Day Away from the Library – Part II

I finished working on my tasks around 6:34pm. Here’s how the list went:

1. do a major cleaning job on the bathroom
 I had to spend a lot of time cleaning the shower and tub… it was not clean. The bathroom is pretty clean, but could still use a really good deap clean sometime soon.

2. do laundry… clothes, towels, sheets
 Our comfy bed with nice, clean sheets. I didn’t get around to washing towels or clothes, but I’ll be home alone tomorrow night.

3. bake a loaf of bread
 It looks and smells like bread, but I haven’t tasted it yet. It took a lot of time, so I don’t know that I’ll do this everytime we need bread, but it’s nice to know I’m capable (at least, I am so far. I’ll know for sure at the taste test).

4. bake some cookies (ginger or chocolate chips?) — After all the time it took to make the bread, I just didn’t have it in me to make the cookies. Maybe sometime tomorrow night.

5. do dishes
 Nice clean sink! No dishes to wash! Hooray!

6. visit One More Cup
 Good coffee and excellent cheese herb biscuits. It’s nice to have a neighborhood coffee place where I know people and that uses good, local ingredients.

7. finish reading Always Looking Up (Michael J. Fox) — I didn’t get a chance to read today. I thought about taking my book to the coffee shop, but I wouldn’t have been able to read anyway… I spent the whole time chatting with some friends that work there, as well as one of the owners.

Day Away from the Library

It’s my turn to work a weekend at the library. Fortunately, when I have to work a Saturday, I get Friday off. So I’m at home right now, in my pajamas, watching Cody clean his filthy bike and listen to NBA Playoffs coverage on SportsCenter. I’m hoping to accomplish some things today, since the weather and Cody’s work schedule nixed my plans to go to the zoo. Here’s today’s to-do list… I’m hoping to update later with what actually got done.

1. do a major cleaning job on the bathroom
2. do laundry… clothes, towels, sheets
3. bake a loaf of bread
4. bake some cookies (ginger or chocolate chips?)
5. do dishes
6. visit One More Cup
7. finish reading Always Looking Up (Michael J. Fox)

It’s currently 9:37am. If I get started soon, I might actually complete the list. Here we go…

(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.

Life Without Facebook – Day 24

After counting the days in my calendar, it appears that I’ve made it past the half-way mark in my Lenten journey. I am proud to say that I have not cheated and logged into my Facebook account. Sometimes it’s hard, and I get really bored and don’t know what to look at on the internet, but I’ve survived. I’m not reading as much news and “important things” as I still feel that I should, but I think cutting out Facebook has improved this part of my life a tiny bit. I don’t plan on giving it up forever (at least not yet), but I’m hoping that this withdrawal will curb my “need” to use it.

One downside of not using Facebook is not having the ability to reach lots of people at once. I’m participating in the AIDS Walk Kansas City for the fourth year in a row, and I’m hoping to raise $250 by doing so. Please visit my fundraising page at http://www.firstgiving.com/emmaclaudius to make a donation. Any size contribution is greatly appreciated!

I’m thinking about trying to give up something else for 40 days when Lent is over. Soda? Fast food? Procrastinating? Unnecessary spending? If it takes 21 days to form a new habit, then doing something (or not doing something) for 40 should really make it concrete, right? Any thoughts on what I should get rid of for a while?

I finally uploaded the pictures from my vacation! You can check them out here. I’m still working on titling them (they just have number titles right now), but they can be looked at!

Blergh!

I am not a fan of forwards. Depending on who the e-mail comes from, I’ll scroll through it. But I almost never pass these messages on to others.

What’s the most annoying kind of forward that shows up in my inbox? The kind that are sent to me by people who supposedly know me but think I’ll want to read something in which the content is basically the complete opposite of my beliefs system. My mother (via my sister, via my brother-in-law) sent me one today about a statement the Prime Minister of Australia made discussing his support of activities to prevent terrorism, including spying in mosques. I am all for thwarting terrorism, but isn’t this racial/ethnic profiling? Shouldn’t they be keeping tabs on activities in all holy sites in the nation, if they must do it at all?

Anyway, while what the PM said bothers me, I’m more upset that my mother would send it to me. I’m even more bothered by the fact that apparently she, my sister, and brother-in-law all think this okay. Once people are legally living in a country, they are protected by that nation’s laws and citizen rights, regardless of their religion or primary language. They should not be spied on by their government (just like we shouldn’t have our phones tapped or our library records unsealed).

Check out the links below, if you’re interested in this sort of thing.

Ramblings

I’ve been back in good ol’ Kansas City for nearly a week now, and it’s good to be home. Being back at work isn’t so great (my desk is a war zone), but home is nice. Life was a little stressful when I returned, thanks to school. I had a paper due the night I returned and another due the following night (both were completed in a relatively timely fashion, but were lacking a bit in quality). Now that those papers are done, school is pretty quiet, at least for the week. No discussion board posts, no assignments due, and my 8-week class is in its final week. Hooray!

Florida was great. I got to visit the sites I wanted to see, as well as my family. And just being away from whining dogs and demanding work things was wonderful. I took some good photos and some mediocre photos, which are off my camera but not yet on the internet. I’ll try to post a few here, but I’ll upload them all to a photo-sharing website (which I’ll link to). It wasn’t crazy warm when I was there, but it was definitely nice. Lucky me, I left the day before KC was hit with 6 inches of snow. Actually, I was cruising around on a boat the day of the blizzard. Lovely!

Last night, a little boy Tabby cat found his way to our house and has taken a liking to us. We went by the vet this morning to get him scanned, but there was no microchip to be found. We put him in our basement last night because it was rather cold outside, and, boy, did he meow! And Brooke was going bonkers! If we end up keeping this little guy, I think we’re going to have quite the adjustment period on our hands. We’re still going to try to find an owner, so when I take his picture for the fliers, I’ll put one up. He’s adorable!

I need to do something… deep clean my house, organize ALL of our closets, bake some cookies and a pie for Pi day, clean the basement, organize the kitchen, walk the dogs (away from the stray kitty), watch the 5 movies I have checked out from the library, get rid of junk, UNPACK!

Life Without Facebook – Day 2

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday and the first day of Lent. It was also my first day without Facebook. I will admit that it was a little tough. I found myself at work, sitting at my computer, wondering what to do. I still haven’t given up reading celebrity news and gossip, so I was checking those sites (People, Deceiver, Go Fug Yourself) more often than usual. But I was thinking today on my way into work that I should try to replace all that Facebook time with actual work, news reading, or a combination (I’m shooting for option 3). It’s not that I don’t read the news now; I just don’t read as much as I should. Also, I am often on Slate reading news, which is really more op-ed than news. So, whenever I have the urge to get on Facebook and see what people that I don’t talk to are doing at this very moment, I will try to go to my homepage (The Washington Post) instead and read a news story with which I’m unfamiliar.

And if I was having any doubts about giving up Facebook for Lent… I was on Hulu last night watching clips from the most recent Alec Baldwin-hosted episode of Saturday Night Live, and one of the sketches was titled “The Cougar Den.” It was making fun of the possible trend of being a cougar or the total overuse of that term (or maybe both). During the sketch, the 3 cougars, who were hosting a show called “The Cougar Den,” had to pick up their Blackberries and stop for a Facebook break (they also stopped for a PedEgg break and discussed how the eggs were full of shavings… blech). I am proud to say that I have never used Facebook Mobile, and never will. And if there really are middle-aged men and woman who act like this and use Facebook as a way to “stay young,” then I certainly made the right choice.

I leave for Florida tomorrow night. Today in St. Petersburg the temperature high is 77 degrees Fahrenheit and the low is 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Hooray! There’s only a high of 57 degrees Fahrenheit in KC today. Dali and crab cakes, here I come!

Vacation

One week from today, I will be flying to St. Petersburg, Florida with my mom to spend 5 days and 6 nights with family. I think it’ll be nice to see everyone and spend some time away from work and winter, but I’m struggling just a bit with the packing issue.

I haven’t actually started packing yet, and there’s a few reasons for this:

• Most of my clothes are not exactly clean
• Most of my clothes do not fit me
• Since most of my clothes have not fit me (at least not well) for quite some time, I have been dreaming of the day when I will return to my original size. This has not yet taken place, and, therefore, much of my wardrobe is not what I want it to be (that of a 24 year old in 2009 vs. an 18 year old in 2003).

The biggest problem is that I don’t really have enough to pack for a 5 day trip. My day-to-day clothing is a recycling of the same 3 pairs of pants and 4 sweaters; all are both vacation and weather inappropriate. So now I have the dilemma of spending money. Should I just suck it up and buy some new clothes that fit well and make my rounded tummy a little less pronounced, or hold out even longer until I can make myself get active? I may have to go somewhere in the middle. Maybe I’ll buy a few things to get me through the trip, but not so much that I get any more adjusted to my current body than I already am.

What I want to wear everyday (in KC or St. Pete)