M.F.T. #6: A Good Book.

I love novels! Short stories. Memoirs. Chick Lit. I love the kind of book that you get completely lost in the pages. One that you literally can't put down. One where when life demands you take a break, you put it in your purse so you can read it standing in the checkout line at the grocery store. I've read a lot of books this year but haven't found one that I didn't mind setting down, losing my place in, then misplacing under a stack of (important?) papers and completely forgotten about. In fact, I'm kind of embarrassed by the amount of times I started reading one book and started three other books at the same time and never finished any of them. I have been desperately searching for a series that catches my imagination; that takes me to another world; that introduces me to a new best friend. Harry Potter, The Shopaholic Novels, Twilight, Sookie Stackhouse. These were series that I lost sleep over trying to read cover to cover. I'm always taking reading recommendations (feel free to leave a comment if you've read a good book recently) + my biff, Megalina, also loves to read! We have very different tastes in literature but when I spent Thanksgiving with her, she recommended I read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I have all the Stieg Larsson books and have been meaning to read them but I didn't feel like I could commit to the 700 pages... so on Black Friday, I bought it on CD 20% off so I could listen to it in my car during the long drives I've been making. I'm not quite finished my 7.5 hours of reading but I'm going on a rather exciting road trip this week + I'm hoping I can finish it! The other awesome series she recommended was Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games and alas!! I have found a book that has me so enthralled, I have not put it down ... And lucky for me, the silver lining of a self-induced (totally temporary) unemployment is I have nothing that will come between me and Katniss Everdeen + her fight for her life. My Favorite Thing #6 is a good book + these 2 books are definitely Christmas List Worthy! =)

i judge books by covers; Volume III

Half Empty by David Rakoff

squirrel seeks chipmunk.

The 2nd Book in our "I Judge Books By Their Cover" Book Club - Happy Reading!!

I judge books by covers.

The other night I spent about four hours assembling what might be the wobbliest, most crooked, crazy unstable bookcase in the world and then immediately unloaded my eclectic book collection on to each uneven shelf: guidebooks of the all cities I've visited, training manuals for triathlons, national best sellers, chick lit, Harry Potter, etc. I grouped all my books by what they mean to me and when I put The Big Sleep, Interview with a Vampire, Angels & Demons and Revolutionary Road together it made me realize how much I tremendously miss my book club in LA. I bbm'ed Carly to tell her this as she pretty much can count on a daily text from me telling her how much I miss one thing or another from our past life together ... Coffee Bean, the USA Today Crossword, Trader Joe's, Hotel Cafe, just to name a few... and she suggested we start another book club cross countries where we meet on Skype to discuss it. Stupendous! Here is our first book (per her suggestion). When I picked it up the very next day at Indigo (the book store I frequent here almost on a daily basis) I started gushing over how cute the cover is and because I personify that cliche (like many other cliches), I knew at that instant that I was going to like this book ... and that that would be the theme of our book club! If we only read books with covers we like we will ultimately only read books we will end up liking. It's kind of like love at first sight... but for bibliophiles... reoccurring on a monthly basis.

self-indulgent scones & pretentious pie.

Today Carly and I hosted our second S.P.I. meeting disguised as a tea party complete with cucumber sandwiches, hummus and self-indulgent scones ... I was kidding about the self-indulgence, they were lemon poppy seed but I can't help but feel like we should be serving slices of pretentious pie with our cups of vanilla caramel truffle tea when we gather for these meetings. Like always (and by always, I mean just like at the last meeting) we started out with our cocktail chatter (Obama's economic stimulus plan, abortion clinics in Miami, ways to go green...) we then each presented a new vocabulary word before endorsing such things as brazilian waxes, skype, podcasts (they're free on Itunes... seriously, they're cool!) before we moved on to our homework assignment: creatively describing another member of the group.... Angie told a story about "Olivia Wilde", Lindsay's Parisian alter ego, here Lindsay is pictured reading her Native American fable about a crow who finds herself (complete with tribal music) to Angie, I made a scrapbookesque frame to show Carly's beauty and creativity and she wrote this fabulous piece about me:

If she were a quote she'd be "Everyone is the hero of their own story."

If she were a good deed she'd be volunteering.

If she were a place she'd be Sorrento, Italy.

If she were a class she'd be leadership.

If she were a disaster she'd be a tornado, just look at her room.

If she were a common courtesy she'd be saying good morning.

If she were a body part she'd be a smile and an ear and an eye, she'd be a face, without the nose.

If she were a lyric she would be I'm slow to trust but quick to love.

If she were a form of exercise she'd be a sprint.

If she were a song she'd be Akon's remix of She Talks to Angels by the Black Crowes.

If she were a magazine she'd be People.

If she were an abstract concept she'd be a wish.

If she were a tree she'd be a bonsai, hard to take care of but worth the effort.

If she were a feeling she'd be excitement.

If she were a bad habit she'd be eavesdropping.

If she were a reaction she'd be overreaction.

If she were an emotion she'd be love.

If she were makeup she'd be blush.

If she were a sound she'd be a giggle.

If she were an inanimate object she'd be a camera.

If she were a time she'd be last minute. 

If she were media she'd be a blog.

If she were a cliche she would be perseverance in the face of adversity.

If she were an adjective she'd be caring.

If she were an adverb she'd be cheerfully.

If she were a preposition she'd be despite.

If she were a way to kill a cat she would be curiosity.

If she were a piece of paper she'd be a greeting card.

If she were a pitch she'd be high.

 If she were a color she'd be pink, and glittery.

If she were a relative she'd be a mom.

If she were footwear she'd be a running shoe.

If she were a dessert she would be a cupcake with sprinkles.

If she were a pattern she'd be a polka dot.

If she were a person she'd be the kind you want in your life.

 

indefinitely definite.

This Sunday was our first Society for Promoting Intellectualism (S.P.I) meeting and I have to admit, it was supernerdycool. Carly's temp roommates [Lindsay, Angie and Mindy] and the two of us have decided to expand our first 13 years of learning into this next chapter of our lives and culture ourselves with frequent meetings/outings to gain insight into worldly happenings we don't know much about already. The meeting was called to order over bagels and fresh squeezed orange juice. We first discussed our Cocktail Chatter in which we all brought current events - the octuplets born near us, Obama's plan for "change", the high school basketball team that beat the other team 100-0 and I brought the political cartoons because nothing serves as a better measurement of your knowledge than how much humor you find in them (which is a direct measurement of how much you understand them!). Carly's article sparked the googling of the term "tarp funds" ... I'm sure you have heard this word used a lot in regards to Obama's bailout package but do you know what they are? We do (now)! From here, we slurped OJ over our Endorsements section in which we shared anything we found interesting that we would like the rest of the group to know about: the SPIs recommend reading Chuck Palahniuk, listening to podcasts, I recommended knitting and Carly recommended seeing Val Kilmer as Moses in an upcoming musical at the Kodak theatre called The Ten Commandments. From here, we each presented our homework which was assigned to us last week - to creatively use the word indefinite. Not the most profound piece of creative writing I have ever submitted but applicable to my current stream of thoughts....

Indefinitely.

Indefinitely enamored by a modern-day fairy tale, so divided.

Indefinitely engulfed in a burning love story, so unrequited.

Indefinitely searching for another fragile slipper to complete my pair.

Indefinitely disguised as the half of my heart that breaks when I awake and you're not there.

Indefinitely hurting by your sudden, unexplainable disappearance.

Indefinitely masking a broken heart with a reflexive smile and perseverance.

Indefinitely wondering why our love has slipped away.

Indefinitely hoping your white horse accidently led you astray.

Indefinitely praying you will be able to pull in the reigns.

Indefinitely wishing it will lead you to me again.

Indefinitely dreaming of how our love story should of been.

Indefinitely denying our perfect carriage has turned back into a pumpkin.

Indefinitely convinced under your slimy, spotted skin was a prince.

Indefinitely kissing oh! Romeo ever since.

Indefinitely decided that I want my cds, I mean heart back.

Indefinitely summoning the mice to sew it back intact.

Indefinitely brewing a pot of frog leg stew.

Indefinitely believing I will get over you...

definitely.

I can hardly wait for our next meeting this coming Saturday ... it's a tea party!! =)

unified bookworms.

Yay! When Carly's colleague (who just so happens to be Carson Daly's baby mama and is currently 7 months preggo) told her that joining a book club was the best thing that happened to her all year, Carly and I decided to not have a baby like the rest of the people we know (sooo not ready for that commitment) and start a book club instead. Our first selection is Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. But this is no ordinary book club... we will be reading books (in script) that are made into movies (on screen) and review BOTH the third Sunday of every month (in script, on screen!)  This is the founder's meeting last night. Yay for the unification of bookworms!  

he's just not that into you.

Book Review:  In his #1 NY Times Bestseller, Greg Behrendt appears to be some kind of  love guru summing up the answers to all the questions I have had recently about the opposite sex. Showing a general understanding for how girls tend to interpret male behavior, his straight-forward yet encouraging connotation (giving you the advice to move on while simultaneously making you almost feel sorry the pathetic creatures) leaves no gray areas for excusing typical male behavior or allowing hopeless romantics to give guys the benefit of the doubt. Its like h.j.n.t.i.y. should be some type of modern day manual that every guy can reference to and say "i will break your heart like page 42 and this is how you can get over it". I read h.j.n.t.i.y. in one afternoon by the pool and now whenever anyone comes to me looking for advice about guys, I tell them that I wish I knew why your boyf of 2 years woke up one day and decided he didn't love you and never has or why the guy you met on match.com won't return your texts and then politely refer them to this book... I laughed when I recently received this email from a girl I met at a neonatal didactic: 

Hey Jocelyn! How are you? How's work? I just wanted to let you know that I've read that book "He's Just Not That Into You." It definitely made me laugh and sympathize with many of the girls' stories. Thank you so much for the suggestion to read it! I've already passed it on to a friend of mine! =) You remember that guy I was telling you about ... it didn't work out in the end after all! I suppose you were right all along! I guess I just wanted it to work out too much. Thanks for all of your advice!  

Can you imagine me... a real relationship expert... giving applicable advice about love? If she only knew the emotional entanglements I got myself into with the opposite sex!! Maybe I'll abandon my original thoughts of writing an empowering memoir and write a No-Excuse Truth to Understanding Girls instead...