Delusions of... Everything

The PJ20 Celebration Continues

I've been trying to write this post all week and it just hasn't been what I wanted it to be.  Words kept failing me.  I'm definitely not a poet or a writer of profound words.  I'm just a person who feels strongly about things, event and experiences and tries to share the best I can.

Today I received a treasure in the mail.  It was this book.

(photo stolen from here)

While reading the back jacket cover I found the words I was searching for written by the lead singer of my favorite band.  And to think I was not going to buy this book, I was going to put it on my Christmas list.  What was I thinking?!  *shakes head*

"We set out to make music to satisfy ourselves.  Something we would have not imagined is that people have made friendships, shared ideas and shared their humanity with each other through the music.  They've become husbands and wives and best friends.  That's all outside of us.  All we did was play music.  The fact that it has all happened is semi-overwhelming and humbling." - Eddie Vedder

Amen brother!

I've talk many times about the great and lasting friendships I've made because of Pearl Jam.  Friends who live all over the world.  Friends who mean the world to me, even though I don't get to see them very often, some of whom I have never met in "real" life.  Chris and I got to meet, in real life, one of those friends we've known online for 9 years at the PJ 20 celebration in WI!

The guy between Chris and I is Luis, he's from Portugal!  It was so great to finally meet him after all these years of sharing the PJ love!  The guy on the end next to me is Matt from Germany, Chris and I met him in real life a few years ago in Boston.  We have met up with Matt at a few shows since and once he came to Seattle, after seeing PJ in California, and had dinner with me and Handy Man.

I'm grateful to Pearl Jam for 20 years of music and for the amazing friendships I've formed because of their music.

Here's to 20 more years!

Tower of Books

I'm behind on my reading.

Maybe I should just stop shopping at my favorite used book store.  Or better yet, maybe I should just start reading again!

Preparing for the Final Harry Potter Movie

At our house the countdown is on to the final movie installment of the Harry Potter series.  The movie comes out July 14.  We have all been anticipating this movie since we saw part one last summer.

We started reading Harry Potter out loud to our kids when they were very young, Star Wars Son was in the first grade and Dancing Daughter was around 4 years old.  They grew up with Harry, Ron and Hermione.  They feel like a part of our family.  SWS and DD fantasized about going to a school like Hogwarts, where the Headmaster (principal) cared so much for his students.  And honestly so did I.  SWS and DD learned about good over coming evil and that not everything in life is easy.  I liked how the books pushed the boundaries of being good students while also questioning authority.  I like to think my kids learned that some things are worth fighting for, especially when it comes to friendships. 

In honor of the final movie, I've been reading all the books again.  It is truly amazing that they still hold my attention and still make me cheer even though I already know what's going to happen.  It's hard to believe that the last book came out almost 4 years ago.  It's sad that there has not been another Harry Potter book to look forward to.  I hope JK Rowling writes more books, she is a gifted writer who's characters are so easy to fall in love with.

Our family has had plans to watch all the movies before going to see the final movie, but with four different schedules to work around I'll be shocked if that happens.

In case you're wondering, my favorite character is Professor Severus Snape! 

(photo stolen from Wikipedia)

 

He did not become my favorite until I saw how Alan Rickman portrayed this complex character in the movies.

Are you a Harry Potter fan?  If so who is your favorite character?  Are you looking forward to the final movie?

Sometimes Tuesdays Are Good Days

Today has been great!

When I got dressed the morning I put on a pair of pants I haven't worn for a while and I found two $5 bills in the pocket!

Dancing Daughter was ready to go on time this morning so I wasn't late for work.

At work I happily helped a new employee use Excel.  I love Excel.  Excel is my office boyfriend.  Anytime I can share the Excel love I'm happy.  Yes, I know I'm weird.

Jean Auel's latest book, The Land of Painted Caves, came out today. After work I went to my local, small, new and used bookstore where I pre-ordered the book a few weeks ago.  I haven't decided if I'm taking it on vacation.  It's pretty large!

On the way to the bookstore I noticed a wine store is going in near the Trader Joe's in my neighborhood.  It's not open yet and there is no sign other than "coming soon" in the window.  It's called Decanter Wines.  I can't wait to check it out when it opens!

In the depths of my closet live my summer clothes, mostly consisting of short sleeves and capri pants.  I dug them out and was happy to find that everything from last summer still fits!  Makes packing for San Diego that much easier.

By some manner of pure luck (and Star Wars Son's amazing computer skills) I was able to snag two tickets to Eddie Vedder's upcoming solo tour!  They went on pre-sale today through the fan club.  He will be promoting his new album called Ukulele Songs, that will be coming out soon with a live concert film called Water On The Road.  Just like it sounds it's a whole album of songs played on the Ukulele.  He will be ending the short one month tour in Seattle, at Benaroya Hall on July 15.  To say I'm excited would be an understatement!  Here is a mightly fine picture of Eddie with his Uke!

How was your Tuesday?!

For those that are interested here is a photo montage of Eddie while his new single Longing To Belong plays

 

 

 

Book Review - Dedication

I was a lucky winner of a book give-a-way at The Girl from the Ghetto's blog.  The only way I'm reading new books these days is if they are given to me, either through a book review site, winning a give-a-way or checking them out from the library.  There is no book buying going on for me right now.

The book I won was Dedication by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus authors of The Nanny Diaries and Nanny Returns.  I always meant to read both those books but never got around to it.  Not only is this book special because I won it, it's also special because it's signed by the authors!!

This was a fun and fast read, that would be perfect for summertime at the beach. 

Do you ever hear a song on the radio and wonder who inspired it?  How would you feel if your teenage love life was made into hit radio songs?  That's what main character Kate Hollis has to face when her high school boyfriend, Jake Sharpe, becomes a big pop star and all of his hits are about her.

Fifteen years later Kate has the opportunity to confront Jake and hopefully make him regret the heartbreak he put her through.  The story goes back and forth between the past and the present.  It chronicles Kate, Jake and their friends through their adolescent and teen years in a very painfully humorous way.

If you want a great literary read, this will disappoint, it's a light and funny book that you don't have to think about much.  It was a perfect distraction for me the past couple of days while waiting to hear about house and job offers.

What have you read lately?

Book Review

A couple months ago I signed up at Book Sneeze.  It's a place where bloggers can received new books to review, complimentary.  There is no cost to the blogger and no compensation given.  Book Sneeze is basically a Christian site and if I regularly read nonfiction some of the books look rather interesting.  They have a section to choose from called regular fiction so I picked a book from that section.  The complimentary copy of this book was sent from Thomas Nelson.

This is the first time since I was in school that I was required to review a book.  I thought it would be fun and cool, instead I feel like I'm back in school and the rebel in me has reared it's head.  I totally forgot the check the deadline until last night after I finished the book.  I was supposed to have the review up on Monday April 5th.  Ooops!  This is why I didn't get very good grades in school. 

With everything going on in my life right now it took way longer to read the book than it should have.  OH well, I'm done now and here is my review!

Hand of Fate: A Triple Threat Novel

by Lis Wiehl with April Henry

When talk radio host Jim Fate opens a package during a commercial break it changes his life forever, in fact it takes his life.  The triple threat club, three strong women, one a Journalist, the other a FBI Agent, the last a Federal prosecutor try to figure out whodunit!  On the journey to capturing Jim Fate's killer the women meet their own demons and work to overcome them.

This should have been a very fast read for me, however I never connected with any of the characters causing me to frequently lose interest in the story.  From the beginning the story had potential, the subject is relevant and the characters should have been interesting, but they fell flat to me.  It never felt like the women were true friends, just acquaintances.  It could just be me and my state of mind while reading the book.  I would recommend the book to other mystery lovers, but I won't be standing in line to get the next book in the series, Heart of Ice when it comes out in 2011.

Man Am I Tired!

The Girl From The Ghetto is having a book giveaway on her blog... You should really go check it out.  She is giving everyone the opportunity to enter the drawing 5 times!

That's about all I have for today.

I spent a good part of my weekend working at the rental and there is still plenty of work left to be done.  The floor refinishers will be starting work today, so I don't know if I will be over there helping.  Handy Man has today and tomorrow off so he will be there doing odds and ends while the crew is working on the floors.

I'm tired.  Is it bed time yet?

Workshop Wednesday

Self teaching is something I'm all about!  I love to learn at my own pace, whether it be fast or slow.  I like to learn in the comfort of my own home.  I've taught myself how to cook, bake, crochet, cross stitch, scrapbook, zentangle (I'm still learning this skill), use any new camera, use Excel and so on!

So with that attitude I'm self teaching how to use Photoshop AND to improve my writing skills.  Being the good self teacher, I put a bunch of books on hold at the library.  Going to the library is like Christmas morning, only less messy.  It's always an adventure to see what's waiting on the shelf.  I just love the library, the muffled sounds, the old book smell, the oversized chairs by the window to sit and sample what's behind the cover of a selected book.

Why December seemed like a good month to start these projects I'm not sure, but I'm going with it while I have the desire and motivation!

These are the Photoshop books from the library...

I have not had time to get going yet, but I have scanned through a couple of them.  I might need to actually take a class, but we'll see.

The pile of books about writing is less daunting.

The Anne Lamott book is wonderful.  It reads like a novel and is filled with the best advice and encouragement and it's funny, in an Anne Lamott way!

The Writer's Book of Wisdom is a small pocket sized book, easily carried around.  It has 101 "rules" for writers and I've marked many pages (with Harry Potter Uno cards, don't ask) to go back and read again.  I might have to purchase this book to have handy.

The Writer's Path is an instruction book with exercises.  I've done a few of them starting with writing about my earliest memories, which Anne Lamott suggests too.  I'm having some fun doing it, but also some uncomfortable moments as I relive some of those memories.  There was another exercise where you start with a simple sentence, change nouns and verbs, add adverbs and adjectives, take some away.  I loved doing this!  I'm not going to show you how the sentence evolved over nine different steps, but show you the beginning sentence and where it ended up.

A cat walked into the kitchen.

Evolved to...

The extremely talented boys sang beautifully at the music studio.

Fun and simple stuff!!

My goal is to spend each Wednesday showing you what I'm up to with writing, Photoshop or other projects I'm working on.

(To see my photo of the day go here.)

This and That Thursday

I really don't have much today...

The appraisal was completed on Monday.  Handy Man walked the guy around and answered all his questions about what we've done to the house and when the work was completed.  He took a lot of notes and pictures, but oddly enough didn't ever use a tape measure.  He mentioned he was having a really hard time finding comps.  I was really hoping we'd have some news by now, but nothing yet.

Star Wars Son is having a great time with Cinderella.  Yesterday when I picked him up from school he said, You are going to laugh really hard when I say this, but I really love musical theatre.  He was right, I laughed.  It's so unexpected.  He was dreading the whole thing at the beginning of the year and now he's having a blast.  Surprisingly he also said, I love the dancing part.  I almost drove off the road when he said that. I love it when my kids amaze me.

More Star Wars Son news... I can't remember if I posted that he broke up with his "out of town" girlfriend?  There was a little too much lying on her part going on so he called it quits.  Now he's working on another girlfriend who lives only two towns away, has her own car and two parents.  He's trying out a different kind of girl he told me... A stable one.

I'm looking for some book recommendations.  I just read a couple of really great books (The Kite Runner and Plainsong) and am having a challenge finding another one on par with those.  I just started The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, so far it hasn't grabbed me, but I usually give a book 100 pages before I quit.  I'd love to hear what you are reading or have loved reading.

In a Funk

I just finished reading a great book called The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.  It was required reading for Dancing Daughter by her Advisory teacher.  I try to read everything she reads, just because and I'm so glad I read this book.  It's a wonderful story of a freshman Indian who decides to go to high school off the "rez".  He's a likable dork who I found myself cheering for and crying with.  I highly recommend it!

I went to the thrift store over the weekend and bought 4 books for $6.00.  I'll be starting one of them tonight before bed, after I watch some Mad Men on dvd.  I'm on the last disc of season 2.  I really don't want it to end.

I'm still savoring the Pearl Jam concerts I went to last week.  I haven't even started writing about it yet, but I will.  I've been listening to their new album non-stop for two weeks and am not even close to being sick of it.  It's by far my favorite album since Yield came out in 1998!  I miss my friend Chrissy who came for the shows from Boston.  I don't know when I will see her or Pearl Jam again and it's really got me in a funk.

It's hard for me to describe the amazing weather we have had in Seattle all summer.  Tomorrow the rain and cool weather return.  I might actually wear socks tomorrow!  I haven't worn socks, except to work out in months.

After much back and forth in Handy Man's head, he's decided to go ahead with getting the house appraised for a refinance.  He filed pre-qualification paperwork last night, we should hear something by Wednesday.  Hopefully we will have an appraisal appointment early next week.  I'm ready to get this done and over with.  Even if the house doesn't appraise where we need it, at least we will know.