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  • Book Review: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

    Neverwhere was the book I was sent (by the lovely Nora) for the blogger book swap hosted by Stephany. I was really excited that she chose it because it’s one I’ve been wanting to read for ages but didn’t own. I’m a big fan of fantasy, even the weird stuff, but I think that Neil Gaiman’s fantasy would be palatable for even those who don’t normally find themselves with their head in another world.

    But anyway, back to the book. Neverwhere follows our protagonist Richard Mayhew through an adventure in an underground world of London. He was living a perfectly normal life until he decides to rescue an injured girl who appeared out of nowhere on the street, and the next day he discovers that he has ceased to exist in the eyes of anyone in his (now former) life. Thus begins his descent into an alternate London on his quest to get his old life back, meeting outrageous characters and having adventures along the way.

    This Wizard of Oz-esque story was easy to read and a ton of fun. I thought all of the characters were interesting, but my favorite was probably the Marquis de Carabas because he is clever, sarcastic, and you never could quite determine whether to trust him. There were a few small-ish plot twists to keep things interesting, and the conclusion is satisfying.

    I rate the book 4 stars out of 5, only because it lacked the emotion to really connect me with the characters. It’s hard to describe, but it was just missing some sort of oomph, maybe some sort of depth, to make it one of my favorites. However, I had a blast reading it and sometimes that’s all that matters.

  • Current Obsessions: Sick Edition

    I started feeling sick on Monday, and by Wednesday afternoon I had thrown in the towel. This cold, or whatever it is, has hit me hard. I won’t get into all my ailments, old lady style, but trust me when I say that they are numerous.

    The only times that I have ever called in sick to work are when I had gastroenteritis and ended up in the ER, and when I had my miscarriage. But since I’m not allowed to take hardly any medication at the moment I haven’t been able to stay on top of this one. (Plus, since nearly all of my patients are immunocompromised and our routine discharge instructions involve telling them to stay away from sick people, being at work like this would kind of make me feel like a hypocrite.)

    The end result is that I’ve been home for the past two days and I don’t think I’ve taken off my robe for 48 hours straight. Here’s what’s been helping me survive in the absence of Mucinex or Sudafed.

    1. Halls Breezers, cool berry flavor. These are my favorite cough drops. They taste like candy, not like medicine at all! And of course, are completely soothing.

    2. Water. Lots and lots of it.

    3. Chicken bouillon. Nothing better than a warm cup of broth when you’re sick. I’ve probably had about 32 ounces of it in the past two days.

    4. Humidifier. This is a lifesaver for nighttime. Since I can’t breathe out of my nose very well, it helps me not to wake up with cracked lips and eases my raging sore throat.

    5. Tylenol and Benadryl. These are the only two medicines that I’ve taken, and they help somewhat, although the Benadryl makes me sleep so I only take it at night.

    6. HGTV and Netflix streaming. There are so many things I would have loved to do these past two days, starting with the dishes, but I have barely had the energy to feed myself and I’m pretty proud of the fact that I showered. Instead, I’ve been watching nonstop HGTV interspersed with episodes of Veronica Mars on Netflix instant streaming and, of course, naps.

    7. A super sweet husband. He’s babied me, brought me food and water and supplies, taken care of the dogs, forced me to rest, and given me two of the sweetest cards. See one for yourself:

    The fact that I’m writing this I think means that I’m over the worst of it, and I hope I didn’t just jinx myself by saying that. What are your sickness survival techniques?

  • Currently In February

    I try to get these currently posts up in the first few days of each month, but here we are nearing double digits and I’ve been woefully absent. Ah, well.

    Current Book(s): Oh, I’m reading such a fantastic book called Great With Child by Beth Ann Fennelly. It’s a collection of letters from the parent of a toddler to a newly-pregnant young woman, but the letters read almost like poetry. It’s helping me with my own pregnancy, but it’s also inspiring me in so many other ways.

    Current Playlist: The only music I’ve really listened to lately is when I’m in the car with David. He’s obsessed with the band Against Me! right now, and I reluctantly admit that their songs are quite catchy.

    Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure: Possibly watching The Bachelor, but I’m not really ashamed. It is what it is, y’all.

    Current Drink: Lots and lots of water. I’m fighting off a cold, and I really don’t want it to get worse! I just bought myself this Nalgene water bottle, and I love it; it makes drinking so much easier and more fun.

    Current Food: My pregnancy nausea is now gone, if you don’t count my nightly ritual of gagging while brushing my teeth, and I have now entered the stage where I have to restrain myself from eating everything in sight. My latest desire has been BLT sandwiches, of which I have eaten more in the past few weeks than I have in all of 2010. However, my overindulgence in food has also led to some rather uncomfortably fullness and heartburn, so I am now back on the (mostly) healthy eating train.

    Current Favorite Show: There are a lot of TV shows I wish I could watch, but I don’t want to start in the middle of them. I’ll eventually catch up on Netflix. But I decided to watch American Idol again this season, and so far I’m loving it.

    Current Wishlist: I would be so grateful to have a new computer. My little MacBook is about five years old now and doesn’t support many of the upgraded Mac features. It crashed once, but I was able to get it back up and running and it is still chugging along nicely, but recently the screen got damaged so that there is a huge black line running through it diagonally. It’s pretty dang annoying. Anyway, since mine is still working fine I’ve decided to save up for a new one over a year. Gotta stick to the budget!

    Current Needs: To figure out what to do with our dog, Oliver. He got into another fight with our other dog Cleo, the worst one yet. They both have wounds, but Cleo’s are worse because Oliver is twice her size. Oliver has now attacked at least five dogs. David is fed up and wants to get rid of him. I guess that’s best but…he’s still so sweet to us. I’m attached to him. And also, where will he go?

    Current Triumphs: I went to work today when I really, really wanted to call in sick. Sometimes it’s the little things, right?

    Current Bane(s) of my Existence: Keeping the dogs apart is a HUGE pain. But if we let them in the same room with each other, a fight will break out. Also, I’m having a lot of trouble being on time to work. The company policy says that once you have six tardies you get a warning, and you are terminated once you have ten (in a calendar year). Well, I already have FOUR! I’m bitter because, for example, this morning I woke up at 5 a.m., left my house at 6:10 a.m., and didn’t clock in until 7:40 a.m., ten minutes late. My commute is brutal and I’m dependent on the bus.

    Current Celebrity Crush: No new ones at the moment, what about you?

    Current Indulgence: See above answers under “current food” and “current favorite show”.

    Current Blessing(s): An absolutely perfect birthday weekend which I just might share more about if I get around to it!

    Current Outfit: I’m totally bummin’ out in sweats.

    Current Excitement: My second birthday dinner tomorrow night, finding out our baby’s gender in three weeks, the fact that I’m finally getting a little bit of a bump, writing real letters to friends, and the weekend. I’m always excited about the weekend.

    Current Link: Free desktop wallpaper!

    Happy February!

  • stuff and things and whatnot

    So it’s February now, and I want to admit that I completely, utterly, and rather spectacularly failed at my January goals. Apparently I overestimated the amount of work I can get done during the week, and underestimated pregnancy tiredness. Here’s a summary:

    I meant to…

    • Declutter the whole house, but I only did my bathroom and one drawer in the kitchen
    • Exercise once a week, but I only did yoga once
    • Walk the dogs twice a week, but I only took Oliver twice
    • Accomplish two nagging tasks, but I didn’t do any of them

    I’m okay with this. These are just going to have to become ongoing goals. I discovered that I’m really not going to be getting much done after work during the week other than daily chores, and if I don’t block out some time on the weekends to work on projects then the time will be taken up by social outings or TV show marathons.

    In other news, my birthday is on Saturday so I’m celebrating all week long as usual. Even though I was given a not-so-welcome gift of freezing cold weather, I’m still having a great week. Work has been going so well, David and I have had a couple of relaxing nights together, I have some fun plans for this weekend, and I let myself order a few things that I’ve had my eye on. I love birthday week.

    I have no pregnancy updates for you, considering I’m still not really showing and I haven’t felt the baby move yet. It’s pretty hard not to get anxious about it, but I’m trying my best because I know this is normal. I could do without the almost-daily hormonal headaches, but it’s an even trade for the return of my voracious appetite.

    Anyway, to bring this bit of rambling full circle, this month I plan to continue working on the house, focus on my marriage a la The Happiness Project, and hopefully thoroughly enjoy myself. How about you?

  • Book Review: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

    It’s been awhile since I’ve written a book review here, but I want to bring them back. It’s a good discipline for me because it helps me think more deeply about what I’ve read instead of crashing into the next book, and since I love reading my friends’ book reviews I’m hoping that some of you will benefit from reading mine.

    ***

    I recently finished The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen for book club. It came highly recommended to me by my friend Spring, whose taste I admire. When I read the summary my first question to her was, “Is it super depressing?” I wasn’t in the mood for that. She said no, absolutely not, so I jumped right in.

    The story is about a dysfunctional family. The parents, Enid and Alfred, have been married for over 50 years and have never been truly happy together. Now Alfred has Parkinson’s disease, and Enid is obsessed with having one last Christmas in their midwestern home.

    Their three children, Gary, Chip, and Denise, have all moved to the east coast. Gary is trying to convince his wife and kids that he’s not depressed, Chip is struggling to make a living as a writer after being fired from his job as a professor, and Denise is the chef for a successful restaurant but can’t get her love life figured out.

    All of them are severely flawed, but I couldn’t help but love them anyway. In fact, I could choose any one of them as my favorite character. I really enjoyed reading about a family with three grown children because that’s the phase of life I’m entering now. I have two brothers and although we and our parents aren’t quite as old as the characters in the book, it was interesting to compare the way my family and I relate to each other to the way the characters do.

    I agree that the book isn’t super depressing – it does have a lot of humor – but it’s not exactly what you would call happy or uplifting, either. Mostly, it’s real, and it’s stuck with me.

    By the way, this is the first time I’ve read anything by Franzen, and now I get why he’s so popular. He can go on for pages about the most mundane topic and I will be enthralled. At times the prose goes a little overboard, but most of it begs to be read aloud and underlined. I’ll definitely be reading his other books at some point.