Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris

A little over 2 years ago I decided I had to read a David Sedaris book after hearing Jon Stewart tell NPR that they just brought a tote bag full of David Sedaris books to a knife fight. I finally read one, spurred on by a visit from the author to Gammage Theater.

My book club read Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim and I was delighted by how many times it made me actually laugh out loud. What appears to the naked eye as a collection of essays is actually a brilliant telling of everyday life. I couldn't wait to discuss them with my book club but upon meeting with them I discovered only half of the group got him, the other half declaring he was too crude. I racked my brain. Which part was the crude part? "For example," one member shared, "when the stranger asked him to give him his suppository?" Ah yes, that was funny!

Thursday night 2 book club members, my friend Angi, and I went to see David Sedaris read from his new book, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, and his diary. The first three stories he told were about getting a colonoscopy, a woman who poops in her hand, and his grandmother using a bath towel as toilet paper. Ah yes, the crude thing! I rather enjoyed it, as did my friends, and although we had to wait 3.5 hours to get his autograph it was worth the wait. We got to have a conversation with him, he wrote crass things in our books, and we left satisfied. My only wish is that we were allowed to take pictures!

Yes, read David Sedaris if you like crude humor. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim may be the funniest book I've ever read.

P.S. This books count as my Humor genre for the Eclectic Reader Challenge, and Denim in the title also counts as the first color for my Colorful Reading Challenge.

Top Ten TV Shows That Are Off the Air

I found this list on Avid Reader's Musings and had to participate. Maybe high powered television executives will see my list and bring these back! Here's my list in alphabetical order:

1. America's Best Dance Crew - I just found out this has been cancelled. No more hip hop dancing for me. :(

2. Bored to Death - so funny!

3. Caprica - Of course as soon as all the groundwork was laid they cancelled the show. This could have been really special.

4. Eastwick - girl power + magic = fun

5. Ed - I miss the bowling alley and watching Ed think of ways to woo his lady.

6. Heroes - Save the Cheerleader, Save the World.

7. Anything by Joss Whedon: Dollhouse and Firefly - as with Caprica, all the groundwork was finally laid and that's when they decided to pull the plug?! (I'm still watching Buffy which is possibly why it's not on this list)

8. Lipstick Jungle - love these actresses and thought the story was lighthearted

9. My Name is Earl - my friend Michelle and I talk all the time about how much we miss this show, but at least we have Raising Hope which was also created by Greg Garcia. Sometimes the Earl actors show up on Raising Hope, and there was even an episode this season when they acted like their old Earl characters. There was even a list:

10. Six Feet Under - I wanted to watch this family my whole life. I think I actually grieved when the show ended.

Bonus: Work of Art has been dropped from Bravo but I read the producers are still shopping it around. Someone please pick it up!

What do you wish was back on the air?

Project Life January

This week documents the weekend, beginning with meeting with my book club to discuss The Casual Vacancy on Friday. We had a great discussion about children living in poverty.

This year I've been arranging my album differently. Last year was almost strictly one slot for each day. Now I skip days I don't have pictures or ephemera for, and use the extra spaces to show more than one photo for days that have more visual interest. I'm also trying to use 1 page front and back per week to give myself a little more room for those types of days.

So for Sunday I used 4 slots to share the story of finally putting all the Christmas shit away. I started a tradition of putting on the movies that were given to us while I put it all away. This year one I watched was The Avengers. It came with one of those paper sleeves so I cut that up to share in my Project. Free and saved from the landfill.

This page documents lunch with friends from Oregon, a thank you note from our friends Erin and Tina, a thank you note from a former student that moved away that day (names covered with new clothespins from Target), a drawing from a current student (and amazing artist) who loves Dragon Ball Z, and a pack walk.

I save all my cards but they always go in a shoe box. Now I have a way to save them while also being able to access them more readily. Also the stamp wasn't cancelled by the post office so I included that as well.

The chihuahua on the pack walk portion is from a magazine ad for dog food. I stamped it with paint and saved it from the landfill. Great way to track the progress of a resolution.

That's my week. If you enjoyed looking at mine, here are some of my favorite Project Lifers out there that inspire me:

Campfire Chic

Elise Blaha Cripe

Finding Nana

Glue Stick Girl

It's Me, KP

Krafty Kat!

The Nerd Nest

Becky Higgins - (more commercial but still cool)

...and my friend Angi. Album only available for viewing in real life.

Project Life 2013 Week 1

I haven't been sharing my pages, but I'm still doing Project Life this year. In fact, I've almost completely switched over to this form of scrapbooking. I like it because I get more of our life documented and it's easy to keep up with. Although there are special kits (super cute, coordinated to help you organize) that you can buy, I'm trying to use the supplies I've been hoarding since I started scrapbooking in 1997 (!) and the paper things that infiltrate my life: newspapers, maps, brochures, junk mail, magazines, fliers, and cards. That's the way I like it because it makes my album more personal to us while saving money and reducing the amount of waste I contribute to the world.

I love looking at other people's Projects so I'll share mine for others out there like me. I'm only going to share some of my favorites this year since it takes a lot of time to photograph and post everything; last year I only got to post the first half of my album before the year ended.

Behold, week 1, not one of my favorites but the very beginning is a very good place to start.

This is the first week of the year, which I fit on the first page.

This shiny Happy 2013 is actually junk mail from Hallmark. Free and saved from the landfill.

I took Strega Nona to the vet (who couldn't believe how old and healthy she was) and got my hair did on this day. The paper I used was a page divider in the address book section of a card organizer I have. I only use the organizer part, so I tore out the address book section and saved the artwork for this Project. Free and saved from the landfill.

My friend Audrey is teaching me how to knit. I always like to take a picture of her with her knitting project, but I forgot this time so I got myself with the handle to my yoga mat bag that I completed! Now I'm working on the bag.

I used some scraps of scrapbook paper, a Degas sticker from an art exhibit I went to 10ish years ago and never scrapbooked, and a cow pizza sticker that I would probably never use in a traditional scrapbook page. I feel like I can make some of those old, out of fashion supplies make sense in this Project. I used the Degas sticker to document a day I spent reading The Painted Girls and the pizza cow sticker to memorialize a trip to Pizza Hut.

Now I'm finally on Spring Break so I can get caught up on my Project and work on sharing more of my pages. Thanks for looking and please feel free to leave a link to your Project in my comments!

Happy Earth Day!

I drive a Prius but the sentiment is nice.

P.S. THOSE WHO HELP NATURE END UP HELPING THEMSELVES came from Ads of the World.

April is Autism Awareness Month

I'm going to read Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly, a fiction story about a teenage girl with Asperger's. How about you?

P.S. This picture came from Parentella.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

My friend Stephanie has been telling me to read The Bell Jar for about 12 years, I think pretty much since I first met her. I finally got around to it last month, and I can see why she wanted me to read it.

The story begins with Esther, the main character, living it up on a one month trip she won to New York City for winning a writing contest. It sounds like a dream for anyone, let alone a 20 year old off on her own for the first time. But as her month ends and she heads home her problems with depression begin. I'm a pretty optimistic, glass is half full kind of gal, so it has been difficult for me to relate to or grasp the idea of depression. Sylvia Plath's bell jar analogy somehow totally made it clear to me what dealing with depression must be like.

This book only covers 6 months of her life so I don't feel like I should go into too much of the story in my review. I do recommend you read it if you haven't already, and here's a quote to convince you: The trouble was, I hated the idea of serving men in any way.

P.S. This book counts as my New Adult genre for the Eclectic Reader Challenge.

so good to see you again

P.S. Image found here.

fingers crossed

quote of the week

My favorite quote from last week's episode of Project Runway comes from the great Tim Gunn.

"I smell chaos and bedlam!"

(re: a team who did not agree on a color scheme before shopping)

What do you think of the team angle this season?

Who thinks they should design for Thunder from Down Under every week?

P.S. I got this picture from this little mama.

Top Ten Books On My Spring 2013 TBR list!

Happy First Day of Spring! I found this list idea on Avid Reader's Musings and decided to play along.

1. Dead Money by Steve O'Brien - an Early Reviewer

2. Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich - Eclectic Reader Challenge

3. From a Buick 8 by Stephen King - LibraryThing group read

4. The Walking Dead, Vol. 2: Miles Behind Us by Robert Kirkman - love these

5. Dragons of Spring Dawning by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - book 3 in the trilogy (must read during appropriate season)

4. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See - been meaning to read this since last year

5. Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom by Jennifer Holland - ABC challenge

6. Zarafa by Michael Allin - ABC challenge

7. The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom or Mathilda Savitch by Victor Lodato - my book club is going to read one of these next

8. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby - What's in a Name Challenge

9. Loving Frank by Nancy Horan - What's in a Name Challenge

10. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout - Colorful Reading Challenge

What are your top ten for spring?

P.S. This picture came from red lips and ice cream.

The Midwife by Jennifer Worth a.k.a. Call the Midwife

The Midwife is a memoir about...A Midwife!...in 1950s London helping women deliver their babies. I learned a lot about the world of healthcare before there was healthcare, a new scientific word to describe part of my lady bits, and also a little about workhouses. For instance, I was not aware that families were separated upon entering workhouses. Sad.

My book club read this book and chose it because most of them watch the show, so I thought I would like it a lot. I'm sorry to say that I just thought it was o.k. I think part of the reason is that I never had kids nor do I want to have kids. To me reading about that stuff was gross, especially the chapter when she talked about smelly vaginas. Vomit. I was also surprised to learn how poor the sanitation system was back then, inspiring some more disgusting descriptions of living conditions. Gag me.

The final chapter was the last bummer for me. So the whole time she's living with these nuns. At the beginning she mentions that she's agnostic, at Christmas she mentions how much she likes the holiday church festivities, and then BAM! Last chapter she's a total convert. It bugged me that the whole story was about midwifery and her friends, but secretly it was just a means for her to prosthelytize.

The stories are interesting and move at a good pace, but I would recommend childless agnostics and atheists stick to James Herriot.

P.S. This book fulfills my memoir requirement for the Eclectic Reader Challenge.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today I'm reading Dragons of Winter Night (DragonLance Chronicles, Volume 2) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman and it's awesome! It was one of Corey's favorite books in high school.

P.S. Sorry, I can't find where I got this image from on the internet.

musings on a day listening to shuffle on my ipod

I thought I liked Gordon Lightfoot, but every time he comes up on shuffle he bothers me. Time to remove most of his songs. Sorry Gordon, if you're reading this.

Contrarily, I love when AZ band, The Format, comes up on shuffle, but it also makes me sad because they broke up. My big regret is that I didn't go to their show when I had the chance. I couldn't get anyone to go with me and now I wish I had just gone by myself! They were awesome. At least I can still enjoy them on my ipod.

P.S. Fiona Apple on shuffle is always good. Her illustration is by Kareena Zerefos (who I also love) and it came from an interesting interview on Pitchfork.

quote of the week

Yesterday during tutoring after school a little boy from my class said, "I wish I was your mom because you're SO nice!" Ha ha, I thought he must mean that he wishes I was HIS mom so I tested him.

"I wish you were my mom too. You would make such a good mom." etc. etc. And he never corrected me and went along with everything I was saying.

It's always nice to get an original compliment, even if it's just a compliment that didn't come out right. Or maybe I'm the first person he's come out to. Either way I think he's sweet.

P.S. Disney Gaga is by Helen Green.