My stupid booklist won't update, and the diaryland guy won't answer my email. Oh well. Here's what I've read so far in 2005. It seems pretty pathetic for a Language Arts teacher, but I have such a short attention span and abandon so many books (it's okay to abandon books because Nancie Atwell says so). Anyway:
Close Case by Alafair Burke 3.5 Love @ First Site by Jane Moore 3 Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella 3 Whatever Makes You Happy by Lisa Grunwald 3 Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood by Koren Zailkis 4.5 Red Leaves by Thomas H. Cook 3.5 The Washingtonienne by Jessica Cutler 2 !! Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld 4.5 My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler 3 !! The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 4.5 We Don't Live Here Anymore by Andre Dubus 3 !! Daughter's Keeper by Ayelet Waldman 4 Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Wiener 4 Shopaholic and Sister by Sophie Kinsella 3
The best books I have read so far are Prep and The Kite Runner. Both are so, so good. I really did not care for The Washingtonienne, but it was hard to put down. It was that girl who worked in a senator's office and wrote a blog about all of her sexual exploits. She's not a great writer at all. The main character is one of the least sympathetic characters I've ever encountered. The question is, how much of that was true? I found the online blog, but who knows. Maybe I should look online for interviews or something.
So I took my car in today and it was some sort of vacuum PCV valve business, but it is all fixed (still under warranty) and fine now. It seems to be driving better. I almost have everything done on my summer to-do list now, too, which is good. I still have to get my car washed and clean it out, though. I hate that job. I have some really irrational fears, many surrounding the issue of my car. I fear going through the car wash. I love it when someone else is driving, but I get freaked out when I'm driving, like I am going to do something wrong and get stuck or zoom out of there. I also have the irrational fear of driving downtown and parallel parking. I won't even attempt to parallel park, and I get all sweaty even if someone is telling me exactly what to do. I get out of the car and make my passenger do it, or I park in parking garages. I won't go into my other irrational fears right now.
Yesterday I ended up going out walking with Mandy and then went out to dinner with Justin. Ben has his own ex- girlfriend-who-is-a-friend, so that's cool (although I have to admit I am jealous, but I won't express that jealousy). Justin and I went to a Thai place by his house and ended up running into Elizabeth and her brother. If you recall, Elizabeth is his roommate and no longer my friend. I went to Europe with her last summer, but apparently she had a problem with me breaking up with Justin, and stopped being my friend. I didn't do anything to her, so it was pretty hurtful. Ugh. I hate her.
I've been trying to get over my anger/hurt problem with the whole Nathan situation. I had a horrible dream about it the other night where I had a confrontation with the woman (she started it, actually) and then she went and told Nathan about it and she lied and said I had made a racist comment about "Latina women." He was so furious at me that he acted as if he was going to go tell on me to the administration. I woke up shaking, and I also was wondering what the hell that dream was about--besides, Nathan, if I was going to make a racist comment I wouldn't be the type of person to use the term "Latina" would I? Wouldn't a racist say Mexican or Spanish? Anyway, I took that dream as a sign that I need to GET OVER THIS BULLSHIT! Seriously. My goal for this Las Vegas trip is no SMACK TALKING. If anyone asks me about it I am going to say, "Yeah, he's not my favorite person," and just leave it at that instead of dragging out the whole saga again and again and soaking up and relishing the sympathy...okay? It's too much fun to listen to other people trash them, but I have to STOP.
Ben is sick right now. I hope he feels better soon. I probably won't get to see him until Friday. It's so weird because I miss him the moment that we separate. I really have got it bad.
Today I went walking with Mandy again, and then we went to Thai buffet, which is our favorite thing ever. My cousin is coming to visit tomorrow and her friend is visiting from out of town, so we won't get to exercise again until next week. At least I'm doing something now, but I need to exercise more.
So there seems to be a little bit of backlash against Jack Johnson. Like do you like him or not? I do like him, sort of like background music, but a lot of people are like, "HE SUCKS!" I guess it's similar to Dave Matthews Band. Again, I like them, don't love them, but there are some major DMB haters in this world. I kind of think of Dave Matthews as college music, like how everyone at college had their copy of Bob Marley's Legend CD, you know? What else is total college music? Maybe Pink Floyd or something like that, but no one I know listened to that. Oh, Mazzy Star, definitely. My freshman year of college was Shaggy (well, it's always Shaggy for me), R. Kelly, Jodeci, Digital Underground, Fugees, Pharcyde, Liz Phair, Luniz, and the song "Summertime in the LBC." That's arguably the best summer song ever made. They have some new summer song out right now and it is WEAK SAUCE. I seriously heard that phrase recently--I think Ben said it. I was like, "Hello, is it three years ago in the small town of Hicksville, Oregon?" Don't worry, I didn't say that out loud.
But back to Jack Johnson. I'm listening to his latest CD on Rhapsody right now. And "Breakdown" is on, and that song is also on Handsome Boy Modeling School--I'm not sure if he sings it on there as well or what, but I knew it sounded like Jack Johnson. I love that song. My favorite JJ song, though, is "Flake." It totally reminds me of Nathan, though, especially the whole, "It seems to me that maybe pretty much always means no." Yeah, I guess so.
By the way, I just committed one of my worst pet peeves--I hate it when people abbreviate stuff. I'm sure I have mentioned this before, but when people are going to Fred Meyer and they are like, "I'm going to run down to Freddie's." Or McDonald's--"Mickey D's." My college roommate my sophomore year was the queen of this, and she even called the Pottery Barn "P.B." She worked there. I wish we hadn't lost touch, even though she is not really the type of person I would have chosen for a friend--but those often end up being my favorite people. She was one of the funniest people I've ever met, and she looked just like Heather Graham. So cute.
So today I was driving behind a truck and it had a bumper sticker that said "Put Earth First" or something like that, and I was like, "That's so ironic--that's one of those huge ass Ford 350 (I think they are normally 150, but this one was super big or something so was 350) crazy trucks, and it says to put Earth first?" Then I got closer and it said in small letters, "We'll log the rest of the planets later." So it wasn't so ironic afterall. I wondered if they put that on there with the intention of having people go through the thought process I went through, or if they just thought it was funny as it is, and didn't count on half-blind people being behind them. I guess I'll never know.
I'm sort of obsessed with the missed connections section of Craigslist. I know no one will do a missed connection with me, but they are still fun to read.
