JANITORS

So my best friend... can I call you that Hil?... well her brother-in-law recently had a book published. He's on a book tour right now and will come to Central Texas soon, as part of his book tour. I'm very excited about this.

Here's a screen shot of Janitors being advertised on Deseret Book dot com:

If you're into books set for 9-12 year olds, you can buy the book here. And here's the trailer for it:

Looks like some fun reading to me! I hope to pick it up over the Christmas break from law school.

Congrats Tyler on being published!

Today in the Mail

My computer is at the Apple Store getting its' own surgery (cracked keyboard) so I'm blogging from Russ's computer. Because of this, I don't have access to my photos about my adventures in surgery, or the other 10 blogposts I'm behind on.

So today I will blog about the book we got in the mail. Really, Russ got in the mail. Okay, so this is a blog about something Russ really likes. But I am starting to get interested in as well. Doesn't that always happen in marriage? It happens in ours. Russ gets into something and then it becomes my favorite, like this post. Or I get into something and then Russ also starts to love it. Like... Mumford & Sons I guess. Or Eggs Benedict. Or French Onion Soup.

Okay, so today in the mail we got this book:

So while I should be studying and getting ahead, instead I am reading things like:

• How to suck at Facebook (my fav's: the Infant Profile, the Desperate Marketer, & the Horrible Photo Tagger).
• 6 Reasons Bacon is Better than True Love
• 8 Ways to Prepare Your Pets for War
• The 7 Types of a Crappy Pedestrian (my fav's: The Texter, The Death Wish, & the Pacematching Stranger)

If you're looking for a funny distraction, I recommend you buy it.

Check it out here.

Cluster Cuss of Thoughts

I've got a lot of thoughts here. Or, as the girl from Mean Girl's says, "I just have a lot of feelings!"

Either way, I have them. And normally I try to parse them out in this blog or tell them to Russ over our multiple daily conversations. But tonight Russ is far away. So this blog is going to hear it all.

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Russ being gone is sort of my first point. He is in some remote part of West Texas. Where there is no cell phone reception. But a lot of pretty things. I'm a little jealous.

I forgot he couldn't get phone calls. So I tried to call him tonight and was dismayed to get his voicemail. Because of this, I got all down on myself about not being able to talk to him. I had a real "woe is me" attitude about it. That is, until I thought about all my friends who are military wives. I thought of one in-particular who has two small boys. I thought about how the last time she saw her husband was before Thanksgiving. I quit feeling the woes. And I said a small prayer for my friend.

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I also listened to Fresh Air today as I drove to the grocery store. One of my Professors today jokingly told us to listen to NPR today (He was chiding a student for not knowing what was happening in Lybia).

I tuned in as I drove down the frontage rode and jumped into this story about the book I Think I Love You. It made me want to read leisurely again so much! I remembered when I Skyped with my Dad earlier today. My Dad's lawyer was in the room as well and said to me, "The Third Year of law school is the worst. You'll get so tired of reading cases."
Well Mr. Dad's Lawyer, I'm there. I want to read again for fun. I was about half way through Team of Rivals last I read. (Footnote: I have a pet peeve of people who hate fiction and only read historical. Really? That's all you read? Get an imagination. I just don't understand...)
So this book intrigued me because it seemed to be about somethings that I find fascinating:

• Teen Love vs. Real Love
• Women can do their Father's jobs but are still expected to do their Mother's responsibilities
• Fear of your children repeating your choices, or hope that they will
• Preempting another's judgment of you

Anyway, add that to my bucket list. But my thoughts didn't stop here. I thought of all the books I want to write. And I got excited. Mmmm.... I need to write those down....

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Another thought that has being weighing on my mind is my friends. Friends that are struggling right now. My dear, dear friends that are akin to my brothers and sisters. And I'm talking about multiple friends. Friends that don't know each other... some that do. There's one specifically that I think about when I'm about to drift off to sleep. I quickly get on my knees and plead that they will be guided, helped, and healed at this difficult time.

But really this whole thing just got me thinking about real friendship. While I am grateful to be there for my friends, I can't help but worry that I'm saying or doing the right things. Listening at the right times, giving advice at the right times. I definitely don't want to drive them away. But this seems sort of narcissistic. Here they are struggling and all I can do is think about myself. This bothered me a bit... but then I came to a conclusion that made me feel better. Perhaps for my own comfort. I think at the end of the day I want my friends to know that I care and that I love them. I hope the one impression I leave with people is that I love. I care. I do not judge and point, but that I love them.

Sort of a cheesy thought, but it holds true. But that's the truth.

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Well lastly I think a lot about law school. I need to get back to it. It's about to get tough. And, you know, I feel like this always happens to me. I'm always doing something important, working on some major project, and I have a week where everything happens at once. That is next week. Every day next week I have serious and important things happening... expect for maybe Wednesday. So maybe on Wednesday I'll sleep 5 hours. But here's what it's shaping up to be:

• Monday: Opening Statement for Mini-Trial
• Tuesday: Advocacy Lecture, followed by pre-op appointment.
• Wednesday: Read, Sleep, Prepare, Repeat
• Thursday: Direct/Cross Examination for Mini-Trial
• Friday: Surgery

The good news is that the following week is Spring Break. And if I'm going to enjoy that, then I better get back to reading. Much love blog readers! I told you it was going to be a cluster!

The Painted Veil

I loved this movie.

I thought the movie was an interesting exploration of love, forgiveness, and marriage.

This past weekend, I read the book.

I thought it would have the same themes as the movie, but it didn't. Isn't that interesting to read the same story but from a somewhat different angle?

Anyway, I thought the book was an interesting exploration of love, inner peace, and the personal journey of spirituality. It was more of an individualistic journey than a journey experienced in marriage. I loved this book.

So, I recommend you pick it up.

P.S. I realize that I have strong interest in these themes.

In a way, the novel reminded me of LOST. So now I am re-watching the LOST finale.

I read a Book, Russ read a Book

Chow- The Bell Jar
I went into this book with a critical eye. I admired the author in high school, and thought I would have "advanced" beyond liking that kind of stuff. I was quite humbled. I was wrapped into a story I felt I had lived, well at least some parts. But it was beautiful. I have a renewed love for Plath and amazed that I was so smart in high school.

Russ- Twilight
I am not commenting. I do not like Bella. I don't want to tell people I read it. I don't understand the "Teams". Why is it Team Edward, etc. There are no "teams" in the book. I liked the book better than the movie.

What will we read next?

-Chow (Russ notes were from previous conversations and persistent asking while blogging.)

A Book I Liked

As many of you know from that obnoxious facebook list, I rarely read a book I like, although I frequently read books. I tend to finish a book in a week because I find the writing so poor and tortuous to read but I can not leave a book unfinished (except In Cold Blood because I had nightmares).

So, finding one I like is a rare find. And it came from a source I was skeptical of; Helen Hopkins.



Helen was introduced to us when she was baptized (at age 80+!). She adores Russ (sometimes threatens to romance him away from me, but all in good fun). She loves a good romance novels and before she was baptized, her big life change was to stop reading them ( I don't know if you're supposed to, but she did). Anyway, we had her over for Thanksgiving dinner and she lent me a book, "Washington's Lady".


Yes, I said Thanksgiving. I so doubted the reccomendation and was feeling quite fed up with my lack of finding a good book, I didn't pick it up until I starting working in a art gallery (Lladro).

Purchases are large but few and so I had lots of downtime to read. And, I was skeptical at first. The book is a historical fiction about Martha Washington. In the first few chapters when George Washington proposed I just about yacked.

But once that was done, the history came in, and the human emotion came in. There were paragraphs that I thought, "this is well written" and honestly there were some I thought, "please, get off the soap box". But overall I finished the book near having watery eyes (which is the state of being before you cry- so I was before the before you cry state) as the father of our country died.

The back had an editors note to define what was real and what was made up, and I appreciated the differentiation between the two as I read a long.


So! Thank you Ms. Helen Hopkins, I have enjoyed a book for the first time since... I'm going to say 2006 when I read "East of Eden".

In other news I completed my application for the University of Texas School of Law. I realize that broadcasting I applied to the 15th ranked school in the nation may 'hex' my chances of acceptance, but I take the Jennifer Borget approach of being an open book. If I don't get in, I think I'll know I tried my best and Russ and I are needed elsewhere. if I do get in, Hilary, Jamie, Betsy, and any other Texan pals can dance in the streets with me and scream "HOOK 'EM HORNS!".




Well, this is the update. Thanks for reading. next book on my list will either be 'The Book Thief' as referred to by my sweet mom, a book Chelsea Adams referred me to, or the book Raquel Bell recently blogged about. But please, keep your recommendations coming. Finding a good book is far and few but the gratification of the find is so worth the search.