Dear Rush, Time Really Doesn't Stand Still No Matter How Much You Want It To!

Spring sprang and major leaks (some might even say floods) appeared in my life. My mom got sicker and between looking after her, housework, homework, actual work, and such I basically forgot what fun was. Don't let the Rush reference fool you, this entry is about books. There hadn't been much recreational reading going on in my life until last week. My recent genre of choice, you may ask? The cozy mystery. I normally go on "cozy" binges during the fall and winter, but they just seemed to fit my mood right now.

Mystery devouring was going along swimmingly, I had read 5 or 6 in a row, when I suddenly had a thought ... "cozy" mysteries are odd if you really take the time to dissect them. In most cases the author creates a charming small town or village that we the readers would love to move to. The people are interesting, the hobbies relaxing, the architecture soothing; all in all the world is indeed cozy ... that is until you remember that the death rate in these towns are HIGH! Come on, think about it, there I was finishing up the newest Seaside Knitters book, Moon Spinners by Sally Goldenbaum, and I found myself thinking that I would move to Sea Harbor in a heartbeat. It has everything I'm looking for in a hometown: a. the ocean, b. a really great LYS (local yarn store to you non knitters out there), c. a bookstore, and d. nice people including single rugged fisherman and single handsome artists/ musicians ... and a lot of murders. Hmmmm. Maybe I need to rethink how I would decorate my fictional Sea Harbor cottage .... or maybe not. It's possible that I could learn to overlook the danger because of all of the above mentioned benefits. Anyway, this realization isn't enough to get me to stop reading "cozies", after all I have a lunch appointment at a little tea shop in Charleston scheduled for tomorrow and it would be bad manners to cancel at this late of a date.

Should've Known Better ...

I tempted fate by complaining about yesterday, Today we discovered our entire basement is flooded. The water that covers the floor is 7 inches deep. How did we find out the basement was flooded you may ask? Well see the power blew in the dining room and half of the kitchen. While on a breaker and fuse hunt in the dark we stepped off of the stairs right into it. Surprise!

so now ,
floods: 1 us: zero
no electricity: 1 1/2 us: zero

Currently I am mainlining Girl Scout cookies and gatherings flashlights and batteries in preparation for the apocalypse.

Seesaw or Merry-Go-Round?

I can't decide if my life is more like a seesaw or more like a merry-go-round spinning out of control ... either way it doesn't feel anything like a picnic.

The Highlights from My Day:

6:40 am - Woke up to cat projectile vomiting a hairball on to my quilt ... the quilt that had just recently been laundered to remove the evidence of the last hairball attack. Cleaned quilt to the best of my ability and tossed and turned until 7:30 am.

11:30 am - Was attacked by various office supplies ... this actually happened a few times today. The hole-puncher and I have a re-match scheduled for tomorrow. I'm pretty sure the printer is taking bets.

2:40 pm - Received phone call explaining that my ride .... aka my mother (car ownership & my driving issues are a WHOLE other story) ... will be late because of a Cold Case episode.

3:20 pm - 3:45 pm - Received additional phone call, this one from a hysterically sobbing mother, explaining that she had fallen and couldn't get up. No she's not like the woman in the commercial. She's only 61, but she has M.S. and is awaiting a hip replacement, so mobility is not her strong suit. Am having heart palpitations thinking about the fact that she is home alone, when kind boss whisks me home quickly & I play Mission Extricate Mom From The Spot Where She Is Wedged ... final tip: tank tops work well as the basis for a leverage system ... and the ending of Cold Case was apparently predictable.

add in grocery store excursions, homework, cooking, money woes, bill paying, and other various good daughter activities ... plus the stuff I'm unwilling to bore you with/fess up to ... and you basically have every day of my life lately. Sure there are many, many people who are worse off, but man somethings got to give soon!

sheesh and it isn't even May yet!

Books, Books, Books

Grad school has put a serious cramp on my recreational reading. I miss fun reading. For me a day without reading for fun is basically a day where I'm cranky and grumpy. I've been cranky and grumpy A LOT lately. I decided to put an end to this ... partly because I was starting to fear for the lives of the innocents around me. I learned how to read quickly but asides from a love affair with The Baby Sitters Club books, Sweet Valley books, The Little House books, The Anne of Green Gables series, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the works of Beverly Cleary, Marguerite Henry, Madeleine L'Engle and picking up books here and there, I started reading adult books early on and rarely looked back. It wasn't until I was running the Children's & Young Adult sections of a bookstore that I finally realized how much I had missed. Don't get me wrong, it turns out I had read more than I remembered, but man the stuff I had missed!

In the interest of saving my overworked brain cells I have decided to devote 2010 to reading the Children's and Young Adult titles that I missed along the way ... with old favorites thrown into the mix. The first two series I jumped into were the Mary Poppins books by P.L. Travers and the Paddington books by Michael Bond. Both very enjoyable and oh, so British that I wished I was back in London curled up in my bed in my old terrible flat (REALLY TERRIBLE, but great duvet) with some crumpets and tea happily reading away while the rain pattered on the window.

Next up is A Wrinkle in Time. This is one of my absolute favorite books of all time. It tops the "Books I Re-read Every Year" List, but that's another post entirely. Just reading the first sentence, "It was a dark and stormy night", takes me back to a million and one places and a million and one feelings. I have so many favorite lines and moments that I don't even know where to begin. Each time I re-read it I take something new away. I have read my way through four copies and I will own a copy until the day I die. I often feel as lost as Meg and I'm still looking for my Calvin O'Keefe ... someone to tell me I have "dreamboat eyes" and who will love me prickles and all. In the words of Mrs. Whatsit, "wild nights are my glory" ... A storm is blowing like mad outside and I'm ready to hop into bed and dip into Chapter Three a cat by my side. Sheer bliss!

You've Got to Be Carefully Taught

I haven't mentioned this yet, but I'm in grad school. The class that I am taking right now is about diversity, prejudice, and discrimination. I have spent the last two days quoting Rodgers & Hammerstein's "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" for various assignments. The message of the song is true. We are shaped by but we learn at home. Lately I have been thinking about one lesson I learned at home more and more ...

I grew up in a very tense household, but unlike other houses, the tension wasn't between my parents but rather, caused by my grandmother. My grandmother lived with us from the time I was one until I was 14. She was a very unhappy woman and she was verbally abusive on a daily basis. Whenever my parents got some extra money together or time off from work they would take my brother and I away on a trip so we could escape. They wanted to us to have happy times. More often than not we ended up at Walt Disney World ... hey if you want to be happy where else should you go but "The Happiest Place on Earth"?, but we would also take crazy drives to D.C., Amish Country, Annapolis, Chincoteague, and Williamsburg. We kept this practice up even after my father lost his high paying job when I was 13. Dark times have followed us for years, and even though it was fiscally irresponsible we continued to travel. These experiences have left me with a few things: 1. An extreme wanderlust and a very long list of places I want to see; 2. a desire to flee to somewhere else for just a little bit whenever the going gets tough; and 3. the belief that it isn't crazy to drive three states over just for lunch.

Right now I am going through one of those times where nothing is going right and I just can't shake the cloud of doom that is hanging over me. I want to flee, because hey, that's what I have been taught to do, but I am a little more responsible. I know I'm broke and I don't want to add to my debt, so instead I stay sad and continue to read about places that I wish I was at instead of here ... and I dream and I dream, and hope that sometime life will be better.

"Swagger Wagon" ... Really America, Really?

Recently Toyota began airing new commercials for their Sienna mini-van. The first one I saw made me laugh, I could appreciate the idea of the mom using the totally luxurious minivan as her own personal spa, but then I saw THIS ONE ... The "Swagger Wagon"...

shudder ... shudder ...shudder

I'm hoping that Toyota is using this setup to mock, but sadly I've been around parents like this who were serious. I'm sure there have been people like those that I have known, who see this commercial and think "Awesome! A car that shows just how fabulous we are. Envy us world, bow at our trendy feet."

again shudder ... shudder ... shudder

"Getting to Know You" ... Bonus points will be awarded if you hum the song while reading this ...

Do you even know the song? I do!

I'm a theatre dork ... and a movie nerd ... and a TV geek, so it is fair to say that I have seen my fair share of Inside the Actor's Studio Episodes.

drumroll please ... maybe some trumpet blasts ... nah scratch the trumpets.

Here comes the first round of getting to know you ala Pivot & Proust:

Question One - What sounds or noises do you love?

My Answer - The ocean, rainstorms, a baby’s laugh, and I loved my grandfather’s voice when he would read me a story ... it was rumbly & perfect!

What's yours?

Here Goes Nothing ...

Ahem ... Is there anyone out there? Maybe, maybe not ... but here goes nothing. I have never been a successful journal writer before, my grammar leaves much to be desired, and my computer skills are limited, so this may end up being the most boring blog in the world, but welcome to Wandering & Wondering. I'm a newly 30 year old female who is a little lost and still trying to find my way in the world. Come read my ramblings about my passions: books, music, movies, TV, theatre, pop culture, travel, knitting, and recognizing life's absurdities. Even if nobody else reads this it'll be good for me to get it all down!