Great Ideas

Have you ever had a great idea but wished you had thought of the said idea, oh say, a year and a half ago? Well, that happened to me last week. I had the idea to listen to audio books on my MP3 player while I am at work. We are allowed to have headphones on, unless we are working on the desk. I decided to try with a YA book so I browsed in that section on my break. I came away with Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison I had heard about from a girl who has been in a few of my classes at the U. It's the first in a series of books about a girl named Georgia Nicolson It was so great! I loved the story as well as the accent of the lady reading it. I'm already through the first 3. Each one is about as long as my shift, so it works out well. I wish I had this idea soon after I started- just think of all the books I could have listened to! For now, I'm only going to listen to light reads, and especially a lot of adolescent's and children's literature. I already have a list for when I am done with the Georgia Nicolson series, and that includes listeneing to the Harry Potter series. I've read them, of course, but I think it would be fun to listen to them.

Pride and Prejudice

If anyone has been as stupid as I have to have never seen the A&E Pride and Prejudice, remedy that now. It was amazing! And Colin Firth, what a perfect Mr. Darcy. One of the reasons I never saw this film was because I never saw Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. He just didn't fit my image of the tortured Mr. Darcy. I was so wrong! He was absolutely perfect. Whoever reads this may be hearing a lot about Jane Austen from me this summer. Even when my class is over, I plan on reading the books I haven't read and seeing the film adaptions I haven't yet seen.

Today's Top Ten

1- Carrots with hummus

This is one of my favorite healthy and WW friendly snacks right now.

2- Roar

My friend from work lent this to me after we got together and watched a few Heath Ledger movies. I had never heard of it before, but I liked it. It's definitely early in his acting career- he's young and not quite as talented as he was in his later work.

3- Running

I am really trying to keep up on running. I can now run a little over a mile straight without stopping to walk. When I take walking breaks, I can do a little over four miles. I am hoping to run in the 10K on Pioneer Day, so I am trying to improve how long I can run without stopping.

4- The Host by Stephanie Meyer

I'm not as big a fan of The Host as I am of Twilight yet, but I am enjoying the book more and more the farther along I get. I have to say, she has a very active imagination and some great ideas.

5- My friend Karen's photography

I love looking at her photos, especially the ones she took during our trip in Oregon and Washington. She is so talented!

6- The Frames

I bought a Frames CD at the Swell Season concert (Glen Hansard is the lead singer), and I finally listened to it this weekend. The CD is The Cost, and my favorite songs are Sad Songs, Rise, and The Side You Never Get to See.

7- DVR

I am so spoiled in this house. We all have cable and DVRs and split the cost so it isn't very much. I love being able to record a show and watch it whenever I have time, even if it is months later. I even still have something I recorded in 2007- the classic Family Guy episode where Stewie loves Lois because she saved his bear. We watch it every so often and laugh hysterically every time.

8- Panda Express Broccoli Beef

This is pretty low on calories, since it's mostly broccoli. Plus, when we go there, I can steal a few pieces of Orange Chicken from Adam's meal.

9- The Office

This show is so funny! Adam was watching an episode on our Zune and he was laughing so hard. The season finale was great, but I am so bummed that Jim never proposed to Pam because of Andy stealing his moment.

10- Weight Watchers

I definitely need the motivation Weight Watchers gives. Knowing I am being held accountable for my weight each week helps keep me in line. I've lost 40 pounds so far, and I still have some wight to lose, but I feel good knowing that I am doing something about it.

Jane Austen

About a month ago, one of my friends from school and I were e-mailing back and forth. We had two classes together fall semester, but none spring semester. I asked her what classes she was taking in the summer and the fall, and I am so glad I did. She wrote back that she had signed up for British Romanticism, and that the reading list was four Jane Austen novels. I had other plans for what classes I thought I would take, but decided on a whim to take this one instead. It's great so far. It's a condensed course and only lasts 5 weeks, so the reading from day to day is intense, but it isn't hard. Plus, I've already read two of the four. I read Pride and Prejudice a long time ago, and I read Northanger Abbey for another class. We are also reading Emma and Persuasion, and then on my own, I plan on finally reading Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility. I've seen a lot of movie adaptions, as well as Becoming Jane, so this summer will be when I become a full-fledged fan and read all of her books. I love her writing style- she is so smart, funny and ironic. We started with Northanger Abbey, and I am catching so much on my second read. She really was an amazing writer.

Temple Square flowers

On Thursday, my friend Karen and I went for a walk through City Creek and Memory Grove down to Temple Square. The weather was wonderful, and the flowers at Temple Square were so beautiful. Karen is a great photographer, so she ended up with some really good pictures. These are her sites to see some of her work.
www.reesphotography.etsy.com
www.myspace.com/sekiuphotography
www.reesartandphotography.blogspot.com

Swell Season

A few months ago, I saw that The Swell Season was coming to town the weekend of my birthday and decided it was fate. Of course, Adam didn't complain because it made planning my birthday really simple. We took Trax downtown and ate at a Middle Eastern restaurant called Cedars of Lebanon. Every spring and fall, a number of the restaurants downtown participate in Dine O'Round, where you can get three course meals for cheaper than they normally would be. We both had hummus and Moroccan lentil soup, and then Adam got lamb and chicken shish kabobs and I had pastilla, which is chicken wrapped in Fillo dough. It was so good! We walked down to the Depot after and got in line. We had some fun people next to us, so that was nice. Unfortunately, we were not early enough to get seats with any sort of view of the stage, so we stood most of the time. And although most of the time, we could only see one of them, not both of them, it was still amazing. Glen was so funny and of course his Irish accent was adorable. I love how they say "tanks" instead of "thanks." He told hilarious stories, including but not limited to: malls ruining America, Irish perverting the English language by swearing a lot, a couple that communicates with spirits, and their attempt to visit the temple. He talked more than any other artists have at the concerts I have been to, but he was so fun to listen to. And of course, their music is amazing. If you have not seen the movie Once, see it now! I will forever be grateful to my Adolescent Lit professor for two things: introducing me to Toni Morrison's work, and telling the class to go see Once.

Iraq

I recently read two books about Iraq. The first one was called Babylon's Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo. The author, Lawrence Anthony, is a South African who went to Iraq soon after the war started to attempt to save whatever animals had been left alive. I have to admit, I never really thought about the animals during wartime, but I am glad that someone did. He did a very brave and dangerous thing, but he was able to save a lot of animals. He even saved a lot of the animals that Saddam and his sons had kept that were near death. I have to admit that I have a lot of mixed feelings about the war overall, but I did think this quote was interesting: "It's strange to say, but the war was the best thing that could have happened to this zoo...It's better now than it was before the war." The Iraqis running the zoo had been doing the best they could, but it was just very run-down. Before the author left, he made sure the Iraqis had training, and traveled to other zoos to see how they should be run.

The second book I read was called I Lost My Love in Baghdad by Michael Hastings. He is a Newsweek correspondent who was based in Iraq for parts of the war. He had a girlfriend he had met back home, and she took a job in Iraq working for democracy. She was killed in what they believe was a kidnapping attempt. It's his story about losing her, but it's also his story about reporting the war. This book is more political. The author, at least at the beginning, was in support of the war and excited about reporting it. After what happened to him, he wasn't so sure.

Like with all my opinions, I will admit that I don't know everything and I am bound to be wrong sometimes. However, I think going to Iraq was a big mistake. Now that we are there, and they have fallen into a civil war, I don't know what the U.S. should do. I think we should at least have a humanitarian effort in place there still, but I don't think we should still be fighting. I just don't think we can succeed in Iraq. The Sunnis and the Shiites have been rivals for so long that I don't know if anyone can bring them to peace. And if it can happen, it won't happen the way things are being done now.