Give up some thanks!

photo © 2008 Jelene Morris | more info (via: Wylio)

HAVE A GREAT THANKSGIVING EVERYONE! 

I will celebrate with family, and then I'm going Black Friday shopping with my sister... hmmm, I sense a Blog post coming on! I hope you all enjoy time with your family this weekend, or at least you are able to muddle through it. Good luck!

Day 14- A Non-Fictional Book

Okay, someone help me out- what is the last non-fictional book you have read? I don't remember my last one except for the book I just got from Drew's Book fair- Rocks & Minerals (Scholastic True Or False) * I have learned a great deal about Rocks and Minerals, but as far as a Non-fiction book for me? Not so much.

Are you reading any non-fictional books that are good? Let me know in the comments!

*Amazon Affiliate Link

My Dinner Tonight: A Screenplay

Guess Who's Not Eating Dinner
photo © 2004 Josh | more info (via: Wylio)

Cast of Characters:

Janna: a 30-something harried Mom of two boys, Jacob and Drew
Mr. B: a 30-something Dad of two boys, Jacob and Drew.
Jacob: 3 year old boy. Loves to push buttons. Has an adorable pouty face. Is shirtless to avoid spaghetti stains.
Drew: 5 year old boy, going on 13. Loves to be dramatic. Has been known to be called "The drama king" at times. Is shirtless to avoid spaghetti stains.


Janna finishes putting the last bowl on the table. Dinner! Go potty and wash your hands.

Drew, giggling, runs past Janna. Jacob follows Drew.

Janna: After 5 minutes of running. Come on boys. Go potty and wash your hands now.

Drew: I need to poop! Can I go poop?

Janna: Sighs. Yes.

Mr. B, Jacob and Janna sit down after washing their hands.

Jacob: Spaghetti! Yum! Yum! Makes panting noises.

Janna: Okay, go ahead and eat, Jacob.

Drew sits down at the dinner table. What's in this?

Janna: Food.

Drew: What kind of food?

Janna: Good food.

Mr. B: What does he want to know?

Janna: He wants to know what's in the spaghetti.

Mr. B: It's pasta and spaghetti sauce. Just eat.

Jacob looks at Janna, mumbles something that sounds like Just give me the cheese, bitch.

Janna: Did he just say what I think he said?

Mr. B: No, we must have misheard him.

Janna: Jacob, how do you say that nicely?

Jacob: Please can I have the cheese?

Janna: Here you go. Passes the Parmesan cheese. Drew, why haven't you eaten any spaghetti?

Drew: Because I am soooo cold! Brrrr.....

Janna: Drew, it's 72 degrees in here, it's not cold. Eat your food.

Drew shakes uncontrollably. Drew: I can't. It's just sooo cold. Chatters his teeth.

Mr. B: To Janna Just ignore him.

Janna:  To Mr. B I can't help but want to L-A-U-G-H, he's being so ridiculous.

Drew: I can't t-t-take it, I am sooo cold.

Jacob starts singing at the top of his lungs Jacob: DO DO DEE DO DO DO.

Janna: Jacob, sing in an indoor voice.

Mr. B: Drew, eat two bites and then put on a shirt.

Drew: Nods his head, says in an annoyed voice O-kay!

Jacob: Pouts. Mommy, you make me sad when you tell me to stop singing.

Janna: I'm sorry Jacob, but we are eating dinner, and we need to use indoor voices when we eat dinner.

Drew: I ate my two bites.

Janna: Really?

Drew: Reall-y!

Janna: Okay, go put on a shirt. Jacob eat some food. Drew leaves the table to put on a shirt.

Jacob: I'm not hungry. I want to play with my trains. I like my trains. Bitch Bitch Bitch.

Janna: Pauses.

Mr. B: Jacob that's a bad word. We don't use that word.

Janna: Jacob, what do you think that word means?

Jacob: It means I'm sad because you said to not use that word and I just want to play with trains. Looks nervous. I said airplane. That's what I said, airplane. Pouts.

Mr. B: He doesn't know what that means.

Janna: It does mean that he called me a ____ earlier.

Mr. B: Yeah, but he doesn't know what it means.

Janna: What I don't get is we never use that word. I mean other swear words I could see.

Mr. B: I know, it is weird.

Drew sits down at the table and begins to elaborately tuck in a napkin into his shirt, for 5 minutes.

Mr. B: I think you got it Drew. Just eat now.

Drew: O- KAY!

Janna: I'm done. Stands up. I have to go and blog about this now.

End scene.

30 Day Blog Journal- Day 13: A fictional book

Okay, so I have been doing this 30 day blog journal for, oh, um 4 months, and I am on 13, on the ball, I am. Yoda am not I. This day just says "a fictional book" so I will tell you about the book I am reading: House of Leaves* by Mark Z. Danielewski. Here is the Publishers Weekley review:


Danielewski's eccentric and sometimes brilliant debut novel is really two novels, hooked together by the Nabokovian trick of running one narrative in footnotes to the other. One-the horror story-is a tour-de-force. Zampano, a blind Angelino recluse, dies, leaving behind the notes to a manuscript that's an account of a film called The Navidson Report. In the Report, Pulitzer Prize-winning news photographer Will Navidson and his girlfriend move with their two children to a house in an unnamed Virginia town in an attempt to save their relationship. One day, Will discovers that the interior of the house measures more than its exterior. More ominously, a closet appears, then a hallway. Out of this intellectual paradox, Danielewski constructs a viscerally frightening experience. Will contacts a number of people, including explorer Holloway Roberts, who mounts an expedition with his two-man crew. They discover a vast stairway and countless halls. The whole structure occasionally groans, and the space reconfigures, driving Holloway into a murderous frenzy. The story of the house is stitched together from disparate accounts, until the experience becomes somewhat like stumbling into Borges's Library of Babel. This potentially cumbersome device actually enhances the horror of the tale, rather than distracting from it. Less successful, however, is the second story unfolding in footnotes, that of the manuscript's editor, (and the novel's narrator), Johnny Truant. Johnny, who discovered Zampano's body and took his papers, works in a tattoo parlor. He tracks down and beds most of the women who assisted Zampano in preparing his manuscript. But soon Johnny is crippled by panic attacks, bringing him close to psychosis. In the Truant sections, Danielewski attempts an Infinite Jest-like feat of ventriloquism, but where Wallace is a master of voices, Danielewski is not. His strength is parodying a certain academic tone and harnessing that to pop culture tropes. Nevertheless, the novel is a surreal palimpsest of terror and erudition, surely destined for cult status. (Mar.)


Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
 
This was recommended by a friend, and while I'm only about 100 pages in (this book is ginormous), this book does have this unsettling feeling of dread building, and is really well written. I'm worried about missing anything, so I have been rereading sections, and so far it's taking me forever, but it's really enjoyable so far, it's just a challenge to find the quiet time I need to read the book. I'm looking foward to that next week (hopefully, at some point).
 
*Amazon associate link.

Missing

photo © 2007 rachaelvoorhees | more info (via: Wylio)
I am missing out.

I have been missing writing posts, checking up with friends, and reading blogs. I've been missing it tremendously. Honestly I just don't have any time  or energy to even think up anything witty or clever to say. That makes me sad. My job is kind of sucking the life out of me.

I miss me.

It's been really hard. I can't really find much joy in anything right now. I have a few moments with the family, but I am so all consumed by my job and thoughts of my job, I can't concentrate on anything outside of that right now. I have not been a good Mom. I've barely been an "okay" Mom, and I've been a nonexistent Wife. I've been a selfish Friend. I've been a bitchy Daughter*. Which only means one thing...

I've been an asshat of a Blogger.

I'm sorry, I hate these whiny posts too. I just want people to understand why I've been away. I don't want to be away, but I definitely don't want to be such a damn whiner in every post. So I'm going to try... try and get back to that happy place, at least here. This blog can be my corner of happy. I don't normally need any cheerleaders rooting me on... but if you want to root, it might help.

For now... I will have to come up with my little bit of happy. A reminder:

Sometimes I forget I have a lot to be happy about. Silver lining, right? I'm working on it.

* I will say I have been a good sister, merely for the fact that my sister and I can commiserate together.

A Confession

Jacob is so insistent on having me do everything for him right now. He crys and says, "I love Mommy the most!" when  Mr. B tries to do something for him. It makes me sad for Mr. B, and it is quite annoying to have to do everything for him right now, but honestly, it also makes me a little proud that he is so close to me.

Those little times we have together where he plays with my hair and we giggle... I do love them. I know it won't always be this way, so I am cherishing the moment right now with my little guy, being his favorite and sharing secrets with them, even if the secret is the fact that we changed the lyrics from "You are my Sunshine" to "You are my Turtle".

November's 2010 Playlist

I'm back with the playlists- oh I have missed doing this. This is really eclectic this time... no reason.

1. Life On Earth, Band Of Horses
2. Jonathan Low, Vampire Weekend
3. My Love, Sia
4. Heavy In Your Arms,  Florence & The Machine
5. Dare, Gorillaz
6. Ruby, Kaiser Chiefs
7. Heads Will Roll, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
8. Passin' Me By, The Pharcyde
9. The Next Episode, Dre Feat. Snoop Dogg
10. The Suburbs, Arcade Fire
11. Can't Be Sure, The Sundays
12. Classic Girl, Jane's Addiction
13. Road To Joy,  Bright Eyes
14. Going To California, Led Zeppelin  
15. Clap Hands [Non-LP Version], Beck
16. O.P.P., Naughty By Nature
    
    
     
    
    
    
    
    
     

Day 12- Something you are OCD about

Day 12- Something you are OCD about:

I like to call this my "hibernation preparation" every year. I get the house completely ready for winter. It's like nesting, but more entertainment specific. For instance, I stock up on wine, movies, activities,and frozen foods. You never know when there might be a blizzard, and I can't get my wine or order pizza, you know? This year I am tackling my basement to make it playroom friendly. That's my big project.

Also, I live to make lists. I would rather make a list on how to complete a task than actually complete it.