Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Freedom to Read | American Library Association

Currently

I saw this on my friend Jessica’s blog and thought it sounded like fun and I immediately wanted to play.

loving

Just like Jessica I’m currently loving something music related – Away From the World by Dave Matthews Band. This came out on the 11th and I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve listened to it since then. It is so good. These two songs are currently fighting it out to be my favorite:

If you watch college football you might recognize Rooftop; I know they were playing parts of it going into commercials during the Notre Dame/Michigan State game.

reading

I’m currently re-reading Eat Pray Love. Again. I pretty much read this once a year. I adore this book and when I’m in a reading funk or just can’t find something that interests me I put this out. Sadly the Italy section is my favorite (shocker) so I find myself losing interest during India and Indonesia this time.

I have decided that I’m going to finally face my fear and tackle IT as my scary read for the fall/Halloween season. It’s pretty big and I’ve been a slow reader lately so I’ll probably start it soon.

watching

I’m loving Go On. It was one of the few new shows I’m interested in this year and so far it isn’t disappointing. I hope it does well because I’ll be sad if it gets cancelled. I love Matthew Perry; Chandler was my favorite Friend and I really liked Fools Rush In when I was a kid (I was strange). I think he’s really great in this role and I love the supporting characters. If you haven’t watched it yet give it a try!

 Source

thinking about

November! We’re hosting Thanksgiving for the first time so I’ve already started planning and thinking about numerous things – do I have the right dishes? what sides should we make? where can I find more cute placemats? do we have enough chairs? what sweets should I make? etc. Thankfully Doug is just as excited/nervous about this as I am so he’s right there with me making tons of lists and excel charts… ok, only I make excel sheets.

Also, I think I’m doing NaNoWriMo again this year. I tried a couple of years ago and failed horribly. But a lot of m friends have been writing lately so I have a ton of support and I have a few ideas  floating around in my head. So I think I’m going for it.

Finally, November means my birthday. I’m not nearly as excited about birthdays as I used to be but my loved ones insist on acknowledging the day still ;P so what can I do? Originally I had told Doug that I wanted to go see DMB for my birthday. There was a rumor that they were going to be touring this fall and that they’d be very close to us a few weeks before my birthday. But now it seems that isn’t actually happening so I’m going to have to come up with something else. Oh, and Grux’s birthday is in November too, so we’ll have to celebrate that too.

anticipating

Putting out my fall decorations. A few houses in the ‘hood already have pumpkins, mums, scarecrows, etc out but my summer flowers are still hanging in there so it feels wrong to bust out the fall stuff yet. Plus I spent enough on those dang flowers I want to get my money’s worth.

wishing

For a change. I’m a little sick of the day to day thing I’ve got going on. I want a challenge, something that really requires me to use my brain. Some days I honestly think a monkey could do my job.

making me happy

My boys. Seriously, my husband and my dog are the best things to ever happen to me. My  husband can make me laugh no matter what’s going on. He’s totally my partner in crime. Last night I stumbled on the Rolling Stone list of the top 100 artists and was reading it to him and cracking up at some of the comments we were both making. And Grux is just as good at making me feel better. I came home at lunch the other day totally stressed out and on the verge of a breakdown and he just went nuts. Running all over the place, flinging his toys around, getting in to his “I’m going to get you” crouch and then giving me this big goofy grin with his tongue hanging out. All I could do was stand in the kitchen doorway and try not to fall over from laughing so hard. So, yeah, my guys make me happy.

Also, my book club girls. Someone stumbled on to yet another fanfic that was made into a book and how much the author made so I announced that I was going to start writing fanfic (no, not really). Well, this lead to a bunch of us tweeting fake fanfic relating to a certain vampire series. In the confines of a tweet no less. I was cracking up so hard. It was fantastic. I adore my friends.

Have a great weekend!

Book Review–Let’s Pretend This Never Happened

 

From Goodreads:

For fans of Tina Fey and David Sedaris-Internet star Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, makes her literary debut.
When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father (a professional taxidermist who created dead-animal hand puppets) and a childhood of wearing winter shoes made out of used bread sacks. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it.
Lawson's long-suffering husband and sweet daughter are the perfect comedic foils to her absurdities, and help her to uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments-the ones we want to pretend never happened-are the very same moments that make us the people we are today.
Let's Pretend This Never Happened is a poignantly disturbing, yet darkly hysterical tome for every intellectual misfit who thought they were the only ones to think the things that Lawson dares to say out loud. Like laughing at a funeral, this book is both irreverent and impossible to hold back once you get started.

My Thoughts:

I have to admit something: I had never read Lawson’s blog before I read this book. I’d heard of the blog and knew of some stories from other blogs and Twitter but I’d never actually checked out the blog. I now realize this was a horrible mistake and am working to correct this.

This book, much like Lawson’s blog, is amazing. I laughed; I came close to crying; I decided I wanted to be bff’s with Lawson. This book had me cracking up multiple times. I even read “the funny parts” to Doug, which means I read him almost the entire book. The only parts that aren’t funny aren’t really supposed to be funny.

Lawson touches on some mental health issues, health issues, and a few other no-so-funny issues (I don’t want to give anything away) but yet she’s able to come right back and be funny again – usually in the same paragraph.

I was able to relate a lot to Lawson, especially when she talked about not being popular and learning to embrace her weirdness. Topics I definitely have dealt with. But she did it with such humor and there was definitely a feeling of laughing with her and not at her.

This is definitely in the top 5 as far as books I’ve read this year and up there on the best books I’ve read, period. Doug has really enjoyed the parts I’ve read to him and has been cracking up right along with me. I definitely recommend this book – and Lawson’s blog! Just be careful that your tears of laughter don’t get on your e-reader.

Image from Goodreads

In the Mail: Target Beauty Bag

 

So the summer Target Beauty Bag came the other day and I have to say that is a great way to cheer up a rather crappy day. Cute beauty products for free? Yes please!

This is my second ever beauty bag as I did get the spring one a couple months ago. I loved that one too.

I’ve seen posts about these bags on Facebook and some blogs and I’ve seen people asking about what is in them so I thought I would show you all what was in the bag I got.

 

The bag is a cute blue printed bag. I’m not sure what it is made of but it is more of a linen feel.

At the top is a booklet of Target coupons for beauty products. Then the samples are:

Aveeno Living Color Color Preserving Shampoo and Conditioner

Garnier Fructis Color Shield Shampoo and Condition

Revlon Color Burst Lip Butter in Peach Parfait

TRESemme Split Remedy Shampoo (black bottle)

Neutrogena UltraSheer Dry Touch Sunblock in SPF 70

 

I don’t have colored hair so I may give those samples to my mom or mother in law but I’m really excited to try the Split Remedy Shampoo. I’m also really excited to try the lip butter because I’ve heard really good things about that product. And the sunblock will definitely get used because I got a horrible sunburn in Milwaukee a couple weeks ago and definitely got a reminder about the importance of sunblock.

So did anyone else get a beauty bag? Anyone planning to try to get the fall one if there is one? I know I will!

Happy Earth Day 2012!

 

Happy Earth Day all! Anyone doing anything special today? I’m staying home (no running my car) and trying to use as little energy as possible. Sadly it isn’t warm enough to take advantage of my clothes line but I am using my dryer balls to try to make my clothes dryer more efficient.

If you missed them here are links to my Earth Day posts from last year.

Earth Day Tips

Earth Day Books

Earth Day Resources

ABC

I found this little ABC quiz on Really Renata and thought it was cute.

Age: 26, blech

Bedsize: Queen.

Chores that you hate: Dusting

Dogs: Grux – Jack Russell

Essential start to your day: Contact lenses – seeing is helpful

Favorite color: Red

Gold or Silver: Silver.

Height: 5 feet. 6 inches

Instruments you play: Clarinet and tenor saxophone

Job title: e-advocate

Kids: Just Grux

Live: Illinois

Mother's Name: Connie

Nicknames: Kay, KayKay, kiki

Overnight hospital stays: None. Knock on wood

Pet peeves: Busy work, people who run red lights

Quote from a movie or tv show: "When I was growing up, I knew I was different. The other girls were blonde and delicate, and I was a swarthy six-year-old with sideburns.” (My Big Fat Greek Wedding)

Right or Lefty: Righty.

Siblings: None

Time you wake up: 4:40 on weekdays, 8 ish on weekends

Underwear: um, yes please

Vegetable you hate: Celery. ick

What makes you run late: Twitter, lol

X-Rays You've Had: collar bone, elbow, ankle (probably 3 times at least), knee, lungs, stomach/intestines, teeth

Yummy food you make: chicken enchiladas, lasagna

Zoo Animal: Penguins

Saturday Six 4/7/12

Sorry for the radio silence lately. Life exploded (crazy work schedule, trip to Indy, my grandma passed away, and we both got a nasty stomach bug) and then I hit a bit of a rut (a book rut, writing rut, blogging rut, life rut). But life is settling back down (again) so how about a Saturday Six to get back in the blogging swing of things?

1. Allergies. I have them. And hate them. I actually had to call in this week because I felt so bad I thought my head was going to explode. Not a fun way to feel.

2. Spiders. I have them too. For some reason we’ve had a ton of these little quarter sized off-white/tan colored spiders. Doug sprayed around the house but we’ve still seen a few. I actually went to pull out a measuring cup to make Easter dessert earlier and there was one in the cup!! Ahhhhh!! Not cool.

3. So my favorite rock star – Stefan Lessard from Dave Matthews Band. Has started following some of his fans on Twitter. I got followed today. I am a happy girl!

4. We decided this week that we are going to go to an IndyCar race this summer. I cannot wait. We went to an IndyCar fan thing in February and I got to meet a few of my favorite drivers and had so much fun. There is such a great group of fans for this sport and I love being part of it.

5. On that note – I’m not going to get to see DMB in concert this summer. I am bummed. Doug can only request time off so far out and by the time he was able to request and it was approved there were only single seat tickets left. We prefer seats over lawn (Doug’s not a big lawn fan) so we decided to go with the race instead. I’m excited about the race but kind of bummed about the concert. However I am still keeping an eye out for any ticket giveaways

6. I’m in a major book rut. The last few things I’ve read have actually been Jen Lancaster books – which I’ve already read. I have quite a few books I’ve never read on my shelves but nothing is jumping out at me. I’ve written down a few titles that my book blogging friends have mentioned lately so I may look into those. I’m ready to get lost in a good book again.