Tuesday, January 7, 2014

How I spent my Winter Vacation


So. New Years. Yay? The party was a blast. Nearly all of my favorite people were there and it was nice to be able to spend time with so many different people. We partied, listened to music, drank, got silly, and took a lot of silly pictures. It was a pretty mellow party, we mostly just stood around drinking and listening to music and having weirdo random discussions, as you do. Before the party actually started we watched a few episodes of Star Trek: TNG, which was fun.

The evening mostly was done by 1:30 and I was in bed by 2. The next morning was blissfully hangover free but I mostly lounged around Liz's house until around 6 because I was very occupied with the book I was reading! (Discussed on 1/02) I was home by 7ish and cuddled up with my cat, who was very happy to see me after over 36 hours away! (He's very needy.) I relaxed by watching a movie and woke up with what I thought was a mild ear problem. I couldn't hear out of my right ear, it felt like I was swimming underwater!  I thought it would go away on its own (it didn't) and I thought I'd try various home remedies, which also didn't help. My sniffles/cough/mucus making factory issues that I had over Christmas came back with a bang as well.

Friday I felt awful but slightly better, so I ended up going to dinner to celebrate a friend's birthday. Big mistake! We ate at a very nice steakhouse (Ruth's Chris) and I had to get a salad/soup because I had virtually no taste buds and therefore steak would be useless. I could barely hear, my nose was experiencing leakage problems, and conversation was difficult at best (due to the ear.) Afterwards, we went to a local bar that is generally fine on weekdays, but intolerable weekend nights as one section is reserved for live music and it's terrible and I'm old and after several hours I wanted to die. It didn't help that loud music + ear problem made conversation impossible and the smoking from everyone around me likely made my ear problem worse.

Saturday I slept until 3. Sunday the Same. Monday I decide to go to the doctor (and sleep until 2ish) and end up getting antibiotics to treat an ear infection and upper respiratory infection. Tuesday (today) I also stayed home under Doctor's orders, sleeping again until 3 and I'm finally starting to feel human again, but still have the ear problem. Is it getting better? Hard to say. It feels like less pressure, maybe? I really hope it clears up soon, regardless!

Thursday, January 2, 2014

I can still read!


I really slacked off in December with books. I'm pretty sure I only finished ONE book, but considering some months I finished more than two and January I'm on track to finish at least four, I think it evens out! So I'm going to discuss one December book, and one book I read almost entirely on New Years Day (minus the two chapters I had read before)

Book #1
Everything is Perfect When You're a Liar by Kelly Oxford

This was on kindle special for $1.99 so I figured what the hell. She's a "twitter celebrity" that has somehow gained a whole lot of fame and followers. I've never been overly fond of stuff that I've read of hers, minus the very rare times she's actually pretty emotionally honest. This seemed more like Look How Cool I Am: Humblebrag edition. This is a memoir without any sense of self awareness. She comes across as very full of herself and falsely modest. (You know, when people mention that OTHER people say that I'm x, y and z but oh golly I don't know...) I liked it the most, I think, when she was talking about her childhood, though even those were tinted with various degrees of how smart and amazing she was.

This is a person that came from a good family, married very young (and very well). Her writing is full of privilege of varying degrees and I can't imagine how exhausting it would be to be around such a narcissist full time. It would be impossible to be her number one fan because that title will always belong to her. Maybe the title was more literal than first thought?

Book #2
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Okay, I have a mega crush on John Green. Gosh, he's cute! Okay, that out of the way.

The first few chapters were a little jarring. It's a book written from the perspective of a 16 year old girl with cancer. If I didn't know that this was written by a man in his mid 30's I would have assumed it was written by a young girl and the protagonist, Hazel, was a total Mary Sue. This isn't a good thing, by the way. But as the book went on I feel like he found his voice and it become more authentic and realistic. As previously noted, I read almost all of this 313 page book in a single day, having read two chapters the day before.

The plot itself, even the "twists" I saw coming from a mile away, but it was still relatively moving. It's important to keep in mind that this is, indeed, Young Adult fiction. It's a good book and a fairly quick read. It's being adapted into a movie which I will likely see, and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the other 3 books he's written. And mooning over his youtube videos. Smart, funny, and handsome! Gosh.




 
design by suckmylolly.com