Midnight, Texas Series by Charlaine Harris

Goodreads Summary:

Welcome to Midnight, Texas, a town with many boarded-up windows and few full-time inhabitants, located at the crossing of Witch Light Road and Davy Road. It’s a pretty standard dried-up western town.

There’s a pawnshop (someone lives in the basement and is seen only at night). There’s a diner (people who are just passing through tend not to linger). And there’s new resident Manfred Bernardo, who thinks he’s found the perfect place to work in private (and who has secrets of his own).

Stop at the one traffic light in town, and everything looks normal. Stay awhile, and learn the truth...

Goodreads Summary:

There is no such thing as bad publicity, except in Midnight, Texas, where the residents like to keep to themselves. Even in a town full of secretive people, Olivia Charity is an enigma. She lives with the vampire Lemuel, but no one knows what she does; they only know that she’s beautiful and dangerous.

Psychic Manfred Bernardo finds out just how dangerous when he goes on a working weekend to Dallas and sees Olivia there with a couple who are both found dead the next day. To make matters worse, one of Manfred’s regular — and very wealthy — clients dies during a reading.

Manfred returns from Dallas embroiled in scandal and hounded by the press. He turns to Olivia for help; somehow he knows that the mysterious Olivia can get things back to normal. As normal as things get in Midnight...

Goodreads Summary:

At Midnight’s local pawnshop, weapons are flying off the shelves—only to be used in sudden and dramatic suicides right at the main crossroads in town.

Who better to figure out why blood is being spilled than the vampire Lemuel, who, while translating mysterious texts, discovers what makes Midnight the town it is. There’s a reason why witches and werewolves, killers and psychics, have been drawn to this place.

And now they must come together to stop the bloodshed in the heart of Midnight. For if all hell breaks loose—which just might happen—it will put the secretive town on the map, where no one wants it to be...

My Thoughts:

So... I never read the Sucky Stackhouse books. No, I didn't spell that name wrong, I promise. I did watch the Sucky Stackhouse TV show aka True Blood. I wouldn't say that I really enjoyed the show. I thought it was mostly stupid, but I did like that attractive dudes took their clothes off. The show often gave me a good eye roll and from time to time a chuckle. 

When I saw that the same writer had another series adapted to a show I assumed it would be crap like True Blood. I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed the show. The NBC series isn't great TV but it does entertain and allow you to turn your brain off, if that is what you want. 

I thought I would give these books a go since the Midnight, Texas series is thus far better than the True Blood series. I checked all three out via my local library app and read them all in a couple of days. First, I should point out that this rapid reading was not due to the books being overly engaging. 

The first book was decent enough that I decided to continue to the second. The second was decent enough that I decided to continue to the third. If there was a fourth, I likely wouldn't have read it at the same time.

The first book I would give three out of five stars. It wasn't terrible, it wasn't great. I was for the most part interested in what was going on in the story. I will say that I prefer the TV characters better than those actually in the book. The characters in the book are lacking diversity and depth. The story is fine so long as you go in not expecting much.

The second book I would again give three out of five. Again, I would say I prefer the TV characters more than the book characters. The story again was okay but nothing special. I wouldn't say this book was well written, but I wouldn't say it was poorly written. 

The third book, again, would get three out of five stars. If I was prone to giving half ratings I would say I would give the third book a 2.5 rather than a full three stars. This is because Fiji had a larger part in this book. I want to smack Fiji. Girl, get a self esteem and learn to like your fat ass.

So over all, Charlaine Harris isn't a great writer. She does have interesting things in each book. She has some over the top and annoying things in each book. I found Fiji the most annoying. Manfred wasn't a fully developed person. Olivia's back story and current method of making money are linked but the link felt lacking some how. There are a lot of people who have fucked up childhoods who don't murder for money. I guess I would say I would prefer more in depth character development than these books offer. Also, I would prefer Manfred to be more like the NBC Manfred in description, ability, and action. 

It feels so weird to say that I prefer the adaptation rather than the source material. I am not sure I have ever felt that way before. 

I will say I don't regret reading the Midnight, Texas books. If she writes another, I will likely read it at some point. I am hoping for a season 2 of the NBC show. I don't really recommend these books unless you like a cheap fast read. I mean cheap in that you aren't expecting great literature. I wouldn't ever pay for these books. If you want to indulge in these read, do what I did, support your local library.

While writing this review I was listening to the Rachel Maddow show. My god I am glad that she is back from vacation. I don't love Joy filling in. Rachel is my kind of nerd. I have such a lady crush on her. I want her to be my second best friend (Obviously, first best friend position is filled).

Also, Happy New Year kids. I will attempt to update more often. Life has changed a bit for me these days. I am one of those adults who had to move in with their Parental Unit's house to work on paying down some debt. It has been a fucked up few months adjusting to living at home again. Who knew that at 36 you could feel like an angry teenager again? The Husband Unit is getting a greater understanding of why I am the way that I am. Yet to be determined if that is a good thing. I have been reading a shit ton and not posting about it. I will be catching up on some of my more recent reads but definitely not all. I don't think I remember everything that I read in the last year and some change since last I posted.

As a different side note I would like to say that while I am an American, Donald Trump does not represent my America. I haven't posted since the election that put him in office. Partially, because I just didn't know how to express all of the anger, fear, hurt, shock, frustration, disgust etc etc etc that I was feeling. I still don't. Just today the Orange One was flexing his nuclear dick at North Korea. Donald Trump very well could be the end of America. I hope he isn't. I hope we the people are stronger than him. I will fight against him and his bullshit agenda as long as there is breath in my body. I am glad that Sen. Orrin Hatch is retiring. We don't need more of congress getting on their knees to suck the cock of such a tyrant. I intend on using my voice, my vote, and my money to support the America that I love. It is hard to see that America these days, but sometimes I get a glimpse. If you too want a glimpse I recommend picking up What Unites Us by Dan Rather. I haven't finished it yet but so far he is making me feel better about my fellow citizens and country. 

Hey there... It has been a while

So it has been a while since I posted a book review. This isn't because I haven't been reading, in fact I left my Goodreads goal for 2016 in the dust a couple months ago. Part of the reason I haven't been posting is that a good number of those books were read while I was recovering from lady bit surgery.
My work often closes the week between Christmas and New Years. This last winter was particularly busy so I planned on taking a little more time than everyone else. I didn't realize that would eventually translate to taking over a month off. I felt sick leading up to Christmas, but that isn't unusual. I keep so busy at work I often fall ill as soon as I slow down. Then the week leading up to New Years I was feeling really awful. I had developed a pain on the right side of my abdomen. It wasn't consistent, honestly, I thought it was gas from eating like crap for a week. Then the pain seemed to spike and wouldn't relent so first thing in the early morning of January 1, 2016 I asked my husband to take me to urgent care. Once I was there, they sent me to the ER as they were pretty sure I would need tests that they couldn't help me with. I had a cat scan of the painful area and it was discovered that my right ovary had developed a cyst the size of Texas (this is only a slight exaggeration, the end size of the cyst was about the size of a cantaloupe).
Long story short I ended up having surgery within the week and then spent the next three weeks recovering in bed. I have to say I would really rather not have this happen to me again. It is over six months later and I still have some issues from the whole ordeal. I spent as much of my free time as possible reading. I read to forget the massive pain I was feeling, the stress I could feel piling up from missing so much work, and the depression that hit like a ton of bricks because I couldn't really move. I just didn't have the energy to form thoughts about what I was reading. I escaped into the worlds created for me and I am endlessly grateful for authors and story tellers. I am not generally a fan of people leaning on emotional crutches but in this situation I really don't think I would have come out whole if I hadn't escaped. I am of the overly responsible type A variety and it was maddening to not be in control of my body and to be missing so much of my responsibilities. I have a really really hard time asking for help. I was in so much pain I couldn't even put my own socks on. I had to rely on my husband for nearly everything. My poor independent soul struggled with that so much.
Shortly after my medical situation was finally resolved my husband had a change in job, to a lower paying gig without medical benefits. This has thrown a wrench in our finances (yes even though we have separate finances) as I now have to pay for my own health insurance. I have therefore been working a ton to make up some of the difference. This has also contributed to me being a very bad book blogger.
So hence I haven't posted a review in quite some time (Wow Marinda way to be a Debbie Downer). I am taking a little time off from work this week (thankfully not due to a murdery ovary) so I thought it would be the perfect time to talk about some of the books that I really enjoyed while I was down for the count and since then.
Over the next few days I will be posting individual book reviews as well as some complete series reviews. I read a few series back to back so it is hard in my memory to differentiate the books from the whole series. I will not be reviewing all of the books I read. This is because some of them are hard to remember, they didn't make a big impact on me either way. I don't think it would be fair to review something I hardly remember.
I have also been working on a piece of writing which is political in nature. I haven't fully decided if I am going to post this or not. I have a lot to say but I am hesitant to voice my political views. That isn't to imply that I am closed off to debate, I actually really enjoy conversations with other informed people who have different views from my own. I do not like how quickly people turn to hate without having done any research to support what they claim are facts. I don't think people have to justify how they feel, but if you come at me claiming facts then I expect you to be able to back them up. Therefore, I haven't decided if I will post the bit of writing I have been working on. If I do post it, I ask you to look at it not as me pushing an agenda but rather explaining how I came to a decision.

An Incomplete Thought

When I woke up to the news about what had happened in Pulse in Orlando these thoughts started to tickle my brain. These are not complete, nor do they even attempt to cover the wide variety of thoughts and emotions I am still dealing with. Every time guns rip a hole through the fabric of our society I get quiet and contemplative. I have always used my vote to ensure a future that I believe in and gives me hope. I am lacking my normal idealistic hope these days. I am gutted by the hate and anger running unchecked. When it is aimed at the community that I call my own I feel helpless.




The club is dark but my eyes are still closed
Sparks are bouncing under my lids with each beat of my accelerated heart
I can feel the bodies around me. Panting and electric from the last beat of the last song
I keep thinking,
I need some water,
I should sit down
But just when I don't think I can go any further I hear a familiar note
And then another
I feel the shift in my own body and the collective body on the dance floor
This is our house of worship. You and your God ain't got nothin on me and mine.


We love this song, it is our song
A slow start,
with building tension and momentum
My eyes open just as the beat starts to pick up
I find the eyes of my friends
and we smile
at each other as we sing along,
full bellied sing along to our song.
This song
This moment and we move faster and sing harder
We are all one
Connected by the beat by,
the heat of our bodies,
by the need to move,
to live, to love,
to scream our heads off,
and laugh
We are one
Gay, queer, straight, trans, cis, it doesn't matter
This is our song, our beat
This is our house of worship. You and your God ain't got nothin on me and mine.


There is no greater high
than dancing,
singing,
loving,
living,
fucking
on a dance floor
This is my song,
your song,
our song
No one can take this from us
This is our house of worship. You and your God ain't got nothin on me and mine.


The song ends
I am spent
Just as I am shifting,
moving to go drink some water
I hear a familiar note
And then another
My eyes find my friends
and we smile as the words start
and we are singing
We are wrapped
in the strong embrace of the beat
before we can even recognize that we are moving
This is our house of worship. You and your God ain't got nothin on me and mine.

Happy Mother's Day. Thank God I am not a Mother.

I am not a Mother. Sure I show love, nurturing, and "motherly" stuff toward the people and dogs that I love, but I don't kid myself. I am not a Mother. For this I couldn't be more happy. I don't consider love and nurturing as a motherly instinct, I think of it as my humanity showing (yes it is almost as embarrassing as my underwear showing but these things happen).

I have been reading the book Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own (review coming as soon as I finish the book and finish stewing about the ideas of marriage and motherhood presented in the book) and yesterday I read a post on a friend's blog about not being a Mother and why you should stop asking her about it.

Between these two recent influences I have been thinking a lot about the choice of Motherhood. I never wanted to be a Mother. I still have ZERO interest in such things. I can't stand seeing a huge belly on my friends. It is disturbing to me in so many ways. It is never my first instinct to congratulate prego women in my life. I feel sad and scared for them. Then I remember they don't think that way and I put on my supportive face and say, as long as you are happy I am happy. I hate what pregnancy does to your body, your mind, your soul, and just generally speaking the overhaul that happens to your life and person. This is why I shouldn't have kids. Let me be clear this is why I shouldn't have kids.

Those same friends whose huge bellies sent my stomach turning and my mind burning with sadness for them have quite the opposite feeling toward their little families (for the most part). I am happy for them if they are happy. I wish all those who have babies, kids, and are in any way a Mother, I wish you a happy Mother's Day. Care-giving in all ways is devalued by society and that is not my goal with this post. I think Mother's are amazing, the epic amounts of shit (both literally and figuratively) takes a stronger person than myself to tolerate. Even my own crazy Mother is amazing and while she drives me bonkers I would never change her. She did the best and does the best now to be the best Mother she can be. For her never ending work and dedication to Motherhood I thank her. I thank all Mothers. I just don't ever want to be one. I am not selfless enough to be a Mother. Only one day a year the people you love the most celebrate you and show you that they are grateful. That is shitty to be so undervalued and unappreciated. So Mothers, I appreciate what you did for you and yours. I just don't want to be you.

I like that my vagina is the same now as it was when I was 20. You may not want to hear about my vagina, but isn't that what you are doing when asking me when I will be having kids? Do you additionally want to hear about my uterus and ovaries? Okay! So as it turns out I have a hostile uterus! Which I fucking love, seriously. I mean come on, that is amazing for a hostile chick like me. I am such a grump that my uterus is also grumpy.

The gyno delivered that information to me with such a serious and sad face I couldn't help but to laugh right in their face. I told them that was the best news I could have ever been given but, I still wanted to get sterilized. I went through some super fun procedures to look at my uterus further and my ovaries. Have I ever told you how fun it is to take a condom covered probe and put it into your snatch while an ultrasound tech sits next to you? So much fun, let me tell you. *Insert awkward pause.

During this process they discovered I have scar tissue on one of my ovaries (the ultrasound doc commented this was likely from "hard child birth", which made me laugh and then feel like vomming all over the place, twice) and a cyst. I was diagnosed with PCOS. Which basically means my lady bits hate me. Which often the feeling is mutual, those bitches. An awesome side effect of PCOS is fertility problems. Again, this is awesome! I still want to get my tubes tied and my uterus scorched. I will take your hostile uterus and raise you a burned and fully deactivated uterus. The down time, however, is not great. The very things that make it more difficult for me to get prego also extend my healing time from getting sliced and diced. I work a manual labor job which doesn't have PTO so taking two months off is a no go for me. So what is a very paranoid girl to do?

Talk to my husband about his junk. What? Isn't that what you are asking about when you ask him why he doesn't want kids? Aren't you asking about the state of his balls and penis? Well since you asked, his balls have been deactivated and his penis hasn't been disturbed. I asked him if he was okay with me discussing his balls on the internet, as it turns out he was fine with it. So we, the overly paranoid couple found a doc willing to snip a young man's balls.

My gyno didn't ask me more than once if I was sure if I wanted to end the possibilities of contracting the plague, aka pregnancy. *Read that as; I am old enough and clear enough when talking about babies and catching the plague that it isn't something people have a hard time believing when I talk about it, obviously. As it was for my younger husband he had to do some work and search for a doctor who wouldn't hold it against him that he is under the age of 30. (Side note, when we got married I was looking 30 in the mouth and it took several conversations to convince me that he was okay with getting married before he turned 30) I understood to some extent the hesitation of the doctors, sometimes twenty somethings change their minds and they don't want to get sued. But at the same time, if someone has been to multiple doctors that should be a clear indication that they are serious and have done the thinking and self evaluation required to make a choice about their own balls.

So he got snipped. I no longer have the fear, the terror of his ejaculations. When I see women in movies saying things like "let's make a baby" or "fill me up" I want to vom. It takes the awesome moments of knocking boots and makes it creepy to me. Now that he is snipped I no longer have the nagging fear between periods (which thanks to the  PCOS are infrequent, like sometimes once every six months). I don't have to obsessively count days. I no longer have to take the birth control pill which fucked up my libido. I no longer have to get the depo shot in my ass every three months. The work it takes not to get prego is now something I don't have to deal with. I love it. I feel free to love my husband without fear.

I have never wanted to live in fear. It drove me crazy in many ways. I stopped wanting to have sex as frequently. I would have nightmares of pain and gore ripping through my body wrecking those parts of me that I spent a lot of time learning to love. I would wake up in a cold sweat and panting like I had been running from zombies for days. In reality, I was just trying to survive life without brewing a new one.

Sex is such a loaded thing for a wide variety of reasons. If you don't want to plague spawn it can be horrifying to watch your beloved partner orgasm. That isn't great for relationships. So the next time you have the urge to ask a childless person or couple why they don't have children or when will they be having kids think before you speak. Would you want them to ask you about the state of your balls, uterus, and ovaries? Do you really want a run down of how and when they fuck? No? Then stop asking. I don't generally ask people when they are going to have children unless they bring it up and I am fully prepared for the answer.

Having children shouldn't be an assumed step for anyone. There are many people who shouldn't be having kids. There are many people who desperately want kids and can't. There are people who can't take care of themselves and or their partners and probably shouldn't be given ideas about bringing another person into the mix. My point is this: Mothers are cool, but not every woman should be one, and really when you think about it honestly and logically you wouldn't want every woman to be a Mother. Not everyone can take on that much work and live through it. I sure can't. Think about how often you see the story in movies, books, and culture in general where a crap Mother ruined someone so much they acted out in terrible ways. Think about that. It is always the Mother's fault. Not only was she responsible for your childhood, good or bad, but she is forever responsible for your behavior. How often do you hear phrases like it "She/he wasn't raised right" "Didn't your Mother teach you better?" "Do you kiss your Mother with that mouth?" Poor Mothers. I am guilty of Mom blaming. I think everyone is. I do not want to accept that much responsibility for the rest of my life. Talk about exhausting.

I think we can celebrate Mother's Day without shaming the non mothers. Happy Mother's Day Momfolk. Happy Sunday nonMomfolk. I hope no matter where you are, who you are, what you are, you are having a good day and good life. I think we should show more appreciation toward Mothers and more respect for non Mothers.

Seriously though folks, stop asking people about their baby making. Try asking questions about who they are, where they are going, and how they are getting there. There is so much more to life than creating a new one. Art in its many forms, books, music, politics, dreams, failures, and disappointments. All of these things should be talked about at great length. Sex should also be talked about, but never without both parties consenting to it and there is so much more to talk about with sex than baby making. Don't force your choices onto others. Don't assume everyone wants to get married and have kids. Single adults are awesome. Coupled adults without kids are just as awesome. Married with kids, also awesome. Moms aren't just the people who birth or adopt. Those people who take on the job of helping raise and teach others are a type of Mom. They too deserve appreciation. I deserve the courtesy of your respect because I know myself well enough to choose what is right for me and my body. Trust me, you wouldn't want a smaller version of me walking this Earth.

I am a pain in the ass. I think too much, too hard, and too fast. I am so many things both good and bad. I accept all of them. I love myself in my ever evolving state. I am not so in love with myself that I am interested in passing bits of myself on. One version of me is enough. Besides, knowing my luck I would end up with a god fearing republican child who hates art but has my shitty attitude and temper. I assure you, the world does NOT need that.

While writing this I listened to Miley Cyrus, Van Morrison, The Black Eyed Peas, Bob Dylan, Katy Perry, and The Beta Band.

Book Club? Totally going to give it a go. Stitch and bitch too? Possibly

For the last six months or more my amazing friend and fellow book blogger has been trying to get me to start a book club with her. Now that I am finally graduated from college and living a life that doesn't revolve around text books I am ready to read and be social about non text books with people that aren't fellow students! This is super exciting for me on several levels but mostly I get to keep intelligent conversation in my life but it doesn't always have to be about Political Science!

We are just putting feelers out there to see who would be into the idea? The when and where (though the where I am thinking is the Work Coffeebar in Midvale Utah as it has enough seating and isn't super packed with people in the evenings so we would all be able to hear one another and support a local business at the same time) haven't been decided yet. Let me know if you are in the Salt Lake City area and would be interested in joining a book club. I think for the most part we would be open to reading any genre. I am a big fan of variety so personally I am open to anything. Really the only thing I would say is a big deal is you actually read the book even if you don't love the selection.

We have also talked about starting a stitch and bitch so if knitting and or crochet is more your speed than reading books also let me know. I have been doing crochet for years and I know a few knitters so it would be fun to get together and share yarn info and project ideas while working on current projects.

Graze This Tastiness...

Recently I signed up for Graze.com snacks. The boxes are delivered right to my work. If I was more with it in the morning I would pack snacks and a lunch, but alas until I have been up for a couple of hours and have consumed at least two cups of coffee I barely remember how to blink.

So basically graze is perfect for someone like me. I forget to take food with me almost everyday and end up eating something crappy and fast or I skip eating all day until I get home. It only took two boxes for me to become a fan of graze. They are portion controlled for the perfect amount of snack. I have a tendency to not eat enough during the day and then eat too much at night. These snacks help a bit with that habit. They also use recycled material for their packaging and encourage further recycling. I am going to try a little planter box of herbs. I will let you all know how that works out for me.

When I signed up, I found a random coupon code to get a couple of boxes for free. In case you all want to to sign up feel free to use my friend code: MALIND43P

This is not an attempt to get money off of my own subscription. If anyone wants to use my friend code I will be donating the discount I get right back to Graze for their farming school in Uganda. You can read more about that here.

So far I am in love with the "hot cross yum" mix and the "wholegrain banana caramel dippers."

So that happened....

So it could be that I am graduated from the University of Utah with a BS in Political Science. I say, it could be, only because the graduation office has not yet made it official. The process to make it official could take another month and then they will mail me my swanky paper. I have until March to decide if I will be participating in the actual graduation ceremonies through the University.

My college graduation has been a long time coming. I started college while I was still in high school back in 1999 and finally finished in 2013.

Holy crap you guys that is a really long time to get through college. Why on Earth did it take me that long?

The biggest reason is that I refused to take out student loans until I had a solid landing on a major. It took six tries to end up on Political Science but I don't regret even one minute in a class that didn't apply to that major. I learned so much about myself and what I am capable of in all those years of college. As it turns out, I am actually pretty awesome and fairly intelligent (toot toot of my horn!). I have a well rounded education that others don't have because they jumped into one major and stayed there. My path was rocky and more than once I wanted to give up. I was pretty lucky that I had a lot of people cheering me on or giving me the "don't be stupid" look when I talked about giving up and sewing drapes for the rest of my life. (Have I mentioned that here before? I sew stuffs, not for you, unless you pay a ridiculous amount of money for my time.)

I would say this last semester, was by far the hardest I have ever gotten through. I worked on papers in my sleep and that actually seemed to help my grade! I was super stressed and thank Joss (as in Joss Whedon creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, FireFly, Dollhouse, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D aka my God don't judge) my husband is a really patient dude and just handed me a cup of coffee whenever I got out of hand.

14 Years of going to college and working at the same time, talk about busy busy busy. So... Now what? I have already started the annoying process of looking for a job in my field. That basically means a job with the state, county, or Salt Lake City. I am also applying at the University of Utah.

I have yet to figure out how to fill my free time, which is still weird to me that I have some. I have become really reluctant to schedule my time with anyone. I don't think this has anything to do with the people in my life but more a selfish need on my part to gain some much needed Malinda refocusing time. I need to spend some time not doing anything that means anything. I imagine in the next month or two this will change and I will come out of my hole a little more but for now I just need to chill in my own space for a beat.

The one thing I am sure I will be doing is a lot of reading that has nothing to do with politics in any way. I am currently working my way through a few books, as I couldn't decide what to read. I will post reviews on all of them in the next couple of weeks as I finish them.

Since finishing the semester on the 18th some really awesome changes have happened in Utah. As of right now gay marriage is legal in Utah. I wasn't super surprised by the ruling because I knew the judge was a President Obama appointee, but it seems to have floored most people here as well as everywhere else. Two of my close friends made Christmas Eve pretty special by having a surprise wedding. I was so glad to have been included. I love all of my friends: gay, straight, or otherwise and they should all have the right to choose their path and the government should recognize them all equally.

I have been dealing with an evil head cold for the last week or so. I woke up feeling craptastic on Christmas but as it turns out I was lucky as my bestie woke up the same day with a case of the flu. She and I spent the morning getting her some medical attention and scripts which had the chance of causing hallucinations which could either have been good or bad.... like all hallucinations?

New Years was a really low key event at home with the hubby which is really the way I prefer to celebrate. Normally we get the scrabble board out but this year we just watched movies and chilled. Man, it was awesome sauce. I am finally starting to feel kind of normal again. Post finals burnout has seemed to have passed and my cold is on its last legs. This means it might actually sink in soon that I am done with school and I might freak a little. I am hoping the job search keeps me grounded and I don't freak too much.

I hope you are all excited to rock a new year and new experiences. I will be posting more in the new year and possibly about more than just the books I am reading though that is still the focus here.

While writing this post I was watching Fashion Police. I love pretty dresses.

Excuse the Politics...

As most of you guys know I am not a rich kid. Many would say I am down right poor, but I am not too poor to help out a couple organizations I really believe in. I donate $5 dollars a month to KUER (for public radio, yes, I am an NPR listener), $5 a month to Planned Parenthood (without them I would never have had access to health care for the 5+ years I didn't have insurance), and $10 a month to Equality Utah (I love and support the LGBT community). 

So what? Who Cares? Well the thing is kids if my broke ass can give up my latte money every month to help support things I really care about then so can you. I am not even close to suggesting that you support the same organizations that I do. I have been hearing a lot of discontent about the state of the world lately, this is one way to help. If I had the time to volunteer you bet your ass I would. If you have time to volunteer I am absolutely suggesting that you should.

I get that things are looking pretty grim lately. We have a crap economy, we have high unemployment, we have people who thump podiums with hate filled speeches, and we have non doctors trying to enforce medical decisions. The worst of it all is the whole world is in turmoil, not just America. So much hate is getting thrown around it is hard to see the bright side in anything. I can't turn a page in the New York Times without reading about some conflict that stems from hate. 

For me, donating to the organizations I have already mentioned has helped me feel a little light coming through. Getting involved in my community has always been something that has made me feel better. The older I get, the more I think that voting is not enough. That isn't to suggest that I don't think you should vote, I am a huge fan of voting (in Utah if you aren't registered go to vote.utah.gov and get registered). I just think with so much grumpgrump in the air it would be nice if we could all be a little more active in our worlds to make it a better place. It seems like everyone has a gripe, then why not do something to off set it? In my own state the local NBC affiliate decided to not air The New Normal because they didn't think a show about a gay family was appropriate for prime time when straight families will be watching tv. This ticked me off, it was also the same day that I started my monthly donations to Equality Utah. Nationwide, including my state, women's rights to reproductive choice have come under attack. I started donating to Planned Parenthood. I love NPR and the local radio programming like Radio West. I donate to them for being a bright light or at the very least an informative light in my day. 

Yeah yeah I am an idealist, I think that the world can change and be a better place. I am still naive enough to think that what I do matters, so I better do things that improve not destroy. I just can't help it. I really do think that if we all did our part things could get matter. Let's stop polarized politics and start active participation in our communities.

I will get down off my soap box now. :)

All MarindaRue - Rory Gilmore Read List

I love the TV show the Gilmore Girls. I own it on DVD and re-watch the whole series at least once a year. Recently, I ran across a Rory Gilmore Reading List on Goodreads and thought I would start ticking away at
the books on the list.

Here is the complete list, books I have already read and do not intend to re-read I have marked. Some of these books are worth re-reading so I won't mark them so don't be shocked if you see something unmarked that I have previously mentioned.

1984 by George Orwell
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
The Art of Fiction by Henry James
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Babe by Dick King-Smith
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
The Bhagava Gita
The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy
Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
Candide by Voltaire
The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
Christine by Stephen King
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dicken
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas père
Cousin Bette by Honor’e de Balzac
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber – started and not finished
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Cujo by Stephen King
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon – read – 2009
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Da Vinci -Code by Dan Brown
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Deenie by Judy Blume
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
The Divine Comedy by Dante
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Don Quijote by Cervantes
Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
Eloise by Kay Thompson
Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
Emma by Jane Austen 
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Ethics by Spinoza
Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Extravagance by Gary Krist
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – started and not finished
Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
Fletch by Gregory McDonald
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
The Gospel According to Judy Bloom
The Graduate by Charles Webb
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling 
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
Henry V by William Shakespeare
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
Howl by Allen Gingsburg
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
The Iliad by Homer
I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy
It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence
The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold 
The Love Story by Erich Segal
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Manticore by Robertson Davies
Marathon Man by William Goldman
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
The Merry Wives of Windsro by William Shakespeare
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Night by Elie Wiesel
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan
Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Old School by Tobias Wolff
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
Oracle Night by Paul Auster
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Othello by Shakespeare 
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche
The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 
Property by Valerie Martin
Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Quattrocento by James Mckean
A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J. R. R. Tolkien
R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
Roman Fever by Edith Wharton
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
Sanctuary by William Faulkner
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd 
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
Sexus by Henry Miller
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Shane by Jack Shaefer
The Shining by Stephen King
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers
Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos
The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
Songbook by Nick Hornby
The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams
Stuart Little by E. B. White
Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
Time and Again by Jack Finney
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Unless by Carol Shields
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker
What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Getting back into the swing of things...

I have been reading loads and posting almost nothing. I would like to think I will get caught up on reviews but I just don't think I have it in me. I will say this, I have the strong love for Jen Lancaster. I finished her novel while on vaca in Seattle and it was pretty good. Obviously, as a fan I am bias toward her memoirs but I hope she continues with fiction.

In terms of an update I have graduated from SLCC with three AS degrees. Yep, that is what happens when you change your major a bunch, you unintentionally over achieve. I went out of town with the husband and the puppy to visit my long time bestie in Colorado. Good times were had and more importantly very chill times were had. I just got back from trip number two for the summer. I hung out with my older brother in Seattle and ate far too much sea food (oh god the shrimp eyes were looking at me!). I will say that no matter what I do in Seattle, or rather, how little I do in Seattle I always come home refreshed. I think I finally feel like myself again after the intense semester I finished over two months ago. The Great Wheel of Seattle was pretty cool, for those of you not in the know, the Great Wheel is a Ferris Wheel not too far from Pike's Place Market. I am terrified of heights, but only once did I come close to losing my shit while ridiculously high in the air.

I have jumped through most of the hoops that are required for me to start at the University of Utah this Fall. I have two years there and I will finally have my BS degree in Political Science. I am hoping to do a couple of internships, which at 30 years old kind of makes me a little sick. However, doing said internships should help my process of going to grad school. Yay for higher education.

I am currently reading some Ellen Hopkins (Perfect), Rachel Maddow (Drift), and David Nicholls (One Day). I am a little slow reading this year and I may have to adjust my book goal. I have spent way too much time watching My Drunk Kitchen on YouTube. I kind of love Hannah Hart.I hope to god I don't cook like her when I am drunk.

While writing this blog I was listening to a couple of my favorite TLC songs. Ya know, I really don't want no scrubs.

My oh My.... how time flies when you are doing math.

Tomorrow is the day....

Yep, I turn 30 tomorrow.

I am attempting to be positive about my birthday this year. I have never been a fan of them. Mostly, I like to sleep and not do a damn thing. This year I will be rocking some Thai food with my nearest and dearest. I am pretty excited to see my peeps. I haven't seen them much lately because of school. I took my final so I magically will have some free time until the second week of January.

My 30 for 30 project has been on the back burner for the last couple of months but as of tomorrow I am going to put it back in the forefront.

Goals Goals Goals...

So I have started the weight release goal for my 30 for 30 and so far have lost 1 pound. Go Malinda! I am counting calories which blows but is super enlightening. I have an app on my phone that makes it very easy to keep track of what I am eating. It is also helping me watch my cholesterol. I come from a long line of heavy folk and have many a bad eating habits. I don't want to jump into a program that is too radical to keep up. So I have altered my path and thus far it isn't easy but it is doable.

I have a great concept for a painting working around my noodle and now I just need a sunny weekend day to make it come to life.

The boyfriend got a call today informing him that he has been hired at the University of Utah hospital. While the money isn't much more than he is currently making it is at least in the field he wants to be in. So YAY for him! My own job hunting hasn't been going awesome thus far and I have been frustrated. I am revamping my resume and hopefully that will bring new life to my hunt. So if anyone knows of any jobs out there that you think I would be rockin for please let me know.

School blues....

So... paying for school has been a huge issue for me the entire time I have been going to school. I have only taken grants and loans when shit got desperate. I have tried to solve my money issues by myself. Skip forward many years later and I am out out out of options. I am now applying for scholarships and more FASA just to get two classes paid for. Yep, I am two classes away from getting my AS. Which may not be impressive to you, but I have worked really hard on getting even that far.
It isn't likely that I will be able to get FASA. I have too many credit hours. I have gone through the appeals process once before and it isn't likely that I will be successful a second time. I am hoping that a scholarship comes through but I am not holding my breath. So I will have to wait until next year, or perhaps the one after that to graduate.
I was of the super depressed variety when I figured out I wouldn't be able to finish school this year. I have come to terms with it now. Sometimes I wish I had a wealthy tuition fairy who took care of these things for me. But really, I am glad that I only have a few thousand dollars in student loans. I am glad that it really will only be another year before i can graduate. I have waited this long, what is one more year?

So I have been working on my 30 for 30. I am having a hard time getting back into the writing mode. I have tried at least 30 poems but haven't finished them. I have been doing better with writing in my journal but not as much as I need to.

30 for 30

Every year I try to visit my older brother in Seattle for his birthday. He turned 30 two years ago. He made a list of 30 things he wanted to do for his 30th birthday and checked the list off the weekend around his birthday. I am still waiting for his amazing video blog but other than that he made good progress on the list. If I had a picture of the Gothic photo shoot we did in Lakeview Cemetery I would post it here. For those of you who used to Goth out in the 90's, this is the Cemetery where Bruce and Brandon Lee are buried. Yes, this was my idea. Yes, I am that girl. "It can't rain all the time" even in Seattle. Oh man my brother will be ashamed to know me right now. Thankfully, I don't think he reads this blog.

Fast forward two years and now it is time for me to turn 30. 30 has been everywhere lately. Friends are turning 30 everywhere I look. My own birthday (which isn't until December) is coming up a lot in conversation. My friend recently had me out to Denver for her 30th and while I was there I decided something about my own birthday. I am going to do 30 things for my 30th birthday. I am not going to limit myself to the day or weekend of my birthday. I want to make this a year long journey. I am still working on my list. Something about the last five or so things to do is hard to come up with. I will post a partial list at the end of this blog.

So why? Why come up with a list and push myself to work on things? I don't take enough time on myself and my growth. I get too busy with work, school, and all the rest to remember to better myself. I am terrified of getting older. A couple of months ago I found my first gray hair and had a total melt down. I have been putting myself through hell, beating myself up for not being where I wanted to be by 30. This list is a way for me to work on myself and work through my aging issues, and have a little fun while I am at it.

Here is the incomplete list:
1.30 paintings
2.30 poems
3.new job
4.graduate
5.sunrise photo shoot
6.sunset photo shoot
7.blog every week
8.journal every night
9.meditate every day
10.smile every day
11.amends
12.release weight
13.30 drawings
14.travel somewhere new
15.dream bigger
16.learn to smile with my liver
17.find something beautiful about Utah
18.get drunk with my brother
19.dance
20.10 shows
21.leave my comfort zone
22.design and sew a dress
23.swim without being self conscience about my body
24.make serious progress on my book
25.sit on a porch
26.hummingbird tattoo
27.teach myself intermediate algebra
28.reach my book goal of 150 books read this year
29.Spend more time with my friends
30.Leave an impression

The Point....

I have started this blog because I read way too much. I am often asked for book suggestions and of course my mind inevitably goes blank. Also, my friend who is an avid reader/ blogger (http://www.dorolerium.com/) is having a Harry Potter read along. I will be joining in on the fun of reading a long so once a month expect some Harry Potterness! In between those I will be posting about what I am currently reading and books I have previously read and loved. I will try really hard to not be one of those "blogger douches" who thinks their opinion is superior to all others. The fact that I am blogging indicates that I at least have this tendency in my soul, but I will try to keep it to a minimum.