Lawyer friends.

Calling my friend Shortstuff:  
 
Me:  Hey girl!

Shortstuff:  Hey Bee!  I was just thinking about you.

Me:  Awww, that's sweet. 

Shortstuff:  Yeah, I'm getting the paperwork together to write up your will and your durable power of attorney forms in case of a health emergency.  So really I was just thinking about you in a coma or dead.

Me:  ...

Shortstuff:  Sorry, was that creepy?

Books I Read in cough cough cough

Here's the list of books I read in coughcoughcoughavoideyecontact August.  Yeah, give me a break, I know it's already almost October. Better late than never, I always say.

Unless we're talking about an annual swarm of killer bees.  Then I say better never than ever.

I have a platitude for every occasion. 

1.  Rat by Fernada Eberstadt

 

While not wildly intricate or complex, this story about a 15 year old French girl is nevertheless well-written with interesting characters and story plot.  When "Rat" finds out that her adopted brother is being molested by her mom's boyfriend and her mother doesn't believe them, she and her brother set off to England to find Rat's biological father.  I wish this novel was almost 100 pages longer, as the author occasionally changed character perspective, and I feel as if she could have done that more often and given the story a bit of fleshing out.


2. Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson

 

By the same author of "Gods In Alabama", this novel is similar in the heavily southern story line and quirky set of characters.  Told in the first person by Nonny Frett, this book is about the ties of family, both the ones you were born into and the ones you create for yourself.  I'd definitely recommend this novel to people who enjoy  the "quirky and realistic" genre like authors Billie Letts and Joanne Mapson, and I'd love to read more books by this author. 


3. House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones

 

 A sequel to Howl's Moving Castle-- so don't just start with this one (Howl's Moving Castle was actually made into a fairly decent anime film by Miyazaki of Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke fame if you're into that sort of thing).  Young adult fantasy fiction, not quite as good as the first but still fun.


4. The Perfect Poison (Arcane Society) by Amanda Quick

 

 Amanda Quick is the pseudonym for romance author Jayne Anne Krentz when she writes (and I use this word incredibly loosely) "historical" romances.  It's a junk food book:  comforting, you know exactly what to expect, but no real substance.  This is one of the Arcane Society books, which revolves around a secret society of psychically talented individuals in regency England (and you can read about their descendants in some of her novels under the name Krentz).    


5. Digging to America by Anne Tyler 

 

 This is a story of two very different families who adopt babies from Korea, one of typical white-bread Americans and one of Iranian-Americans, and it deals with issues of identity and outsiderness.  It focuses mostly on Maryam Yazdan, the Iranian grandmother, but we get snippets of insight from almost everyone involved.  Well written with detailed character description, I definitely enjoyed it.

6. Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

 

Chevalier also wrote "The Girl With The Pearl Earring", and this historically inspired novel focuses on the friendship of two female fossil hunters.  As one is a moderately well-to-do spinster and the other a working class girl, Chevalier does a fantastic job illustrating how both gender and social inequality plays into their friendship and their lives without ramming it down your throat.  

7. Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom (Book 1) by Julie Kenner

 

 Imagine Buffy the Vampire Slayer all grown up and trying to live a normal life in the suburbs with her kids and normal husband but demons start busting into her front window---and you get the premise of this book.  Cheesy but fun, I've been searching in vain for the next one and will soon have to give in and just order it online.

8. Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) - Library Edition by Suzanne Collins

 

Have I mentioned that I love these books?  Oh wait, I have.  I stayed up until 2 a.m. reading this book the day it came in the mail.  Great ending:  real.      

9.  Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler

  

I liked Digging to America so much that I wanted to read some of Tyler's other books, so I picked this one up at the library.  While well-written and in-depth characterization, nothing really happens in the entire book.  It's the story of an elderly guy with a quiet life.  Not exactly a thrilling page turner.  

More Star Wars, less cardio.

I don't have time to exercise. 

Okay, that's a lie.  It bugs me when people say they don't have time to do something.  I hear it a lot about reading, as if I read a lot because all I do is sit on my butt and eat bonbons and read.  What this phrase actually translates to is this is low on my list of priorities and I am not willing to give up doing something that I actually enjoy to make time for this activity.

Which is pretty much how I feel about exercising but with an extra glob of guilt thrown in.  Because that bonbon thing?  Partly true.  I love chocolate and bacon and red meat and pretty much anything made with lard or sugar or cheese. 

I spent about six weeks this summer where I went to the YMCA at least twice a week.  Then Mo-mo got sick, then I got lazy, and then I got a job.

Batman and I went to the gym last night for the first time in an embarrassingly long time. 


Conversation on the car trip there

Me: Maybe I could work out before work.  You know, wake up at five a.m. and head straight to the office from there. 

Batman:  Are you joking?

Me: Okay, I know, that's pretty improbable.  How about if I started taking speed?

Batman: Good idea.  I've heard that drugs are a healthy alternative to exercise and good diet.

Me:  I think D.A.R.E. would disagree with you.   I suppose that isn't the best idea either.  Dammit!  Why does hard work have to be so hard?



Conversation on the car trip back

Me:  So the elliptical I was using was insane.  It had way too many buttons and kind of looked like an AT-AT.  I kept fiddling with the buttons hoping that I would find the laser cannons.

Batman:  You probably weren't going fast enough to keep them charged.

Me:  That's one way to encourage exercise.

Batman:  Every time you hit your distance goal you could taze one person.

Me:  I would taze anyone skinnier than me.

Batman: Good prioritizing. 

Me: I think I would first taze women who wear heavy layers of make-up while working out.  Then the guys who stare at themselves soulfully in the mirror while they lift weights.   Then anyone who makes audible grunting noises.  Then anyone who can actually do those crazy upside down sit-ups.    

Batman: ...you've thought about this a lot, haven't you?

Me:  For every person you judge, you burn 50 extra calories through spite.  It's a well known fact. 

  

      

Excuse my absence, I've acquired this thing called a life.

 

I love writing.  I love writing this blog.

I also love my daughter.  And my husband.  And spending time with both of them.  And reading, and playing World of Warcraft (have I mentioned this before?  Yes, I am one of those people), and I love doing crafts...you get the picture.  With my new job, writing has been pushed to the end of the line.

It's not going to be like this forever.  This is something that I enjoy, so I'm going to do my darnedest to keep up with writing in it twice a week.  And I'm going to look for more opportunities to use the word "darnedest" because it's a great word, dagnabbit.

Forgive me, recently my vocabulary has been kidnapped by the early 1900's.  I used the phrase "nosy parker" earlier this week and my coworker convinced me that I must have made it up.

I love my job.  I believe in keeping a buffer between my work life and the internet so I'm not going to go into much detail, but I'm working with a nonprofit organization as an event planner and individual giving portfolio manager.  It's challenging, interesting, and I'm given both responsibility and resources to do the job right.  I adore it so far.

Batman passed the bar and is now officially a lawyer.  I'm so proud, I knew he could do it!  Of course, now he has to get a job...

We're still living with my folks.  We were planning on moving out right away until we took a close look at our finances and realized that we could either a) move out right away, and live paycheck to paycheck when our student loans kicked in or b) wait to move until Batman gets a job, save up a ton of money and pay off some of our debts in the meantime.

So we've decided to be fiscally responsible.  I know that my parents are ready to have their space back and we're definitely ready to have ours, but I think we made the right choice.

I've started quilting.  I seem to have craft ADD.  I've abandoned my knitting mid-scarf, the light is too bad in my parent's house to cross-stitch, and my mood/the weather have not aligned so that I can paint the toy box...so I'm attempting to make a baby quilt instead.  My aunt runs a big yearly quilt show in Louisiana.  She collects quilts to donate to babies in the neonatal unit so I thought that this may be good first quilt project.  I would love for someone like her to actually teach me how to quilt, but I'm making do for now learning from a book.

That's about it.  I love my family.  I love my work.  I love my friends.

Life is good.

Hallow-WHEEEEEEEE-n

As I've mentioned before, I love Halloween.

This year Mo-mo is big enough to actually trick or treat for maybe a half of a block.  Of course, I've started obsessing about what she should be.

There shall be no cutesy-pie ladybug dresses for my girl, nor any (shudders) Disney princesses.  There will be plenty of time for all that stuff when she's old enough to pick out her costume herself.  Here are the costumes I like:


1)  A Garden Gnome

Pros:  Adorable.  Hilarious.

Cons:  Would she actually keep the hat on?  Probably not.

2)  Unicorn Pegasus

Pros:  It's a UNICORN-PEGASUS!  Not just one or the other but an unholy hybrid of horse mythology.  Plus it's cute.  And warm.
Cons:  I could see her getting frustrated with the hoof-gloves.

3.  Monarch Butterfly

 Pros:  Flippin' adorable.
Cons:  Kind of bulky and may be hard to manuever.  Plus it's a bit expensive.

4.  R2D2

 

Pros:  Delightfully nerdy.
Cons:  Delightfully nerdy.

Any favorites?  Any suggestions?  I even made a poll for you to vote--it's up in the top right corner of the page.