Breaks and Books

Here I sit at home on a Wednesday. I worked my 16 hour week (which oddly seemed much longer than the normal 40 hour week) and now I'm off until next Tuesday. I'm looking forward to the break, as some of my friends are home. Thanksgiving is my least favorite holiday, but I'm glad to not have to drive 4 hours this year to eat a good meal (although I do miss the gathering with my extended family). Plus it's finally Christmas time.

I've been doing an unnatural amount of reading lately. I finally finished The Historian. It was amazing and I now know other people reading the book as well. If you like Dracula or European History in general, I would highly recommend it. It was interesting to me, as a good portion of my heritage is Eastern European. I will definitely have to re-read the book in a few months time, as I feel like I didn't fully comprehend certain parts in my haste to find out what happened to all of the characters. It's way better than the Davinci Code, and it frankly bothers me that anybody has ever called it the "Dracula Code". No predictable Dan Brown formulas here!

Now, I'm into The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield (my second bestseller, oh my). The book is nothing like I thought it was going to be... I was expecting some bookish women talking about books (which is fine with me). She has created this super complicated and thrilling tale about a famous fictitious author's past. I've honestly never read anything like it, and can't wait to get to the end.

My mom and I both agreed on the greatness of The Thirteenth Tale and The Historian, which is rare, considering that her favorite author is Anne Perry (a murder mystery novelist, who actually has an interesting life... ever seen Heavenly Creatures?) and I prefer books that have bibliographies and have well, a bit less popular value (i.e. I don't read Tom Clancy or John Grisham). Needless to say, we rarely agree on what makes a good book. In fact, these two books join the ranks of the Harry Potter Series and A Wrinkle in Time. I'm happy that we could double our list.

My circulation list at Brenau shows that I have 12 books checked out (4 are not mine). In addition to some personal copies, I have 11 thick books to read between now and January 3rd... can I do this?

I can't believe that I've spent minutes admitting how much of a nerd I am....

"Happiness is a warm puppy"

I love the Peanuts. I'm in bed right now with my "puppy," who is laying on the bottom corner. He's not a puppy anymore (turned 14 this past Friday), but hanging out with my dog is true happiness. May you rest in peace Chuck Schulz.

I'm not sure if November has progressed in its former drab-ness yet. Last Tuesday I managed to leave my car lights on for a good 10 hours... so not only did I have to call AAA (happy that I have it), but I had to deal with all of this at night, in a town that I don't know (Gainesville), and in the pouring rain. I didn't even get to vote, although I'm not disappointed in the way things have turned out. The next day, after my friend's dad's funeral, I had to call AAA again, when a friend locked her keys out of the car. I'm happy to say that they are getting plenty of business. This all added to my general feeling of "sucking at life" (and I mean at ALL areas) that I have been harboring as of late.

But life goes on, and things could be sooo much worse, and I'm happy to say that after a weekend of accomplishing much and hanging out with good friends, that I feel better. I finally finished Marie Antoinette: a journey (took me 3 weeks!), which was really good, minus the graphic part about the parading of the Princesse de Lamballes' head and heart on separate pikes to the tower where the king and queen (the Capets by that time) were imprisoned. Definitely had some nightmares after that one...

I am now reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, which is really cool. I get pretty scared reading it too though, as it is about Vlad the Impaler (this 15th century leader of Wallachia, which is near Transylvania), who basically scares the shit out of me from his history alone (who wouldn't be scared of a guy who liked to have his meals outside near the thousands of people he impaled). So I can only read this book during the day or when a bunch of people are at the house. Yes, I am a wimp, but I highly recommend the book, even though I'm only 100 odd pages into it.

I've been getting a lot of Christmas shopping done, so that I won't have much to do when December hits (also so I won't find myself too poor once Christmas finally rolls around). Other than that, I'm just looking forward to Thanksgiving break (starts next Wednesday!).

When it Rains...

It sure does pour!

November has definitely not started on a good note.

Last night I got a call from Adrian about one of our best friend's dad. Basically he died suddenly and it's left us all a bit shocked. I can't even imagine what kind of pain the family is experiencing. I have known the man since I was 12. He took a lot of pride in this country as member of the military and was perhaps one of the smartest people I have ever met, with a wealth of knowledge of political science and history. It is my Christmas project to FINALLY read the only book he ever gave me, Sarum (British History). This is a sad sad event. He will be greatly missed.

My brother got another job, which was great. His old boss who originally moved him into a service writer position hired him. Well, upper management fired the boss, and then told my brother to work more hours with a MUCH lower salary. With a wife who doesn't work and a 2 year old, he had no choice but to quit. Why is this happening to him?

Bad things usually come in threes. I would say that the third bad thing, was possibly my friend Jon moving to Colorado, but it's actually a good thing because he's starting his professional career as a medical illustrator... I'm just selfish, and lacking in testosterone friendships at the moment. I'll just hope that nothing bad happens in the near future.

I hope all of your Novembers are off to a much better start!