Not-so-manic Monday

Well, I'm happy to say that it was all quiet on the western front at work today. I worked on a presentation and a biography. And that was it! No frantic rush projects, crises or emergencies or drama, etc. It was lovely. :-) I hope yours was lovely as well!

I got started on Autobiography of a Fat Bride today on my work lunch break- I was way too tired and there was way too much good TV on last night to give my new book any real attention. I'm really liking it! I was definitely chuckling out loud at some parts. Laurie Notaro totally reminds me of David Sedaris, only I find her more relatable personally, since we're both women, and she's brought up some nice female perspective on the murkiness that is known as men. Here are some of her thoughts on the male species and boyfriends in general:

"Bad boyfriends don't disguise themselves; their girlfriends do it for them. I was guilty of that. A bad boyfriend will stay as such, and rarely, rarely, will a good boyfriend wake up one day and defect to the evil forces. By the same token, a bad boyfriend will never, ever wake up one day and become a good one. You've got a better chance of finding a dead rat in a soda can and becoming a millionaire in the settlement afterward. A bad boyfriend will not change, because, simply, there's no shame in it for him."

She and I must have been dating the same guys. :-)

On the flip side, I did take a bit of offense when she referred to being left-handed as being a "social cripple"- I'm a lefty and damn proud of it! I feel sorry for right-handed people. They're so ordinary. They're conformists. LOL, just kidding- I got nothin' but love for the right-handed folk. And okay, fine, I'm a bit socially awkward (I prefer to call it "quirky" or "eccentric", but whatevs), but I don't attribute that to the hand that I write with. But she's going for humor. I'm sure she really doesn't think that. :-) Any lefties out there? How 'bout righties?

ALSO, I have found grammatical errors. As a professional bounty hunter of misplaced commas and bad breaks in sentences, I get so annoyed by this. I understand the average person making really common grammatical mistakes- we can't all be grammatical goddesses. And the English language and all of its rules is extremely difficult to master, whether it's your native language or not, it's all the little grammatical tidbits that get us all. That's why we have eagle-eye people like proofreaders policing the written word to help us out (which thrills me to no end, as it keeps me happily and steadily employed!). But in my opinion, there's simply no excuse for a book to go through a professional publishing house and walk out with some errors. I can understand missing one or two. God knows I've missed stuff in proofreading and editing. Some blatantly obvious and some not so much. But publishing editors and proofreaders are at the top level- like an honors student or a renowned brain surgeon- and they should know which version of "who" to use in a sentence!!! (who's vs. whose, in the particular instance I stumbled across today). I also saw some big-ass spacing errors, but those don't bother me as much. Those are annoying, but there could be a few reasons for that- trouble at the printers, whatever. There's no excuse for missing blatantly incorrect grammatical errors! How would you like it if your doctor got confused on if it was his left or your left, and amputated the wrong foot? Okay, that's a tad overdramatic. But I think you get what I'm saying here. Obviously I need to go school some proofreaders and editors over at Villard Press!

But uppity grievances from a type-A personality sarcastic proofreader doesn't take away from the fact that this is a great, light read. I'm glad I've been introduced to this author, finally! My friend Karen enjoys her, and my sister actually read this same book recently, and she really loved it. I have another book of Laurie Notaro's on my to-read shelf- We Thought You Would Be Prettier. Hey, maybe it'll be my next pick! You never know with the luck of the draw!

Oooh, time to get dinner up and running (sweet potato combo tonight- if you're surprised by this, then you clearly don't read my blog on a daily basis, haha- tonight's SP is being paired with a Boca Mushroom Mozzarella patty and steamed carrots and broccoli, red pepper hummus on the side), and then get my Monday night shows up and running. What do you all watch on Monday nights, if anything? I'm a fan of The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother. Sometimes HIMYM annoys me a little- Ted's character kind of gets on my nerves- but I LOVE Barney. Neil Patrick Harris is so funny, and grew up to be such a cutie! (Note to self: Add Doogie Howser, M.D. to Netflix queue!)

I'm out like a light- goodnight! :-)