Sixer

Finished Book #6 of 2010 on the bus home tonight.,"Sammy's Hill" by Kristin Gore. The main character Samantha Joyce is mid-20's and working for a Senator in D.C. She's a bit quirky, fairly intense and very lovable. Her internal monolog is delightful and frenzied. She prays to the god of every conceivable cause. She tries desperately to keep her fighting fish alive and when they don't make it she has a lovely funeral with for each one. Oh and she loves talking to telemarketers.

Sammy is a great character. Flawed but perfect. The book ends on a glorious note with just enough wrapped up to feel closed but not trite. Really fun and I'm glad that made it into my shopping bag that day.

I really didn't want to

Friday night was day three of 30 Day Shred and I was more than happy to participate. Tonight I just did not want to in the least. I spent all of Tally's walk trying to come up with a valid reason why I just couldn't possibly come up with one. I knew that I really needed to suck it up and do night #4.

So after our walk I fed Tally and changed into my workout clothes. Then I started up the DVD and sucked it up. Of course I spent the entire time bitching and moaning and whining in my head, and even occasionally out loud.

Now that I'm done I'm still pissed off about it. What an oddity I am.

And yet another

Finished book #5 of 2010 on Friday night. This one was a bit of a miss. I just never felt as though it really got going. It's called The Birthdays and was written by Heidi Pitlor. The story of a family gathering for the father's 75 birthday.

Two brothers each married and a youngest single sister, all of the women are pregnant. I wish that I would have connected with the characters more but I didn't.

Still have a pile to pick from by the bed side. Not sure which one I'll start tonight.

Shred - Day 2

It really is quite amazing how twenty minutes of a workout video can knock you on your rear. Really that woman is crazy and all parts of my body hurt like hell. But the pain tells you it's working, right? The pain certainly makes it feel like it's working. There are muscles screaming out that I had forgotten were a part of my anatomy. Going to keep going. Keep pushing and panting.

Spending and shredding

Last week I bent down to pet Tally and split one of my two pairs of jeans that are worth wearing. I have two others but I do not like how they fit. So that leaves me with one pair of jeans and nothing else. So horror of horrors I had to go jean shopping. Blech.

Saturday I went to Nordstrom and spent a small fortune on one pair of jeans. Some obviously incredible designer that I've never heard of. I tried on so many pairs that my fingers turned blue. The gal who helped me was really sweet and of course the size of a little twig. At one point said she was jealous of my "curves" and didn't like her boy shaped body. Why do we always want what we don't have?

But the point is that I'm still having buyers remorse about the jeans. I'm not kidding about the small fortune part. I mean it's practically a car payment. Do I really need jeans like that? I think they look pretty good or I would never have spent that much money. But wouldn't they look even better without so much of me filling them up? I don't yet have an answer for the first question so I decided to really try working on the second, the squishy uncomfortable one.

I've started taking the stairs up from the transit tunnel, that's three flights. Then from there I walk up, and I do mean up, the two blocks to the farthest building entrance. By the time I get to the elevator lobby I'm breathless and my legs are burning. But really that's not enough. I've got to do more than a few stairs and a couple of blocks of hills. Tonight I added the 30 Day Shred DVD into the mix. My god does Jillian really hit you hard. I had forgotten how much your muscles feel used (perhaps abused) afterwards. Even though it's only 20 minutes it feels like a year. It's got to make a difference. All that put together has got to help the squishy spongy saggy parts. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I'm STICKING TO IT!!!

So the horridly expensive jeans have a reprieve. I'll give it a month, all four weeks, 28 days of February. If things are feeling better, if there's less squish back there, then I will give myself the gift of the designer jeans. Just perhaps I'll even get to exchange them for a smaller size. I think they are worth a month of hard work no matter what the size. I think I'm worth a month of hard work no matter what.

And then there were four

Finished reading the fourth book of the year last night, "Roommates Wanted" by Lisa Jewell. A great story about an odd group of single people living together in London. So far I'm awesome at picking based on title and back cover blurb. British chick lit is oh so good.

There are several other books by the same author. I think I'll add Lisa Jewell to my list of authors to read more from.

Another closed cover

I've been a reading fiend so far in 2010. Can hardly get enough. Up late. Turning off the TV to read. Read on the bus. Read during lunch. Read, read and then read some more.

So far I'm three for three in my choices. I've liked them all and they've each been different. Took a bit to get into this book because the author was very wordy. Her sentences going on and on for several long lines. But then I got accustomed to it and couldn't read it enough or learn enough about the characters.

This one was The Second Coming of Lucy Hatch by Marsha Moyer. The story of, well obviously, Lucy Hatch a recently widowed woman and her journey back to life from a stable but emotionless marriage. She moves back to her hometown and falls deeply amazingly passionately in love with a man, Ash, who feels entirely the same way. Well written love scenes. A wrenching depiction of Lucy's grief.

There is a second installment in the story of Lucy and Ash that I hope to read as well, called The Last of the Honky Tonk Angels.

The old switcher-oo

After I've finished reading a book I really enjoyed I find it difficult to get into the flow of a new one. It's as if that old book is so burnished into my brain and the words of that author are the only ones I can process and all others be damned.

Book 3 of 2010 started with difficulty this weekend. I kept having to re-read sentences and start paragraphs over again. The sentences seemed to scatter into word pieces in my brain that I could not put back together into a logical flow. Wait now her husband died...how, wait now she's...a widow, wait now she's living alone...where, I duh huh?

Am I the only one?

Oh and about the meds

Just before Thanksgiving I decided to stop taking the anti-depressants entirely. No more half dose for me. The timing of it was fairly odd because it was right before the holidays which is of course a notoriously stressful time for most people. And having Thanksgiving with both of my parents for the first time in 15 years I should have been upping my dosage not stopping it entirely. But I just knew it was the right thing to do. I can't really even tell you why.

At first it was a bit like the when I cut my dosage but slightly different. I had these strange electric shock feelings every so often. They have stopped since then, which I'm very glad for because it was kind of uncomfortable.

So that's me, med free and feeling good.

And a Two

Stayed up late last night and finished my second book of 2010, The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski. From the moment I started reading it I just had to finish it. It's the story of a mid-30's woman (June) who gives a new acquaintance (Marissa) a ride home and they end up in a car accident which kills Marissa. The whole story surrounds June trying to complete a To Do list that Marissa had written before her death.

The style reminded me a lot of Monica McInerney who's books I really love. The people are well written and the story progresses with a great flow. Really recommend it.