Moonbeam Twinkie

Since the start of the new year, I've been reading like a fiend. I thought I'd write up some short reviews, maybe to inspire some summer reading. Not that they'll be thorough. I don't really like to summarize the entire book.

We'll start with the most current.

Alice Sebold

The Almost Moon

I loved, LOVED The Lovely Bones, so I went into this novel with certain expectations. Although it does grab the reader at the beginning, (as I did keep reading) it quickly became repetitive. We start out in the present, and progress through the day through several flashbacks. She makes allusions to certain events and then returns back to them repeatedly. Granted, they are important events, but it seems that in order to make this character more rounded, the memories that she recalls could go further.

I finished the book within 24 hours. My recommendation: Not bad, but it left me with the feeling of "Huh, well, how about that?"

Augusten Burroughs

AWolf at the Table

I love Burrough's writing. All of his memoirs are (this will sound cheesy) heartwarming, sweet, but edgy. I went into this one, knowing that it would be darker. And it is. It's intense, but still has the same human tone that his other writing has. That is, he doesn't distance himself away from the issue at all. He's still very much involved, which is important in a memoir. It does round out the impression of his parents that I received when reading Running with Scissors. In that memoir, she comes across as crazy (which she is somewhat) and his father is too distant to know. After this memoir, you will get to know him.

Recommendation: Really intense, but really good. You'll have to be in the mood for a dark book.

A.J. Jacobs

The Year of Living Biblically

Jacobs, who is thorough in his research, sets out to live according to the Bible. He begins with the Old Testament and follows each rule to the best of his ability. There are a few rules in the Bible that I didn't even know existed (which is not surprising). His attempts at some of the rules are hilarious and ridiculous at the same time. Overall, he spends more time on the Old Testament, and not too much time (book wise) on the New. He addresses why it is difficult for him to follow the New Testament more.

Recommendation: Funny at times, but becomes tedious towards the end.

Posted by kali at 06:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The past few weeks have been pretty tough. I haven’t really talked much about it, except to a few real life friends.

My grandpa is dying. He’s been in the hospital for a month, but a week ago they said they can’t do anything else, so they put him on a morphine drip and give him a valium shot twice a day to make him comfortable. He hasn’t been awake for several days.

All last week I avoided going down there. My brother and I headed down there the day they said this was it, but all last week I avoided it. I didn’t think I was strong enough. The evidence came when I walked into the room for the first time that Saturday and saw grandpa sedated and groaning in pain. I cried. I felt weak. That’s why I avoided it. I left it up to my mother and grandmother. I couldn’t be any help to them if I was hysterical.

Until my dad called me Friday and asked me to come down this past Saturday to give my mom a break. I couldn’t say no. So I went. I sat with my grandma, who went from telling stories from the past with her pastor to silently crying. I was determined to not cry this time. I refused. It wouldn’t do any good for my grandma if I cried. So I didn’t. Any time I thought about crying, I would start chanting “Tommy Boy” repeatedly under my breath. I would think of the funniest scenes so I wouldn’t cry. It worked, and I was better able to handle being there, holding my grandpa’s hand when he’s obviously dreaming and motioning with his arms.

I went down there again last night. I had to take my grandma home, and I watched her smooth back his hair and tell him she loved him. I walked her into her house, which already has a different aura about it. I went back to the hospital. I told my grandpa how grandma always has to give me directions, despite the fact I grew up here. My mom who was sitting there laughed. I think he can still hear us, which is why I told him. I wanted him to say something about that crazy Betty. But he didn’t. And I know he won’t.

I just wait for the phone call, just like my mom does.

Posted by kali at 09:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's that time again. It's time to look at my resolutions from last year and to see how well I did, and to announce my new resolutions.

Be healthy. Try to eat less crap, that means no more fast food, and more vegetables and fruits. Try to exercise more, at least 5 times a week, since I do have free access to the rec center.
Remember birthdays and anniversaries. Hopefully I can do that this year. Damn.
Quit being so negative. I can’t continue this negative streak. Life is good! I want to try to be a better person, by not being so negative towards others. It’s not healthy for me, or nice to them.
Try to be more forgiving, not to hold grudges. (Although those of you who know me, know that this is difficult, especially with recent events.)
Try to become financially stable. That is, to actually balance my checkbook and know how much freaking money I have. Joseph gave me his spreadsheet to help me in this goal.
Concentrate on school: I only have 5 months left, I need to finish!
I think I accomplished the first one pretty well. I didn't work out five days a week, but I did become healthier by joining weight watchers. I did better with number two, even though I gave my sister in law's birthday gift to her a week late, I still remembered. As far as the negative thing, I tried. The first 7 months of this year were just plain horrible. I felt like I was living in a shell of hatred/anger. Numbers four, five, and six didn't exactly happen either.

So here's the resolutions for this year!

1. Keep going on the healthy path. Since I've been sick the past two days, it's been hard to actually exercise or have the motivation to cook something healthy (or even to cook.)

2. Finish the thesis.

3. Be a better friend.

4. Decide on some career goals.

5. Let go of negative energy. At 5 a.m. the other morning when I was up sick, I realized how angry I had been the past few days and how all this anger probably didn't help my condition.

6. Watch less t.v., and of course, being ill the past few days hasn't helped that either.

Here's to a happy new year!

Posted by kali at 04:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I’m finally finished with the semester. I’m glad. I’m done with the semester, Christmas shopping, and cleaning out my closet. Life is good.

I had a holiday party last Friday, and it turned out pretty well. My friend Dan baked a ham; I made hash brown casserole, green bean casserole, and peanut butter bars. Our various friends contributed other sides and desserts. I had the DVD fire going. I took the one I bought my sister in law out of the package and fired it up, so to speak. We managed to sample each of the 8 fires, and the candle setting. It was pretty entertaining and it made the room seem even cozier.

I just made some red velvet cupcakes from a Weight Watchers recipe, but they turned out pretty dry. I’m a bit disappointed considering I baked them five minutes less than the directions required but they still dried out. I hope with the icing they taste better.

I did have a few disgruntled students who apparently didn’t check the posted grades the entire semester. So the only intelligent thing to do is badger your instructor with emails during finals week. Makes sense to me. I fired emails back and forth all week trying to convince this kid he was shit out of luck, and I didn’t care what his parents were going to do to him. I had another student ask me what he could do for 5% more. I told him what he could have done during the semester, but at this point (Friday of finals week) he couldn’t do much.

But luckily I didn’t let any of that affect my holiday spirit!!

Posted by kali at 04:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dear Weight Watchers,

I'm sorry I've been so bad lately. I just really crave chocolate and peanut butter, so naturally peanut butter with chocolate chips fixes that craving. Do I count it? No. I should. I'm really sorry I'm failing you this week. At least I've been getting on the treadmill! Next week will be better, I promise.

Love,

L

P.S. Thanks for making me not so fat anymore.

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Dear Live,

You know I heart you. I always have, I always will. But I'm irked. You barely toured with the most recent album. Instead of churning out a new album, you decide to publish all the b-sides and certain performances. I don't want that. I already have that through my years of dedication as a fan. Give me something new and something good.

Thanks,

L

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Dear Amazon.com,

Thanks for understanding that I ordered a DVD of a fire burning. I know it's odd and I want to say thank you for not judging me on what my sister in law wanted for Christmas.

Thanks,

L
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Dear Student,

No, you can't take the final early. I don't care what your excuse is. I even resent the fact that you bothered to email me and ask. Why? Because I let you turn in not one, but two essays late. Since then, you've barely shown up to class. When you come to class, you sleep or text message. Why don't I say anything? Well, if my class isn't worth your effort, then you're not worth mine.

Ms. E

Posted by kali at 09:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I don’t think students realize that the end of the semester is just as stressful for the instructors as it is for them. They don’t know how much work it takes to grade the piles of crap, I mean essays that they give us. I just finished two stacks of essays on Monday, and I’m getting two more stacks tomorrow, then the bulk of my work comes in next week during finals. I have a project, a paper, and the final to grade. This is my own fault, of course. The schedule crunch demanded the due dates to be like they are. I didn’t want to put unrealistic expectations on my students.

Today I had my students write a mindsprint about an issue on campus that should be resolved. The concept was meant for deep thought and the creation of a clever claim of solution. Instead, it prompted many rants. Among the favorite topics are:
• Parking (If they only knew how bad it was in 1999…)
• Meal plans (The food is crap, apparently.)
• Registering for classes last (Hah! I’d like to poll them in three years when they’re trying to get into those last few 200 and 300 level classes seniors seem to need)
• Housing (It apparently sucks as well.)

The only result this activity came to was a rant. Oh well, I can’t expect too intelligent of a discussion at this point in the semester. Their brains are fried from all the work that the professors put on them. My brain is fried from reading their essays.

Anyway, if I could go back to being an undergrad and taking 15 hours and finals, I’d rather do that than what I’m going to endure next week. Next week is known as grading hell. I’ll spend every day grading essays, tallying scores, and reporting grades. Once students are done with the final, they can leave. I can’t. I’m stuck here.

My night class grades are supposedly due the night they take the final. I administer the final, then grade it, then report the final grades. I like to let papers stew for a few hours at least. I don’t want to grade them immediately after they wrote it. I like the paper to cool off before grade it. Plus, my brain is mush at night. Evidence? Most of my blogs.

Oh well, I signed up for this job, and I like it. I especially like that I can put off grading, like how I always put off doing my homework.

My students ask me what I look forward to most as far as Christmas break is concerned. I always answer, “To read for fun again.”

Posted by kali at 09:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I really wanted something sweet. I had a horrible craving for sweets. I went to Wal-mart, bought some groceries, and the ingredients for peanut butter bars. I love these bars, I made them before and everyone loves them. They’re yummy and low fat, and only four points on Weight Watches (but the bars are so rich, four points are enough).

I set out to make them, whisking together the flour mixture, blending together peanut butter, sugar, brown sugar, etc. I worked. I blended. I mixed. I noticed my mixture was extremely thick and my hand mixer was making a low buzzing sound. It sounded like it was struggling. I kept going, thinking that the mixture would loosen up a bit after the ingredients were fully integrated.

Then I started smelling something burning. It was my mixer. Then I saw a spark and smoke started rolling out of the vents. I quickly unplugged my mixer then I sighed. I didn’t know what was wrong with the mixture. Surely I put everything in. I know I did.

Until about fifteen minutes into baking (after struggling to put the mixture in the baking pan) when I checked my recipe, I forgot to put the melted butter in. That’s right. A whole stick of melted butter would have moistened my mixture. And now I have peanut butter bars that aren’t going to turn out right in the oven, a bowl of melted butter, and a dead hand mixer. All because I had a sweets craving.

Posted by kali at 08:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)