Snapshots from my day

On an errand, I got stopped for a train. Aha! I always travel with a book just in case of situations like this. The arms went down. I reached for my book. The engine went past. The arms went back up. What are the odds? I guarantee that if I hadn't had a book, it would have been the longest train known to man.

I returned the book I bought while down at my parents' house (because I already owned it, of course). While there, I picked up a few more books. It seemed like an even exchange. One book returned while 6 more came home with me. Make that five. One of the six I bought has to go back tomorrow because... Yup, you guessed it. I already own it.

I stopped to get gas at a seedy looking station that was a full 5 cents per gallon less than anything else around here. I pumped the gas while pondering all sorts of minutia. Didn't snap back to reality until I realized gas was splashing onto my feet. Apparently the automatic stopper thingie didn't work. Now my lovely new shoes smell all gassy and my jeans are already in the wash. As for my feet, well, I didn't smell them but I'll be showering shortly. So much for the cheaper gas! I probably spilled what I would have spent at the other stations. :-P

I went for my first run in over a week. It didn't feel very good and was only 3 miles. Even worse, when Coach Jay stopped to talk to us (we'd inadvertantly left without him), I felt dizzy and nauseous. Clearly I am very out of shape. I need to sign up for a race to force myself out there more than twice a week. I figure if I sign up, I'm ornery enough that I'll run because I don't want to totally embarrass myself. Now to figure out which race to bless with my presence!

Unread Authors Challenge

I could have sworn I signed up for this one a while ago. After all, it is not only listed on both my handy dandy lists of challenges, but it is also listed in my excel database of which books belong to which challenge. You never knew what a nerd I was, did you? I admit the extent of my dorkiness sometimes even surprises me. In any case, apparently I only *thought* I'd joined the challenge officially because there's not a record of my participation on the host blog. So even though it ends in less than a month, I am signing up now. It's sort of satisfying to sign up when you've already finished reading for it too, I might add. ::grin:: This is one challenge I definitely won't fail! So the challenge is The Second Unread Authors Challenge and my list of books for the challenge is:

1. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
2. Skating to Antarctica by Jenny Diski
3. Raising Fences by Michael Datcher
4. The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce
5. The Bookseller's Daughter by Pam Rosenthal
6. Netblue by James L. Hayhurst

TBR Challenge

I am signing up for this one a little behind the usual time (story of my life these days). This is th TBR (to be read) challenge. Unlike most of my challenges, this one doesn't allow you to swap out books on your list once you create it so it takes some careful thinking. It does let you have a main list of 12 and a list of 12 alternates just in case though. In any case, I pondered my possibilities and finally created an eclectic list that should suit me all year long no matter what kind of reading mood in which I seem to be at any given moment. So with no further ado, here's the 2009 list I'll be tackling:

1. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
2. The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki
3. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
4. River of Doubt by Candice Millard
5. Jim the Boy by Tony Earley
6. Merry Hall by Beverley Nichols
7. Eve's Ransom by George Gissing
8. I Wanna Be Sedated: 30 Writers on Parenting Teenagers edited by Faith Conlon and Gail Hudson
9. The Bar Sinister by Linda Berdoll
10. Dog Years by Mark Doty
11. Kartography by Kamila Shamsie
12. Don't Let's Go To the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller

alternates:
1. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
2. Independent People by Haldor Laxness
3. A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird
4. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
5. The Tale of Desperaux by Kate DiCamillo
6. Firmin by Sam Savage
7. Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
8. Pure Dead Frozen by Debi Gliori
9. Eve's Ransom by George Gissing
10. Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon
11. Short Fat Triathlete by Jayne Williams
12. Tallulahland by Lynn Messina

Challenges and resolutions

It's that time of year when I go all hog-wild and join a whole bunch of internet book challenges. Sometimes this helps me focus my reading. Sometimes this overwhelms me. And sometimes I pay zero attention to the challenges I've set or joined. It's kind of like my own version of New year's Resolutions, which you might notice didn't appear on the blog. This is not because they are so private I can't share. I mean, let's be honest, I have no problem sharing--inapropriately even. It's more because I don't make resolutions anymore. I hate to set myself up to fail (and really, who ever follows through on their NY resolutions anyway?). Plus, the typical things that everyone resolves to do (lose weight, eat better, exercise more) just make me sound like a commercial for Weight Watchers (which I will be re-joining, as I've previously mentioned, but not because it's a new year, more because I've gotten off track--sort of like this post). In any case, the things I should resolve to do don't need formalizing by being placed on a list with a definite start date. They should just organically happen. And if you believe that pile of hog's wallop, you don't know me! But I'm only indulging my list making anal-retentive side with book resolutions this year so when you start seeing loads of entries on my upcoming book challenges (and last count has me signing up for 45), you'll know what has happened. My evil twin organizer has just highjacked the blog for a while although hopefully the loopy, chaotic twin will get to continue posting a bit too since I know you're all addicted to my nutball entries on life now, aren't you?

Sunday Salon: Review: Amy's Answering Machine by Amy Borkowsky

Borkowsky is a comedian. Or at least she was when this book was written in 2001 (and the reason I give you the date is to orient you to the dominant technology of the time). Apparently one of the things she does/did in her act was to play tapes of her answering machine messages from her mother and then riff off of the over-protective messages. I have to hope that she is funnier doing stand-up than she is when writing this stuff down. Because this isn't funny. It's just dull. There is a good chance that her intonations and mannerisms made this a successful stage bit but it clearly loses in the translation to the page. Thank heavens this was short because had it been any longer than it was, I would have been sound asleep, head pressed to print, and drooling into the spine. I'm also hoping that the advent and proliferation of voice mail and the lack of taped evidence of her mother's over the top concerns means that we won't ever be subjected to another book of this stuff. Obviously not the way I wanted to start off my reading year and I recommend you don't bother with this either.

Should I just go back to bed?

I always thought that those mornings when I stood in the shower and honestly couldn't remember if I'd already washed my hair yet (sometimes yes, sometimes no) were as low as mornings got but today proved me wrong. I put both contacts in the same eye. Ummm. Yeah. I won't share how long it took me to realize why everything was so incredibly blurry. I may still go pull the covers over my head and call it a day later.

Not my preferred career path

I have a low patience level, a high frustration level, and absolutely zero tolerance for other peoples' learning curves. The whole world is breathing a sigh of relief that I recognized this about myself many years ago and chose not to become a teacher (and to those handful of students I traumatized while I was in grad school, well, my heartfelt apologies). D. and I decided to teach some neighbors how to play euchre yesterday. Now those of you who are not from the midwest have probably never heard of euchre, but I assure you, it is a fun game and easy to learn--provided you don't have D. or me explaining it to you, especially when one of us has had a bit to drink and the other is working on serious sleep deprivation. How the neighbors didn't just chuck us out into the yard and bolt the door behind us, I'm not certain, but they didn't. Instead, they chose to stick with the game and watch my blood pressure reach dangerously high levels. That must have been the draw, because they clearly weren't having fun. And I could never tell if they were just being polite when they declined each time I offered to throw our hands in and abandon ship. I tell you, I was never so happy to reach the end of a game as I was last night! And we should have known better. We've been to an evening where the goal was to teach other folks the joys of euchre and I felt like I was wearing a hair shirt all night. So while others may find euchre difficult to master (it's really not), I obviously don't learn from my mistakes. What a good idea: I am not now and never have been cut out to teach anyone anything at any time (I didn't even bother to toilet train my kids, allowing them to decide to train themselves--this is how unsuited I am to teaching) so let's repeat one of the most brutally frustrating evenings in recent memory and showcase my mad card teaching skills. Brilliant, wouldn't you say?! ARGH!!!!

On the plus side, the neighbors (who we really do like a lot--and as a result of which we will never, never suggest euchre in their presence again) seem to still be speaking to us. So while it was pretty obvious I was frustrated, I must have taken it out mainly on D. instead of our friends. This is good. He's stuck with me. They're not. (But I still say euchre is easy to learn--afterall, I learned in college in the course of one short evening when I was, shall we say, at less than my most coherent and best self. Just sayin'.)