100 Things: Part One

Some bloggers write really nice "about" pages to give an overview of their lives and who they are while others give a list of things in place of a personal essay. Here is my first attempt at creating a list of interesting things about me.

1. I can recover a sofa. My mom and I worked on recovering a loveseat, an armchair, ottoman, and several barstools after I graduated from college. I did all the deconstruction, pattern cutting, and construction while she did the sewing. It ended up being a major project, but I think it gave both of us a lot of confidence in our makeover abilities. I am also in possession of the world's best staple remover tool.

2. This is my most treasured book. We had a copy growing up and my sister laid claim to it when my parents moved after retirement. I went online to buy a copy, thinking I could get one for about thirty dollars (ha!). I was devastated when I saw the price so I called my mom to commiserate. We started talking about Bad Mousie, Susan and the bears, and fairies in the lemonade. A week later a used copy arrived on my doorstep, courtesy of mom (she didn't pay near the asking price at this link). I can't even think about that book without smiling.

3. Foot fetish? Not likely. I had two moderate injuries in college, both involving a foot, beer bottles, and a formal dress. (Also, fear of lockjaw.) The more serious one was my senior year after my boyfriend's fraternity formal. I think I cut my foot open on a bottle cap, but I'm not sure since I didn't really notice the cut until I was spreading blood all over the fraternity house. The story is good enough to save for another time, but let's just say it involves CSI re-enactments, Waffle House, and a trip to the emergency room.

4. I would probably name a baby "Baby". My favorite stuffed animals growing up were Bear and Rabbit. (Rabbit met an unkind fate when my parents moved. Bear was rescued from the trash after he suffered a paint stain on his back. He now sits inconspicuously in my living room.) My first cat is named Kitty. I was smart enough to keep the name my second cat came with, but left to my own devices I probably would have named her "Cat". Names are obviously not my strong suit.

5. I have worked as a lunchlady. I worked in the Canyon cafeteria in Yellowstone after my freshman year of college. I generally worked the after lunch through dinner shift. For the first part of the summer I worked as a server (country fried chicken, lasagna, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, etc) but halfway through the summer the managers figured out that I had half a brain and promoted me to cashier. Again, this story is a post of its own.

I'll keep working on this list - I've got a long way to go!

Book Club - February

I just got back from this month's book club where we read The True Story Of Hansel And Gretel. I had meant to write this post beforehand to gather my thoughts about the book but I got sucked into the Oscars last night instead. There were only three of us tonight and I hadn't met either of them before, but it turned out really well. We were all on the same page with the book (possible spoilers ahead!) - it was a great read and very engaging but too contrived at the end. I am generally a huge fan of books that tell an existing story from a different point of view (see: Wicked and The Red Tent) so I liked this book from the start.

One of the main differences between this book and the ones mentioned above is that this book is told in a completely different setting than the original story. I really admire the author's ability to take the fairy tale (is that what Hansel and Gretel is called?) and move it into a very un-fairy tale setting: Poland during World War II. This book about broke my heart a million times with its descriptions of scarring the town children so that the Nazis wouldn't want them, the engineer father who survived in the woods with the resistance fighters, Gretel's rape, and the death of the "witch" at Birkenau. About three-quarters through the book I almost started hoping for an unhappy ending because anything else would seem too sugar-coated.

I feel like the ending tried to tie up too many loose ends. The young couple got away with the baby, the ultimate bad guy was caught and punished, and Hansel and Gretel found their father. It's not that I wanted these characters to suffer, but I would have been happy with an ending left open for interpretation. Also, I am a major crier, and it just doesn't feel right when I start sobbing halfway through a book that turns out to have a happy ending. Seriously, I read this book in two sittings and cried for about two hours straight.

Anyway, I really liked it and it was a great book club read. Highly recommended. Next month: The Good Earth

Meet at Starbucks

Oh, my. This has been around a while but I just saw it:
Bjork and Diddy, Part 1
Bjork and Diddy, Part 2

"Yo, do you guy'th wanna thing a thong with Be-jork?"
"Can you gimme a ride from hurr to thurr?"

I about fell out of my chair.

Crafty-ness

Two recent projects: a small travel bag to keep track of what's dirty and what's clean and personalized bookplates. I'd wanted to make the bag for a while but kept forgetting to buy the pieces I needed. Last night, I gave in and used what I had. Each end zippers and there is a seam down the middle to keep each side separate. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. The bookplates are made with individual stamps and are kind of time consuming but a good project to do while watching tv. Click on either project below for more pictures.

Bag idea originally from Uncommon Goods.

Public Service Announcement

Are you watching Friday Night Lights? Why not? Is it that you don't like football? You got tired of Dawson's Creek and don't need another show about high school? You hate Texans? Seriously, people.

I was one of you for the first half of the season, but it was getting so much good press that I finally gave in and set the dvr to record it. A few days later NBC ran a marathon and when I sat down to watch it that weekend I was glued to the couch for the next four hours. The thing that I love most about it is it's completely dead-on portrayal of high school (at least in my experience). I love, love the relationship between Julie and Matt and there are so many moments with them where I think, "I know exactly what that feels like!"

Anyway, if you're not interested in high school drama, there's always football and Kyle Chandler. If that's not enough for you then go back to watching Everybody Loves Raymond reruns. I don't want to share my show with you anyway.

If you need to catch up, Television Without Pity has great recaps.

Also, dinner:

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Leftover chicken noodle soup (recipe from Linda) and puff pastry topping idea from Martha Stewart.

Monday Night - A Photo Essay

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Fantastic Tuesday

Four things that have made today great:

• I went to the dentist. Seriously, I love the dentist. Heather talks about being the valedictorian of different things and I never understood it until I realized that I really want to be the valedictorian of going to the dentist.
• I took most of the day off. Not that I don't like my job, but there's nothing like being free to run errands or kill time at a bookstore when you know all of your friends are at work.
• The hours I did put in were done from my auto repair place. Did you get that? My car place has wireless internet. How much do I love those guys?
• I heard "Wifey" on the radio. That really might be the high point of my week so far. At one of our eating house formals in college the band played "Wifey" at least three times. I'm not really sure why they thought a bunch of drunk twenty year old kids would like it, but we danced the hell out of that song. Yes, I'll be your wifey. [edited to add: Of course drunk college kids would like it. What was I thinking?]

It IS Dental Health Month!

Someone has to go to the vet tomorrow. She is super excited.

I spent this past weekend looking over old journals from high school to get an idea of what I thought it was important to record as a teenager. I started keeping a journal during the summers because I felt like all of the days blended together and I wanted to be able to remember more than just a blur. This was somewhat complicated by my rule that I could never look back at what I wrote. Each day I would write down major events, things that made me laugh, books I was reading, CDs I wanted to buy, and exactly what I wore.

The very first entry reads, "Monday - shaved, went to clinic and grocery." Personal hygiene and errands! How exciting! As time went on, I expanded entries to as much as a page each, written in small phrases that make no sense to me now. Among the daily entries are song lyrics, bad poems, and a copy of an especially cringe-worthy letter to a boy I dated for all of two weeks (yes, the number of pages exceeded the number of days in the relationship). I can't imagine why we never got back together.

I stopped journaling sometime during my junior year in high school and haven't done much personal writing since. I miss having a place to record what I'm reading, listening to, cooking, and obsessing about. I hope it will be slightly more entertaining than personal hygiene.

Getting Started

just checking....