Had a really sweet time with my sister, brother-in-law and niece this past week. It was a huge challenge juggling all the things we had to do, especially school. So, I skipped two days... yikes! But we had a lot of fun and were able to catch up a bit. Spent most of the week being entertained by my one year old niece. She's super cute but completely exhausting to be around (I mean that in the best way :). Wish we could have had more time together. But I'm going up to Alaska in July, so it won't be too long before I see them all again. Hopefully just in time for baby number two! I'd love to be present for that. It was sad to see them go and, as usual, I cried. Sappy, huh?
I'm sure a part of it is being just so completely DONE with my life right now. I'm struggling every day to get out of bed just to get through this program at school. I'm just tired. But thankfully, the end is in sight. Only a few more months. I have a big test on Wednesday, one I haven't exactly been studying for since I've been spending every second I can with my family. But now it's once again time to buckle down and grind in. If you think about me, wish me luck!
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
Review: "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
I’ve realized several things about myself as a reader these past few months. Most notably… I’m kind of a book snob. It’s not something I’m necessarily proud to admit, but it is true. I usually come at a book very cynically. I read the story, but I’m also critiquing the author the entire time. A lot of the books that I have read recently have been kind of a let-down in my opinion. So many stories sound so much the same, and so many characters are, characteristically, flat. So, when I come across a story that allows me to be both surprised and refreshed as a reader, I usually end up carrying it with me for a while. The only two books that I’ve read this year that fall into that category have been “Lisey’s Story” by Stephen King, and this book, “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd. And when it comes to writing stories about children or teenagers, I’m especially doubtful about the writer’s ability to break out of the box.
When I started to read this book I did roll my eyes at the all too familiar cliché: A 14 year old girl struggling to find the hidden mysteries surrounding her mother’s death and, of course, her own self worth. But I’d like to say that this book completely surprised me. Not only was the story powerful, the characters felt like real people to me. They were round, full and interacted with life in a realistic but powerful way.
The story takes place in South Carolina in 1964, just after President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, and is about a white girl, Lily Owens. After growing up under the tyranny of her father “T.Ray”, and experiencing racism first hand she and her black nanny Rosalee flee home in search of more information about Lily’s mother. Drawn by one clue, she ends up in the home of three black beekeeping sisters who worship a statue of a black Madonna. There she spends the rest of the story, an apprentice beekeeper, but also an apprentice at living life.
Aside from the depth of the characters, especially the eccentric sisters, and the author’s ability to deal with that period’s issues of racism and segregation, I was completely impressed by the beauty of the language used. Here is an example: “According to August, if you’ve never seen a cluster of beehives first thing in the morning, you’ve missed the eighth wonder of the world. Picture these white boxes tucked under pine trees. The sun will slant through the branches, shining in the sprinkles of dew drying on the lids. There will be a few hundred bees doing laps around the hive boxes, just warming up, but mostly taking their bathroom break, as bees are so clean they will not soil the inside of their hives. From a distance it will look like a big painting you might see in a museum, but museums can’t capture the sound. Fifty feet away you will hear it, a humming that sounds like it came from another planet. At thirty feet your skin will start to vibrate. The hair will lift on your neck. Your head will say, ‘don’t go any further’, but your heart will send you straight into the hum, where you will be swallowed by it. You will stand there and think, ‘I am in the center of the universe, where everything is sung to life’.” I love it!
Now, there are of course some things you might have issue with. Aside from Lily’s somewhat annoying and many moments of “eyes closed, arms raised, thoughtful reflection”, the book is very feminist, and a large portion of it is focused on the idea of the “sacred feminine”. It wasn’t exactly something I could relate to, but was able to appreciate. There also is a lot of worship of Mary and, if you insert Jesus, you’d have it just about right :). I thought the spiritual ideals in this book extremely empowering in overcoming our self-doubt, feelings of worthlessness and inability to forgive. I was impressed.
All in all, it is well worth reading. In fact, I’m going to buy it. If only for the sake of reading something beautiful, I recommend it. But, coming from a crappy family life myself it also reminds me to keep on forgiving, and to find love in the world where I can, even if the place I find it is unexpected. I give it a 3 and a half stars out of 4 on the Bud scale.
Happy reading!
When I started to read this book I did roll my eyes at the all too familiar cliché: A 14 year old girl struggling to find the hidden mysteries surrounding her mother’s death and, of course, her own self worth. But I’d like to say that this book completely surprised me. Not only was the story powerful, the characters felt like real people to me. They were round, full and interacted with life in a realistic but powerful way.The story takes place in South Carolina in 1964, just after President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, and is about a white girl, Lily Owens. After growing up under the tyranny of her father “T.Ray”, and experiencing racism first hand she and her black nanny Rosalee flee home in search of more information about Lily’s mother. Drawn by one clue, she ends up in the home of three black beekeeping sisters who worship a statue of a black Madonna. There she spends the rest of the story, an apprentice beekeeper, but also an apprentice at living life.
Aside from the depth of the characters, especially the eccentric sisters, and the author’s ability to deal with that period’s issues of racism and segregation, I was completely impressed by the beauty of the language used. Here is an example: “According to August, if you’ve never seen a cluster of beehives first thing in the morning, you’ve missed the eighth wonder of the world. Picture these white boxes tucked under pine trees. The sun will slant through the branches, shining in the sprinkles of dew drying on the lids. There will be a few hundred bees doing laps around the hive boxes, just warming up, but mostly taking their bathroom break, as bees are so clean they will not soil the inside of their hives. From a distance it will look like a big painting you might see in a museum, but museums can’t capture the sound. Fifty feet away you will hear it, a humming that sounds like it came from another planet. At thirty feet your skin will start to vibrate. The hair will lift on your neck. Your head will say, ‘don’t go any further’, but your heart will send you straight into the hum, where you will be swallowed by it. You will stand there and think, ‘I am in the center of the universe, where everything is sung to life’.” I love it!
Now, there are of course some things you might have issue with. Aside from Lily’s somewhat annoying and many moments of “eyes closed, arms raised, thoughtful reflection”, the book is very feminist, and a large portion of it is focused on the idea of the “sacred feminine”. It wasn’t exactly something I could relate to, but was able to appreciate. There also is a lot of worship of Mary and, if you insert Jesus, you’d have it just about right :). I thought the spiritual ideals in this book extremely empowering in overcoming our self-doubt, feelings of worthlessness and inability to forgive. I was impressed.
All in all, it is well worth reading. In fact, I’m going to buy it. If only for the sake of reading something beautiful, I recommend it. But, coming from a crappy family life myself it also reminds me to keep on forgiving, and to find love in the world where I can, even if the place I find it is unexpected. I give it a 3 and a half stars out of 4 on the Bud scale.
Happy reading!
Monday, April 9, 2007
Anxiety Dreaming
Since Jenn's been sharing weird dreams, I thought I'd join the fray.
I've been feeling really weird all day. Tense. So I decided to take a nap this afternoon figuring I was just exhausted from staying up till 2 with Lisette (who was in Oregon for a wedding this weekend) and then getting up at 6:30 for my clinicals. So, I lay down and fall asleep and then dream that I'm AT my clinical with a particular professor and my whole grade is based on me properly collecting a throat swab for culture. Of course lab techs wouldn't do generally that, but hey, it's a dream. I've never seen one done (except on myself I guess) and couldn't remember how to keep it from getting contaminated, and had to make sure the patient didn't gag. I was super tense in the dream and started arguing with my prof about it when I woke up. I was still so angry at her I had to talk myself down and remind myself it was just a dream. So much for relaxing. Then, of course, driving to meet my hubby for dinner I hit every single red light possible (with the exception of one), construction, and rush hour traffic....
So that's been my glorious day. With the exception of the first two hours in it (12:00-2:00am), it pretty much has sucked.
I've been feeling really weird all day. Tense. So I decided to take a nap this afternoon figuring I was just exhausted from staying up till 2 with Lisette (who was in Oregon for a wedding this weekend) and then getting up at 6:30 for my clinicals. So, I lay down and fall asleep and then dream that I'm AT my clinical with a particular professor and my whole grade is based on me properly collecting a throat swab for culture. Of course lab techs wouldn't do generally that, but hey, it's a dream. I've never seen one done (except on myself I guess) and couldn't remember how to keep it from getting contaminated, and had to make sure the patient didn't gag. I was super tense in the dream and started arguing with my prof about it when I woke up. I was still so angry at her I had to talk myself down and remind myself it was just a dream. So much for relaxing. Then, of course, driving to meet my hubby for dinner I hit every single red light possible (with the exception of one), construction, and rush hour traffic....
So that's been my glorious day. With the exception of the first two hours in it (12:00-2:00am), it pretty much has sucked.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
"Next"??
Has anyone read "Next" by Michael Crichton? I'm slightly confused so far. I'm about 100 pages in and I'm not sure what the plot is, or who the main characters are. It's really weird.
Hope everyone's Easter weekend is going well. My friend Lisette is in town, which has been a blast to see her. Jeff's sister is also in town this weekend and we are meeting up with her tonight. Tomorrow everyone is coming over to our house for brunch after church, but otherwise we have no plans. So, Happy Easter y'all!!
Hope everyone's Easter weekend is going well. My friend Lisette is in town, which has been a blast to see her. Jeff's sister is also in town this weekend and we are meeting up with her tonight. Tomorrow everyone is coming over to our house for brunch after church, but otherwise we have no plans. So, Happy Easter y'all!!
My book has arrived!
I got my first book from Harper Collins yesterday! It is a children's book called Thora and the Green Sea Unicorn. I am super excited! I'll post my review when I'm done with it...
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Spring Break Review...
This week has, unfortunately, given me the taste of the freedom from school I've been craving for oh... about 2 years now. I don't know why but I suddenly decided that I should be done. Don't worry, I'm not dropping out. Not when I'm this close to a sweet salary and a job where I don't really have to talk to people.
I had to have a end of term meeting with the head of the department at school last week. She eagerly encouraged me to go to Med school to become a doctor. She told me not to get stuck in the lab, when I could do well elsewhere. It got me thinking. But I am nowhere near ready to invest that much time in even MORE school right now. In the meantime, I think Jeff and I are going to try to take the GRE together this winter or next spring so that we can apply for Masters programs at OSU. But we wouldn't start that for a while, so I'm sure I'll be itching to be back in school by then.
Anyhoo, Spring Break has been good. I feel like I need another week off just to rest from all the work I had to do this week. I pretty much spent every day doing projects around the house. I got a TON done, but my garden will have to wait.
I had a couple friends come over to help me plant my daylilies this Saturday. In the process of rota-tilling the side yard we discovered that the previous owners had laid down a plastic tarp over the whole yard, dumped 6 inches of mulch on top, and planted in that. It is infuriating!! So we spent several hours digging through the mulch pulling out as much of the plastic we could, and discovered that my soil is basically purely clay. It sucks. It was a bear to do the little area we did and I got so frustrated I decided I'm calling in the professionals. They are going to have to basically rip up the whole side yard to get the plastic out, and then rota-till the mulch, some sand and some soil into the crappy clay soil I have, so that I can actually plant real things in there. It's going to be a huge process, but I think I'll be happier if I do it right the first time. So, that was a major bummer.
Otherwise, I got almost everything done I wanted too.
I only read one book, but I watched a bunch of movies and hung out with friends... it was good.
But, school starts tomorrow. I haven't even registered yet. Talk about putting off the inevitable! I better go do that right now.
I had to have a end of term meeting with the head of the department at school last week. She eagerly encouraged me to go to Med school to become a doctor. She told me not to get stuck in the lab, when I could do well elsewhere. It got me thinking. But I am nowhere near ready to invest that much time in even MORE school right now. In the meantime, I think Jeff and I are going to try to take the GRE together this winter or next spring so that we can apply for Masters programs at OSU. But we wouldn't start that for a while, so I'm sure I'll be itching to be back in school by then.
Anyhoo, Spring Break has been good. I feel like I need another week off just to rest from all the work I had to do this week. I pretty much spent every day doing projects around the house. I got a TON done, but my garden will have to wait.
I had a couple friends come over to help me plant my daylilies this Saturday. In the process of rota-tilling the side yard we discovered that the previous owners had laid down a plastic tarp over the whole yard, dumped 6 inches of mulch on top, and planted in that. It is infuriating!! So we spent several hours digging through the mulch pulling out as much of the plastic we could, and discovered that my soil is basically purely clay. It sucks. It was a bear to do the little area we did and I got so frustrated I decided I'm calling in the professionals. They are going to have to basically rip up the whole side yard to get the plastic out, and then rota-till the mulch, some sand and some soil into the crappy clay soil I have, so that I can actually plant real things in there. It's going to be a huge process, but I think I'll be happier if I do it right the first time. So, that was a major bummer.
Otherwise, I got almost everything done I wanted too.
I only read one book, but I watched a bunch of movies and hung out with friends... it was good.
But, school starts tomorrow. I haven't even registered yet. Talk about putting off the inevitable! I better go do that right now.
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