Bookish (and Not So Bookish) Thoughts

1. Important dating advice that I hope you all follow:

[Via Etsy; Mayan Rocks Shop]

I'm actually quite serious. If I was dating again (Lord, help us all) I would definitely not have sex with someone who wasn't a reader or a Democrat. Unless he was rich. And had great abs. Exceptions can be made.

2. One of my personal New Years Resolutions is to be friends with the  neighbors. They're our age, into music and video games, and seemingly nice in passing. We've lived next door for 14 months; we've heard each other fight with our spouses, seen each other sunbathing in next to nothing during summer months, and each have unnatural obsessions with our animals (they have cats). We have got to move past "Hi, how are you?" on to more important things like "What's your favorite color?" and "Do you like pizza?" Operation Befriend Neighbors is on. Ummmm.... unless they don't want it to be. Maybe I should write them a note and ask them to check the "yes" or "no" box for being friends.

[Picture two nice girls instead. Source]

3. Speaking of "next to nothing" a friend is trying to convince me to do a 1.5-ish mile undie run in LA next month. It supports some sort of cancer research and is just for fun- I'm quite tempted. I'm not going to go full-blown undie, but I'll skimp it up a bit to blend in. If anything, it will motivate me to work a little harder. Maybe. 

[source]

4. I've decided to bribe myself to read James Joyce's Ulysses with a trip to Ireland. I'm not sure when the reading or the traveling will happen, but it seems fair. I don't have a strong, crazy intense desire to go to Ireland, but it just feels like an appropriate pairing- read an extremely difficult book and then go to the place it was set. Plus, I like castles, green fields, and sheep.

5. I almost didn't go to yoga yesterday because I left my watch at home. Our studio moved the clock so that we can't see it as we practice- absolutely effing unacceptable. Obviously, I have some massive control issues if I can't handle working out for 100 minutes without checking the time, but that's besides the point. Anyway, I put on my big girl knock-off Lululemon pants and went. And survived. Mother Earth is so proud of me. Namaste.

6. I watched a movie called Ruby Sparks the other night with my husband and really enjoyed it. Basically, the main character, a novelist, is suffering from writers block and ends up creating a character that comes to life. Ruby, the character, appears at his house as his girlfriend and he realizes he can manipulate her actions through his writing- he then faces the moral conundrum of whether or not he should control her or let her find her own way. I'm not a movie watcher, but I liked it's quirk and brevity (only a hour and a half- what, what!). 

7. I haven't put all my new Christmas books away yet- they're sitting on a small table so that I can admire them every time I walk by. It's sad. And nice.

8. If you have nothing to look forward to, then life is really not worth the effort. Dramatic, yes, but timely.

9. The other day it was beautiful out- the skies were blue, the sun was warm, and all that jazz. I needed to finish a book and a half before the end of 2012, so I decided to head out to the backyard to read. And this is what the goddam lawn chair did to me:

[If you follow me on Instagram you were already grossed out by my bruises and sad legs. Sorry.]

Perhaps I should have checked things out a bit, given the fact that I haven't sat out there in a few months and the gardener has moved them around. All I wanted to do was read.

10. I really, really want to see Zero Dark Thirty. I'm not sure exactly why; this happens on occasion- I get really into seeing something. The last one was End of Watch, which ended up being so, so good. Kathryn Bigelow, do not let me down! Movies I do not want to see: The Hobbit, Lincoln, Parental Guidance, Jack Reacher, Rise of the Guardians, or Life of Pi. Yes, I just pulled up my Fandango App. Oh! And that reminds me- see The Silver Lining Playbook. Seriously.