Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts

  Link up below!

1. The Naked 3 Palette by Urban Decay is out! I have the second and absolutely love it, although I probably don’t utilize it as well as I can. 

 2. One of the best things about nightly cold walks with the dogs around in the neighborhood is my own personal Second Annual “Oh Tacky Night” Outdoor Decorating Contest. The more blow-up creatures, moving parts, and crazy lights the higher the score. I guess if I really wanted to be more authentic I’d score during the day, since that’s when everything really looks the worst. Call me simple, but some simple white lights and a few wreaths. And for the record, having kids will not change this. I will have a Santa in an airplane, a huge-ass Christmas dog, or blow up Frosty  in my yard. 

[Oh man.]

3. I feel like LA has been slacking in the reading department this season. Something tells me that some publishers don’t see this area as a “literary contender” in terms of the market (often authors will go the Bay Area), perhaps due to sales, Hollywood, or just the general stereotypes that exist about Southern California. Take Jhumpa Lahiri- her tour includes Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Providence, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington DC. While I know I’ve been lucky to attend the events of some pretty major authors, I do fear that it may be a trend.

4. This month we’ve had several minor things go wrong around the house- a leaky garbage disposal, some bad light switches (which my mom’s boyfriend fixed over Thanksgiving, luckily), pool pump issues, internet connectivity problems, and now the brakes on my car. Nothing catastrophic or massively expensive, just annoying to deal with. During the midst of all this I continued my desperate wish that we were handy, or at least had some super handy friends we felt comfortable bothering.

5. I have so much to do right  now at work I’m scared to actually sit down and figure it out. I have never, ever been this behind going into finals- the next week will be a long one!

6. I’ve started to play around with Picasa- it’s not Photoshop, but it is a step above PicStitch.

7. I’m still reading Lowland by Lahiri (oops), but man am I loving it. I enjoyed her past works as well, so I’m not terrible surprised, but still- so great.

8. If you can’t run… volunteer! I’ve always said that I’d volunteer at a race, since I’ve done quite a few, and I’ve finally committed to handing out registration packets at the Surf City expo in February.  This is one of my all-time favorite races (and where my PR is from) and it’s also the first race I hope to come back to post-partum, if I’m able to (my baby will by 9-ish months old and if I can start a run/walk program two months after the kid is born it should be doable- note that I didn’t say impressive).

9. One of my favorite things to do is try new restaurants, and this month we’re going to one in Santa Monica for my husband’s birthday and then, more importantly, Bouchon in Vegas later in the month. After attempting a few recipes from Thomas Keller’s book I’ve become a huge fan, so I'm excited, even though I can't drink wine, try their cheeses, or even sample their milks (it's a French place).

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10. Pregnancy dreams are out of control, and have been for many weeks. I'm already a really vivid, bizarre, dreamer, so all these crazy hormones are making things even more intense. The other night I dreamed I was doing lines of coke (?!?) with George W. Bush. Willingly. I'm not sure what's worse- fraternizing with a Republican or doing hardcore drugs. Rest assured, I've never done coke. Or crack. Or any of those things that can get you busted.