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!