I finished two books last night.
1. Death of a Stranger. A mystery given to me to read by my home care kid’s dad. As I don’t often read mysteries, I found this one quite a nice change of pace. It had a train wreck, hookers, amnesia. What more could you ask for?
2. Wobegon Boy. This book was great. Funny and just a little sweet. Really a perfect combination. It’s about one mans midlife crisis. But not a typical one. While I enjoyed this book, I did not enjoy it quite as much as The Chicago Sun Times who said, “…had me spraying Diet Coke from my nostrils and scattering popcorn across the carpet in great gusts of mirth.” I’ve decided that I should include quotes from the books I like so I leave you with this.
“New Yorkers panic if anything about the Midwest comes into a conversation, because, one, they don’t know anything about it and, two, they’re not entirely sure where it is.” -Garrison Keillor
The New York City Marathon is on Sunday and I’m so super excited! I love love love the Marathon. Getting up early to watch the early warm fuzzy athlete stories on tv and the start of the race. Then heading over to Central Park to watch the runners coming down the home stretch.
Last year on Marathon day we had a flood in our apartment due to a leak above us, so here’s hoping that doesn’t happen this year.
I have no interesting things to relay today, so I am going to say a big Thank You to Maren and Meghan for their awesomeness yesterday. Enough said. Thanks girls!
On my chai tea from Starbucks this morning I got this nice bit of wisdom:
The Way I See It #289
“So-called ‘global warming’ is just a secret ploy by wacko tree-huggers to make America energy independent, clean our air and water, improve fuel efficiency of our vehicles, kick-start 21st-century industries, and make our cities safer and more livable. Don’t let them get away with it!”
-Chip Giller, founder of grist.org where environmentally minded people gather online
As most of you know, I love the CBS show How I Met Your Mother. My love for it is so great that Meghan now watches it with me and a lot of you have gotten a season or two on DVD as gifts (mom, dad, kyle, erica, amber, zak, lisa…the list goes on).
There was an episode where Barney did something that he said violated the “bro code”. The episode was great and we learned a lot. Flash forward to another leisurely wandering through Barnes and Noble (this time with Meghan) and we see a book called The Bro Code written by the How I Met Your Mother People. Needless to say, we bought it. Immediately.
There are some pretty great Bro Rules that i will pass along to you all in the future, but for today, I’d like to give you all an excerpt from the Origin of the Bro Code so that you can know that its history.
“While the story of the bro code is not nearly as simple and elegant as God handing down some stone tablets to Broses, its origins weae all the way back to the dawn of humanity.
In the beginning there was no Bro Code…which was unfortunate for the worlds first Bros-Cain and Abel. Lacking an agreed upon set of social principles, Cain killed Abel and committed history’s first Broicide. As punishment Cain was doomed to walk the earth alone. Why? Because without a wingman, he had absolutely no chance to meet chicks.”
And thus begins the Bro Code. It’s going to be a handy education for us all to learn the right way to treat our bros. I know you are all looking forward to it.
Ian McEwan. Let’s take a minute to talk about my feelings towards this man. He is the author of Atonement and many other novels.
Flash back with me, if you will, to June 2005. I had lived in Queens, NY for a month and was headed back to Oklahoma to be in a wedding. Because I was on the flight from New York to Chicago that fine morning, it was naturally, late. Something to do with too much fuel on the plane and they had to do math to figure out what elevation they needed to fly at to burn off the extra fuel by the time we landed. Due to this complicated plane math, the flight left so late (we were of course on the plane during this math) that I missed my connection in Chicago.
Enter Ian McEwan. I had 6 hours (yes, 6!) to burn at Chicago Midway Airport that not so fine day. So, I did what anyone would do. I hit the nearest airport bar for 2 vodka tonics and then bought a book to while away the hours. The book I selected was Atonement. This book was really great until I got to the end and realized that there was no Atoning in the book called Atonement! How angry was I over this?! Super-duper angry! Stupid Briony (character in the story) and stupid Ian McEwan!
Now, ever since then I have kept clear of all other Ian McEwan books. And while, honestly, some of my rage could have stemmed from being trapped in an aiport and missing the rehearsal and part of the rehearsal dinner for a wedding I was in, I still blamed Ian entirely. However, last week, Erica (whose reading opinion I trust highly) says that she just read an Ian McEwan book and that I would like it and should read it. As she knew my feelings about said author and recommended it anyway, I read it.
And man alive, was it good. It’s one of those great books that I read through in one day. And looking back, there was very little dialogue. It’s mostly the thoughts of the two main characters and then the relatively few sentences they speak to one another. So so good.
So, I guess Ian is out of the dog house. Although I think I’ll always carry some bitterness over Atonement. Which, some might say is the whole point of reading and makes Atonement a great book if I’m still thinking about it with strong feelings three years later. And to those people I say, good point.
Yes, I have officially voted as of Friday. Well, sort of. While my vote hasn’t been counted yet, it is on its merry little way to Cleveland County, OK to be counted by or on November 4th. And while I didn’t get an “I Voted” sticker, I did get my ballot notarized for free which is like getting a free sticker. I felt like such an adult today with my ballots sealed in an envelope which was then sealed inside a notarized envelope. Well, either an adult or some sort of super spy. Or super-important government official with some sort of top secret codes or information.
If you are wondering for whom I voted I don’t think I am at liberty to say. It specifically says for me to not show my completed ballots to anyone-which I did not! and therefore I’m pretty sure that it’s a secret between the state of Oklahoma and myself until such time as the ballot has been counted. And while I’m pretty sure that’s not the official rule, I’m going to keep it a secret until November 4th and then act like I actually voted on that day.
Funnily enough, while I had to go through the envelope sealing and notarizing, all Maren had to do was take a stroll to the US Embassy in Canada and vote there. What? Why are we making things easier for the Americans who have left our borders? I don’t like it. Not one bit. And why isn’t there an Oklahoma embassy in New York for such purposes? Given that Oklahoma only has a population of 3 million, there is a large percentage of Oklahomans living here.
Allow me to list them for you: Brianne, Lisa, Zak, Meghan Mulally, Kristen Chenoweth, Brad Pitt used to live here and I’m sure would have stayed had he been able to easily vote in Oklahomas elections. Ron Howard was born in Oklahoma and is here sometimes. Carrie Underwood hangs here and I’m sure needs her voted counted as well.
Get on it, Oklahoma. New York needs an embassy!
My holiday travel plans are crazy this year due to a promised Christmas in Michigan followed by a wedding in Oklahoma. This put me in the unfortunate situation of having to book 3 one way tickets. Riddle me this: my parents get on a round-trip flight from okc to detroit for $300-ish apiece. I try to get a one way ticket on one of the legs of the same flight and it’s $824. (Since I am prone to exaggeration, know that I did not pull this number out of my ass. This is the actual number without taxes and fees quoted to me by northwest airlines and several other online booking sites)
So, I’m desperately looking around trying to find 3 one way tickets that won’t cost me as much as a trip to Europe. Because, if it came to that, Brianne was going to Christmas in France and sorry about the rest of you! So, I google “cheap one way flights” and come upon a glorious but hitherto unknown travel site called onetravel.com and there found all three flights for $390.01 total. Yes, that word was total. It usually costs me abot $300 to fly from NYC to OKC and back and I’ve managed to find a way to get three one-way flights with OKC in the mix (not exactly a favorite travel destination of the major airlines) for only $390? And two of the three flights are direct! What?!!?!?
The real head-scratcher in the scenario is that I’m on the same flight as mom and dad that I tried to book individually with Northwest. So, if I had gone through the actual airline it was $824, but through the glory that is onetravel. com, it’s included in a three flight, $390.01 package? Brianne was and still is confused but thrilled at this mystery!
Yeah, cheap flights!
While I pride myself on being a reader of many books, I had never forayed into the world of adult comic books graphic novels until last week. I saw a movie preview for a movie called The Watchmen and it talked about how it was the most critically acclaimed graphic novel of all time. That’s a direct quote even though I didn’t add the quotation marks.
So, the preview looked interesting and I pondered reading it. Then it lived in the back of my mind for a few weeks until I was strolling leisurely through Barnes and Noble (which I do at least twice a week) and it was on a table marked “new classics”. Well, there it was and there I was and thus, I brought it home.
How much did I love every aspect of this novel? So much. From the bright yellow cover to the picture with every sentence to the stories within the story. It was all so fantastic. I seriously may have to start reading graphic novels if they are all as great as this one. I read through it quickly and was quite sad when it was over. Who knew I was secretly a graphic novel lover? It makes me wish that all of the books I read were on colored pages with vivid illustrations. Well, almost…
Hypothetical Situation:
Let’s say you found a can of diet coke in your house that you know is from December 2007. Let’s say you hypothetically know this due to the holiday graphics on said can. Let’s then say that you then ponder whethere or not you should drink it even though the expiration date on the bottom of the can says March 2009. This is a turning point for you. You have a choice here. Do you believe the expiration date and throw out the yummy goodness of the last diet coke in your house or do you push ahead and drink it anyway under the assumption that “diet coke can’t really go bad, can it?”
(if you look closely at the above photo, you will notice the christmas silver bells on the can)
In this hypothetical situation that did not happen on Sunday, you drink the diet coke. Or, you try to. Sadly, when you take your first sip, you notice that something is off. It just doesn’t taste right. Not bad, but not right. So, like the champ you are, you take another sip. Still not right (as if you were expecting a change). What you are tasting is carbonated water. Carbonated brown water. The yummy deliciousness is gone from the can and you are left with carbonated brown water. Not good. Again, not bad. But it makes you feel funny to be drinking brown water that used to taste like diet coke but somehow does not even though the can was never opened so where could the goodness have gone?
Hypothetical Advice:
Diet Coke can go bad. Do not drink it 10 months past its date of purchase and 7 months past its expiration date.
