In honor of Baby Safety Month, I would like you all to take a moment out of your busy lives to watch this important informational video.*
*Keep in mind irony here, folks.
P.S. I heart babies. Shaking is bad. That's my message. Call me if you need a sitter. :D
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Literacy is Hot
In my continuing quest to celebrate all the special holidays in the month of September, I would like to honor Read a New Book Month today. Because September is Read a New Book month. But you knew that, so I'm just being patronizing here. In honor of this month-o-literacy, I will highlight a few of my favorite books I've read in the last year.
First, there is The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.
This book reminded me slightly of The Lottery. You know, that short story we had to read in high school that I will never, ever forget. If you've read The Lottery you will know what I mean. It's a fantasy book, based on a post-apocalyptic type world where the US is split up into "districts," where the survivors reside, and there is a capitol city where the ruling class lives. Each year, for the entertainment of the elite and to keep all the district people from rebelling, their children are entered into a lottery, and two from each district participate in a reality show of competition called the Hunger Games. Super good. I felt like the world Suzanne Collins constructed was complete and fascinating. Can't wait to read the next book in the series. I believe it's a trilogy, and book number two is out, waiting for me on a bookshelf somewhere and calling my name.
Next on my list is A Great and Terrible Beauty, by Libba Bray. I swear I don't read that much fantasy, but this is also a fantasy book. A fantastic fantasy book.
The main character, Gemma Doyle, lost her mother at a young age, and then was shipped off to a boarding school for girls. There, she begins to discover these magical powers she seems to possess. She also makes some good friends, and they have adventures, discovering a whole world together. Like Hunger Games, I was fascinated with the way the author constructed a complete world, incorporating the world we know with her own magical world. It was also a good girl power kind of book, with strong female teenage characters, and strong friendships. And it's a trilogy, which means the fun is multiplied by three! The only bummer was that by the end of the book I was hooked on this author, and I discovered that she has not written that much, and the other books she has written don't seem to fall in the same category as this trilogy.
First, there is The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.
This book reminded me slightly of The Lottery. You know, that short story we had to read in high school that I will never, ever forget. If you've read The Lottery you will know what I mean. It's a fantasy book, based on a post-apocalyptic type world where the US is split up into "districts," where the survivors reside, and there is a capitol city where the ruling class lives. Each year, for the entertainment of the elite and to keep all the district people from rebelling, their children are entered into a lottery, and two from each district participate in a reality show of competition called the Hunger Games. Super good. I felt like the world Suzanne Collins constructed was complete and fascinating. Can't wait to read the next book in the series. I believe it's a trilogy, and book number two is out, waiting for me on a bookshelf somewhere and calling my name.Next on my list is A Great and Terrible Beauty, by Libba Bray. I swear I don't read that much fantasy, but this is also a fantasy book. A fantastic fantasy book.
The main character, Gemma Doyle, lost her mother at a young age, and then was shipped off to a boarding school for girls. There, she begins to discover these magical powers she seems to possess. She also makes some good friends, and they have adventures, discovering a whole world together. Like Hunger Games, I was fascinated with the way the author constructed a complete world, incorporating the world we know with her own magical world. It was also a good girl power kind of book, with strong female teenage characters, and strong friendships. And it's a trilogy, which means the fun is multiplied by three! The only bummer was that by the end of the book I was hooked on this author, and I discovered that she has not written that much, and the other books she has written don't seem to fall in the same category as this trilogy.
Next in my literary line-up is The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, by Shel Silverstein.
There is much symbolism to be found here. I read this book to my teenagers at the leadership retreat we just had, and I felt like it was a really good message for them, as teenagers on the cusp of adulthood, and for me, as an adult on the cusp of... adulthood. Parallels can be drawn to relationships--both friendships and romantic relationships--quite easily. But I also have drawn parallels to other parts of my life. The, "if I meet this career goal I will be happy," part of me. And the "if I move (insert geographical location to escape to here) I will be happy," phenomenon I have been observing in young adults I know.
The last book I would like to recommend is At Home in Mitford, by Jan Karon. This is a nice laid back book with happy thoughts and sunshine infused into the pages. 
There is much symbolism to be found here. I read this book to my teenagers at the leadership retreat we just had, and I felt like it was a really good message for them, as teenagers on the cusp of adulthood, and for me, as an adult on the cusp of... adulthood. Parallels can be drawn to relationships--both friendships and romantic relationships--quite easily. But I also have drawn parallels to other parts of my life. The, "if I meet this career goal I will be happy," part of me. And the "if I move (insert geographical location to escape to here) I will be happy," phenomenon I have been observing in young adults I know. The last book I would like to recommend is At Home in Mitford, by Jan Karon. This is a nice laid back book with happy thoughts and sunshine infused into the pages.
Pastor Tim serves a small flock in a small town. We keep him company as he goes about serving his flock, and the thoughts he has. If you like a thoughtful scripture reference thrown into your reading here and there, this is the book for you. I really like the way he will ponder how to help people struggling in the story, and to be the best person he can throughout the series. It inspired me to examine my own thought process and try to intentionally visit and revisit in my mind how I can be the best friend and sister and aunt and daughter I can be. And sometimes I even do nice stuff . Look at me, all growing and stuff.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Hey, Honey ;)
It's Honey Month. I'm pretty sure that the aim of that celebration is that you should call everyone by Honey as your term of endearment for the month. Here's a few scenarios:
Boss: I need your time sheet by five
You: Sure, honey, I'll get right on that.
Drive Thru Attendant: Would you like that Quadruple sized or do you just want the fat delivered intravenously, honey?
You: Hmm... We're going to have to think about that, honey. Check back with us in a minute.
Room mate: For crying out loud, would you please stop calling me honey?
You: Sorry, honey.
Room mate: No, really, it's freaking annoying.
You: Aw, honey, don't be a cranky pants!
Room mate: I'm going in my room.
You (through door): Honey, let's talk about this.
Room mate: $!@#%"$!@#%##@!
That last one is probably an accurate prediction of what will happen with me and K this month. I'll test her endurance and get back to you.
Boss: I need your time sheet by five
You: Sure, honey, I'll get right on that.
Drive Thru Attendant: Would you like that Quadruple sized or do you just want the fat delivered intravenously, honey?
You: Hmm... We're going to have to think about that, honey. Check back with us in a minute.
Room mate: For crying out loud, would you please stop calling me honey?
You: Sorry, honey.
Room mate: No, really, it's freaking annoying.
You: Aw, honey, don't be a cranky pants!
Room mate: I'm going in my room.
You (through door): Honey, let's talk about this.
Room mate: $!@#%"$!@#%##@!
That last one is probably an accurate prediction of what will happen with me and K this month. I'll test her endurance and get back to you.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Remember the First Day of School?
Because I don't. I have no recollection of how I felt about going to Kindergarten. I'm guessing I was probably excited, because I had gone with my mom to the school barbecue since my sisters were already in school. I do remember that I had the best Kindergarten teacher in the world, and that we had show-and-tell, and snack time, and bunnies. And we had painting easels. And cute little workbooks where we learned about letters and stuff. My most vivid memories involve sneaking the popcorn from snacktime of the floor and eating it when I thought no one was looking, since we ate snack sitting in a circle on the rug. I'm sure I was totally super sly. At least I wasn't that girl that picked her nose and ate her boogers. That was my neighbor. Not to name any names.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
I Heart You, Seattle
Don't ever change, Seattle. Then I will always have something to post on my blog.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Workin' 9 to 5:30ish...
I should mention that I am now employed again. So now I'm going to have to make my life about something other than my unemployment. What to do, what to do....
I'm working in downtown Seattle, at a non-profit I don't want to disclose, in case I have Internet stalkers or something, so please don't out me in my comments sections, and run-on sentences are fun. But being that I'm now a city girl, or at least a one who is employed by an organization located in the city, I'm realizing that I will have lots of good fodder for blogging, or just conversational pieces. Not the confidential stuff, of course, because I would like not to get fired. Also because breaking confidences are not cool. But the other stuff. Like the naked man.
So I'm sitting in my office last week, and all of the sudden I hear the woman at the front desk say "there is a naked man out there," with kind of the same inflection one might use to say "those are some ugly pants he's wearing." Except he wasn't wearing pants. Or anything else. Not even socks. So she said the former, not the latter. The bike cops were already talking to him and trying to convince him to put some clothes on, once they located some. Apparently he wasn't very responsive. This might have been a good thing, since one of the responding officers was telling us that naked people can actually be some of the most dangerous and aggressive--the nakedness being an outward manifestation of some serious crazy. I always thought of streakers as peace loving hippies. Not so, apparently. At least not in Seattle. Maybe in Berkley or something. Anyways, of course when you hear something like that you can't stay in your office, even if you don't really want to be scarred with the vision of nakedness. So I started to come out front, and the staff said, "oh, no, you don't want to see this," as she picked up the phone and paged another staff by saying "(Staff name), please come to the front, you've got to see this." Apparently I must exude Mormon-ness because she knew right away that my virgin eyes could not handle the sight of Naked Man. Pretty quickly a cruiser appeared with a real policeman (something about the bike and the neon yellow coat tells me that the bike police pretty much have the authority to direct traffic). Then a fire truck showed up, and I believe a medic. I've been told that the fire station is called to medical scenes because they have trained medics or something and can usually get there first, being based in stations out in the community. Or I could be making that up. But that's what I think I was told once. Anyways, so at some point he sat down on the sidewalk, and eventually one of the officers coaxed him into putting on some pants or something. I was trying not to do the whole standing around gawking thing, because I was supposed to be working or something. As opposed to all the hecklers I hear were across the street yelling things at Naked Man throughout the spectacle.
This didn't happen at my old job.
I'm working in downtown Seattle, at a non-profit I don't want to disclose, in case I have Internet stalkers or something, so please don't out me in my comments sections, and run-on sentences are fun. But being that I'm now a city girl, or at least a one who is employed by an organization located in the city, I'm realizing that I will have lots of good fodder for blogging, or just conversational pieces. Not the confidential stuff, of course, because I would like not to get fired. Also because breaking confidences are not cool. But the other stuff. Like the naked man.
So I'm sitting in my office last week, and all of the sudden I hear the woman at the front desk say "there is a naked man out there," with kind of the same inflection one might use to say "those are some ugly pants he's wearing." Except he wasn't wearing pants. Or anything else. Not even socks. So she said the former, not the latter. The bike cops were already talking to him and trying to convince him to put some clothes on, once they located some. Apparently he wasn't very responsive. This might have been a good thing, since one of the responding officers was telling us that naked people can actually be some of the most dangerous and aggressive--the nakedness being an outward manifestation of some serious crazy. I always thought of streakers as peace loving hippies. Not so, apparently. At least not in Seattle. Maybe in Berkley or something. Anyways, of course when you hear something like that you can't stay in your office, even if you don't really want to be scarred with the vision of nakedness. So I started to come out front, and the staff said, "oh, no, you don't want to see this," as she picked up the phone and paged another staff by saying "(Staff name), please come to the front, you've got to see this." Apparently I must exude Mormon-ness because she knew right away that my virgin eyes could not handle the sight of Naked Man. Pretty quickly a cruiser appeared with a real policeman (something about the bike and the neon yellow coat tells me that the bike police pretty much have the authority to direct traffic). Then a fire truck showed up, and I believe a medic. I've been told that the fire station is called to medical scenes because they have trained medics or something and can usually get there first, being based in stations out in the community. Or I could be making that up. But that's what I think I was told once. Anyways, so at some point he sat down on the sidewalk, and eventually one of the officers coaxed him into putting on some pants or something. I was trying not to do the whole standing around gawking thing, because I was supposed to be working or something. As opposed to all the hecklers I hear were across the street yelling things at Naked Man throughout the spectacle.
This didn't happen at my old job.
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