This is ME right now! and I couldn’t be happier.

Busted Mug

I was screwing around with wordpress last night and I messed up my mug.  I will be working to restore Bookie’s old appearance ASAP.

The one good thing about being gone for so long…

My reading and my blog were on hiatus for a while.  My reading was sluggish, and my blogging was sparse at best.  I went through a lot of life changes in the last 2 years, and I just couldn’t find a way to lose myself in books the way I always had.  I took up some other hobbies that were occupying my free time such as;  starting a vintage store on Etsy , Facebook, browsing design blogs online and having major house envy, and perhaps my favorite – rediscovering the art of napping. 

Recently, I moved to another part of town which led to a new library system which has thankfully seemed to reignite my reading and my blogging.  Also – I have started using the commuter train, which frees up more time for reading…and napping.  Ah, my two loves.

I think one of my favorite parts about being away for a while is that now I have such a HUGE amount of wonderful books to read.  In the last few weeks I have read: The Help, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, Garden Spells, Recently I’ve taken up Smoking, The Lotus Eaters (FANFREAKINGTASTIC!), Stiltsville, Will Store vs. The Supernatural, The Graveyard Book, Edgar Sawtelle, and am currently reading Juliet by Anne Fortier which I can’t put down!  They were all really great especially The Lotus Eaters, which I have yet to blog about.  Even with all that great reading, my catch up list is still mile long and growing.

Another fun thing is checking in on old book blogging friends, and seeing all of the new ones that either cropped up in the last 2 years, or that I had never visited before such as:

http://bermudaonion.wordpress.com/

http://shereadsandreads.blogspot.com/

http://www.ragingbibliomania.net/

and a bunch more that I will be adding to my blogroll soon.

On the other side of the coin, I guess my least favorite part of a near 2 year blogging lapse is that nobody reads this blog anymore.  It’s like bad blogger karma.  Drats.

Straight outta Facebook

25 Things

I don’t like ice cream or anything else frozen in my mouth. Sometimes sorbet is OK.

One time when I was a kid, I ate too many cucumbers and barfed. I have not touched or eaten a cucumber since, although I do enjoy pickles.

I like to read tarot cards.

I’m flakey and often fail to finish things I’ve started. I’m also very absent minded at times,. My ex-husband gave me the Indian name “Woman whose brain is scattered like ash.” It’s true. I have often gone into gas stations, paid for my gas, and then drove off without pumping the gas into my car. Recently, I ran out of gas because of this. LOL.

 I find it healthy to laugh at your own shortcomings.

I have been to over 200 NFL football games in my lifetime and I am a crazy Saints fan. My favorite Saint ever was Pat Swilling, because he was a ferocious linebacker. The QB sack with fumble recovery is my favorite play to see. Long live the Dome Patrol.

I like defense more than offense.

I think America’s Funniest Home Video’s is one of the funniest shows on TV. The boys and I record it on DVR and then watch and rewind the really funny videos. Watch rewind, laugh. Watch rewind, laugh. Rinse and repeat.

My parents are a little odd. For example, during Mardi Gras they used to try and “catch” the parade as many times as possible. Once we saw the same parade 4 times, in different parts of Houma. Also, they go to Wal-Mart everyday for no good reason. I find this weird. I guess this is what happens when you don’t drink any alchohol.

I really like to kiss. And, I’m good at it.

If I could do any job I wanted I would own my own bookstore on the coast somewhere that’s not very cold.

I’m a decent writer but I lack ambition.

I’m not a dog person, I don’t like the way they smell.

I love it when people swear, especially when I’m not expecting it like at a staff meeting.

When I find a new song I really like, I’ll listen to it over and over until I know all the words.

I’m a good and loyal friend.

I’m terrified of illness.

The first concert I ever went to was the Beastie Boys and Run DMC. My parents took me and my best friend Nicole, we wore matching Esprit outfits. There was a large inflatable penis on the stage and the Beastie Boys were drinking malt liquer. My parents made us leave during Run DMC because they said the crowd was getting too “rowdy.”

I enjoy sleeping on sofas, they are sometimes more comfortable to me than beds. I sleep with a lot of pillows, I need at least 4 minimum. Two semi-firm ones, and then 2 squishy ones.

 One time I had an out-of-body experience. I was 18, in my bedroom with the lights off listening to Enigma. I don’t know if it was those Gregorian monks or what, but next thing you know I felt like I was floating on the ceiling. Then my dad walked in and I snapped out of it. Scouts honor.

Is that 25 things yet? I’m bad at math.

Christmas in July??

Anyone else care to explain why I would be be strolling around downtown on my lunch break, in my most painful shoes, with a cheesy grin on my face while listening to Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas on my ipod?

I have another theory, perhaps happiness?  Oh!  I remember this…yes, life IS good.  Divorce suits me it seems, and don’t think for a second I’m giving Paxil all the credit either, maybe a high five at best.

Over the weekend I started reading The History of Love by Nicole Krauss, and wow is all I’m saying.

Bye now, gotta go sing in the rain.

Love,

Bookie  tra la la

Well, it’s about damn time.

It appears as though, FINALLY, parents are rebelling against this new fangled idea of “perfect parenting” and just saying screw it, we’re doing the best we can – so leave us the hell alone about it.  I just delighted when reading this article at Salon about a new slew of books being published by parents who are just openly admitting that they can’t or won’t conform to the modern American version of parenting.

In Ayelet Waldman’s new book, Bad Mother a Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamaties, and Occasional Moments of Grace , she talks about how failing to try to do everything by the book will put you in the dreaded “Bad Mother” category.  Here is a little excerpt from an interview with her.

Q: What is your definition of a good mother?

AW: As one of my interview subjects said, “A Good Mother remembers to serve fruit at breakfast, is always cheerful and never yells, manages not to project her own neuroses and inadequacies onto her children, is an active and beloved community volunteer. She remembers to make playdates, her children’s clothes fit, she does art projects with them and enjoys all their games. And she is never too tired for sex.”

Q: Okay, so what do you consider the responsible, attainable ideal of a modern mother?

AW: One who loves her kids and does her level best not to damage them in any permanent way. A good mother doesn’t let herself be overcome by guilt when she screws up.

First of all *RANT ALERT*, I like this idea because I, being a mother (and newly single mom) of two young boys detest the way mothers judge each other over insane little things like breast-feeding, sugar intake, television time, and the mack daddy of all issues – the working mom vs. stay at home mom debate.  Oy Vey.  By today’s standards I am probably not a bad mother, but a horrible one.  I work full time with a long commute.  I detest housework.  I have never tracked a bowel movement.  I sometimes swing into Mickey D’s instead of preparing a nutritional dinner.  I forget to give my 9 year old son his ADHD medication.  I give my son ADHD medication.  I yell, hell sometimes I scream!  I secretly rejoice when soccer practice is rained out.  I am not good at matching socks.  I get annoyed that every freaking activity your kid is in has to have a “snack schedule”, and I don’t really understand why today’s child needs a fucking snack for every freaking thing they do.  I do horror movie night every Friday night with my boys, and sometimes there are curse words and usually always gratuitous violence involved.   and I HATE, and I mean I REALLY hate the word playdate.   Aside from all that, I know I am still a good mom.  I do what I’m supposed to do, and I teach them well.  Most of all I love them more than I can stand, and they know I am their number one fan and that I will always be there when they need me.  I love being a mom, and I do the best that I can for me being me.   I’m glad people like Ayelet Waldman are standing up and saying the same thing!

Ayelet Waldman, if you recall, is the woman who was raked over the coals for saying on Oprah that she loved her husband more than her kids.  I think what she was saying was that she didn’t want her life to revolve around her children, that she wanted to be herself, a woman, a wife, and not just a mother.   I can see why the way she phrased it rubbed some people the wrong way, but I give her kudos for having the balls to say it, especially on Oprah…whoa.  I dunno how she made it out of there alive.

Other interesting  titles include  True Mom Confessions:  Real Moms Get Real by Romi Lassaly and Most Popular Mommy blogger Heather Armstrong aka Dooce’s book It Sucked and then I cried:  How I had a baby, A Breakdown, and A Much Needed Margarita.

Divorce still sucks…Poetry Drop by Me

Divorce Still Sucks

even if you want it

even if you fell out of love long ago

even if you may never have been in love at all

even if you hate him

even if he hates you

even if you still promise to be friends

even if you prayed for it, and asked for it and

begged for God to help you do it.

even if you can’t stand the sight of him                  sometimes.

even if he’s taught you the meaning of love, and hurt, and despair and terror and

hope

all at once.

divorce still feels like the world is physically  breaking apart

and you know you better hang on or fall off

but you don’t know where to grab

because  everything is slippery.

************************************************************************************

Why am I sitting around feeling sorry for myself when I have a $25 Barnes and Nobles gift card burning a hole in my wallet???

Bragging Rights

This is just me being a bragadocious mom. My older son Owen is in the exceptional learners program at school and his teacher sent out a list of all the words he had learned this year. I’m IMPRESSED!

*superfluous*

*countenance*

*profound*

*manifest*

*obvious;*

*prodigious*

*languor*

*symphonic*

*interpose***

*serene*

*acute*

*grotesque*

*condescend*

*odious*

*post*

*circumspect*

*malevolence*

*exquisite*

*clamor*

*sublime*

*lofty*

*tremulous*

*allude*

*aqua*

*audi*

*aqueduct*

*placid*

*singular*

*unique*

*amiable*

*incredulous*

*perplex*

*bellicose*

*missive*

*melancholy*

*venerate*

*abate*

*repose*

Wow.  These are great words!  I love these words, I wish I used them more often.  I have to admit, I will freak out if my third grader casually drops  placid, sublime, or interpose in a sentence.

A Thanksgiving Read

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In this remarkable effort, National Book Award–winner Philbrick(In the Heart of the Sea) examines the history of Plymouth Colony. In the early 17th century, a small group of devout English Christians fled their villages to escape persecution, going first to Holland, then making the now infamous 10-week voyage to the New World. Rather than arriving in the summer months as planned, they landed in November, low on supplies. Luckily, they were met by the Wampanoag Indians and their wizened chief, Massasoit. In economical, well-paced prose, Philbrickmasterfully recounts the desperate circumstances of both the settlers and their would-be hosts, and how the Wampanoags saved the colony from certain destruction. Indeed, there was a first Thanksgiving, the author notes, and for over 50 years the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims lived in peace, becoming increasingly interdependent. But in 1675, 56 years after the colonists’ landing, Massasoit’s heir, Philip, launched a confusing war on the English that, over 14 horrifying months, claimed 5,000 lives, a huge percentage of the colonies’ population. Impeccably researched and expertly rendered, Philbrick’saccount brings the Plymouth Colony and its leaders, including William Bradford, Benjamin Church and the bellicose, dwarfish Miles Standish, vividly to life. More importantly, he brings into focus a gruesome period in early American history. For Philbrick, this is yet another award-worthy story of survival. (May 9)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

I’m only halfway done with this book, and I have to say its truly fascinating stuff.  I don’t usually blog about a book until I’ve read the entire thing, but I felt the need to post something after my long absence and bid all of you a Happy Thanksgiving.  This book is a perfect compliment to a family holiday weekend and I would recommend it to all.

That being said, my reading has been sparse or none at all.  My husband and I have separated and I feel a bit like I am on the Mayflower myself, riding rough seas with no real idea of where I’m going or where I’ll end up.  But I also share their feelings of excitement and the anticipation of living independently and starting over in a new world.  I wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving and holiday weekend. 

“Memeage” – Very Cool Term Totally Stolen From Bookpusher

My creation

Originally uploaded by bookie_sherid

Check out this cool photo meme I found at Bookpusher.

The concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name – Or online handle.

Follow the directions. aww…look how cute the beer and the bookstore look next to Josh. *sigh*