book gluttons, unite!

Some people hit the mall after Christmas, trying to score that amazing deal.

Not us.  J and I, we hit the used bookstores.

(Twice.  I decided to sell some books the next day so I’d have an excuse to bring more home).

Here are some of my finds:

The Little Prince — Antoine De Saint-Exupery

I can’t accurately describe to you how excited I am to have this book in my home!!! 

A story about a boy and his rose!  My first exposure to The Little Prince was last quarter in my Writing About Lit course.  I had never heard the story until my prof Michael beautifully read a portion of it to us in class.  One of the genius aspects of the class: every day starts with a reading, anyone from Annie Dillard to Shel Silverstein to Stephen King.  Those readings were among some of my favorite moments last quarter.

If you’ve ever read The Little Prince, the conversation between the boy and the fox about what it means to “tame” something… phew.  I nearly cried in class.  And now I have a copy for my very own. 

Corrections to My Memoirs — Michael Kun

I have never heard of this author, but bought the book because of the cover, which I thought was pretty damn funny.  I gobbled up James Frey’s Million Little Pieces, and a few months later watched Oprah devour him live in front of a studio TV audience for taking what some circles deemed, shall we say, inappropriate creative license.  We’ll see.

Bodies in Motion and at Rest: On Metaphor and Mortality – Thomas Lynch

Found this one randomly in the essay section at Michael’s Bookstore downtown, and loved the title.  Once I got home and started reading it, I realized there was much more to it than a neat title.  This guy is an undertaker/poet/essayist.  Undertaker.  Poet.  Essayist.  Need I say more?  I’m only a few essays in, and I’m completely hooked.  If anyone has a solid perspective on death, I think someone working in a funeral home for over 25 years would.  And the writing.  Augh!  Lovely.

 

Where the Sidewalk Ends — Shel Silverstein

I’ve meant to own this book (and A Light in the Attic) for a long time now.  My lit class gave me just the inspiration I needed.  I think it nearly impossible to read a few of the poems and not walk away in a better mood.  I dare someone to try!

PS…  Justin tells me Shel Silverstein wrote Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue.”  Pretty rad.

The Gift of Asher Lev — Chaim Potok

When I love a book as much as I do My Name Is Asher Lev, I’m a little hesitant to read its sequel, in fear that the sequel will be far inferior to its predecessor and will leave me with sadness in my heart and a regret that I didn’t leave well enough alone with the first novel (some of those crappy rip-off sequels to Pride and Prejudice come to mind, although it doesn’t take a genius to stay away from the sacrilege that is someone writing a sequel to another person’s novel.  I refuse!).  My Name Is Asher Lev was mind-blowingly powerful to me; a treatise on the dark places artists must journey to fulfill their God-given calling.  Even following their gift away from what their own community and family would approve of.

I stepped out on a limb this time, read some reviews, and if this book turns out to be crap, I’ll never heed another book review again.  Probably.  In the meantime, I have high hopes that Mr. Potok wouldn’t let such an amazing character falter. 

I also filled in some holes in my Harry Potter collection, although I accidentally bought a duplicate of Book 4 and sheepishly had to return it to exchange it for 5 the next day.

Hooray for books!  We need new bookshelves already.  Sigh.

phew.

Hey!  We survived Christmas!

Never again.

We drove down to Poulsbo Friday (3 hours), spent the night with J’s mom and brother, drove to Port Orchard (45 min) and spent the night with my folks on Saturday, drove back up to Bellingham on Sunday (3 hours) so I could work at 5:30 Monday morning, drove back down to Port Orchard Monday afternoon (3 hours), to Poulsbo and back Christmas Eve (1 1/2 hours), to Poulsbo and back Christmas morning (1 1/2 hours), and then back up to Bellingham (3 hours) Christmas night so Justin could work at 5 am the next morning.

I’m no mathematician, but I *think* we spent over 15 hours in the car.  We looked bewilderedly at each other several times this past week, as in, why the heck are we doing this, again?

It’s weird to say this, but I think I feel more like I’m on vacation now that Christmas is over and I’m back to work than I did when I was off.  So relieved to have all of it done with.  And — we’ll make far more laid-back plans next year.  Ack. 

Here’s a few pics from Christmas (I have no excuses for the boys, who were on a real tear). 

It snowed — the first time I’ve seen snow fall on Christmas Day!

We got some fun new games for Christmas — Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, and Chess.  I’ll probably write about their magnificence soon — we’re really enjoying them.

Hope you all had a good Christmas — will write more soon.  For now — time to go to bed and finish recuperating. 

the samurai’s garden

Two days after the suckage that was finding out Justin had to work through most of his week off (and part of our trip home), we’re doing alright.  I was obviously disappointed, but this was one of those times where I could: A) mope around and pity myself; or B) suck it up and support J the best I could by making the best of it.  I chose option A for a couple of hours, but B seems to be working better.  We’ll drive down tomorrow and hopefully still squeeze everyone in. 

In the meantime, I’m getting to know my brother-in-law Roger better (he’s staying with us — up from Oklahoma for Christmas) and introducing him to the glory that is The Office in binge doses.  We’re both brilliant companions for each other during the day in that we are both up for relaxing as much as possible.  It’s been great to have the time to chat and laugh together.

While he’s been nursing his growing addiction to playing this tank game on the Wii, I’ve been enjoying this book.  There were also a few others on my to-read list, but this novel’s length lends itself to finishing before the new quarter begins and I’m once again barely able to keep up with what is required reading, much less any other books.

I can’t adequately tell you how lovely the writing is, but — it is simple and rich.  Soothing and peaceful.  A friend I trust with book recommendations directed me to this book a few years ago, and I am just now turning its pages — but she was right.  It’s a great book, centering in on a young Chinese man recuperating from tuberculosis in a small Japanese coastal village — and the relationships he develops with three older people as he hears bits and pieces of their stories.  This doesn’t remotely do it justice — but check it out if you get the notion.

ack.

Justin’s work called this morning (Day 2 of our week off work) at 10 am and said that his vacation (which he requested and had approved three months ago) doesn’t apply anymore, since they find themselves busy and not all of his week off was covered by paid vacation.  By 10:30 am he was back on the phones.  He will be home at 7:30 tonight.

So much for our break.

We were planning on leaving tomorrow morning to visit everyone.  Now Justin works through Friday.

I so hope we’ll be able to laugh about this at some point.  Right now it just feels like we’re taking it up the… well, you know.  I’ve never seen the kid so discouraged.  I know he needed a rest.

Sigh.  Corporate America at its best, everyone.

morning ramblings

Good morning!  I just slept in til ten for the first time in several months!  I’m groggy as hell but want to keep my string of posts going.  Quantity, not quality.  That’s the motto around here.

Last night, Justin and I successfully completed our Christmas shopping for everyone but each other in about two hours.

I looked at my watch as we were headed out of our last store, and said, “Wow.  I think this is the fastest I’ve ever done this.”

Justin looked at me in awe and laughed.  Left to his own devices, he shops as if he’s on a timed mission, where the whole mall is gonna blow unless he’s in and out in ten minutes.

Good times.

I had so braced myself to find the mall a complete nuthouse, and then, once we got there, it was just fine.  Lesson learned:  Go in with low expectations, and then you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Right now, I have a 4.0 GPA for this quarter.  Granted, only one of my grades has been reported, but I think it’s important to celebrate while you can.  This is the first 24 hours of having a 4.0 that I’ve had in, like, 10 years or something.  Yay me.  It may all come crashing down once the rest of my grades are reported on Thursday, but hey.  I know I worked hard.  This was the first quarter since I don’t know how long that I was a truly good student.  Justin’s a bad influence on me, apparently.

We’re heading out shopping with Justin’s bro later today, who made the trip up to Bellingham for a few days, and we’ll be hanging out with his cousins as well.  I think I’ll be making dinner for everyone tomorrow night, which, since I’ve actually been making efforts to learn how to cook good meals, should be a lot of fun.

I did want to say, regarding what I wrote yesterday, that — big surprise — I’m feeling a lot better about things.  I’m still a little nervous about Christmas-y activities, but the tension that was covering over so much of my time (because I was spending so much time thinking about it) has faded a great deal. 

Muddled attempts at forgiveness bringing about peace?  Who knew?  It’s amazing how hard we fight the things that are actually best for us.  It’s precisely when I want to be the opposite of patient and gracious that I actually benefit the most from making attempts to do so, however flawed they might be.

My husband just now, from his corner of the office: ”I have this message here from a ‘Joseph Poon’ in my junk mail box.  The title says ‘WRITE ME.’  Hmmm… do you think I should?  I think I should.”

Ah.  I love my man.  I’ve never laughed so often in my life.

bad things happen when I get bored…

So… I decided to organize our books by color this past weekend.

Seeing as how my book collection nearly doubled about a year ago, this was a lot harder than the last time I tried it.

Yes, I’ve done this more than once.

Yes, I’m a nerd.

You should have seen Justin’s face, watching me organize like some mad thing.

But I think it looks cool and think it will be funny the next time Justin’s looking for a book.  “What color is that binding again?”

Done!

Done done done done done!!!

Fall Quarter 2007, I bid you a fond and heartfelt adieu.

search and rescue

So… I had my last actual final exam today.  I have a few papers to finish before tomorrow, but I’m one step closer to being done.

I barely slept last night — I think it had something to do with too much Diet Coke, too late, and a little anxiety about the exam, which I hadn’t prepared for as much as I’d have liked to, because — well, I didn’t really feel like it.  During the five minutes I slept, I also had one of those crazy dreams where the universe conspires against you to prevent you from making it to the exam on time, or at all. 

Two hours of hand-cramps later, I think I did alright.  Which is nice.

But before I take a quick nap and resume paper writing, I wanted to keep my string of daily posts going… so I thought I’d enlighten you with a few of the ways that people have stumbled upon the glory that is Wide Eyed Wonder.  Hooray for strange search terms.

Today:

prayer fairness 

stacey sucks [Author's note: this is AWESOME.  They search for a term, and get a glistening example of it.  The internet is brilliant.]

In the last 7 days:

homer simpson birthday

homer simpson “Speed 2″ and “the bus that couldn’t slow down”  [The post this search took them to is full of Homer Simpson awesome-ness, and I'll insist on sharing it, since there are apparently so many fans out there:

"Bart, with $10,000, we’d be millionaires!  We could buy all kinds of useful things, like… love!"

"I’m not normally a religious man, but if you’re up there, save me, Superman!"

"Oh, everything’s too damned expensive these days. This bible cost 15 bucks! And talk about a preachy book! Everybody’s a sinner! Except this guy."

"I saw this in a movie about a bus that had to SPEED around a city, keeping its SPEED over fifty, and if its SPEED dropped, it would explode. I think it was called, "The Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down."

"It [YVAN EHT NIOJ] doesn’t mean anything!  It’s like ‘ramalamadingdong’ or ‘give peace a chance!’”

You’re welcome, by the way.]

 wordings for reception after one year of marriage

what a man wants in a wife

super lucky elephant jasmine rice [Yes, this exact term exists on my site.  We buy Super Lucky Elephant Jasmine Rice in bulk at Costco, and I have sung its praises more than once.]

random watering nose [Uh...]

how many chicken breasts equals one cup of chicken 

“you bwoke it”

God is my witness, I will never go hungry again

stories about fairness of God 

what summer conceals

Homer Simpson’s birthday

homer simpson happy birthday to you

happy birthday Homer simpson comments [Author's note: wtf?  Why all these happy birthday homer simpson searches? according to my extensive research, Homer Simpson's birthday is in May.  May 10, 1955, to be exact.  He's a Taurus.  Like me and Justin.  Impressive.]

If you have a moment and want to enlighten me in return, let me know how & when you first found my little corner of the World Wide Web.  (I’m actually a little curious to know who’s actually still peeking in and reading this thing, despite my best efforts to slaughter readership with non-posting this past year).

Last few papers.  An essay on the meaning of life.  Ready, go.

finally… a Christmas album for people who are mildly depressed or moderately melancholy, however you choose to look at it

I am loving this CD.  The only Christmas CD Justin owns is James Brown’s Funky Christmas, and I’m pretty sure he has a huge crush on Sarah, so I thought this might be a lovely addition to his (our) collection. 

It’s lovely.  This holiday season, things have been more than usually stressful and somewhat sad, which has been a harsh contrast to all the happy-happy-joy-joy music that’s played in every store and on every radio station.  This collection of songs is soft and slow and just a little ache-y — my heart breaks whenever that gorgeous voice lilts in that unique way she has.  I’m digging it. 

Anyone who puts Joni Mitchell’s “River” on a Christmas CD truly gets what the holidays are like more often than not.  Especially this year.  I wish there was a river Justin and I could skate away on.  Two problems: the pond behind our house isn’t fully frozen yet, and even if it was it wouldn’t get us very far, and I’m pretty sure neither of us can skate.  Oh well, it’s a nice thought anyway.

Anyway, if you get a chance, give this CD a listen.     

check out the majesty!

I was a little more successful today.  We headed out to Whatcom Falls Park and then later I headed out to Fairhaven.  And I don’t believe there’s a single phallic photo in the bunch. 

I finally figured out how to slow down my shutter, resulting in pretty photos like this (although I need a tripod for the effect to come out perfect — 2 1/2 to 3 seconds is a long time to try to stand still):

So fun!  And I didn’t even fall in the water, amazingly enough.  Isn’t this bridge lovely?

Most important of all — I have a favorite new happy snap:

If any of you Bellinghamians get a moment to head out there, you should.  It’s so weird to take that left off Lakeway, park, get out of your car, and immediately hear the soothing sound of rushing water — right in the middle of the city.  We were only out there for probably 45 minutes, but as we got back in our car to head home, I knew it had done me some good.  The sheepskin slippers I had idiotically worn and hiked down underneath the bridge in — not so much good for them.  But it was a lovely time.