and now I’m working my way through my collection of Charles Dickens (I just started Oliver Twist). And I have so many more to read! That’s what I love about reading—it never ends!
I’m not sure how one becomes a bibliophile or a reader (there is a difference, but I happen to be both), and I’m certainly not sure how I became obsessive and compulsive regarding either, but I am so glad those characteristics define parts of me. I am absolutely certain that had I not been a reader, I never would have become a writer. What about you? Are you a reader? Any recommendations for me?
April 24th, 2008
I’ve been tagged yet again. (Thanks, Sarah!) This time I’m supposed to share seven random things about myself.
- I hate monkeys, especially chimps and gorillas. It’s not that they scare me, so much, but I just hate them. It’s completely irrational.
- I have had horrific acne since I was a teenager, and I have a zit-popping point system. I understand that I am disgusting, but when you spend so much time in front of the mirror, you have to figure out some way to pass the time. Thankfully, the acne is sort of phasing itself out, but I have a feeling that I’ll deal with it my entire life.
- I talk for my cats. That’s right, for my cats, not to my cats. When they “speak,” I use a specific voice (each cat has a different intonation). I have always done this with my pets, and I didn’t know it was weird until Chris and I got Ravi. My best friend Jenny had to explain to him that it was totally normal, and now Chris talks for the cats, too. It’s pretty funny.
- I don’t let Chris fold clean towels because I have a very specific way I like the towels to be folded, and it’s much easier to fold the towels myself than it is to teach Chris every time we do laundry. My mother is to blame for this because she was adament about how all the towels in her house were folded; if I folded the towels incorrectly, she made me redo them!
- I also don’t let Chris load the dishwasher. And again, my mother is to blame for this. I must absolutely cram as many dishes as humanly possible into the dishwasher before I run it. I sort of turn loading the dishwasher into a weird game of Tetris to get it all to fit. And this week, I was talking to my brother on the phone, and he has the same weird obsession about the dishwasher!
- I can’t eat potluck. I think I’ve watched too many 20/20 specials about food poisoning from food that sits out, and I also don’t like eating food that doesn’t match. Seriously, who can eat lukewarm lasagna and fried chicken in the same sitting? It’s just gross.
- I love a good chick flick/Disney movie. I’m a sappy little girl, and I love watching movies like That Thing You Do, The Princess Diaries, The Cutting Edge, and The Holiday.
That’s the randomness about me. Any questions?
April 23rd, 2008
