Monday, December 1, 2008

Still in vacation mode!!!

Hey blogland! What's shakin'? How's everyone's first day back after the holiday weekend? I'm actually still on vacation from work!!! Woo-hoo!!! I have off until Wednesday... it feels so nice! I'm not really doing much of anything exciting, really- catching up on errands, laundry, LOTS of reading and writing, catching up on all the daytime TV that I never get to watch (Rachael Ray and Ellen!!!!), going to the gym, just kickin' it in my apartment, haha.  :-D  I SHOULD probably be doing my Christmas shopping, but I just can't bring myself to do it... hey, what can I say, I'm in lazy vacation mode!

So how was everyone's weekend? I've been reading everyone's blogs and it looks like you've all been having a lot of fun! Lot of football fans out there, apparently! I have had a great past few days myself. On Saturday my sister and I went to go visit our grandmother. We wanted to spend some one-on-one time with her. Our grandmother has always been a bit of a private woman, and so it really hasn't been easy to get to know her well, not as well as I would have liked. In light of her diagnosis, I have a feeling that is something I am going to regret later in life- that I didn't get to know her as well I would have liked to. But I'm trying not to think like that. I'm trying to live more in the moment and appreciate the time that we have together now. And ever since she's been diagnosed, she's been a lot more open with everyone and sharing a lot more about herself- I think she's realizing that she should do it now, while she can. So my sister and I drove to her apartment in New Jersey and we all went out for lunch and Christmas shopping (she wanted to go to Macys to pick up some things that were on sale). And we had a great afternoon with her. We got to hear some stories about her that we never knew before- stories about her childhood, her parents, etc. Parts of her life that I never knew about, and that I learned in just one afternoon. It was great. It was SUCH a nice visit and I'm so glad we got to spend some quality time with her. She will be moving to an assisted living/retirement community in the city over the next month or so, and she's really excited. She grew up in Philadelphia and has always loved the city, and so she's already talking about going to the art museum and shows, taking morning walks, doing yoga, starting a glee club within in the center, haha. One thing I have always admired about my grandmother is how feisty she is. She's determined to make the most of the time she has left, which hopefully is a long time!!! Saturday night was low-key- my sister was spending the night and we were both pretty wiped out from running around all day, so we chilled and stayed in and watched The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, which was pretty cute!

Sunday was dreary and blah. It was cold and gray and rained all day long! Ick! I took my sister home and ran a few errands, came home for a quick soup lunch, hit the gym for a quick epliptical workout, and that was about it! Also some high-quality TV watching and reading... more on that in a minute!

Today was similar to yesterday, only with less rain (although still cold). A few quick errands, the gym, two loads of laundry, leftover soup for lunch, vacuuming. I know- I really know how to live up those vacation days, don't I?   :-D     Tomorrow, I'll probably do some yoga and read. The holidays are fast approaching and that is always such a crazy, hectic time, and so I'm really looking forward to one more day of R&R before I come back to work. Although I tell ya, after being off for six days, Wednesday is going to be nothing short of brutal.

Here's a piece of exciting news to share with you all- my roommate bought a Wii, and it came today! She's already set it up and has been bowling, skiing, playing tennis, you name it! She also got Dance Dance Revolution and Wii Fit. I'm looking forward to trying out Wii Fit. And the Wii tennis. I've actually never tried out the Wii, so I am really excited for this new addition in our home!  :-) 

Now, on to fun and exciting book news. I finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower on Saturday morning. It was SUCH a quick read! Anyway, it was pretty good. The main character, Charlie, was such a sweet, sensitive person... it was hard to remember that he was just a fourteen-year-old boy. He definitely was an "older soul", if you know what I mean. Very intuitive and compassionate and caring towards others, and always putting his friends and family before himself. Not too many teenagers like that walking around in the world! The ending of the book was a total shock, and very unnerving and unsettling. I definitely felt a little shaken up when I finished this book. But it was a good story, and I liked it. My favorite line from the entire book was in the last few pages: "So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. Any maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them." This particular passage definitely hit me- I come from a very troubled and dysfunctional family, and so this spoke to me on a personal level. Anyway, it was a good book. It's kind of for the high-school crowd maybe, but I think that anyone who suffered through feeling like they didn't fit in at school and/or in their family would really appreciate this book. Two teen-angst-filled thumbs up for this book!

So I picked a new book at random, and came up with The Simpsons and Philosophy. I bought this, like, years ago for $1 at my favorite annual book sale. I tried to read a few pages last night and today, and I gave up. I couldn't get into it at all. I just don't think I have enough of an interest in The Simpsons OR philosophy to really be able to get into this book. I might hold on to it to see if any of my friends wants to read it; otherwise, I'll just donate it to a library. Oh well... they can't all be winners!

So I picked another book! Wanna see? Wanna see?   :-)

DSCI0802 Score! Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood, by Susan Linn. It's a look at how the marketing/advertising industry shamelessly targets children, and how this can affect children's health, education, creativity, and values. I'm very excited to read this. This is WAAAAY more my kind of book than The Simpsons and Philosophy. Sorry, Homer.

Children aren't the only demographic that succumb to shameless marketing and advertising ploys:

DSCI0808 Yes, I bought four boxes of Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride Tea this weekend. I kind of couldn't help it. It's the best tea I've ever had in my life, and it was on sale, and it's Limited Edition, and so I really had no choice. I wouldn't be surprised if I did this at least one more time this holiday season. I've been drinking at least one cup of this tea a day, sometimes two. I've never been a huge tea drinker, but I think I was just waiting for "The One". Well, I have found The One!!!

Sugar cookie tea and my book sound pretty good right now... I think it might be time to get nice and comfy with my book! Goodnight!

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