Currently Watching Marty (1954) By Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti, Augusta Ciolli, Joe Mantell see related

So, this is starting to get like my first ten years of marriage, where every Valentine's Day I wouldn't get anything but an apology....I need to resolve to NOT start my blogs with an apology or excuse for not blogging regularly, I just need to do it and move on.

Life is quiet but moving at a steady pace.  Decided we would take a short trip to Nauvoo around Spring Break and hope to have convinced my sister to come down too! That would be muy cool for Hannah, who suffers from not enough cousin time with cousins that want her around. I love Nauvoo at Spring Break, it isn't the crowded, humid mess it is in the Summer and it makes me more nostalgic for the pioneers anyway.  Kind of a good grey gloom, like the weather they left in.

Read some good book lately, since I am procrastinating my online coursework.  I finally finished "In His Steps", it was good, made me think and re-assess some.  Then for fun, read "The Year of Living Biblically" that Kate gave David for Xmas.  I waited for him to finish and then devoured it...what a rip, it was at times funny and at times poignant.  Made me sad for the write tho' that he never found anything solid.  I guess with his "all you can eat buffet" approach to looking at religion, he wasn't going to find "truth" as much as "truthes". But it was a thoughtful read.   Then, I tackled "The Kite Runner".  Not for the faint of heart, but absolutely riveting.  A very well crafted stroy and an interesting look into Afghanistan as it was.  I hear his next book, "A  Thousand Suns" is even better.  I liked it the way I like "Memoirs of a Geisha", how you could feel and taste these cultures you would never know otherwise.

My next book is "Suite Francais" by a Russian imigre in France who wrote this in the early 40's in occupied France and died in the camps.  I realized, I had never read a novel by someone who wrote about that period but didn't survive to see the end...of course there is Anne Frank's biography, but this is a work of fiction and by an accomplished writer not a young writer.  I am looking forward to what "flavors" and "sounds" it will have as that is my favorite period of time to read about.

So, so much for my internal life, as for the external,  been doing the YMCA thing.  We have a really nice Y, the pool temp is like bathwater...yummy.  And I can ride a recumbent bike and watch TV, any channel I want for as long as I want...dang, you can't beat that.  Hannah likes it too, so its a nice mommy/daughter thing we do together. 

Only other news is that the new kitten is psycho, but no more so than me for thinking a new kitten would be "just the ticket".  Oy vay, that cat.  He is, at turns, charming and sweet and then BANZAI, look out, Hobbes re-incarnate.  He NEEDS to lose his "needle teeth" and get some adult ones because we are all full of holes. And poor Charlie just looks up at us as if to say, "What were you thinking?"  Oh well, at least it adds some spice to our lives, even if it is ill-timed, nocturnal, sneak attack type of spice.  And he sneezes!  In your face! I think that he does it on purpose...wet sneezes.  Weird cat.  Weird cat lady.

Oh well, enough for now.  TTYL

yeah, it's been forever...Xanga is the graveyard of the of the demi-decade.  But, I have a fondness for it...it's about the words.  Still best for blogging, as opposed to Facebook which handles the picture and message thing all nice and purty.  MySpace...whoof, just scary now.  Like Spawn of Satan scary. It's like a trip into the Spencer's Gift on acid.  And if I have to endure one more picture of someone lying on their bed, arm extended taking a pix of themselves, good gosh, should that not indicate that the picture just doesn't need to be taken?  Do you know how uncomfortable it should make you to know what the wall opposite every bathroom mirror in America looks like?  It should make you REALLY uncomfortable.

Maybe Xanga is all that much cooler because all the posers are gone...like birddogs chasing the latest butterfly.  Now Xanga can be my Zen-garden instead of the food court at the mall, right?

So, Christmas is coming soon.  I must say, this will be the most different Christmas we have had.  Very lowkey, a few gifts, none of the huge hoopla.  With Kate gone, I haven't gone to every single wrestling match, though I will catch a few just to keep up.  That has really cleared the December calendar.  So, we have been able to just do the day to day, and still have time to do nice things for people, which is what this season needs to be about.  Hannah is enjoying not running to and fro, or being dragged to and fro, more exactly.  I haven't even stepped foot in the stores yet,  and didn't do the huge day after T-day thing.  It is a bit like deciding NOT to watch the news,  you find that the world still turns, but you don't have to get whiplash in the front seat of the rollercoaster.  Quite a pleasant way to stay focused on the things I can have an impact on, like my family, friends, and work.  Church shootings in Colorado, 24-7, just isn't how I want to occupy my energies.

So, what's been interesting in my life?  Read some really good books lately, because I don't want to do my online course...so, I can highly recommend "Infidel" by Aayan Hirsi Ali.  Great look at what third world Islamic belief is like.  Picked up "In His Steps" by Charles Sheldon and have started it.  I remember my mom had it on our bookshelf in my youth and I tried reading it, but at 9 it was a bit over my head.  For fun, I keep going back to "Born to Kvetch, Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its Moods" by Michael Wex.  It is actually quite scholarly, but snarky.  Who can beat snarky scholarship....

As for music,  well, I am one of those people you hate...I could listen to Christmas music year round, so midnight on Thanksgiving Day, I felt it was finally ok and I tuned in to B98 to listen to the tunes!  Christmas tree went up the day after T-day and except for a spot teh size of a dinner plate that just looks a bit "wan" in comparison to the other lit parts,  it is a beautiful tree.  Especially now that we found the STAR for the top, but that is a long story and Joe hates it when I write epic tales.

Hope all who read this are warm and cozy and enjoying the season!

yeah, Joe took me to task, I don't update often enough.  Kate will tell you it is because I type so poorly that it takes this long to compose an entry, HA!

Dad's visit came and went.  Always nice to see him. We hung out basically. Cool when you can do that..Sharon seemed bored, but I can't be running around all the time..It doesn't help that I had to squeeze in work where I could and that Hannah is all about wanting to do every expensive thing in Wichita..I hate being put in the middle of Grandparents that would indulge (but not think well of your kid while indulging) and a grandchild who doesn't have the capacity to see that her enthusiasm for life could also be viewed as "gimmeee, gimmeee".  Not sure if that makes sense, but I know what I mean.  Anywho, went to MTW this weekend, Mattress was good, welldone, but so lightweight, I want my Phantom back. I want to go and know that I will have a good weep when it is all done. And be swept up in the glorious music.  We finally got the Phantom soundtrack, but Kate took it with her to SOAR, so I only got to whet my appetite adn truth be told, it isn't as good as Matt Bogart does it.  He has this most marvelous way of emoting while not seeming to be calculating as he does it.  The catches in his voice at just the moment, and the same for his father's song...man, I lose it on that one.

So, back to the basic grownup stuff.  Work, trying to get my checkbook balanced and the bills paid. I procrastinate that like none other, till it gets perilous, then of course, I stay up late to do it and whine about being tired. Guess I do some of my own drama. 

Got the class schedule for Educatoin Week.  I am pumped.  I feel like a 14yrold, willing my summer away so I can get to the next good part.  I should know better.  I am having a birthday next week, and trust me, it isn't my 15th!  My mom comes home from her mission in 17 days!!!  that will be great and sad at the same time.  Her life has been so interesting, while spilling over into mine a little too much (long story endless) but nonetheless, she will no longer be able to just call up Stas and give him a hard time on our account, so that will be sad.  It will, however, be great to have her home and see her at Education Week!

Well, Joe, sorry, went over the word count limit again, but glad you are there to let me know I am real...you know, that whole if you scream and no one is out there to hear conundrum.  Tah!

Well, home from Girls Camp, minus a few quarts of blood, donated to the mosquitoes of the Great Plains Region.  Man, they find the craziest places to bite, but I won't elucidate, so you won't have to poke out your minds eye. Had a blast, got my first sunburn of the summer, always good for the complexion.  Love hanging out away from the phone, with crazy girls who let me act like a crazy girl.  And sleeping in cabins in the rain is about the best thing EVER!

Back to the grind...but not for long.  My dad is coming to visit tomorrow, so I am taking some more time off this week. Gonna hang for a few days and then back at it again.  That's about it, nothing to stellar, just mellow...