Archive
Friday Fun! (Amanda Joins the Gym)
Hello my lovely readers! February is upon us, which in this part of the world means the battle with the winter blues. It’s cold. It’s icy. It’s snowy. It takes extra effort to go anywhere or do anything. It’s dark a lot of the day. And of course there’s Valentine’s Day, which if you’re unattached is basically the haha sucks to be you of holidays. However! I am determined not to let the winter blues get me down. In light of that, as well as recent changes in my life including being single and finishing grad school, I decided to join a gym.
A couple of years ago, I was in great shape. I miss being in that great shape, not because I’m obsessed with looks (swear), but because I like feeling like I can depend on my body, particularly in the event of a zombie apocalypse. What can I say. I was raised Baptist. They like talking about apocalypses, and I’m always slightly paranoid about them. You know how one of the Zombieland rules is cardio? I’d fail that rule right now. So I went into a local women only gym and informed them that I want to regain that inner strength I used to have. Originally the plan was to just take care of getting back in shape myself, but I got two free sessions with a personal trainer for registering with the gym. You guys. Personal trainers are officially amazing.
The woman I was randomly assigned is incredibly cool and supportive. I talked to her about my specific issues (asthma, heart disease running incredibly strong in my family), and she reassured me that I’m still young enough I can fight back and regain that body confidence I miss. She’s mad cool, you guys. Her body image ideas are very similar to mine. She talked about “skinny fat” girls who just burn calories but actually have a high body fat percentage aka no muscle. Also, she teaches Irish stick fighting and invited me to join her next group, which I SO am. I mean, what better way to prep for the zombie apocalypse, eh?
I’m really excited to get back to being the strong, healthy woman I know I am inside. My mood has already drastically improved, and I’ve only been a member of the gym for one week! Plus, it has a steam room, and nothing sounds nicer to a freezing Bostonian than a room full of steam.
Happy weekends!
Friday Fun! (The Long Winter)
I keep thinking this week about Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Book The Long Winter
Basically, in this entry in the Little House series of books, Laura’s pioneer family faces one of the worst winters ever. Excruciating detail about the cold, the food, the clothes, and more go into the tale of how they managed to just barely survive that winter. I’ll never forget the passage in which they hang their wet clothes out to freeze as a close approximation to drying. Winter is just something northerners have always had to deal with. I remind myself that at least I have a lot more entertainment and warmth than Laura did, but Laura also could just stay in the house all winter. I have to go out and get to work. Hibernation is just not an option. Not to mention that it’d get lonely after a little while.
But there’s something comforting in reading about other people facing winter when you’re in the throes of it yourself. I know some people like to read books set in the tropics in the winter, but personally I’ll always reach for tales of freezing cold and survival against all odds. There’s a sort of camaraderie to it that only other northerners understand.
Happy weekend all!
Friday Fun! (MIT Mystery Hunt)
Hello my lovely readers! Sorry I missed Friday Fun last week. Since nothing that exciting happened last weekend or this week, I thought I’d tell you about the MIT Mystery Hunt I participated in the weekend before. That was the original plan for last week’s Friday Fun anyway. ;-)
Team Unicorn friends Jeremy and Amy invited me to participate in their team in this year’s MIT Mystery Hunt. Basically, every January a bunch of groups of nerdy people get together and solve a series of mystery puzzles in a competition to win the coin and the hunt. That winning team then wins the privilege of designing the next year’s puzzle. It lasts from Friday mid-day to sometime on Sunday. I was pretty nervous going in, because I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into. Also I’d heard the people who participate are brilliant, and while I consider myself to be intelligent, I never claimed to be a genius. ;-) Plus, the teams are fairly large (I think there are 30ish members? Correct me if I’m wrong, Amy and Jeremy), and I only knew two team members going in….so yeah. I was nervous. But I was also excited!
I arrived after work on Friday and walked into a room full of tables of groups of people crowded around their laptops, as well as a few people at chalkboards and a table of food in the corner. I delayered from coming in from outside, tossed my bag of chips onto the communal pile, and kind of hesitated for a second. A gal I didn’t know immediately started talking to me and invited me to join the puzzle she and a couple of other gals were working on. It turned out that the puzzle had to do with musicals, and well, none of them knew much about musicals. You guys. Musicals have been my forte since I was 5 years old. So I jumped right in and started learning how the puzzling goes about.
A burrito run, some chit-chat, and some solving later, and I found myself totally engrossed in the world of puzzling. Not only were the puzzles really challenging, but the way they’re designed you need a group of people to work on them. A combination of everyone’s strengths. It naturally leads to group work in a way I never experienced in the classroom. Plus, everyone I met on the team was super-nice, friendly, and welcoming. They were funny and fun to hang out with. Shortly I found myself talking off-topic with one of the gals and found out we live in the same general area of Boston. We hit it right off discussing zombies and True Blood, and I felt right at home. I wound up showing up for each day of the puzzling, even though at first I wasn’t sure if I’d like it enough to. I also may have ordered a team tshirt and promised to come next year as well. ;-)
It was a real blast, and I encourage any nerds to participate. You can participate from a distance via internet connection if you want, so you don’t have to be local to play. Thanks a bunch, Amy and Jeremy, for encouraging me to come play! It was one of my best weekends I’ve had in Boston.
Friday Fun! (Thoughts on Community and Environment)
Hello my lovely readers! Boston got hit with yet another blizzard, although the real record-breaker was that 49 of the 50 states had snow on the same day (including Hawaii). The one without? Florida. I spent my Wednesday morning shoveling about a foot and a half of snow off of my building’s steps and sidewalk. Another member of the building did the afternoon shoveling. It was actually really lovely getting a workout in outside in the snow while listening to an audiobook on my iPod. :-) Of course, the afternoon was spent alternating between reading and craft projects.
My friends Nina and E and I have been spending a lot of time lately discussing big questions. Maybe it’s because we all went to Brandeis where you were more likely to find huge groups of people discussing existential questions than playing Beirut. Maybe it’s just the kind of people we are. Anyway. Nina is currently on a kibbutz in Israel, and she emailed me asking me what I think makes a community. I know a lot of people believe it’s your family or your religion or nationality or who lives in proximity to you, but that’s not how I make my community. I think the ideal community is a group of people who happen to meet in whatever way and who love and support each other unconditionally. You should be able to trust your community to support you and be there for you no matter how you fuck up or what choices you make. I’m incredibly grateful to have found that with my current groups of friends. It’s not an easy thing to find, but I think it’s what works. I’m a big proponent of creating your own family and often talk with various friends about how awesome it would be to one day all live together on a big plot of land. A gal can dream, can’t she?
Meanwhile, E and I have been discussing the environment a lot. I’ve always considered myself a bit of an environmentalist, but I’m continually moving even further in that direction. To put it bluntly, the earth doesn’t belong to humans. The earth is its own thing, and if we don’t straighten up, we’re gonna kill ourselves off. You think the earth cares if we die? Nope. The earth will keep on doing its thing and other creatures will take over. Kind of like how we took over from the dinosaurs. Still though. The earth isn’t our. It belongs to all creatures, and it honestly disgusts me the way humans have been ruining it, not only for future generations, but for current creatures of other species. So what is a gal to do? How can I function within modern society and make the least impact? As I become increasingly aware, I strive every day to make less impact to the best of my abilities. I keep my heat turned down incredibly low not just for my electric bill, but to make less of an impact on earth. I’m a vegetarian and am striving to slowly cut down and maybe eventually eliminate dairy from my diet. I’ve already decided that I’d rather adopt than have children of my own. Yet every week when I bring out my recycling, I’m shocked that one person has created so much waste. It’s mind-boggling.
I guess being out of grad school has given me more time to contemplate these core values. Community. Environmentalism. Maybe I’m still a bit more idealistic than I thought I was. I thought I’d entirely reverted to pessimism and giving up on idealism, but that may not be the case after all.
Friday Fun! (Creepy Sprouts Guy Update)
Hello my lovely readers! It’s been a long week for me what with being sick and all. I’m afraid I’ve been rather dull this week, so I thought why not update you all on Creepy Sprouts Guy?
I got on the bus a morning about a week or so ago and was floored to see Creepy Sprouts Guy sitting in one of the two-person seats and not eating sprouts. I know. Shocker, right? He was instead eating pine nuts. At least, they looked like pine nuts. Personally, I think that’s kind of an expensive breakfast, but whatever.
I carefully situated myself in one of the sideways-facing seats for optimal viewing. Would someone sit next to Creepy Sprouts Guy now that he was eating pine nuts? What’s creeping people out about him? Him or the sprouts? Well, sure enough, two stops later a 20-something, most likely grad student, woman plopped in the seat next to him. Creepy Sprouts Guy responded by giving her a look of shock and horror that I’ve only seen replicated in zombie movies when a non-zombie sees a zombie flailing itself at the window.
How DARE someone sit next to Creepy Sprouts Guy?!
Jesus, it was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud.
The next day, Creepy Sprouts Guy was back to eating sprouts and being left alone.
People, the mystery has been solved! Creepy Sprouts Guy eats sprouts to get a seat alone on the bus.
Friday Fun! (Reflections and Looking Forward)
Hello my lovely readers! Today is the last day of 2010, and it feels to me like it just flew by, in spite of everything that happened during it.
As far as this blog goes, 2010 was my first full year of blogging. I really think I’ve solidified what I want my blog to be and look like this year. My layout and sidebars really reflect who I am, and I think I’ve finally got a solid style going for my reviews as well as weekly schedules. I hope you guys think so too! In 2011, I’m hosting my first reading challenge (sign up here!) and now that I’m out of grad school, I expect my non-review posts to be slightly less librarianship focused. But you never know.
On a personal note, 2010 was the first year I lived entirely in one place since I was 15 years old. It’s been kind of amazing, and I’m loving having the feeling of having roots somewhere. As my first full year living in Boston, I’ve been able to fully experience all the thrills of living in such a historic, academic city. I enjoy every aspect of it–even the ones I complain about. I love it that I can eat any variety of foods pretty much anytime I want. I can’t get over the fact that I can get a veggie burger at pretty much every single pub. I learned how to ride my bike in city traffic and experienced the joy of riding to the park to spend the day on the grass reading while others read, toss a football around, or play volleyball, and cap the day off with a walk to get some bubble tea. I discovered local independent bookstores and their fabulous used book basements that have killed my tbr pile. I went to a free Dharma and meditation session for the first time and found out how awesome it is to be quiet in a roomful of people. I’ve had the bonding experience of struggling with public transit on rainy days and in blizzards. A recent immigrant who barely spoke English once shared her umbrella with me when waiting for the bus, and it was the highlight of my day. I tried container gardening for the first time and encountered the community of urban environmentalists. So many new experiences in so little time.
This year also saw the end of my first real relationship. It’s been sad and a struggle for me, but I view the entire relationship from beginning to end to now as a wonderful experience, and I wouldn’t undo it for anything in the world. My only regrets are some of the mistakes I made, but how else can we grow and learn? Now that I know what a relationship *can* be, I’m working on being ok being alone until the next one comes along.
This year also saw me complete my Masters of Library and Information Science! The last two weeks have been the first time since I was….what? Four years old? That I haven’t been a student. I’m thoroughly enjoying having time to myself to do more of what I’d like to do. I’m nervous about the next step of my career–hunting for a higher paying job with the blessings of my current employer–, but I’m also thrilled to see where I end up. Part of me still can’t believe that I’m a white collar, highly educated, young professional living in a city. Someone pinch me!
I also hope in 2011 to really get down to business with my writing. I want to finish at least one novel, hopefully two, and start shopping them around to publishers. I have faith in my writing, and it’s time to start acting on it.
Don’t worry; this blog won’t suffer. It’s so closely tied to my favorite hobby of reading that I have a hard time imagining ever not blogging again. I’m looking forward to 2011. I’m eager. I will strive for my goals and take everything life throws at me. Anytime I start to struggle or feel down, I just remember how shocked and proud 14 year old me would be of 24 year old me, and I smile. I can’t wait to see what 2011 brings. Everything is a learning experience, and I truly feel that I am beating down more and more demons as I get older. Bring it on, 2011. I’m ready, and I’m not afraid.
Friday Fun! (Creepy Sprouts Guy)
Hello my lovely readers and welcome to the new readers who found me through the Mental Illness Awareness Reading Challenge I’m hosting for 2011!
When you take the same public transit to work every day at the same time, you start to get to know the people on your route. Generally, not through actual names, but you recognize them and their behaviors, and if you’re an Amanda, you start to give them appropriate nick-names. Stargate Chick. (She wears an SG-1 patch on her jacket. No, I am not kidding). Hot Scrubs Guy (Um, nuff said?) Fast-talking Latinas (They always talk to each other really excitedly in Spanish, and I am *dying* to know what they talk about every morning). The most interesting by far though is Creepy Sprouts Guy.
Creepy Sprouts Guy wasn’t always on my route, and I didn’t notice him when he first appeared. One day I got on the bus and spotted an empty aisle seat in one of those two seat sections. I walked toward it and just as I was about to sit, I realized that the guy sitting in the window seat had one of those boxes of sprouts in his lap. But it was open. And he was eating them. By the handful. Without even thinking I went from ass about to sit to ass quickly standing up and walked to the back of the bus and stood holding the bar. I wondered if I was over-reacting. I mean, it’s not that odd to eat sprouts directly from the container on the bus, is it? Wait. I couldn’t even think that with a straight face. I mean, you’re not even supposed to eat on the bus, let alone eat sprouts straight from the container. Maybe he was running late, and it was the only thing in his fridge, I attempted to rationalize. A couple stops later, I noticed an older gentleman coming onto the bus. He headed for the empty seat next to Creepy Sprouts Guy and did the exact same start to sit but then change to standing mid-sit move that I had done a couple of stops earlier. Clearly the creep-factor was not just impacting me. By the time we got to my stop, the bus was almost entirely full and still not a single person was willing to sit next to Creepy Sprouts Guy.
The next day I got on the bus and saw the same guy. And people? He was eating sprouts. Again! Intrigued now, I’ve been quietly sneaking glances at him every day. He’ll put his sprouts in the seat next to him and just grab them by the handful, eating while staring out the window or reading a book. He’s freakishly skinny. Like, I can see his collarbones and wrist bones through his winter clothing skinny. I want to walk up to him, grab the sprouts, and inform him that maybe a bagel would be a better breakfast choice. He’ll deliberately move his sprouts away if he sees someone needing a seat, but no one will sit next to him. I can’t explain just what is so creepy about the sprouts eating. It might be the way he does it. Slowly. Deliberately. As if he’s eating the best cake in the world and the rest of us are clearly stupid for not partaking in it as well.
Then, as if he wasn’t already odd enough, in recent weeks right when our bus gets to a certain bridge, he pulls out one of those old-school combs with the wide-set teeth and combs his hair that’s so blond it’s almost white. This wouldn’t be so odd, but he has a really short haircut, and the hair clearly doesn’t need to be combed. He’ll give a few slow, deliberate motions as we cross the bridge, then as soon as we’re over the bridge, he puts the comb away and goes back to eating his sprouts.
My confusion and fascination over his behavior is reaching the point where I just might have to attempt to strike up a conversation with him. Although I have yet to think up an opener besides, “Morning! Nice day for a bunch of sprouts, eh?”
Friday Fun! (Graduation and Strategizing Season)
This week I finally finished all of my graduate work not only for the semester, but ever! My MLIS will be officially awarded in January, but as of this week, I don’t ever have to do homework or go to class again! I am so excited, not only to finally be done, but to officially be a professional librarian. :-) Not to mention that I’ll have more time for reading and writing for fun, hehe.
In other news, the winter cold has finally hit Boston. I am so glad I managed to find a nice, cheap pair of warm boots just in time. My pair from last winter fell completely apart by the end of the season. I blame salt and all the walking I do all the time. Thus we have entered what I refer to as the strategizing season. Bostonians start walking that line between looking cute/fashionable and actually being warm. There of course is a whole urban dweller look to being warm though. The multiple layers. The knee-high boots for the ladies. The various versions of gloves that still let you use your smartphones and iPods. My personal favorites are the commuter gloves that you let fold back the fingertip of the glove to use your smartphone, but glomits (fingerless gloves with a mitten flap you can fold back) seem to be the most popular on the bus. Personally, I currently have two pairs of fingerless gloves. I need to get the commuter gloves. My fingers can’t take it.
Then there’s the how to stay warm at the bus stop strategies. There’s the stationary dancers who hop from foot to foot. The leaners who attempt to block the wind by leaning against something. This strategy makes sense at bus stops with a shelter. At ones without a shelter though, they wind up leaning against a telephone pole, and I honestly think any warmth they feel is psychosomatic. Then there’s the stoic crowd that I’m generally a part of. We stand there firmly in one place either staring the direction the bus is supposed to come from glaring at it or employing the watched pot never boils concept and looking the opposite direction.
But it’s not just the commute that’s cold. If you have to pay for your own heat, your apartment tends to be not as warm as one would like either. The layering employed for the commute gets extended inside, only the coat is replaced with a sweatshirt in an attempt to trick yourself into thinking that your apartment is actually a bit warmer than outside. At least there’s no wind inside. Personally, I acquired an electric blanket to put at the bottom of my pile of blankets. This means that I’ve been winding up in bed earlier and earlier every night. Since the tv isn’t in there, this means a lot more reading is occurring. I’ve also heard of other strategies, such as running the oven, doing jumping jacks, drinking tea repeatedly, running the hot water in the shower, etc… Ah, winter. How we’ve missed you.
I actually don’t mind the cold that much. I’ve lived in New England my whole life, so I’m used to it. I do, however, think it’s a travesty when it occurs without snow. I love snow! You hear that, weather? If it’s this cold out, you may as well make it snow….
Friday Fun! (Happy Hanukkah!)
Hello my lovely readers! It’s certainly been a busy week here in Boston. The holidays are officially in full swing, so on top of finishing up my final semester of grad school, I’ve been balancing everything that goes along with the holidays.
I hit up the sales on Saturday after all the crowds were mostly gone and picked up a couple of things I’ve been needing, including a rectangular baking dish, a bread pan, and a coffee maker. The coffee maker was massively on sale, and I know it will save me a lot of money compared to buying coffee every day at Dunks. So far, I’ve only forgotten my traveling mug full of coffee once….. I already put the bread pan to good use by making banana bread. In lieu of regular plain yogurt, I used pineapple Greek yogurt, and you guys, it was to die for. The bread was incredibly moist. I think this may be the secret to nommy banana bread.
I also did about half my holiday shopping (entirely online. I’m a cyber maven). Most of what’s left includes baking massive amounts of baked goods for various people including the mailman, coworkers, etc…. I then decorated my apartment with the few holiday decorations I actually have. It didn’t take too long, particularly since my fake tree is pretty tiny.
Wednesday night was the first night of Hanukkah, which I celebrated with my cat. She seems to have forgotten the menorah between last year and this year. She loves sitting in the window with the menorah to the extent that I have to lock her in another room while the candles are burning. Last night, for the second night of Hanukkah, I went over to my friends’ Nina and E’s apartment. We celebrated with their downstairs neighbors/landlady. We made three different types of latkes and had them with sour cream, homemade apple sauce, and homemade grape juice. Then Nina and E gave me my Chrismukkah presents, and they know me so well! I was totally blown away at the wide assortment of baking accessories, craft projects, cat accessories, and naturally a book that they gave me. :-) I have the bestest friends. Next week, on the last night of Hanukkah, they’ll come to me and get their presents from me. I’m excited for them to see what I got them!
Happy holidays to all. I hope you’re already enjoying and celebrating this lovely month instead of letting the holidays stress you out.
Book Review: S by John Updike
Summary:
Letters, both hand-written and recorded onto tapes, tell the story of Sarah, a North Shore housewife of a wealthy Massachusetts General Hospital doctor who one day in 1986 decides to go and join a commune in the Arizona desert. Gradually through the letters both her past and her experiences in the commune are revealed.
Review:
I was intrigued by this book for multiple reasons. I’ve always enjoyed epistolary novels. I found Updike’s more famous novel, The Three Witches of Eastwick, endlessly entertaining. Also, I’ve always been fascinated by communes and cults. This book certainly contains all three elements. Sarah’s letters compel the reader to get through them as quickly as possible. Whether she’s discussing the commune or her past life on the North Shore, the letters are truly fascinating. Perhaps this is partly because there’s a Stepford-wife like quality to Sarah’s past life, and her current life is so over the top from anything most modern Americans experience. It provides a fascinating contrast.
The book therefore starts out strong, but falters more and more the further toward the end it gets. The more about Sarah is revealed, the less sympathetic she becomes. Additionally, due to the nature of the epistolary novel, some of her actions are not entirely revealed, thus leaving the ending a bit confusing. Frankly, the ending simultaneously surprised and disappointed me. I was left wondering what on earth Updike’s point had been. Was it a feminist stance? Was it misogynistic? Was it just a portrait of a person? The great variety between all these possibilities should demonstrate how confusing the ending is.
It’s interesting to note that Sarah is depicted as a descendant of Hester Prynne of The Scarlet Letter. I’m sure this plays into the interpretation of the book a great deal, although personally, I am not sure how.
Overall, this epistolary novel starts out strong and engaging, but the ending leaves the reader a bit confused and let down. If you’re a big Updike or epistolary novel fan, you will still enjoy the book enough to make it worth your while to read, but all others should probably give it a pass.
3 out of 5 stars
Source: Swap.com
Support my work with a tip or browse my shop for curated book club guides, how to guides, cross-stitch patterns, and more!
This work by Amanda Nevius is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Opinions of a Wolf 