What I've Been Reading...

Mississippi Mud (Edward Humes): I loved this book. I picked it up while I was at the library with my 18-month old Boomer. The cover looked cool and it looked like it had never been checked out before. (It’s kinda always been a dream of mine to be the first person to check out a certain book.)  It’s a true-crime story about a daughter trying to determine the killer(s) of her parents – a prominent couple in Biloxi, Mississippi.  My only complaint: The book ended.  I did some online research and tried to find inmate photos of the killers, but the Federal institutions apparently don’t post inmate photos.  One of the ringleaders DOES have a Facebook page, but (luckily) he doesn’t have a “send a friend request” button.  Another possible security precaution perhaps? Also, my online research has led me to believe that a movie is perhaps ‘in the works’ as well.

Paint it Black (Janet Fitch): Again, picked it up while Boomer was with. I really loved her previous book “White Oleander” so I thought I’d like this one as well. I didn’t. I returned it before I finished it. I have an inkling of what was actually painted black, but I have no confirmation. I am fine with this. This story is about a chick and her boyfriend, whom commits suicide. They are artsy people. He comes from money, she does not. I couldn’t read this because there was sooooooo much description and narration. I have determined that I am a dialogue reader. I don’t care much for knowing that the roses didn’t smell like flowers, but rather a spicy mulled wine.


Bright, Shiny, Morning (James Frey): I’m a huge fan of James. This book was basically a romance novel with the city of Los Angeles, and I was pretty cool with that. During the course of reading this book, I was having a work lunch at Ruby Tuesdays. I leaned over to my co-worker visiting from India and said “I can’t stop looking at that waiter. He looks like a guy from this book I’ve been reading.” Yep, I got some weird looks, but I love when books start to consume me. That’s what this book did. (Confession: there were a couple chapters that were too narrate-y for me and I did skip over them. Ex: a history / evolution of the LA freeway system did not hold my attention)



Daffodil (Emily Jenkins): Brynn and I both loved this book. Jeremy hated it. I’m going to buy it. It was a sad day when it was returned to the library. This story is about a group of triplet girls and their party dresses.



Booming Bella (Carol Ann Williams): Another super cute story! Bella has a loud voice and she needs to learn when it’s okay to use it...


Miss Nelson is Back (James Marshall): I read this story when I was younger, and now whenever I substitute teach for Brynn’s Sunday school class – she calls me “Viola Swamp.”

So that's it -- that's what I've been up to. I'm currently out of books at home, and need to get back to the library!

(shameful admittance: I have read one more book. It doesn't deserve to be at the top of the post, but I'll sneak it in here.)

Just so you know…

I am a friendly person, but I don’t make friends very easily.

This is even more apparent in my adult years – if I want to “go out” my options are typically limited to inviting either my mother or my husband to go with me.

And you know who I go to Bon Jovi concerts with?? Yep, my mom.

But this all started changing about two years ago when I started my current job.

The job that I am leaving in a few short weeks (wish it was days).

I feel very proud that I can now say that I have two great friends.

Two great sisters.

I don’t know what I’m going to do without them sitting two inches away from me for 9 hours (eh, who are we kidding, 7.5 hours) a day?

I really love them and feel bad for breaking up our dysfunctional work family, but I know that we are like a real family.

Because they will never be free of me.

Ever.

I promise.

I know where they live.

Roll of the Dice

I love Bon Jovi.  The kind of stalker-ish celebrate his birthday every year, know the names of his kids, subscribe to the email/facebook feeds, have every song they've ever published memorized, and google-earthed his house in New Jersey type of love.

It all started when I was six.  A girl at daycare was upset that her parents wouldn't let her have a Bon Jovi album. She was only allowed to have Genesys.  I decided to test out my parents cool-factor and told them that Bon Jovi was my favorite band ever.  I don't think they had any idea who/what Bon Jovi was, but soon enough I had a cassette of '7800 Fahrenheit'.  That Christmas my cool uncle supplied me with 'Slippery When Wet', and somewhere along the lines I got 'Bon Jovi' as well.

Bon Jovi has been with me for a long ass time. (and now the music is with my daughter as well).  And really, it's not because Jon is the hottest man in the world -- it really truly has more to do with the music hitting me at the times in life that I really needed help.  And then it happened again this week.

I put my notice in at work yesterday.  I have been contemplating this for a very long time.  I am extremely scared, nervous, and pretty much want to puke whenever I think about what I've just done. You see, I'm basically going to be self-employed in a commission-only type situation. I'm going back to what I seriously love though... I keep getting reminded though that our family loves our house, our food, our cars, our coats, blah blah blah. If going back to practicing law is what I love, I HAVE to make it work to pay our bills. This is what scares me. This is what scares my husband.

I was driving last week and "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night" started playing. (If you need a JBJ fix, watch this).

Someday I'll be Saturday night

I'll be back on my feet, I'll be doing allright

It may not be tomorrow, baby that's okay

I ain't going down, I'm gonna find a way, hey, hey hey



 Hey man, I'm alive

I'm taking each day and night at a time

Yeah, I'm down but I know I'll get by

Hey hey hey hey man, I've gotta live my life

Like I ain't got nothing but the roll of this dice

I'm feeling like a Monday but someday I'll be a Saturday night

So yeah, I do feel like a Monday.  A super terrible, have tons of meetings with no access to coffee, with screaming kids in the car, and have only fish sticks for dinner type of Monday.  This is the point in the post that I'm trying to come up with something hopeful, something witty to conclude the post with. 

But, really.... I've got nothing.  So I'll leave you with this:



Soundbites.

• Tomorrow is Jon Bon Jovi's birthday. Yes, I am hosting a party and will also be happy to recieve gifts in his honor.
• My mother's birthday is Friday, and I have absolutely no idea of what to get her. I guarantee though, if you give me suggestions, I can come up with a reason as to why it's a terrible idea.
• I continue to freak out about Brynn starting kindergarten - even though she doesn't start for another 6 months.
• I asked a room full of coworkers last week if they had seen the movie "Conception."  When they started a round of nervous laughter I realized my  blunder and said "Oh... I meant Inception. That'd be a different kind of movie..."
• I was letting Brandon "air-dry" this morning and he was quite pleased with that.  He walked up to Jeremy, who instantly asked him "BRANDON??!! WHERE'S YOUR DIAPER???"  Brandon got a super-confused look on his face (much like I imagine the Emperor did when he realized he was dud-less) and looked down at his naked butt and just kinda shrugged.  I thought it was hilarious.
• It's now March, which means I'm self-contractually obligated to have another girl's night out. What shall I do this month?
• I can't tell if it is the stale pizza I ate for lunch, or the handful of sinus pills I ingested prior to the pizza, but my stomach is super queasy, yo.
• I used to want to go on a vacation to Dubai, but then somebody who'd actually been there told me it was "Absolute CRAP!" and he suggested I go somewhere else.. where that somewhere else is, I can't quite recall.
• I'm conflicted about RealitySteve switching up the Bachelor winner on me. I was quite committed to his previous report.
• Any questions/comments? I'm currently blogged out.