I’ve never really liked the idea of New Year’s resolutions because they are so rarely kept, and really, why do we wait until January to make resolutions? Can’t we resolve to do things any time we want? I submit that we can. So in the spirit of bucking the system, I’m just going to continue doing things this year that I started last year and would like to continue. I also may very well make new resolutions mid-year. Just because I can.

So Simplify2011 will now be called Simplify2012, and it will comprise the following goals:

• Get rid of all the books on my small bookcase and half the books on my big bookcase.
• Get rid of half of the clothes in both my dresser and closet.
• No new home decor purchases. Anything new must be given to me or made from items I already own.
• Clean out desk drawers.
• Finish consolidating teaching materials into binders, and get rid of unnecessary bins.
• Get rid of anything in my bathroom I haven’t used in the past six months.

I’m also going to re-motivate myself to run, not because I’m resolving now to exercise more for exercise’s sake, but because DLF and I have been talking about running a 10k or half-marathon for almost a year now, and my butt ain’t in any kind of shape for that at the moment. Or my heart or lungs or knees for that matter. And since my body insists on getting sick EVERY November, thus putting me out of commission for at least a month, and since I just finished watching EVERY episode of Bones ever made, it is now time to get off the couch and start moving.

And to round things out, I want to continue exploring and developing a few things I started learning about myself last year. When I was preparing to go to Pennsylvania for that week with World Team, they had us take a lot of tests – Bible tests, spiritual gifts tests, personality tests, etc. And on one of the personality tests, I scored really low on the characteristic of dominance (a key leadership quality). And when I say “low,” I mean like really low. Like almost negative. But when we were there, it became really evident to me and everyone else that the test was way wrong. Like holy-crap-what-happened-here? wrong. So I started thinking back on my life, and I was able to pinpoint at least one incident wherein that quality was trained out of me. That kind of pissed me off and inspired this post. So now I’m re-learning who I am naturally and how to use my God-given qualities and abilities to benefit everyone.

Another thing I’ve been learning about myself is still kind of hard to explain, but I think Dr. Brennan (aka Bones) said it pretty well in one episode I watched recently. She’s explaining to Booth how she has changed since she met him, and she makes a distinction between a substance that is impervious and a substance that is strong. She tells him that an impervious substance doesn’t have to be strong because nothing can affect it, but a strong substance allows things in and out and therefore must be strong to survive. That is, of course, a tad too scientific for my liking, but it’s more or less how I feel. I want to be strong, but I also want to be softer. I want to invite people, wisdom, Jesus, love, and yes, even pain and failure into my life if they will make me stronger, wiser and more loving. This one is going to take more work than consolidating my teaching materials (which is saying a lot), but I think it’ll be worth it.

And as always, if you’d like to participate with me in any of these things, you are more than welcome. Especially the running. I’ma need a LOT of butt-kicking in that department.

Y’all, I have one more week in this long, long, long, long, long semester. Not bad-long, just long-long. And I’m ready for a break, but what I’m really excited about is organizing all the boxes of class materials under my bed into spiffy binders. And these spiffy binders will all fit into one box, making it possible for me to get rid of all the others. Then, I’m going to adjust my prices and re-list my books on half.com in the hopes that they all sell so I can get rid of that book case. And after that, I’m going to go through all my clothes and sort them honestly based on what I wear and what I don’t. I’m going to get rid of the ones I don’t wear, and then I’m going for a run.

When I get back from the run, I’m going to shave my legs. Both of them. All at once. Then I’m going to catch up on all my stories and take a nap. When I wake up from the nap, I’m going to go to the movies. I don’t know what I’m going to see, but it’s going to be good, and then I’m going to do my Christmas shopping.

After that, I’m going to read. I don’t care what. I’m going to go to the ‘Bou, get the free drink they promised me after making me the wrong drink last time, and read until I’m over it. Then I’m going to look at Etsy and Pinterest while I watch Bones and, let’s be honest, probably Elf for the fourth time in a month. I’m going to lie on the floor and watch the lights on my Christmas tree twinkle while I listen to all my favorite music. And I’m going to talk to people on Skype at all hours of the day and night when I would normally be asleep or at work.

If you would like to join me in any of these activities (except the napping and leg-shaving), you are welcome to do so. It would please me very much. We can make gingerbread houses and eat cookie dough and go ice skating and maybe even hold hands.

Y’all, seriously. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. I put things down, and they disappear. I can’t find my mailbox key, I keep forgetting to buy more almond milk, I have no idea what I was going to write about here just now, and I feel fairly certain I was supposed to do something. Oh. I remember. Please hold.

Ok, done. Whew. Apparently I haven’t blown all my brains out of my nose this week along with twenty pounds of snot. Hang in there, gray matter! I still need you! I know I haven’t used you much this week at all, but that’s just because you got such an intense workout last week, and I wanted to give you a rest. Plus, I’m tired. Oh so tired. But don’t worry, I have every intention of pulling you off the bench very soon because I feel like not being in school has made me stupider, and I’d really like to work on that.

I’ve been reading about William Tyndale, and one interesting thing I read last night was that while he was at Oxford, he used a book by Erasmus called De Copia, in which there was an exercise to give “no fewer than one hundred fifty ways of saying, ‘Your letter has delighted me very much,’” the point being to force students to “use of all the verbal muscles in order to avoid any hint of flabbiness.” I’m always telling my students how rich the English language is and teaching them new ways to say things so they don’t have to use the same, tired words all the time, but that only challenges them. It doesn’t challenge me. And I’ve found myself recently unable to think of the words I want. Simple words like “radiant” and…oh, see, I’ve forgotten them again. Something must be done.

I know I’m still recovering from a crazy week last week and a cold, but those are poor excuses for losing one’s marbles, and I’m far too young for that. I know I’ll never be one of those old people who does Sudoku to keep her mind sharp because Sudoku already makes me want to punch a baby, but maybe I’ll be a prolific letter-writer or something. Something.

And maybe one day I’ll find my mailbox key.

With the move all finished and the semester over, I now have a couple of weeks to relax, unpack, get organized, get things like internet set up, and prepare for next semester to start. I am proud to report that I’m making progress on all fronts.

Time Warner is coming next weekend to flip our internet switch, which seems a tad ridiculous to me. How hard can this be that we have to wait a week and a half for them to come and plug things in? I mean, we have our own modem and router. We know where the plugs are. The apartments were built long before the Interwebs were, but I’m sure we won’t be the first people to use them there. All they should really need to do is literally flip a switch or click a box or perform a simple tribal dance. Really it can’t be that complicated. But apparently what with it being the beginning of the month and all, enough people are having their internet/cable hooked up to completely book every technician Time Warner employs for every moment of every day until the 14th. But we do have an appointment that day, so we’re making progress.

The unpacking and organizing are going well too. Here is a very bad, cell phone picture to at least give you (Ana) an idea of what’s going on in there. 99% of the boxes are gone, and though I don’t have a picture of it, my room is also taking shape nicely.

On the relaxation front, today marks the second day in a row that I have not woken up in pain, I went to the POOL yesterday, and I’m headed to Asheville tomorrow to get my kayak on!! Well. I’m not sure we’re actually going to go kayaking. We might go white water rafting, or we might go funyaking, which, I know, sound like we’re going to have an awesome time vomiting, but a funyak (aka duck or ducky) is basically an inflatable kayak or one-person raft. In either vessel, I am certain a fun time will be had by all. And I’ll try not to get 2nd degree sun burns this year.

And finally, although I have not yet begun to write actual lesson plans, I did order several books yesterday with which to torture my poor students. Yippee! Hooray!! You might not be able to truly appreciate how satisfying this is unless you are a teacher, but if you are a teacher (especially an ESL teacher), I’m sure you’re jealous that I’m getting new books. Even if I did have to purchase them with my own money from half.com. Whatever. Last year, I discovered the joy and absolute magic of tax write-offs. My goal is to get my AGI into the negative. I think I’m getting close.

Y’all have a great weekend!

I am procrastinating on today’s packing just a bit longer to bring you a quick book review of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I’d been putting off reading this one for no apparent reason. I just wasn’t into it, I guess. But then when I was packing to go to the beach last weekend, I figured I may as well take it with me. If I started it and liked it, I could keep going, and if I didn’t like it, the house has plenty of other things to read. Well, I started reading it Friday night on the ferry over to the island, and it took a good 50 pages for me to really get into it, but after that, I was hooked. The rest of my family has already read all three of the books in this series, and they tell me that the other two are easier to get into because you already know the characters and don’t have to go through the whole introduction part in the beginning.

I’m looking forward to that, but I have forbidden myself from reading any more fiction until after I move. I just wouldn’t get anything done, and I have a LOT to get done, so no more books for a week and a half. Then I am definitely going to read the other two Larsson books.

In a nutshell, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is about a completely wacko family, a girl who isn’t crazy but is thought to be by the state, a journalist, his “business partner” (with whom he has a wholly inappropriate relationship), and a whole heck of a lot of crimes against women in Sweden. Y’all, there was so much about this story that I didn’t like, yet I would have to give the book at least three stars. Probably four. Because the things I didn’t like were the things that the characters were doing, and it wasn’t that I had a literary problem with them. It was that I had a moral problem with them. But I’m not scoring books based on my own personal moral compass. I’m scoring them based on the writing and the entertainment value. And this book is extremely well-written and gripping.

I’d be interested to know what I missed having read the English translation of a book originally written in Swedish (and also what I missed by simply not being Swedish) because I got the feeling that there were a fair number of cultural jokes and references that were lost on me. But other than that, the characters were believable and still haven’t given everything away about themselves, which makes me want to read the next book. The story moved at a good pace. I did NOT expect what happened to have happened. And the story was tied up nicely while still leaving you with a little cliff-hanger. I liked it.

Four stars. ****

Y’all, I’m at the beach, and I could not be happier about it. I got to hang out last night with some good friends, and then I parked my car, got on a boat and left the real world behind. I have things that must be done, of course, but I get to do them in a bathing suit with no make-up on and my hair looking like the bride of Frankenstein because the only people here are my parents, who, let’s face it, have seen me looking much worse and still love me and invite me to hang out with them. They’re pretty great like that.

So here’s what needs to get done:
*lesson plans (necessary evil)
*sleep more than 8 hours a night (so far so good)
*tan my face and neck to match my new summer make-up (mostly my neck – How is it that the front of the neck is always so shaded? Stupid head.)
*read (I started “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” on the ferry.)

And that, my friends, is all. You can be jealous if you want, but don’t hate. Just work on your own neck tan, and have a restful weekend.

This is actually a review of an entire series, not just one book. “How is it possible that you’ve read three books since your last review?” some of you may be asking. Well, I honestly don’t know except I have sacrificed sleep, which should make some of you fall out of your chair. And just stay down there on the floor for a minute while I tell you this: It was totally worth it. 

The Hunger Games is the first of three books in the series by Suzanne Collins. The second is Catching Fire, and the third is Mockingjay. Y’all should read them all. For real. Immediately. I’ll just go ahead and tell you they get five stars. *****

Now that that’s out of the way, I can tell you what it’s about. The story is told by Katniss Everdeen, a teenaged girl in a dystopian future society. Her nation, Panem, consists of a Capitol surrounded by twelve districts. At some point in the past, the districts tried to rise up against the Capitol and failed. To remind them who’s in charge, the Capitol holds an annual event called the Hunger Games. Each district must choose a boy and a girl to send to the Games, where they will fight to the death the “tributes” from the other districts. The one who is left standing is promised a lifetime of wealth and security, but they have to go through hell to get there. This is all done televised live for the whole nation to see – for the oppression of the districts and the entertainment of the Capitol.

You can guess pretty easily that Katniss ends up a tribute in the Hunger Games, but that’s all I’m going to tell you about the plot. This story is so well written, so compelling and so engaging. It’s one of those stories that, when you aren’t reading it, you’re afraid that you’re missing something. You’ll be at work worried about what’s happening to Katniss while you’re not glued to the pages.

It will also twist your mind up somethin’ fierce, so watch out for that, but I promise, it’s SO good. And it’s young adult fiction, so it’s not too gory (although there’s lots of death), and there’s no sex or cussing at all. Read it. Read it now. Then let’s discuss.

I made two steps over the weekend to cut my book inventory WAY down. First I bought myself an eReader. I know, I know. I was staunchly opposed to them, but I basically got the deal of the century, and I couldn’t pass it up. It’s nothing fancy. It’s the Borders Kobo, originally priced at $139.99, but I got mine for $59.99 because the Borders store in Cary is closing, and everything is on super-sale. I went over there to look into some cheap Rosetta Stone software, but all they had left was American English, so I was leaving, but as I approached the door, the Kobo (and its sale sign) caught my eye. I went over to take a peep, and the thing comes pre-loaded with 101 classics and a dictionary! And I thought, 101 books, a dictionary, and space to add 1,000 more books that won’t fill up a billion boxes every time I move, all for 60 bucks? Yes, please. So I bought it, which meant I could add my Complete Works of Jane Austen, my Les Miserables, my Count of Monte Cristo and my Hunchback of Notre Dame to the “sell” pile.

And that brings me to the second thing I did this weekend to reach my goal of a 30-50% reduction in stuff: I put 59 books up for sale on half.com. If you want to see what I have available (and perhaps purchase one or several), you can visit my store. I’d say I would just give you one if you wanted it, but the store also serves a second purpose of helping me raise money to go on a mission trip to Italy this summer. More on that later, but if you want to contribute to the cause by purchasing some new reading material, that would be great.

Y’all seriously, I don’t know where time comes from or where it goes. On the one hand, I have no idea how I’ve gotten done the things I’ve gotten done this week, and on the other hand, I feel like I didn’t have a moment to spare until yesterday evening. I am thankful for both hands, though, because I like being productive, and I like a week that goes by quickly in a good way like this one did.

I stayed up way too late every night reading Water for Elephants, which I finished on…Wednesday? Geez, I have no idea. Anyway, I finished it, and let me just tell you, it is good. It has a few racy parts and a lot of cussing, so if you’re not comfortable with either of those, I might not recommend it to you, but if you don’t think you’ll be bothered by them, the story is just really great. It’s told well, it’s interesting, it’s engaging, and the ending, I thought, was perfect. It doesn’t give you the feeling that the author is intentionally trying to keep you guessing, but it also doesn’t reveal everything up front. The timing is just right.

It’s also really interesting to read about the circus in the 1930s. I don’t know how accurate a portrayal it is, but it does seem that the author did a lot of research on it, and a lot of the characters and events were based on true stories from the time, which is neat.

I had a little bit of trouble keeping the minor characters straight. A lot of times it felt like when you’re talking to a friend who’s talking about his/her co-workers, but instead of explaining who they all are every time they’re mentioned, your friend just uses their names as though you know them, and you piece it together. In the end, it doesn’t really matter most of the time whether you know exactly who’s who or not. That’s why they were minor characters.

Anyhoe, the story is about a kid named Jacob, who is in his last semester of veterinary school at Cornell when his parents are killed in a car crash. In his despair, he sort of accidentally winds up on a circus train, where he pretty quickly becomes the show’s vet even though he didn’t finish his final exams. I won’t give anything else away, but from there, you get love, betrayal, murder, schizophrenia, friendship, loyalty, lots of animals, and an old man who can never remember if he’s 90 or 93 years old.

Read it before the movie comes out (in April, I think) because I’m not convinced it’s going to be good. I’ll see it, no doubt, but I’m really just not sure about the casting. I’m excited to see Christoph Waltz in something new because he was so incredibly amazing in Inglourious Basterds, but I’m not crazy about Robert Pattinson or Reese Witherspoon in their roles. I pictured Jacob more, I don’t know, alert-looking and less brooding – more wide-eyed and innocent. And I thought Marlena was closer to his age (Pattinson and Witherspoon are 10 years apart in real life).

If given the choice, I think I’d put Rachel McAdams in the role of Marlena and maybe Ryan Gosling or Jake Gyllenhaal in the role of Jacob. But we’ll see.

Oh! And it seems that the film has done away with Uncle Al entirely and maybe merged him and August into one character? I don’t know, but I do not care for that at all.

Oh well. Like I said, we’ll see. But back to the book.

I’m giving Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen four out of five stars. If I could give it another half, I might (because I think I liked it better than The Help), but I don’t have the ability to type half a star, so four it is. Once again, I wouldn’t say it’s my new favorite book, but I thought it was beautifully and fearlessly written, and I would highly recommend it to anyone. ****

I told myself several times yesterday that I would NOT stay up until all hours of the night finishing The Help. I’m trying to get back on a normal sleeping/waking schedule, see, because morning registration is tomorrow, and classes start back on Monday.

But then last night, I took the book to bed with me and read straight through to the end. I don’t even know what time I went to sleep because by the time I finished reading, my phone had turned itself off, which means it was at least 1:00 a.m. Dangit. No self control.

Anyway, The Help by Kathryn Stockett is great. I liked it a lot. I would almost say I loved it. The only thing I didn’t love about it, in fact, was the way it was told. The story is about black house maids and their white employers in Jackson, Mississippi in the early ’60s. Some chapters are from the perspective of one maid, some from that of another maid, and some in the voice of a young white woman who is sympathetic toward the maids, largely because she’d had a maid of her own growing up whom she loved dearly, but who has disappeared (not in a Dean Koontz sort of way, just nobody will tell her what happened).

I found the three perspectives to be a little bit confusing, especially when chapters from the points of view of the two maids were told back-to-back, because they had similar voices, and I kept having to remind myself who was talking.

Also (and I realize this is going to sound contradictory since I just said having three perspectives was confusing), there was a fourth major character whose perspective I wished I could have seen. If you’ve read the book, I’m talking about Hilly. I think it really would have rounded out her character (and the story) to let us see her and the the world through her own eyes.

The character development as a whole, however, was fantastic. I found myself doing each character’s voice in my head, and they were all completely distinct. By the time I was finished, I knew those people. Stockett does a great job of showing us the characters through their words and action. (Koontz, in stark contrast, spends a whole page explaining to us that one of his characters is “careful.” Then he kills him off. I might actually have to go reduce the number of stars I gave his book.)

The plot is good too. It’s relatable, it’s emotionally stirring, it moves right along, I didn’t roll my eyes at any of it, and I don’t think there’s anything in it, really, that is unnecessary. Even things like Skeeter’s mom’s health, which might seem like just unnecessary details of her life or fillers to make her chapters longer when Stuart’s not around, come into play in a significant way at some point. Nothing is wasted (except for Celia Foote at the party).

I’m giving The Help four stars, and I would recommend that you read it. It’s not my new most favoritest book on earth, but I really, really, really, really liked it. ****