Brianne Blogs?

What a great book this was. I read it in less than a day and learned a lot about Mormonism. Way more than I knew before. They are a tricksy people, those Mormons. This book was a rare departure into non-fiction, which I should to more often, but do not. Something to work on.

This book went hand in hand with the ideas that were laid out in the movie Triator that Meghan and I saw a few days ago. This was also a great film and brings up some interesting ideas. Such as what the faithful are willing to do in the name of their higher power. It was interesting in both areas. Islan in the movie and Mormonism in the book. A very interesting read although it gets you kind of fired up about religious fundamentalism. So read and watch at your own risk.

Next up, The Thief, childrens book. Yes, back to childrens books. Maybe I’ll stop reading them in my 30’s because I’m clearly hooked in my 20’s.

You know how at the end of your day before you head home from work, you stop off at various stores if you have things you need to get? Well, all I can say is that this must be nice! I try to do this, but I find that if i need things other than groceries, I am out of luck. There is no end to the availability of groceries for me at 7 am on my way home from Ezras. Fairway is open 24 hours, Citarella opens at 7, Westside market is open 24 hours. It’s all groceries all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, I’m just wishing the other shops in the area would take on this early opening plan.

I am often walking home from Ezras thinking about the things I need to get and am walking by the stores in which these items lie and yet cannot get them without breaking the law. I need a card to send to Autumn. Wouldn’t it be handy if Papyrus was open now? Yes it would. But, no, I have to go home, sleep and then go back out later to the same store and get the card then. Let’s also talk about how early stores close. A prime example is Crate and Barrel which closes at 8. Eight? In the “city that never sleeps”? Pah! And a lot of stores close at 6! What is happening here?

Night shift workers get no respect! Is it really my fault that I sleep during the day and don’t really get motivated to do things until late in the night? No! I am a product of a 24 hour system. Somebody has to work nights and doesn’t that same somebody deserve to purchase greeting cards when she’s on her way home from work? I think so. And it’s not like I have these high expectations in Weatherford, Oklahoma. It’s New York Crappin’ City! Open early and stay open late. Get it together, retailers! So, that’s my rant for the week. Happy week of Maren’s birthday to you all!

Since I didn’t want to have to give too much detail about the last Rent show, I forgot to mention a very important detail. That day, as we swiped our Metrocards to get onto the subway, my wonderful, more than a year old Metrocard that I blogged about a few months ago, used it’s last punch. That’s it. And since it expires before the end of the month, they won’t let me refill it. Yes, my wonderful friend has died. I will miss him so and nearly teared up underground. Alas, when it rains it pours. Rent ends and my Metrocard friend dies all in the same day. It’s almost too much! Now I have to get a shiny new one. A new one that I don’t know at all. A new one that hasn’t spent months in the back pocket of my jeans or the side pocket of my coat or been worn down until you amost can’t read some of the letters. I don’t like you already, shiny new Metrocard! I will miss you old friend!

Last Saturday, during the more boring parts of college football, I read another childrens book, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. This book was so so good. Let me quote the back cover:

“An achingly beautiful story”.

“Why should I care what happens to an arrogant, overdressed china rabbit? But I did care, desperately, and I think I can safely predict that you will, too”.

While I hate to agree with anything so precious, this book actually was achingly beautiful. It did hurt you a bit but at the end you accidentally learned a lesson and cried. So, that quote really does accurately describe this book.

Also, quote two is true as well. The rabbit the story is about is a jackass. Yes, I just called a china rabbit in a childrens book a jackass. But somehow, as he is becoming a better person, so too are you. Well done, Kate DiCamillo, well done.

This book also had colored illustrations inside. When was the last time that happened in a childrens book of more than 20 pages? The illustrations were lovely and I so enjoyed them as part of my read.

I recommend this book for Lisa, Meghan, Maren, Erica, Grandma andAmber (when she’s done studying).

The scent of fall is in the air in New York City. One of my favorite things to do in the fall is take a nice stroll around the city and enjoy the nice weather and the lovely views and then do some shopping. With that in mind and with a new Crate and Barrel catalog luring us in, Lisa and I made a lovely plan for our Friday night. We’d stroll across the west side over to the east side to Crate and Barrel and do some shopping and then have a lovely dinner. No subways, no taxis, no hot weather. Sounds like a great plan, right?

One problem with this plan is that I never, never, check the weather forecast before planning any sort of event. If I were getting married outside next week, it wouldn’t even cross my mind to check the weather. It’s a good think I’m not a wedding or event planner.

It should then be no shock that strike one against our plan was the rain. All night long. However, Lisa and I decided to callous up and walk over there anyway. Yes, that’s right, we took a casual stroll in the rain for no good reason.

Strike two against our plan of a lovely stroll was the crazy man who approached us on west 68th street and said “can you hear me? did I stutter? I am telling you that I am going to eradicate you from the face of the earth and you are going to hell. Do you know what hell is like?” Yep, that’s right, we were threatened with eradication. That’s a new one for me. But don’t worry, we carried on and just kept a lookout for devices of eradication the rest of the evening.

Strike three against our plan was that we got to Crate and Barrel and were having a lovely time until the music stopped. Why did the music stop? Why are the employees suddenly taking inventory? Why is the security guard locking the door? Oh, oops, the store closed 15 minutes after our arrival. We hadn’t even finished looking at the first floor, let alone the second. Crap-it! So, we took our sad selves out of the store and tried to go home. I say tried because we decided not to brave the rainy walk home and attempted to get a taxi. Locals reading the blog know what a tricksy time this was for us given that it’s nearly impossible to get a cab when it’s raining in the city. Lisa and I experienced this last night. Worry not, we finally did get a taxi and then on to dinner.

We went to Citrus, a local restaurant on our street. The wait for a party of two for inside dining, twenty-five minutes. But there was instant seating outside. Okay, we’re game. There was scaffolding and we were thus protected from the falling rain. We had the best cocktail ever-ruby red grapefruit vodka, blood orange juice and lemonaid. Yum! For serious. MIx up a batch today! Then we shared some crab-cakes, a steak and some grilled shrimp. It was a meat fest and it was good!

Perhaps you are thinking that we had a crappy night and we would have been better off staying inside. However, I’m pretty sure that I speak for Lisa when I say that despite our gong show of an evening, we had a really good time. We did, however, make a plan to re-enact this day sometime next week when it’s not raining and when Crate and Barrel will be open for more than 15 minutes. I’ll let you know how the re-do goes.

A mere 12 hours after Ladys first escape from her tank, she did it again. Sunday afternoon, I’m standing in the bathroom, curling my hair when I hear a thud. I walk out into the living room and see Lady lying upside down on the floor behind the couch. She did it again! Arggh!

I had such high hopes for my tough love parenting plan but obviously Lady likes to fly through the air and crash land on the hardwood floor. I am going to blame it on my previously diagnosed turtle amnesia and assume that she didn’t remember her first horrible fall and therefore was forced to do it again. Meghan has nicely allowed me to go on with this theory rather than giving up my tough love theory. Thanks, poops.

Alas, I had to go and get her a new much larger tank so that she won’t do it again. Stupid adventurous turtle! This new tank is at least twice the size of the old one, so if she gets out of this one I’ll be quite impressed. She’d have to make a rock ladder and climb up the 14 inches of tank and then hold onto the ledge and hoist herself over. One can only assume now that she is capable of this and will wait a few months to lull us into a false sense of confidence and then she’ll jump out again. Perhaps as a lovely Christmas present for us.

So, I finished this book last night at the Ezras. It was crappin’ good. That’s right. That’s a serious amount of good. As is typical of me and a large percentage of books I read, I cried at the end.

Ezras dad loves that I read so much and is always asking me questions about my reading. Last night he asked me what my favorite book was and what was my favorite book that starts with the letter A and what books I’ve read that I don’t like. And then he hit me with “what is your favorite orange book?” A tricksy question that I still haven’t answered. He was also mentioning some classics that I haven’t read. A Tale of Two Cities. Crime and Punishment. The thing with the classics is that I had a bad experience with a classic in college and since then have been a little hesitant to read anything with that title.

The Scarlet Letter is what put me into this anti-classic frame of mind. Junior year of high school we had an english teacher, Mrs. Robbins, who talked non-stop about the glory that is the Scarlet Letter. She raved about the symbolism and the plot and the wonders of this fantastic piece of literature. Strangely, while she talked about it all of the time, she never made us read it. This should have been my first clue. Alas, I went ahead and read it in college and hated it. Are we kidding? Is the “shocking” discovery really supposed to have shocked us? How stupid did Nathaniel Hawthorne think people were? And how much detail does one possibly need about bushes and trees? NOT SO MUCH, NATHANIEL! So, I was bored and not shocked and pissed I took the time to read it. So, after the Scarlet Letter debacle, I have avoided all classics.

The point of this story is to tell you that I’ve decided to take on Crime and Punishment. I started it last night and am pretty excited. It’s interesting in the first 11pages which is as far as I got before Ezra woke up. I would like to say that I probably won’t be reading this at my normal pace. I am going to take my time and try to enjoy it and not make it a daunting task that needs to be done quickly. I’ll let you know how it works out.

Lisa left us last week for an apartment of her very own after over two months of vagabond living in New York City.

Meghan and I are now alone in our apartment. Perhaps this doesn’t seem so strange to you since we are the only two people listed on our lease. However, we have never spent too much time living here alone. Two months after we moved in, Zak moved in for a year. (and his stuff moved in with him and has never left)

After Zak left, Maren moved in for a few months. After Maren left, Lisa came in. I realized the other day that Meghan and I have never gone longer than 2 months living alone in this apartment in our two years of living here. Pretty impressive, huh? Alas, these frequent visitors all stayed for free, so your thoughts that at least our rent was cheaper are incorrect. Clearly, Meghan and I are running a hostel and don’t know it. I wonder if there are tax breaks for that. I should look into it.

After Lisa left, I mentioned to Meghan that we should go out on a limb and try to live in this house just the two of us until the end of 2008. That would mean 4 months! That’s twice our record of the first two years, but I’m hoping we can get it done. (With that said, our house is always open to visitors and to Amber when she decides to do the right thing and move here. The loft is yours, Turley.)

So, here’s hoping we can make it to the end of the year with two roomates in our two bedroom apartment…

(cross fingers now)

Alas, this is not a leasing miracle that I am referring to. Sadly, Rent The Musical, had its final show on Broadway on Sunday. In a happy turn of events, Lisa, Meghan and I were able to get tickets. This was my 7th and final time to see Rent on Broadway with two viewings in Oklahoma of the national tour if that gives you any indication of my all-consuming love for this show. (in case the two posts about it prior to this one since April haven’t clued you in).

We had a great time. Although there was crying involved. However, we take comfort in the fact that the two hysterical girls in the seats in front of us were much worse than us.

There’s a lot to tell, but I just don’t want to talk about it. So, you’ll have to see Meghan and Lisas blogs for details. Rent, how I’ll miss you.

Saturday, I finished book 2 in the childrens Septimus Heap series. Charms, spells, flying, glow worms, witches and dragons. Enough said. It was a nice change of pace from the somewhat depressing Blindness of last week.

Next up: The MIracle at St. Anna

Also, last night was the last show of Rent on Broadway. Lisa, Meghan and I had tickets. There’s stuff to tell and pictures to post. Alas, I’m not quite ready to put it into print that it’s actually over, so I’ll do it later in the week when the pain of it all has dulled a bit.