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snoggedThis is a post in which I ramble. You have been warned. :D
BOYFRIEND: Nick's birthday (despite it actually being on Saturday) managed to encapsulate much of the weekend. On Friday, he had the day off (as did I) so we went up to the Dells and saw the movie, Hanna. We both loved it. The cinematography was gorgeous, the actors were brilliant (particularly Saoirse Ronan who played the 16 year-old assassin), and it made me even more excited to see the Hunger Games movie that's coming out next spring. Before the movie started, there was a preview for the film, Anonymous, which looks awesome. It explores the question: who wrote the plays of Shakespeare in a politically, thriller-y sort-of way. After the movie, we went to Taste of New Orleans for dinner. I had baked Catfish and sweet tea and Nick had baked catfish that was stuffed with crab-meat and had a jumbo shrimp on top of it. In terms of my own food, the catfish tasted a bit too mushy for my preference and the spices were too intense. But Nick really liked it and our waitress was so sweet.
On Saturday, Nick's dad came up and we went to a little cafe in our hometown called "Let's Eat." I had a Crispy Chicken BLT Wrap and it rocked my socks off. Saturday evening, after Mark left, was mostly spent catching up some shows and cuddling...and a little birthday snuggling too.
On Sunday, he worked on his car and had quite the productive day with that.
POLITICS: As some of you know, the political climate in Wisconsin is not a happy one. Since March, I've been volunteering my free time at the offices for the Committee to Recall Senator Luther Olsen. Yesterday, Luther Olsen became the THIRD Republican senator in this state to be recalled because we turned in our signatures to the Government Accountability Board (24,000+. We only needed 14,733.) I'm hoping that Fred Clark, the man set to challenge Olsen in the upcoming recall election, will need help with data entry. I'd love to say on board with this stuff. It excites me. :D
WEAP: The Wisconsin Early Autism Project continues to a fun experience for me. I'm hoping that I will get to add more hours to my work-load. 4-6 hours a week is just not enough, no matter how much fun the kiddo is.
BOOKS: At the start of April I completed my 15th book for the year (Water For Elephants and quickly managed to get through number 16 (Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult). I started Book #17 (Stolen: A Letter To My Captor) about a week or so ago. Honestly, I thought it's status as a Young Adult novel would make it a quick read, but instead, it feels like a chore. First, there are no chapter breaks. It's 300 pages of continuous story with an occasional page break in the middle. Second, a majority of the sentences starts with "I" or "you." I think this is meant to draw the reader in and make the character easier to relate to. Instead, it drives me nuts. Yes, this is a book for teens, but must it be so damn juvenile? Another issue I have with it is that, like Twilight, it portrays control and obsession as love. This guy literally kidnaps this teenage girl, drags her to the Australian outback, and expects her to be okay with it. Not only that, the reader is expected to feel sympathy for him because he came from a broken home. The female character seems to waver between experiencing pity for this man and wanting to escape/injure him. Judging by the back of the book, however, it seems that soon she'll experience Stockholm Syndrome. *sigh* I'm only half-way through and I really just want to give up on it, but giving up on a story is so unlike me.
BOYFRIEND: Nick's birthday (despite it actually being on Saturday) managed to encapsulate much of the weekend. On Friday, he had the day off (as did I) so we went up to the Dells and saw the movie, Hanna. We both loved it. The cinematography was gorgeous, the actors were brilliant (particularly Saoirse Ronan who played the 16 year-old assassin), and it made me even more excited to see the Hunger Games movie that's coming out next spring. Before the movie started, there was a preview for the film, Anonymous, which looks awesome. It explores the question: who wrote the plays of Shakespeare in a politically, thriller-y sort-of way. After the movie, we went to Taste of New Orleans for dinner. I had baked Catfish and sweet tea and Nick had baked catfish that was stuffed with crab-meat and had a jumbo shrimp on top of it. In terms of my own food, the catfish tasted a bit too mushy for my preference and the spices were too intense. But Nick really liked it and our waitress was so sweet.
On Saturday, Nick's dad came up and we went to a little cafe in our hometown called "Let's Eat." I had a Crispy Chicken BLT Wrap and it rocked my socks off. Saturday evening, after Mark left, was mostly spent catching up some shows and cuddling...and a little birthday snuggling too.
On Sunday, he worked on his car and had quite the productive day with that.
POLITICS: As some of you know, the political climate in Wisconsin is not a happy one. Since March, I've been volunteering my free time at the offices for the Committee to Recall Senator Luther Olsen. Yesterday, Luther Olsen became the THIRD Republican senator in this state to be recalled because we turned in our signatures to the Government Accountability Board (24,000+. We only needed 14,733.) I'm hoping that Fred Clark, the man set to challenge Olsen in the upcoming recall election, will need help with data entry. I'd love to say on board with this stuff. It excites me. :D
WEAP: The Wisconsin Early Autism Project continues to a fun experience for me. I'm hoping that I will get to add more hours to my work-load. 4-6 hours a week is just not enough, no matter how much fun the kiddo is.
BOOKS: At the start of April I completed my 15th book for the year (Water For Elephants and quickly managed to get through number 16 (Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult). I started Book #17 (Stolen: A Letter To My Captor) about a week or so ago. Honestly, I thought it's status as a Young Adult novel would make it a quick read, but instead, it feels like a chore. First, there are no chapter breaks. It's 300 pages of continuous story with an occasional page break in the middle. Second, a majority of the sentences starts with "I" or "you." I think this is meant to draw the reader in and make the character easier to relate to. Instead, it drives me nuts. Yes, this is a book for teens, but must it be so damn juvenile? Another issue I have with it is that, like Twilight, it portrays control and obsession as love. This guy literally kidnaps this teenage girl, drags her to the Australian outback, and expects her to be okay with it. Not only that, the reader is expected to feel sympathy for him because he came from a broken home. The female character seems to waver between experiencing pity for this man and wanting to escape/injure him. Judging by the back of the book, however, it seems that soon she'll experience Stockholm Syndrome. *sigh* I'm only half-way through and I really just want to give up on it, but giving up on a story is so unlike me.
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no subject
on 2011-04-20 12:04 am (UTC)AUGH! That drives me batty! Where the hell was the editor???
Gabrielle
no subject
on 2011-04-20 12:10 am (UTC)Or getting drinks with Stephanie Meyer's editor.
no subject
on 2011-04-20 12:15 am (UTC)Gabrielle
no subject
on 2011-04-20 12:07 am (UTC)I love hearing what people had to eat in restaurants. :) Glad you and Nick had a great time celebrating his b-day! And yay for snuggling. ;)
I admire you muchly for your volunteer work for a good cause!
no subject
on 2011-04-20 12:11 am (UTC)Hope your book picks up steam soon.
*hugs*
The volunteering is made a lot easier by the people I work with. Liz, Tyler, and Marci make me smile.
no subject
on 2011-04-20 12:16 am (UTC)And my book is really interesting... it's just tough language, lots of exposition, tiny print... but I'll get through it!
no subject
on 2011-04-20 12:58 am (UTC)Yay for your political success!!!!
Drop the book if you don't like it... there are plenty of better books to read out there.
no subject
on 2011-04-21 11:03 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-04-20 12:58 am (UTC)no subject
on 2011-04-20 01:08 am (UTC)But I know it's not everyone's cup of tea.
no subject
on 2011-04-20 01:51 am (UTC)You go super reader! The past couple of years I have been horrible in my reading habits (i.e. they haven't existed) so when I moved I got a brand new library card to my local library and I've been trying to be better! I'm on my 9th book this year. Though I did start one that was just so bad I had to stop, and I read about half of Wicked but haven't finished it. Yay books!
I'm like you and I NEVER give up on books/movies, I have a need to finish them, but I would so not judge you if you needed to put it down! I wish that type of material wasn't what girls are reading and thinking about.
Right now I'm reading a book called Small Gods by Terry Pratchett (it's the first book I've read by him!) and there are no chapters and at first that really bothered me but I'm getting used to it. He puts breaks in the writing quite frequently, though.
no subject
on 2011-04-21 11:04 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-04-20 02:07 am (UTC):P That's hard to have read such good books and then get stuck on something so difficult to read because of its lack of quality. I dunno... it might be worth just leaving off in favor of something you might actually enjoy.
no subject
on 2011-04-21 11:05 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-04-20 04:18 am (UTC)Yay for volunteering!
no subject
on 2011-04-21 11:14 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-04-20 05:54 am (UTC)no subject
on 2011-04-21 05:15 am (UTC)It's also awesome that you're volunteering and hopefully the politicial situation will get better soon. It's always frustrating that some politicians think about themselves way more than the benefit of the community.
Perfect Match is a good book, but if you enjoyed it, Jodi Picoult's latest novel Sing You Home is much better. It's about gay rights and reproductive science. Read it if you've got time - it's an amazing book!