Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts

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[rude]

1. Today I finished my first book of 2016- Dear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker, a compilation of letters to different men in her life, ranging from her own father to the orderly that tried to take her newborn to the nursery to the future man her daughter might marry. I thought a few parts were maybe a bit overdone, but for the most part I really enjoyed it.

2. Here's the deal with all the rain in California- it's welcome, but also, potentially, really problematic. Our soil is extremely dry after years of drought and our cities don't proactively plan, so mudslides and flooding are a constant threat. Also, what we truly need is snow in the mountains; that's really where our water supply comes from. Don't misunderstand me; the rain goes into our reservoirs and waters landscaping so people don't have to turn on their sprinklers, but snow is really the answer. 

3. The other night I went through all this trouble to make Flank Steak with Fried Egg, Mushrooms, Parsley Vinaigrette from Tom Colicchio's cookbook and as we sat down to eat Sawyer's bad mood from the afternoon (teething and back to a different schedule) came roaring back. Great timing, sir.

4. Today I had to sit through three sections of seniors analyzing Sylvia Plath's poem "Daddy," not to mention my own review during my prep period. They actually did a good enough job, but it's just a lot of "I have issues with my dad and I am going to use German/Jew references and then talk about vampires" for one day. I can't wait until we're back to a novel in a few weeks.

5. Have you heard of Peloton bikes? I saw someone mention them on Facebook and did some investigating and they seem awesome. They're spin bikes with these incredible dashboards that link you up to live classes with instructors at least a dozen times a day (you can do workouts that aren't live, too). The only drawback? They're $2000. Plus $40 a month for the subscription. If only Scott would have won Powerball tonight... 

6. It makes me so angry that Sea World is pushing free tickets of teachers, since they know, for some reason, teachers love free shit. BLACKFISH, guys. BLACKFISH!!!!!! Also, educators, educate yourselves. 

7. Last weekend I took Sawyer to Irvine Regional Park for the first time since the summer and he loved it. We rode the train, he got to go on a tiny little pony, and we climbed around on rocks. I thought I'd score big with a long nap afterwards, considering all that exertion. Of course not. 

8. I wrote about buying a Clarisonic at the beginning of November. Verdict: I'm glad I bit the bullet and went for it. I now break out rarely, my dry skin is under control, I haven't developed any new fine lines, and makeup applies much better. I'm a believer. 

9. Confession: any time I hear sirens at work, because it's so close to where my daycare provider lives, I get nervous it's her driving around with my son in an accident. One moment last semester, on a really paranoid, off kind-of-day I made up a reason to text her to see if she'd answer back. She did. And now you know I'm crazy.

10. We started the final (season three) of Newsroom last night and I was so sad to learn it was only six episodes. It's just so good! Not that we don't have an abundance of other shows to watch. Seriously- I made a list when we were driving up to Ojai and it will probably take us a few years at the rate we're going (I did watch two episodes in a row last Saturday, believe it or not).