Great Day in the Morning

So, I have not been blogging very often, and honestly, right now I should be doing homework instead of this.  This last semester may very well be the death of me.  I cannot believe I am already behind, and it is only the second week.  I have twenty four books, for the love of Pete.  My Modern China class is going to kick my butt.  I'm not happy.

To top it all off, I got sick Sunday. I missed my three classes Monday morning. I've been miserable for the past two days.  Sunday was a good day though, spent with family, and we finally got to do Christmas. I got a Dr. Who hoodie, a LOTR skirt, 2 Hobbit shirts, and a Paris clock, as well as a bag full of candy.  Fun fun. 

I feel exhausted.  I still have tons of reading to do tonight as well as a chapter summary. All I really want is sleep.  I have two papers due Friday.  See, this semester is already painful.  I've decided that starting Friday afternoon, I'm going to get caught up and hopefully ahead.  My house seriously needs some love and cleaning. It's a huge mess.  So that's my weekend goals. Nothing but cleaning and homework.

The writing group I was so happy about fell through without even one meetings. That was incredibly depressing.  My heat will hopefully be fixed this weekend.  One day my bathroom will be redone.

Well, I had a lot I wanted to talk about, but right now, I think getting some work done so I can sleep sounds better. I'll try to do a nice long post this weekend.  Oh, and I have to finish all my graduate school stuff.

I made an A in History Senior Seminar!

Night folks.
Fallon

A Girl's Night

So two posts in one day is crazy, but my night with Abbie was awesome.  We went and saw Les Miserables. A guy that I tutored in Math 116 last semester works at the theater.  He let us in free! COOLEST THING EVER.  I balled like a baby.  So did Abbie. It was amazing. And beautiful.  The music was flat out elequent and emotional.  The way they filmed it was perfect.  Just.... GO SEE IT.

We then went to Five Guys.  Which has really good food and they give you TONS.  After that I took my first trip to Liquor Barn. It was pretty cool. Abbie bought me this awesome wine bag that was gold with THE EIFFEL TOWER.  Also she got me Arbor Mist Cranberry Twist.  I hope it is deliciousness.

It was fun to be silly and crazy for a night.  We were talking, and she said yesterday she went to a friend's house. They had no furniture. She said it would be rude to ask why. The following conversation occurred:

A: Did you just move in?
F: No, we've been here for awhile.
A: Why ma'am I love what you've done with the place. The carpet is amazing.
F: It's being ripped up next week.
A: Oh well, I'm sure the floors underneath are beautiful.
F: No, those have to be replaced.
A: Oh. Well. Termites you say? Those are fancy bugs, you got!

LOL!!!!

The Birthday Bash!

Friday the 4th was my Birthday!  I'm 23.  Spiffy to me :P I've got to do more stuff for my birthday this year than I have in a long time. It has been fun!  Still no cake though, which is slightly saddening.  On a better note, maybe I can convince my mom to buy me one when she comes down.

So Far:

~~From my sissy and brother-in-law I received A very awesome Hobbit map poster, and the Terra Azul lotion and body scrub. Lord that stuff smells amazing. She also took me to Panera, and got me two shirts and a Paris Calendar. We had an awesome sissy-time day together :)  That night we had family dinner at her house to celebrate, and Chris made breakfast and we played the Zombieeeee game.
~~From a friend, an awesome WKU hoodie/jacket.
~~From another friend, The Hobbit Companion of Art and Design.
~~My boss took me out to Panera!
~~My uncle took me to Lost River Pizza, gave me a Legolas Card (yummy!), and gave me a $25 dollar B&N card.
~~Abbie is taking me out to eat tonight and to watch Les Miserables.
~~The Hubby got me the Snowman and Santa to match my Penguin (Outside lit up decorations), as well as a Horse and carriage, bridge and Clockwork Business for my  Christmas village. (I always have him get me clearance Christmas decorations).
~~Momaw made me Biscuits and Gravy!
I think I'm forgetting something......
I still have some stuff coming my way.  This is the longest Birthday celebration I've ever had :P

In other news, my wheel bearing went out on my car.  It had been worked on right before I bought it. I contacted the shop owner, he contacted the previous owner, and the wheel bearing was fixed free of charge for me. I'm not sure what the whole story was, but the new owner bought the place in November. He told me he didn't have anything to do with what happened but he was fixing it.  Apparently they replaced the left one and not the right.  My father-in-law says they should always be replaced together.  And for it to have been all of a sudden as bad as it was, they probably greased it up and stuck it back on.  Eh. Morons.  So whatever happened, it's fixed and I'm happy.

As to my crisis events.  On Christmas Eve I opened a 360 dollar electric bill. We discovered that my air from the unit was cool.  Turns out some animal got under my house and ruined all my duct work.  It's going to cost 750 dollars to fix. We tried to turn it off and use Kerosene and our heater caught on fire.  My father-in-law helped us buy a new one.  Once my school money comes in we are going to fix it all because we'd just have to keep paying for kerosene as well as buy air conditioners for the summer.  So many problems.

On top of that, we've just had problem after problem. My sink clogged up so bad that I couldn't use it and it is the only sink we have for the moment.  So I couldn't do my dishes for like two weeks.  Finally my father in law used a shop vac to fix it.  We then figured out it had been leaking all this time because the people who hooked it up didn't fit the pipes all the way and cut them too short. My father-in-law fixed that. -sighs-  Morons works on my house. Morons. (It's my f-i-l's favorite word.)

Between Sean's car dying last summer, then my car dying, all the different problems we have run into with the cars and house, we are so broke.  I'm so tired of being broke. I'm going to start saving like a crazy person, and try to whatever I can.  There is so much I wanna do, darn it.  I've decided to repaint my Kitchen an actual parchment color, and I found a thing on pinterest that teaches you to paint laminate counters which I am going to try.  I'm repainting my living room a dark red color, painting my coffee table white, building built in book shelves along my back wall (my walmart bookshelves are dying), and trying to either find a nice entertainment center or buy one of those.  I also am just going to flat save up money.  The upstairs needs some major help as well. I've got to repaint the mancave and build in the railing that is up there.  There are so many projects. I love them, but sometimes I just want everything to be perfect. Of course, that will never happen.

So there is most of fun stuff I've been dealing with. Yay me!  I've also had some great times with family and friends.  I helped Cole with her Mother's house, and that was tons of fun. We had some fun together, I got to try on some really awesome hats, and I love helping out friends :) 

On a final note, the other day I was trying on a shirt at Old Navy.  I saw myself in the mirror. Dear God, I need to workout. It's not so very much that I mind the weight, (though I do.  I'm not calling myself fat but everyone has a stopping point.) but I want to be healthier.  That and I can't afford new clothes!!!

I cleaned quite a bit of my house yesterday. Finished the dishes, cleaned my utility room, cleaned my bedroom and my bathroom, did all the laundry and actually hung it all up.  I cleaned my fridge.  Yep.  Lots of usefulness. I then made a Mocha Spice Cake from scratch. Yum Yum.

There was something else I was going to ramble about but I have forgotten.  Peace, dear friends!

Reading 2013

1. Mistral's Kiss (1/1/13) -336-
 I'm rather entranced by these books.  I had read all the others up to this point, so this was the first time I read this. After reading all the Anita Blake books, these are refreshing for different things.  It's nice not to read quite as much about clothes.  The obsession with eyes is still apparent.  Hamilton really is obsessed with people's eyes. And sex. She's obsessed with sex.  The sex is not quite as racy most of the time, and more often than not is still just between two people.  There have been scenes with four or five people.  As I said, Hamilton books are not for people who do not like sex. You probably shouldn't read them all back to back either, because then you start screaming at the book that you don't care about what everyone is bloody wearing, and that she has already mentioned five times what his eyes look like.... Yeah.  See, it gets a bit annoying.

2. A Lick of Frost (1/1/13) -384-
So, yeah. I read two of these in the same day. They are quite short.  As I said, I enjoy the novels.  The sex doesn't bother me. Nor the language.  This book finally gives the big moment you have been waiting for. One thing I like about these books are the fact that you have back to back action and it is believable. Another thing I like is that no matter, she finds moments for connections between the characters as well.  Not only does Meredith connect with her men, but her men share moments of that guy to guy understanding as well.  I was extremely happy with most of the events of this book. I think Hamilton is working towards a more happy ending for Meredith. It's nice. There were a few moments when I wanted to scream at people.


3. Swallowing Darkness (1/4/13) - 416
This was a twist. I suspected that something like this may happen, because Meredith had been having doubts, but I never thought it actually would.  I couldn't see Meredith giving up her people. The fact that they gave both crowns up to save Frost was amazing.  It spoke of their love and their honor to each other.  I enjoyed the battle scenes, the help the humans gave, and everything that occurred with this book.  It was well written, well executed, and the plot was rich with new ideas and old ones brought back to life.  The characters are as wonderful as ever, and they each bring their own part of faery and their world to the book. Their pasts are incredibly interesting and one day I would like to see what exactly happened to each and every one of them.

4. Divine Misdemeanors (1/16/13) - 384
This book ends with Meredith being happy.  It's a nice chance for the character to get everything she's wanting.  It's also nice to have a family dynamic, which is never really in the Anita Blake books and especially not in the same way.  I really enjoyed this book, and the new look it gives us into faery.  For instance, they can go crazy too, and we get to see that.  I like the complications it prevents, and the realizations that Meredith has to make.  Her being a princess and everything that entails does not simply vanish because of previous choices she has made. I cannot wait for the next one.  The descriptions are all still there, and that will probably eventually drive me insane, but to each their own!

I haven't updated this in a very long time.

5. Tobacco Road (2/4/13) - 192
This was actually a very interesting book.  It is about a southern family that is old fashioned, uneducated, and have lost all their belongings.  It is well... read the summary on a website.  I wasn't fond of the people in the book and most of the time I wanted to throw it against a wall. The family is aggravating, but it brought up many issues in class.  Read my post about it!

6. Their Eyes Were Watching God (2/11/13) - 256
This was a beautiful book. Read my post!

7. To Kill A Mockingbird (2/25/13) - 336
Officially one of my all time favorite books.  Rereading it brought a whole new appreciation for the novel, for what it deals and all the issues it deals with.  Lee manages to bring so many issues into the novel, without shoving it in your face. She handles them with detail and precision.  Telling this story through a child's point of view makes all the difference, and there were moments were I cried, especially at the end. It is a great book. Please read it - and read my post over it if you need more convincing to READ IT!

8. Child of God (3/4/13) - 208
This was certainly an interesting book.  We had a debate on whether or not the guy was a sociopath.  Honestly, it was a good book.  Worth the read.

9. Mama Day (3/18/13) - 312
I loved this novel.  It was a great book, and it dealt with magic, which of course I loved.  It deals with issues of slavery, love, death and life.  Naylor weaves myth and legend into a modern day land, a story of love, hope, grief and everything wonderful.

10. Wolf Whistle (3/25/13) - 312
This book deals with Emmett Till.  Honestly, I did not like it. I think that while the author was trying to deal with the other side of the Till murder, and he told something in his own way - I did not like the way he did it. Often, the way he dealt with things bothered me, and I felt like in some ways it cheapened the real tragedy and the real story. That's my own opinion though. Many people in the class loved the book.  To each their own.

11. Celestial Jukebox (4/1/13) - 431
 I did not get to finish this book but I plan to later.  It is interesting, deals with modern events, and a level of society that isn't often discussed - immigrants.

12. Winter's Bone (4/5/13) - 197
I really want to see this movie. The book had a pretty good plot but I didn't like the way it was written. I understand that the author was trying to convey the actual way the world is thought and written by, well, maybe this "type" of people, I guess... but it bothered me.  There is quite a bit of language, if that kind of thing bothers you.  I dunno, I think sometimes the way the novel went just bothered me... I'll write more on this one later.

Summer 2013

13. Into the Woods by Kim Harrison (5/21/13) - 455

This was a collection of short stories.  Many of them related in one form or another to the Rachel Morgan series.  I really enjoyed them and the pieces of the lives we got to see that weren't in the books.  We got back story on Rachel herself and other characters.  My favorite was the story with Jenks and Trent. I always liked Trent and it was really great to see the world from his point of view, and see his own doubts about his abilities, his future, and his relationship with others.  The short story about Jenks and his family was also fun and the look into Dryads was interesting - I would like to see more about it. We also got to see different stores and lines that have nothing to do with Rachel Morgan.  Harrison is a truly wonderful author.


14. Ever After by Kim Harrison (5/30/13) - 435 -
Ever After was a pretty great book.  Before you read this one, you really need to read the short story with Jenks and Trent because it answers a lot of questions and preps you for some of the things which happen.  I really enjoyed the characters, as always, and I greatly enjoyed the interaction between Rachel and Trent.  Sadly, one of my favorite characters dies in this book and I was woefully under prepared for it.  I was NOT expecting it to happen and I was so depressed. Still, more questions about Rachel are answered, more are left there in the open, and you learn more and more about the world of the demons, the past between the Elves and the Demons, and what the future may hold between them all.


15. The Fall of Arthur by J.R.R. Tolkien (edited by Christopher Tolkien)
(6/6/13) -233-
Being able to read something else that Tolkien wrote is quite awesome. I wonder however if he is upset that the world is seeing his very rough draft of something. The poem itself is very well done, and the wording is beautiful.  There were some moments where three of four lines were just breathtaking. I love his writing.  After the poem (which is unfinished), Christopher gives background on the previous writers of Arthur, those who wrote in the Middle Ages.  Three of my classes came in very, very useful for this book!!!!  He then compares Tolkien's writings to theirs.  It was very interesting. The last part of the book is almost painful, in that it is notes on lines that were changed, and he mentions several times that his father's handwriting is very hard to read and sometimes impossible.

 16. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (6/16/13) -180-
I saw the movie first, and I'm rather surprised at how close the movie was to the book. I love the language and the writing in this book.  I read a bit of the introduction, and I agree that this was a commentary on the society of the 1920s.  I really enjoyed the details, the dialogue and everything with it.  The best thing was that "old sport" was used quite a bit less in the book than in the movie. Movie vs Book - it's a tie.  Though the movie delves more into the relationship between Gatsby and the main character, with a more positive light on what he thinks of Gatsby.  It's certainly worth a read and takes no time whatsoever to read.


17. The Orchard Keeper (6/18/13) -246-

Well, I must say this book greatly depressed me.  It took me ages to get into it and there never seemed to really be a plot. And the description on the back basically covers pretty much nothing that really matters in the book. It comes up... like twice.  So yeah.  Just really frustrating.  And the one character I really liked does not get a good ending, which always angers me because I can't help it, and REALLY THE ANIMAL? YOU HAVE TO DO THAT?  Ahem, so yeah.  I feel sorry for the dog, I hate what happens at the end. I liked some of his books, but this one is not one of them and I would not recommend it all.  It really is more about the lifestyle than about something in particular.


18. The King's Deception (6/20/13) -406-
 I really loved this book. I devoured it in two days.  It is a mix between historical fiction, a spy novel, and a detective novel.  I met Steve Berry when he came to the local library and he credits the genre to Dan Brown, because the spy novel had died out before.  I can agree with this, having read The Da Vinci Code. The history in it is amazing.  It is full of wonderful details, that many probably do not know, and it is actually centered around an actual legend in England surrounding Elizabeth I.  As a Tudor fanatic, I LOVED IT ALL. In the end he actually gives a reference to where he changed historical facts to go with the story, which I think is awesome.  Really, you should read it.  The characters work very well, the plot moves along at a nice pace, and it generally flows perfectly. He weaves history lessons in very well, and the pieces fall together wonderfully. Plus, SPOILERS, the bad guys get what they deserve!!!!


 19. Face of Betrayal (6/24/13) -284-
 This was a pretty great book.  The characters are all very interesting, and the three of them together make for interesting angles to view the story from.  Each character also has personal development and their own inner story line throughout the novel.  There is something hinted at with Nic, and you never find out exactly what it is in the first novel.  Which means now I have to read the next one to try to figure it out.  After hearing the author speak (and I have this signed!)  I can see within her characters and her storylines.  It is an interesting and heartbreaking case, dealing with a teenager who has gone missing.  The plot moves along well, and the clues are laid out for you throughout. I had an inkling about who the true culprit was and I turned out to be right, which is always awesome. Read it!

Spring Pages: 3,764
Summer Pages: 2,233
Total Pages: 5, 997