Little Bird

This post has been formulating in my mind for a while, but I think I'm finally ready to put it out there. A couple days ago I got an e-mail from my husband asking if I would put together a book list for someone at his work. There are a few people in my life who ask me to do this for them (and I don't mind doing it at all) but this is the first time someone I have never met has asked me to do it. At work recommending books is what I do. I get caught up in other things, other projects but at the end of the day my job title is simple: bookseller. Every now and then I feel a sense of pride because I am good at what I do. I can recommend a book successfully to most people and sometimes those same people come back and ask me if I have another recommendation for them. And before too long a customer becomes a little bit more than a customer. I wouldn't classify them as a friend but they hover somewhere in between friend and customer. Perhaps they are their own category: bo

Today I had to go to the hospital for a cardiac pulmonary stress test. Yeah, it was about as fun as it sounds. I hate, hate, hate hospitals and this test was all the more awkward because I had to go to my husband's department to take it. I'm glad that Jonathan knows people that might be able to help me solve this breathing problem (which has been going on since '05!) but it would be great if his colleagues had never seen me on a treadmill, hooked into all kinds of machines and breathing like I may pass out at any moment. Did I mention the huge clip that gets attached to the nose during all of this? Oh, and how about the fact that they have to venture up your shirt, A LOT, to insert, and then mess with, the cardiac attachments. I know his colleagues don't think anything of it, it's their job etc. etc., but all I can think about is the next Christmas party. "Oh, so this is what you look like when your shirt is in its proper place and you're not sputter

I was driving home today thinking about everything but driving when WHAM a bird smacked into my windshield. This is the second time in the past 3 months I've done this. The last bird I think I killed. It hit my windshield and then bounced onto the roof of the car and then in my rear view mirror I saw it fly away. Either that or it was "flying" off the car in a death spiral, but it's impossible to know for sure. This one I KNOW I killed. I screamed, but managed not to swerve or brake, which I think is pretty impressive. Then I looked up at where the bird hit and saw a big bloody mark on my windshield. Yeah, that's right. I hit a bird so hard (I was going at least 55 mph) it left a bloody streak on my windshield. It took a few seconds before I could pull myself together enough to clean off the windshield. All the while I was still driving and trying not to tailgate the slow, slow, slow person in front of me. I still can't get that huge THUD out of my

Every now and then I read a book that makes me want to do something I wouldn't normally want to do, or even consider doing. A while back I read a book called Labor of Love: A Midwife's Memoir. After reading it I thought, well, when I have kids I'll have a midwife and give birth at home. It sounds fantastic! The next morning I woke up and realized two things: a) I'm not even sure if I want to have kids and b) me having kids without pain medication is never, ever going to happen. I have zero pain tolerance and if possible I want my husband to give me an epidural at home before we leave for the hospital. He's in the medical field, surely he can do it. I'm sure lots, if not most, women go through the process of trying to decide when to have kids, if kids should be had, etc. It just seems like I've been thinking about it a lot lately. I wish I could turn off that portion of my brain, but it seems determined to stay on and active. Maybe thinking about babi

I've been wanting to start a blog for a while but I haven't had the time, or been motivated enough, to do it. After spending most of the day cleaning and organizing the house I decided there is no better time then the present. I stayed up until 3:15 last night reading Graceling by Kristin Cashore. I haven't stayed up that late, or read a book in one sitting, in a long time but this book was definitely worth it. This is the perfect transition book for people coming off the high of Stephanie Meyer. I was very, very disappointed with Meyer's portrayal of females in her last book and I don't feel I can recommend it anymore. I'm on a bit of a high after reading Graceling (and exhausted) but let me give you an idea of the book. Katsa lives in a world where people with Graces, or special skills are used and feared. Katsa's uncle, king of the Middluns uses Katsa's Grace, killing, to control and exploit her. When Katsa meets Prince Po, who is Graced with