BOOKS

It turns out that since finishing grad school I've rediscovered my love of reading. As a kid I was totally the shy girl who loved reading. My favorites... Baby-sitter's Club, Sweet Valley High, and morbidly all these books about teenagers with terminal illnesses with titles like 6 Months to Live. Then, I'd say some time around Junior High or High School I totally stopped reading for fun. But I'll tell you one of the best things about not being in school is that no one is making me read or telling me what to read. I get to pick! Here are some of my favorites from the last few months.


Have you ever read a mediocre book and when you finish it you're in a hurry to start another book to get the taste of the past book out of your mouth? (eg - Memory Keeper's Daughter... I hated that book and I'm pretty sure I started another book like an hour after finishing it) Well with The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao it was the exact opposite experience. It took me at least a weekend to finally pick up another book from my to-read stack and even then I was really sad to be leaving those characters behind. I just wanted to have Oscar and Lola and Beli and La Inca in my life a little longer. So just read it. And bonus - have a spanish-speaking friend translate the little Spanish bits in it and you'll learn a lot of Spanish swears.




Thanks to Kaylene for recommending I Capture the Castle to me. I cannot believe I survived my late childhood and adolesence without this book in my life. I was hooked from the first line.... "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink." Brilliant. Totally charming. Like a more hormonal and quirky Jane Austen. I giggled to myself throughout most of the book and found myself interrupting conversations to read passages to my roommates. Just brilliant. Totally adorable.

I heart philly

Honestly, the best trip ever. It was like getting back together with an ex and the best make-up sex ever. I just love this city.

I love timing. Jen, my roommate, was coming back from the Dominican Republic and had a long layover in Philly. We went to Museum of Art, ran up the steps like Rocky, and got to see a fab Cezanne exhibit, who's one of my favorites, plus my other favorite pieces in the musuem. Rothko, I've missed you.

I love pretzels.

I love this kid.

And this one.

And this one.

I love tender mercies. There were so many on this trip.

1. Rita's Water Ice opened a few weeks before I got there

2. The Philly Film Festival was going on when I was there

3. Cezanne Exhibit

4. Jen's layover

5. In one day I was able to successfully eat part of a pretzel, part of a cheesesteak, burger and fries at 5 Guys, and Rita's.

6. And the ultimate highlight and absolute MIRACLE - at the museum of art I ran into my absolute favorite client. He lives no where near there, but was spending the weekend at his aunt's and she took him there to run off some energy on the steps. Hearing a voice call "Miss Julie" and turning around and seeing his face was one of the best moments of my life. I love that kid.

I am a therapist

I love being a therapist because I love secrets. I want to know peoples secrets. Whatever it is. I want to know. I love skeletons in the closet.

Except not literal skeletons.

This week one of the bathrooms in my house is being renovated. And in the process guess what a hot Aussie constuction boy found. More than 40 (!!!!!) dead birds and other animal carcasses (squirrels and mice and probably other rodents). Behind the wall in the bathroom!!!! More than 40 decomposed birds and animals behind a wall in my house. And that's only in one SMALL room in this giant house. Who knows how many other animals are living (or rather not living) in the walls of this house. eeeewwwwwww. And I'm having so many memories of when I found the dead mouse in my apartment in Philly a few years back. Just etched in my brain. Michelle you remember the smell....

Best Time at the Dollar Store Ever.

Yesterday I was at the dollar store with my friend Cassie, in sort of shady neighborhood. I'm looking for art supplies for the arts and crafts table for Black history night at my job next week. A mid-30s, working classish, not-creepy guy squeezes by me and apologizes about invading my bubble. I keep shopping, then the same guy comes straight up to me, holds out his hand, and says "I just wanted to tell you that I think you're beautiful and have gorgeous eyes." And so I just shook his hand, which was so rough and manly and sort of hot and went on my way. It was a pretty good moment.

In other news, Michelle and Elin were here last weekend.

I made an adult-size penguin hat and neck cozy for Mich for her birthday.

Michelle, Elin, and Nathaniel at Snoqualmie Falls in North Bend where they filmed Twin Peaks. Apparently I really need to watch that show. Maybe after I've watched all the seasons of Lost.... Don't hold your breath.

At the Public Library downtown.

Thanks to Michelle and Elin for coming. Just move here already.

Look out East Coast, I'm coming back!

Alright east coast people! I just booked a ticket. Mark you calendars - March 28-March 31. Things I want to do... steet vendors, Rittenhouse, Ritz, Pine Street Pizza, South St., subway, Reading Terminal, City Hall, Clothespin, Old City, Logan Circle, Art Museum, and everything else. I'm getting emotional just thinking about it.

Girls Night Out!

I feel like it's pretty rare when I feel an obligation to recommend or not recommend something. Don't get me wrong, if someone asks my opinion I'll happily share my thoughts, but I don't really feel the need to go out of the way to tell people to do something or not do something. But in this case I feel like I have to.

This movie is terrible. I read a few of the reviews before getting dragged along on a "girls night out." I knew it was going to be bad, but I thought having really low expectations would save me. But no, it was way worse than even my super low expectations. It was terrible in a train wreck sort of way. You're hating it, but you can't look away. And it's long and it feels even longer, excruciatingly long. And why pay money to get made fun of, or to watch characters that you don't even like act like idiots and get fed the message that girls are stupid and boys never like them and that boys are basically a bunch of jerks anyways so what's the point. Or maybe that's a dose of reality that I'm not ready to accept at this point. bleh.

And maybe I'm taking this a little too far, but at my job I've been thinking a lot about internalized racism and I really think that this movie could easily fall into the category of contributing to internalized sexism. As women, we are already fed the usually subtle message that image is everything and that we need to be attain a certain level of perfection to be loved and valued. So to have a full movie where the not-even-subtle message is that women are idiots who are constantly making excuses for jerky boys is sort of frustrating. Maybe I was supposed to understand that fact and feel empowered to change or something, but that feeling never came. Give me Jane Austen any day. Rant over.

In my dreams...

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!