Summer Reading List, First Draft

Hooookay, here's the thing: my attempts to read during the Christmas break failed miserably.  I have no particular reason in mind, but I assume it is because I tend to procrastinate far more than I should.  Other possible reasons to fall extremely (read: 100%) short of my goal are lack of time due to poor time management, rewatching season 4 disc 2 of One Tree Hill more than once because I was too put out to take it out of my DVD player, the temptation of doing nearly nothing for a few weeks, snowboarding and Whitefish.... the list really does go on.  But in the end, it's sheer procrastination.  Boourns.

Therefore, I propose a new reading list for the summer.  A better, well thought out reading list.  It will contain books I will read for guilty pleasure, to challenge my intellect, and/or because I thought the title or front page were fantastic.  Given the last criterion, I should add Vampirates to the roster, but I may have trouble tracking it down, the tweens will be all over it for a good summer read.  I may be forced to replace it with the Twilight-mockery series.  Tempting, so tempting.  Seriously, they look good (fulfilling the first criterion).

Without further ado and babbling, my first reading list:
1. Finish The Picture of Dorian Gray.  Seriously, it is becoming my Everest, bigger than Guns, Germs and Steel
2. A Swiftly Turning Planet ( a book in Madeleine L'Engle's series, like A Wrinkle in Time)
3. Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse
4. Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
5. The Wayfinders - Wade Davis (part of the Massey Lectures series.  A Race Against Time was an assigned book for a class last year, and I absolutely loved it.  The way it is written, oh! It is as if you are in a lecture hall listening to the most captivating speech you have ever heard. I highly recommend it, although I give you fair warning that it may slightly depress you.  Nonetheless, amazing.)
6. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
7. Gods Behaving Badly - Marie Phillips

I will stop there.  Odd numbers are the best to end a list.  As is the number 7.  It is not too high like 9 or 10 (which is even, so clearly out of the picture all together, despite the attraction most feel towards lists being this length) nor is it too simple and well-planned like 5 seems (considering 10 is too large and even, many people find it makes sense to half 10 to 5, but it seems all-too-convenient so I am not a fan of 5-itemed lists).

On a side note, the neighbor's cat, (Sam) has decided to take a liking to the Condo.  It has made two recent treks through the open door and up the stairs, peeking around the corner to jingle his bell and give a quick 'hello' before jaunting off to scratch himself on the sidewalk.  This new step in our relationship pleases me.

"Hello, Summer. Please come in, I've been waiting for you"

Side note: These dudes are playing Saturday. I hope to win free tickets, because I love free things. If not, I still may go. Come with meeeeeeeeeeee!

Word of the Day: Hitlarian.

The word has nothing to do with this piece of heaven I found.  I just thought it was wonderful and am going to see if I can use it astutely once a week in a conversation.  It could become "my" word.  I have been told repeatedly in the past I use "nonetheless" often.  I like to correct when people say "irregardless" so I suppose "regardless" could be another alternative, too.  Or, bacchanalian.

Trololo Cat - СrazyFun - Click here for more free videos

Inabilities

Here is a list of things I am not able to do:
1. snap my fingers
2. whistle (I am getting closer, though)
3. play the guitar (exception: whatever I played after the IPE in Armstrong)
4. draw a near-perfect to perfect circle free hand
5. 1260s in the halfpipe
6. text and talk at the same time.  You could have Edward Cullen propose to me, but so long as I am texting, I will mutter something alike to "yuh-huh" or "yah..." or even "oh... so then what...?".  It's a curse, really.

I cannot end a list with an even number but today I make an exception.  I cannot be bothered to think of more - this list will do for now.

I like things.  Here are two of them, selected for their awesomeness.  I will buy you a bunny if you know who is the original band that sings the first video, without cheating, and within the first 15 seconds of it.  The bunny has to be white, though.  I like white, too.

AND this:

The usual love/love-to-hate relationship

It is that time of year again, the time that I start realizing how much I procrastinate.  I really thought I was on top of things this semester, but this past reading week has proven me very wrong on that assumption.  The Week of Hell starts tomorrow: a 10 page position paper due tomorrow, a tough-ass midterm, a very detailed paper proposal, and another midterm awaits me this week.  I have been tempted far too many times this past week to go purchase a glass coffee table and re-enact last April's accident, in hopes of getting a medical note so I can get extensions on everything.  Yet that would seem to just pile things up more and more, so a 6 hour night/early am of paper editing and editing and editing awaits me.

Despite this pressure to punch out an amazing position on Argentina and the NPT in a quickly decreasing amount of time, I have found time to write this and share three things:
1. I made delicious biscuits at 10 a.m. while everyone slept off their hangovers - we had a full house and it felt like summer, so nice!  So I have decided that cooking is my therapy for almost anything in my life - late night, stress, boredom.
2. I frackin' love Bruce.  Still.  Forever.  How can anyone not just want to lay on the floor (or cook) and just listen???  Beautiful everything about his music.  This is my current song on repeat by him (mixed in with some Tik Tok and T Swift, of course), only on his Live 1975-85 album.  Bittersweet.

3. I own a coffee table from Value Village.  It was $10, has tacky brass edging that I love (obviously), and it came already named!!!  "My name is Jack" was Sharpie-enscribed on the bottom.  Naturally, we added to that today and Jack has new tattoos of a Rom-Nom Dinosaur that is about to devour an Awesome Kitchen Whore with Ho Heels, a mariposa, a picture of Paradise (with no food or Bruce though, that might need to change), and a poorly-depicted New Years Jack in the Box.

Kitty Goes to Vancouver (2010).

Here are pictures of my trip to Vancouver, a long overdue visit to see Andrea and her beau.

In Sum: I love Vancouver but I would miss the snow.  I pretended I was camping when the air mattress deflated mid-sleep one night, it was fun.  Red-walled condos scare me.  It is too warm in Van for outdoor skating rinks - sadness.  I did not meet my soulmate there, that is ok though because I discovered the magic of Glee.  It took up my life for two days after I returned home.  I have an obsessive personality to some significant degree.  Neat.

P.S. Thank you, Dad, for buying my ticket  <3

I hope this works.....

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!