Did anyone else have an insane weekend? Mine was just jam packed of business. Cleaning. Meals. Folding clothes. Whining about chores. See? Busy!

Saturday I had a 2.5 hours people only orientation for Tonks’ upcoming training classes that begin this week. In all seriousness? Waste of time. Gar. I think it was more geared towards people who had just adopted their first pet (its run by the humane society). Then it was time to get some groceries, as the two sprouting potatoes in the pantry did nothing to inspire culinary greatness. Shopping took a while, because it was crowded and because JS and I are still very cautious about his busted foot. Saturday night was dinner at the boss’s house. Very fun.

Sunday the dog woke me up, AGAIN, a little after 7 (need I say it? grrrr), so  took her out, and then couldn’t fall asleep again, so I lay on the couch and read, not feeling terribly well. I think I have some allergies or the start of a cold coming. Then came the chores, a much needed nap, and a few hours of writing. The writing time wasn’t incredibly productive, but that’s OK. I got some done, and I’m not yet allowing myself to freak out, especially with the option for a shorter draft at this point. The stress only makes it harder to write the next time.

Remember, go check out the daily picture every week day. I’m finally coming through on one of my 101 Things in 1001 days list. Ha ha.

Technorati Tags: Life, Tonks, Writing

I actually won something, y’all. Sweetney had a caption contest about a week ago, and I managed to snag me enough votes to win a Nintendo DS, a few games, and a Dove goodie bag!

I never win stuff, so this is totally exciting!

My posting may be a bit lighter over the next few weeks as I really try and buckle down and finish my thesis. BUT, keep your eye on the Daily Picture tab, because I’ve set aside several pictures to stay current on that (go look at the three new ones, now!). I’m not going to stop blogging or anything, but the entries, like this one, may be a tad on the short and fluffy side.

PS - So, the debate, eh? I like how that, just because Palin didn’t drool at the podium, Right Wingers (”wingers” from here on out) go nuts over how she exceeded expectations. “WOO-HOO, y’all!  She dun us real proud!”

Seriously. Thanks to everyone who left such wonderful encouraging comments on my last post. I’m pretty confident about who I am, and what my talents are, and all that jazz (in what I HOPE is a healthy, not douche-baggy sorta way), but this thesis is really throwing me for a loop. And reading various reiterations of “you can do it!” totally made my day….and my week. Also, Robin G’s comment about the correlation between fear/anxiety and writer’s block was pretty spot on, I’d say. You should check it out.

To update you on the thesis situation, my professor was incredibly receptive, and came up with a few options for me (he also said I was a good writer and a great student….just had to put that out there. Ego stroking is necessary sometimes). The one we’re going with for now is to keep the end of October as a deadline; he’ll be on leave, but he’ll still grade my project (which, I’m pretty sure, is pass or fail at this level). HOWEVER, he said that I can turn in a partial draft, 30-40 pages as opposed to 120.  He said that a substantial sample of my project will be enough for him to go on until I complete the final class, and turn in a final, complete draft.

It’s a huge relief. I know I can do this, and it helps to know that the person deciding whether or not I get my degree thinks so, too.

Now, on to something totally different, but somewhat related. Today Sweetney posted a very interesting article on her Linkblog; it’s about how no book will ever mean as much to us as the ones we loved as kids (very simplified summary; go read the article!).  One of the lines I love the most is:

“I think adults tend to forget about the fears of childhood,” author Jenny Boylan (She’s Not There and I’m Looking Through You) says via e-mail. “I was then and am now drawn to stories that paint a more complicated picture of childhood…”

All day I’ve been thinking about the books that I read as a child and adolescent that shaped me. Ones I read over and over and over again, yet that never lost their impact. Ones I STILL go back and read, without embarrassment or pause over being a 20-something (NOT QUITE THIRTY YET DON’T PUSH IT) working professional, graduate student, woman pouring over a paperback cover with “ages 12 and up” printed on the cover.  Books that, when I’m tired of pretending to read that copy of Crime and Punishment in my backseat, I’ll devour in hours. Books that, in all honesty, teach me more, and reach me more, than most classics I read in AP high school or college lit classes.

Here’s a sample:

• L.M. Montgomery: The Emily series. Anne of Green Gables. Pat of Silver Bush. The Story Girl. Even though I loved the Emily books (as my namesake, of course), I think The Story Girl was my favorite. I wanted to be Sarah: the young girl on the cusp of womanhood who could captivate even the most practical adult with her stories.
• Bridge to Terabithia.  I loved Leslie, a free spirit. And I identified with Jess, struggling to belong. And then she died, which was inconceivable, but amazing, because it didn’t kill Jess. And he was able to still love her.
• Speak. OK, yeah, I was in college when this was published, but I remember reading it and wishing it had been available to me in junior high. Melinda had to learn to open up and be honest about something horribly traumatic when it’s the last thing she seemed able to do… and it didn’t kill her. Talking about her problems actually helped. Plus, any book that dealt with rape or abuse in a realistic and sensitive manner is something that all adolescents should be required to read.
• Dicey’s Song. This may be the most iconic of them all for me. Dicey and her siblings are abandoned, and she leads them to safety and family. I think that, besides death, abandonment is something kids dwell on more than anyone will admit. Not only does Dicey end up OK, but she makes sure her brothers and sister are OK, too. She also remains entirely herself throughout.
• To Kill a Mockingbird. I read this book almost every year. Atticus is such a wonderful, unconventional role model. He teaches love, acceptance, and patience with those who are slow to change. Plus, who doesn’t love Scout?

There are so many more I could list. The Chronicles of Narnia. Where the Red Fern Grows. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The Giver. A Ring of Endless Light. Daddy Longlegs. Harry Potter.  The Golden Compass. Little Women. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

(And you should, without a doubt, read all of those books.  I wouldn’t lie to you.)

My family used to tease me about being such a morbid kid, because I read such dark books. But really, what I was trying to do, was to convince myself that I’d survive when the shit hit the fan. I knew it was inevitable, and I think that kids who DIDN’T go through the trauma I did feel the same way. I needed to experience situations where the worst happened, and life continued….and not just continued, but improved.

What all the above books have in common is that they don’t shirk away from the issues. Death happens. Abuse happens. Abandonment. Illness. Pain. Fear. Oppression. Divorce. Fights. War.  Even if it’s in a different time, or world, all together. These books still teach kids that bad things happen, but that good things happen, too. They teach kids how to be good friends, good sons/daughters. How to stand up for yourself, and for those around you who can’t stand up for themselves. The show you that it’s not always good to fit in. They offer hope, and teach you that you CAN make a difference.

And they all of these things by weaving a wonderful story that’s fun and compelling.

So….how about you? What books made a difference in YOUR life as a kid?

Technorati Tags: Writing, Childhood, Random, School

WordPress automatically logs you out and you can’t remember your damn blog password. Sheesh.

Oh, HAI THERE, readers! How fare you? Things over here at the WonderSpot have been….busy. And rather hectic. And sorta hard.

JS’s mother had a stroke about 2 weeks ago. She’s OK now. She got treatment right away. She’s back in her assisted living home and out of the hospital, which is wonderful.

Then I went and had my teefs drilled. That was fun. So fun I did it twice. What can I say? I’m not a gal who knows moderation.

Then JS broke his foot. While we were walking this beast:

Then she decided to go and throw up nearly 20 times in twelve hours. She’s over it now, so, whatever, crazy dog who eats flies.

I’ve made zero progress on my thesis. I have no idea if I’m just being lazy, or if the story is bad, or if I have some rare medical condition that prevents me from achieving my goals once I’m in spitting distance of them. But it’s discouraging, to say the least. It’s such a horrible feeling, and I have no one to blame but myself.

Things continue to improve, oh so slowly, with my parents. I’m actually planning on spending some time with them around Christmas, sans JS. But it still smarts that things can’t be normal, just because I don’t believe the same things they do.

BUT, not everything has been total shit. I got my totally kick ass T-shirt from Matt Logelin’s Garden of Awesome:

I went to my new Lady Parts Doctor, and he was awesome, and said I had a nice cervix. Isn’t that sweet of him. In all seriousness, though, the whole experience was exponentially better than any of the interactions I had with my old doctor’s office. He sat down at talked with me about any questions I had, AFTER he left the room and let me get dressed again. He gave me two thumbs up to go get knocked up, and reminded me that nothing I could have done last time would have been the reason for the miscarriage.

Speaking of babies (sorta), I gotta play with one last night.

She had cute little toes, that even JS couldn’t keep his hands off of:

And tiny fingers that I may have nibbled on once or twice:

And she fell asleep while I held her:

So, as always, Life found a way to interject some loveliness in with all the fucking shit bad.

And right now I have brownies cooling on the counter, so the whole house smells like chocolate, and there’s a full bottle of wine chilling in the fridge. So today has all the promises of a good day.

Technorati Tags: Life, Health, Pets, Baby

At least, that’s what WordPress called it when I failed to title it yesterday, so, 265 it is! Seems like a good number. A number worthy of bullets? Why the hell not?!?!

• Tonks is either going through adolesence or her terrible twos. I have no idea. She just turned 1 a while back. She’s never been a perfectly trained dog (that’s way too boring), but she was good about not barking inside, not biting, and we had been making progress on the jumping issue. Now, however, it’s like she’s taken speed sometime while she’s alone during the day. She barks at every damn person who walks by our window (or the people she imagines outside our window). She is CONSTANTLY jumping on me and JS, and her “playful” mood quickly turns into biting (not angry biting, or vicious biting, just very playful biting). And I don’t know what to do about it. We put her behind the baby gate. We squirt her with a water/lemon juice mix. We reward good behavior….but nothing seems to work. Is it time for real training?
• I had an interesting conversation with a colleague about religion (specifically, fundamentalist Evangelicalism). I considered writing another post on it, but I feel like I’ve written about my religious past a lot lately, and it took way too much effort to come up with a new angle. I will, however, relay this part. When I was young, maybe 10, up through high school, I used to have these vivid dreams….or rather, not the dreams, but the awakenings. I’d wake up with my heart pounding, face down in an almost bowing position, convinced that the rapture had happened and I had been left out of it. I was SO SURE of it. I had so much guilt over all of my “sins” that I was convinced I’d never be good enough for heaven. I’d actually get up and peek into my parent’s room those mornings; seeing them still asleep would reassure me that I hadn’t been condemned for eternity just yet. And that? Is pretty jacked up, ya know?
• Last night’s dream was not so dramatic. I dreamed that I was in a room full of donuts, and JS kept trying to eat the ones I picked out. I woke up and was really pissed about the lack of donut situation.
• JS and I have been on completely different schedules since we got back from Maui. This week he’s working until 9PM 3 nights, and then he goes to a work retreat on Sunday until Wednesday. We hardly see each other and it’s pretty weird. I’ve totally forgotten what it is I used to do when I lived alone. What’s even more weird? JS and I don’t spend each second together when we are home at the same time. We often do separate things. But just knowing that he’s not around kinda throws me, I guess. Pathetic, I know. (Oh, wait! I know what I did! I watched TV! But, it’s the off season, so I got nuttin.)
• My dad is the person I was writing about before, the “woman” who’d had a heart attack. He’s doing OK. No surgery required (for the time being at least). He’s actually had more than 1 heart attack, but all very small. So he’s on a very strict diet, has a better exercise regime, and I think is taking blood thinners. I’m glad he’s OK.

(Hey, look! I made it to 5 bullets without even trying! I ROCK!!!)