(Lots of) Love and (Lacking) Commitment

For Lent, I gave up Facebook. And it was a success. I did not get on Facebook one single time for the duration of Lent (over 40 days). Now, if I could only apply the same commitment and strength of will to other tasks.

I can’t get up in the morning to do anything other than get ready for work. I even have a hard time doing that. I feel like that would be the best time to work out, but no matter how many days in a row I set my alarm for 5:30am (which allows me to hit snooze once or twice), I never get up and do anything. I don’t smoke or do drugs, and I rarely drink. But aside from these virtues, I know that I live an unhealthy life. Little to no exercise, poor quality of food, and too-large portions all add up to one not-so-healthy 24-year old girl. I need to get to a point where I feel healthy on the inside, and appreciate the way that healthy feeling makes me look on the outside.

I’m always daydreaming about how great I would look and feel if I were healthier. I imagine myself running without huffing and puffing, chasing Brooke and Bosco around the dog part without looking like a fool, wearing clothes that fit both my body and my personality. I am happy in my relationship, but every now and then it’s nice for someone you don’t know to tell you how nice you look. I don’t really get that anymore. Trust me… I don’t like being hassled by random people about anything (which is why work can be so trying at times), but sometimes it’s nice to hear that you look nice from someone other than your boyfriend or parents.

This is something I’ve been struggling with for many years now (and written and deleted many blog posts about). I just haven’t found the answer yet.

Anywho… I’ve been looking at fashion sites a lot lately, trying to determine what “my style” is. I don’t really have a name for it, but I love things that are classic, vintage (1920s – 1960s are years of prime interest), casual, and maybe a little indie-/hipster-ish (nothing too hipster, I’m not cool enough). I was looking at Isaac Mizrahi’s book How to Have Style the other day, and in it Mr. Mizrahi has each woman he assists put together a board of things that inspire them; these inspirational images and items then became the inspiration for their respective styles. I’m going to make my own inspiration board… right here!

Oliver Peoples Candice sunglasses because they’re simple and beautiful

Reese Witherspoon for her sense of self

Audrey Tautou for her quirkiness and innate French style

Edun by Ali Hewson and Bono for their dedication to the environment and those who are less fortunate

Coco Chanel for her ideas of simple style and beauty

Natalie Portman for her talent, brains, beauty, and concern for people around the world

Tina Fey for her sense of humor and unabashed geekiness

Salvador Dali for expressing himself in a new, visually astounding way

Jhumpa Lahiri for writing amazing stories that make me feel so connected to a place I have only dreamed about

Lance Armstrong for fighting the battle and never giving up

Converse Chuck Taylors for being comfy, casual, and cute with almost everything

I think I’m done for now. That ended up with more people than I initially planned, but, oh well. Maybe I’ll come up with more things later.

Books! Books! Books!

Here’s a little survey about books and reading habits. Feel free to fill it out yourselves!

Hardback, trade paperback or mass market paperback? I like harbacks, but they’re hard to carry around. Trade paperbacks are sturdier than mass market, but if I’m feeling cheap I’ll buy one anyway.

Barnes & Noble or Borders? I feel like Borders is half a percent less corporate, but I have a membership to Barnes & Noble that I never have to pay for (in return, I share it with my immediate family). If there was a great local bookstore for all ages near me, I’d go there. There is an awesome children’s bookstore close by, Reading Reptile. Everyone should check it out!

Bookmark or dog-ear? Bookmark! I HATE my books being dog-earred.

Amazon or brick-and-mortar? It depends on my mood, and my budget. I like the feel of a brick-and-mortar book store, but online is so convenient, and often less expensive. Online, I like to browse Chronicle Books, too.

Alphabetize by author, or alphabetize by title, or random? Right now they’re all thrown onto random shelves in different rooms. I really need to organize them somehow. Other than putting all school books in the office/spare bedroom, I’ll probably try to group by genre and then alphabetize by author.

Keep, throw away, or sell? Keep, but I’m leaning toward donating or selling the ones I won’t reread. But so many of the books I own I haven’t read yet, so I won’t have to deal with that anytime soon.

Keep dust jacket or toss it? I keep them. Now that I am the official library book-mender, I should start putting clear protectors on all my own dust jackets. But that’s a lot of extra work…

Read with dust jacket or remove it? If I’m just reading it at home, the dust jacket can stay on. But if I’m toting the book around, it’ll eventually come off. They tend to get torn up if they get tossed about in my bag.

Short story or novel? It depends on my mood.

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? I’ve only read Harry Potter, and the movies are better, so I pick Harry Potter.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? I try to make it to chapter breaks, or at least paragraph breaks, but sometimes the tiredness overwhelms me.

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? Lately I’ve been in more of a “Once upon a time” mood, but I’d like to get back to more serious fare. Although, it doesn’t have to be stormy in all serious books, right?

Buy or borrow? I used to primarily buy, but now that I have to pay all my own bills, I read a lot more from the library. But I still buy some, especially my favorite authors.

New or used? New, generally, but I’m not opposed to used.

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendations, or browse? I really enjoy browsing. I like feeling like I’m the first person to discover a wonderful new novel or a heart-wrenching and witty non-fiction. But, I do read things that have been recommended to me from time to time. I don’t read a lot of reviews, but as I trudge forward in my professional life that may have to change.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger? If there isn’t a continuation of the story in another book, then a cliffhanger would be miserable! I generally prefer tidy endings, just to have that sense of closure. But sometimes a messy resolution can prove to be more interesting.

Morning reading, afternoon reading, or nighttime reading? I try to read at night, but I inevitably fall asleep without reading very much. I like reading in the afternoon during my lunch break, but I think that’s more because it means I’m not working than because it’s afternoon. I think I’m at my most comprehensive in the late morning, but the days that I get to read at the time are few and far between.

Stand-alone or series? Probably stand-alone. I don’t mind series, but I don’t read a ton of them. I also like a combo of the two: series novels that can stand on their own as well.

Favorite series? Like I said, I haven’t read a lot of series. When I was a kid, I loved the Encyclopedia Brown books, but that was more serial than series, per se. I do enjoy the Harry Potter novels, which I didn’t start reading until college (maybe late high school).

Favorite children’s book? I really don’t know. I can’t think of one. I haven’t looked at a children’s book (on the inside, anyway) in about 16 years or so.

Favorite YA book? I love The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. It’s amazing.

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? I really enjoyed Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy. It discusses the over-sexualization of women and how some have now embraced it as a new form of feminsim.

Favorite books read last year? Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. She is an unbelievable author.

What are you reading right now? Q&A by Vikas Swarup (you may know it as the book that inspired Slumdog Millionaire, which is now the name under which the book is being published. blech.). I’m also in the middle of Hide and Seek by Ian Rankin… it’s the second novel in his Detective John Rebus series. And because my attention span is equal to that of a fly, I’m about 1/3 finished with Always Looking Up, Michael J. Fox’s latest book.

What are you reading next? I have a ton of stuff checked out from the library, and about a billion things at home I need to read. I’m thinking about tackling Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver or Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (yes, I’m THAT slow).

Favorite book to recommend to an 11-year-old? Maybe 11 is too old, but I enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when I was 19. Pretty much anything by Roald Dahl is good.

Favorite book to re-read? I haven’t really re-read much, but I think I’m going to re-read The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies sometime this summer.

Do you ever smell books? Sometimes at work, to determine if I need to make a patron pay for it or not.

Do you ever read primary source documents like letters or diaries? Infrequently.

Boredom Time

So, I’m bored and I saw this on another blog. I love procrastinating.

Would you rather be serious or be funny?
Funny. I desperately long to be funny.

Whole or skim milk?
We drink 1%… gotta have a little fat, right?

Are you simple or complicated?
Mostly complicated, but it depends on the day, really.

Grey or gray?
I love all things British, so I’m choosing grey.

Color or black & white photos?
Both can be beautiful.

Lust or love?
Love.

Sunrise or sunset?
I’ve definitely seen more sunsets in my time, so I’ll have to choose sunset.

M&Ms or Skittles?
M&Ms, all the way… dark chocolate!

Rap or rock?
Rock.

Staying up late or waking up early?
Neither, really. I’m a mid-day person. But, when forced to choose, I guess waking up early. It sucks, but at least I can accomplish stuff.

TV or radio?
Radio for news, but TV regular programming.

Eating apples or oranges?
I eat apples more, mostly because it’s less work.

Being hot or cold?
Cold. Layers are my friend.

Sun or moon?
Moon.

Emeralds or rubies?
I don’t know. My birthstone is garnet, so I pick that.

Having 10 acquaintances or 1 best friend?
I haven’t had 1 best friend (outside of my boyfriend) for a really long time, and I kind of miss it. I think I’d choose that over a multitude of acquaintances.

Sun or rain?
Sun. Put on some shades, open the sun roof, and turn up the music!

Vanilla ice cream or chocolate ice cream?
I love both, but vanilla lends itself to being topped more readily with yummy things.

Green beans or carrots?
Both.

Low fat or fat free?
It depends on the food, but generally low fat.

What is your biggest fear in the world?
Death and spiders.

Kids or no kids?
No kids, and that’s my plan for the next 10 years or so.

Cat or dog?
Both! My puppies are wonderful, but I miss my kitties!

Mustard or ketchup?
Ketchup is the winner here, but mustard is growing on me.

Hard cover books or soft cover books?
Hard back books are solid and look great on book shelves, but paperbacks travel so well, and I’m always in need of a good book. I’m torn here.

Newspaper or magazine?
Magazine, just because newspapers make my hands feel gross.

Sandals or sneakers?
Sandals. I love my North Face flip flops, and I’m dying for some Havaianas.

Red car or white car?
White.

Happy & poor or sad & rich?
I guess happy and poor. But can’t I be happy and financially stable?

Singing or dancing?
I’ve trained to both in my life, but I think singing was a more successful venture.

Hugging or kissing?
Hugging.

Happy or sad?
This is a dumb question. Yea, I choose to be sad over being happy… am I an idiot?

Number of candles that appeared on your last birthday cake?
I didn’t have a birthday cake, I had some dessert they gave me at Manny’s. And I turned 24.

I want to live …
Where the wild things are!

2 doors or 4 (on a car)?
I currently have only 2, but I think the next car I buy will have 4.

Coffee or ice cream?
It depends on the weather. Cold = coffee, hot = ice cream.

Bridges or tunnels?
Whichever takes me to my destination with the least amount of traffic.

One pillow or two?
I used to only use one, but now I use two.

Favorite toothpaste?
Crest something or other.

Favorite style of food?
Chinese, Italian, cheeseburgers!

Favorite alcoholic drink?
Vodka and cranberry juice with a lime or a microbrew.

Favorite non-alcoholic drink?
Coke, tea.

What I did last night:
Took a 2 mile walk with Cody and the dogs so he could buy Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii from some guy who listed it on Craigslist, ate some frickin’ good Chipotle, and watched Entourage.

I love:
Books, movies, cookies, hot tea, guacamole, my dogs, music, British things.

I hate:
Apathy, arrogance, poverty, black eyed peas (the food, not the band), wasting my money voluntarily, hate.

Current clothes:
Old khakis that need to be replaced, a white t-shirt, a pink zip-up hoodie, brown socks, disgusting old moccasins that I need to throw away but can’t bear to.

Current mood:
boredome

Current music playing:
No music, just keyboards clicking and computers humming.

Current Hair:
Stringy and in need of a cut, which it’s getting on Friday.

Current annoyance:
Having to go to class tonight after work.

Current smell:
Nothing, which is fortunate where I work.

Current thing I should be doing:
Pricing magazines for the library’s book store.

Current desktop picture:
A road through a forest in the autumn time.

Current favorite music:
I’ve been listening to Missy Higgins, Ra LaMontagne, and Amy Winehouse a lot lately.

Current book:
Slumdog Millionaire, previously published as Q & A by Vikas Swarup.

Current movie in or near the DVD player:
We watched the second disc of the fourth season of Entourage last night. Other than that, disc one of season one of Breaking Bad and Brick Lane are both on the TV console table.

Current refreshment:
RC… we only have machines stocked by 7-up here.