UGH

Rant: they're definitely going with Zophie. Trying to stay calm, trying to still be supportive, trying to still be excited. But I'm ultimately disappointed.


Sometimes it sucks that Steven and I are so responsible. We went to college to get careers to make money to support kids, we put off lives, we're planning for kids instead of having "oops" moments and then we will be stuck picking up the left over bits once we finally get around to having a family years after everyone else we know.

I hate that. I really do.

I know, I'm selfish and ungrateful. Like everything else, I'll get over it.

BBC Booklist- 40

I know I'm an English major...but I'd LOVE one of you to beat me at this thing mostly because I love classic literature and want everyone else to do the same. I found it on the facebook of my fave English Prof's lifepartner who, incidentally, I will be working with in my business writing class...



Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.
Instructions:

1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total at the bottom.
5) Put in a note with your total in the subject


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen X++++++++++
2 The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien X
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling X ++++++++ (7 for all the books and an extra one for Beedle the Bard)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee X
6 The Bible (Most of it) - X
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte X
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman * tried it, got half way through Golden Compass and then stopped.
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott X
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare X (Well, a LOT of them!)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier* I've heard Graham talk about this book in Early English Novel so much I might as well have read it, but one day I will read it. I mean it's a few thousand pages. *
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD SalingerX
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - * Dianna has suggested this to me and needs to loan it.
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot * another thousand pages I need the time for.
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams X+
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck X
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame X
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy X
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis X
34 Emma - Jane Austen X
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen X++++++++++++ becoming my favorite Austen novel
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis X++++ Favorite book as a child
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini * Steven's mum gave me this to read
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden X+
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell X
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (tried so hard when I was little but I never liked Anne)
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (Penelopiad is an amazing novella by Atwood)
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding X
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons X
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen X+
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov* bought this senior year of high school and need to read it
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding X and the sequel
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker X
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett X
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce * One day. If I didn't have to work, I would have taken Graham's second half of novel...where they are reading this novel... I'm going to miss that charming man.
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath X++
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola (Read Ladies Paradise, love Zola)
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens X
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker X +
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert X
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White X+
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle X
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad X
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams X
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare X (I've read this oh so many times...Hamlet you are a dead horse)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo X (abridged version in the 10th grade, but I own the full version an dI'm going to read it)

So is it bad I want to go on bed-leave or something so that I can read all the novels I want to read.

Very surprised that Tom Jones was not on here...or Tristram Shandy...or Frankenstein...

Basically, this proves I have no life, laughs.

I'm aware that I dropped off the planet. Work is killing me. 30+ hour weeks with school don't equate to much free-time.

First, I need to wrap up and lay to rest the darling diva cup experience. That's right Jake, you will no longer hear about it. :D


What I liked:

• No gross trashcans that scream to those in your life that you are "on the rag." Also nothing your cats can embarrassingly pull from the trash. True story.
• The thrill of being a little more eco-friendly.
• Being able to walk around without constantly worrying about a pad. Example, not having to jump out of the shower and quickly put something on.
• No rashes
• Not having to change so frequently
  

What I wasn't so pleased with:

• It takes a while to get used to. It's different, so it just takes some time.
• If you're not comfortable with your girl bits this product won't work well for you. It's very hands on.

Ok, done. Go get one, you'll love it once you get used to it.

What if you think both?

..like myself.

You know you're an over-worked English major when:

So tonight was a funny experience. I worked this morning 10-2 then I went to class. H had a test tomorrow so she called out for her shift from 5-10. So being the nice, dummy I am, I said: "Oh, I'll work for her if no one else can, just call me." I thought I only had to read 200 pages (novel, so that isn't so bad. Totally do-able since I read like a speed demon). However, as I'm on my way into work I remember that I needed to do a forum post about the book. So I call up my buddy T and I'm like: "we have a forum post (250 words) tonight, right?" He says: "Yeah, it's due before 9pm."

Well crap, I'm not off until 10 and I've only read 50 pages.

So I'm totally blue because I have never just NOT done an assignment. And I was all bummed cause I couldn't get to a comp with internet and write up something and I was planning my shameful e-mail to the prof (who refuses late work) telling her that I did the assignment and turned it in late just so that I did it and how I wouldn't expect a grade for it.

I decided to hand-write the response (at work), then I called up my bestie (who is after all, the best) and I dictated the whole thing to her for her to submit for me. So I wrote the most amazing crap drawing on things from the first 50 pages. Ugh. At least it's better than not doing it.

Since I picked up an extra shift that means I'll work 32 hours this week, with classes. It also means that since Friday I've worked 25 (normally what I work in a week). Kill me. I mean...seriously...this is getting ridiculous. I'm too darn nice.

At least my next check will be boss. I hope I can walk tomorrow. That's getting harder. My back is spent. Sorry to complain, but I'm losing my sanity. It wouldn't be bad if I didn't also have to, you know, graduate.

Cause Business Writing quizzes suck.

Steven & Amanda

♥ What are your middle names?
Cobb and Anthony

♥ How long have you been together?
1 year, 5 months, and 13 days.

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating?
6 months

♥ Who asked who out?
I guess me? I dunno how it happened actually.

♥ How old are each of you?
I'm 21 and he's 22.

♥ Whose siblings do/ did you see the most?
his, I rarely see mine.

♥ Do you have any children together?
sadly, no

♥ What about pets?
two cats: Penelope and Oliver

♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
this whole long distance thing. I hate it.

♥ Did you go to the same school?
college, yes.

♥ Are you from the same home town?
negative

♥ Who is smarter?
we're both pretty equal except he's math/science and I'm artsy stuff.

♥ Who is more sensitive?
me

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple?
lots of breakfast places. We love breakfast.

♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
northern VA

♥ Who has the craziest exes?
neither, but we both have crazy people in our lives that we just don't talk about.

♥ Who has the worst temper?
me maybe? I dunno, we're both kind of mellow.

♥ Who does the cooking?
both

♥ Who is more social?
probably him. I'm happy at home with a book.

♥ Who is the neat-freak?
me

♥ Who is the most stubborn?
we're both pretty darn stubborn, but I love it.

♥ Who hogs the bed?
he does. He says that I do, but it's really him.

♥ Who wakes up earlier?
me. I always wake him up with kisses.

♥ Where was your first date?
movies? I can't remember. We were friends and then suddenly we weren't

♥ Who has the bigger family?
him, by far

♥ Do you get flowers often?
I still get them fairly regularly. I love flowers

♥ How do you spend the holidays?
our last one was together.

♥ Who is more jealous?
most likely me. I know I've got a great thing.

♥ How long did it take to get serious?
2 weeks, laughs.

♥ Who eats more?
me :D

♥ Who does/ did the laundry?
we do it together. It was my favorite thing to do when I crashed at his apartment.

♥ Who’s better with the computer?
that'd be him. He can do things with a comp that simply blow my mind. He is a computer scientist after all.

♥ Who drives when you are together?
I like him to drive me around. I like to look out the windows at the stuff around the car and I just don't get to do that when I drive. Plus he doesn't fit in my car. It's a clown car to a tall person.

Full-time Diva

Well the first full day was...kind of painful. My flow is still low so that might have something to do with it. The inner part wasn't painful just the little nib at the end that hangs out. They say that you can cut it and I might have to. It's irritating as you walk. I worked today, so I walked a ton! I kept having to go to the loo and re-adjust myself. Not that it was moving just that the nib was rubbing areas that should not be rubbed. I've gotten better at getting it in. Awesome. It's difficult because you have to create a suction. It makes weird sounds that amuse me thoroughly.

Apparently people weren't kidding when they said it takes some time to adjust.

Sleeping was boss. No worries about anything and very comfortable.

Take out is interesting and kind of gross at this point. I haven't worked out the method for that. Working on it.

Over all, it was an ok day. No leaking (awesome since tampons leak for me, thus I can't use them).

Haha, I feel we're way too close blogger-friends now. Laughs. But I think that the time of the month is still a very taboo thing to talk about even though it's a natural process that has happened since the dawn of time. I find it incredibly interesting and I think that health in your female bits is extremely important. And I guess I'm spoiled since I work with the best bunch of women who talk openly about this kind of thing. For instance, today I had a whole convo with my managers about this whole thing. I'm glad that I can do that.

Just wait a few years til I start trying to conceive (TTC) and you get to hear about mucus and cervix mushiness and such... speaking of that... my friend Caitlin has a link to a blog about a pregnancy. I'm guessing it's a friend of hers and I seriously read the whole thing the other night...random.

I'm a Diva

Haha, so I realize that the Diva cup might seem a little terrifying. I've read the instructions so I know that it's fold-able.

So. First impressions:

I got it in and cannot feel it. Awesome since I can totally feel tampons no matter what they say about how I'm not supposed to. This I really cannot feel.

It says you're supposed to be able to twist it...I'm not sure how anything like this can be twisted in my "vage" but I looked on their website and I got a tip for insertion. Basically, the idea is that it creates a suction between the rim and your vagina.


So far so good!

Diva Cup

Posts this week might be TMI since I'm going to be doing a product review. About a month ago, I tracked down the co-op in Roanoke (awesome place, FYI) so that I could get the Diva Cup.

The Diva Cup is a menstrual cup made out of silicone. Intrigued? Well you should be. Because it is made of silicone, it is reusable. You just have to wash/boil it. The girl who checked me out said that she has been using hers for 5 years! Can you imagine the amount of feminine products not going into the landfill?

It cost me about $30, but with the price of girl-time products it pays for itself in the first year of use. Awesome. Since I got it from a co-op I was also supporting a local business. Double awesome.

You only have to empty it 2 times a day. Added bonus for the girl on the go. You can run in it, swim in it, dance in it, whateves (except the horizontal mambo, ya dig).

You can see why I was intrigued, right?

The great thing for me, and TMI, is that I get rashes from pads in the winter. Dry skin + pad= diaper rashes...owies.

So throughout this week I'll keep you all updated on the process. Apparently, it can take some time to get used to it/getting it situated correctly.

Have any of you ever used one?

Thoughts?

I thought it was weird at first too. I've been scoping it online for about a year.

So... I just wrote a post and then deleted it cause I felt dumb... but Dianna cured me of that.

Basically...some friends of ours are having a baby girl and they're naming it Zophiel and want to call her Zophie...now every one here knows that my FAVE baby name is Sophie. Sophie is greek for wisdom so it's a way for me to pass down my last name and it's from the same root word as my two best friends whose names both happen to be Sonja/Sonia meaning wisdom. So I'm more then a wee bit bummed about that. I feel like Charlotte when a friend steals Shayla from her in epi 110. I'm such a Charlotte most of the time.

Anywho, Di suggested I post a list of all the names I like...and I happen to have that handy since I keep a digital copy that I edit: constantly. Here ya go:

Girls:
Sophie
Sophina (Steven's alternate name if they went with Zophie) Orelia (cause her initials will be SOK...our little socks. I'm also liking Orora or Osten...)
Iris
Magdalena
Ainsley
Daphne
Ceridwen- Fair Poetry
Isolde
Phoebe
Adia- I know it's a Sarah M. song but I loves it...it's Swahili for gift
Annice- Character in my fave fantasy book...whose daughter is Magda I also love that name...paired with Lena cause I have a great-great grannie named Lena...not to mention Raisin in the Sun...
Mira
Sage
Dahlia- new favorite
Viola- Tribute name.
Zora


Boys:
Levin-our fave boy name... stole it from Anna Karenina
Bennet- Austen name
Freiden- means Peace in German
Jude
Langston

I'm aware that the girl names outnumber the boy names. That's because I find girl names way more enjoyable mostly because they have more a's and light sounds. Guy names are kind of harsh to the ear. And I secretly want a girl or two or three.... :D

Names are a pathetic hobby of mine since we won't be having kids for 20 years. I've been obsessed with names since I was a kid. I had a baby name book for all my dolls/stuffed animals/cats. I'm also the girl who has loaned out her 100,000 baby name book to prego friends. Laughs. Those books come in handy.

Gloucester High School 2005

Cause I'm a dork:If you are tagged, fill this out about your SENIOR year of high school! The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be!! REPORT with name of high school and graduating year in the subject box. Send this to all your friends, but don't forget to send it back to me.

1. Did you date someone from your school?
Negative. I thought most of the guys in my hometown were brainless. 'Cept one at the time who is now married to one of the most amazing people I know and lives in Hawaii. Yes you Caitlin. :D

2. Did you marry someone from your high school?
no no no and I'm very glad of it.

3. Did you carpool to school?
Olga used to take Sonja and I to school before we could drive. I hated the bus. It was a place of torture.

4. What kind of car did you have?
Dodge Neon

5. What kind of car do you have now?
Suzuki Aerio

6. It's Friday night...where are you in HS?
at home doing homework and dreaming of getting out of g-town

7. It is Friday night...where are you now?
at home doing homework. Not much has changed. What will I do with myself when I no longer have homework?

8. What kind of job did you have in high school?
Daycare. I miss daycare sometimes, just not the place I worked the first time. Grand Kids I miss quite regularly.

9. What kind of job do you do now?
Sales Leader at Pier 1. I freaking love my job. It's a good thing too, because I live there now.

10. Were you a party animal?
HAHA, very far from it. Can you believe I never snuck out? One day when I'm visiting my parents, hopefully with Steven with me, we're going to sneak out of the house and do teenage things. Whatever that is.

12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
Choir was my middle school thing. I didn't continue to high school because the teacher was bad. Mr. Otto is still my favorite music teacher ever. I did chorus 3 years and I did choir after school every year and with district and area workshops in the 8th grade. Back when I wanted to be a pop star.

13. Were you a nerd?
Definitely, still am.

14. Did you get suspended or expelled?
nope, didn't even get detention. Had to go to the principal's office once only because there was another Amanda Wise in my high school. Classic case of mistaken identity.

15. Can you sing the fight song?
nope. I didn't know we had one until I graduated and it was in the bulletin.

16. Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)?
Mrs. Baldwin (still heart her so much) and Ms. Sharp, and I had a crazy World history teacher I can't remember...and Coach Forester was foxy. I had him for Biology.

17. Where did you sit during lunch?
with the art kids

18. What was your school's full name?
Gloucester High School

20. What was your school mascot?
Duke

21. If you could go back and do it again, would you?
eh, the work was easier, but the social stuff was way more depressing, as was my weight. I learned from it. I spent most of it counting down til I could leave. Honestly, I spent most of it very depressed. I'd like to go back now and hang out with Mrs. Baldwin though.

22. Did you have fun at Prom?
Didn't go. I hated school dances. I wanted to boogie to old school stuff not rap.

23. Do you talk to the person you went to Prom with?
n/a unless you count Sonia, who I spent my prom night with, and I do still talk to her.

24. Are you planning on going to your next reunion?
No idea when that even is, nor do I really care. I might go to the big ones just to see where all the people I hated ended up...I'm a horrible person. :p

25. Do you still talk to people from school?
A rare few cause they're still some of the most amazing people I know.

It's here!

My necklace and shoes arrived! Both are extremely cute. The necklace is actually a cameo. It was called that but I couldn't figure it out. I thought it was just amber, but it has a little lady carved into it. Added bonus since I love cameos. I think they're so romantic.


My window is currently open!

And I love hanging out with my new friend "D." We're ridiculously chatty and somehow I feel...lighter after our outings. It's very good.

Also, I forgot that long hair gets tangled in the wind. Isn't that odd? It has been such a long time since I have had long hair...random.

Mail Stalker

I'm such a mail stalker. Thanks to the internet,I can find out instantly where a package is... like my urban outfitters goodies... they have a great tracking feature for users...or stalkers in this case.

For instance:


South Carolina!

I think it's so cool that our things can "travel." Gosh I'm a dork.

Glimpses of Spring

Yippie! Today I woke up in the BEST mood! I got up, didn't tame my mane, put on a summer shirt, and some fun necklaces. I went to get breakfast and ate it in my car with the windows down just sitting in the sun making some vitamin d.

I love the feeling when the Earth is coming back to life after the winter. Makes me hopeful.

I'm sitting here with the sun coming through my windows and waiting for it to warm up to the expected 60 degrees. Too bad I have to torture myself with homework.

PS- Birds are singing.

1. Like Janis Joplin, this picture is amazing

2. It has affirmed my need for "love beads."

3. And long hair, and bangles, and summer... :D

I'm not bad; I'm just drawn that way

(Darling necklace perfect for any future Jane Austen conventions...)

(Darling shoes perfect for walking around in the summer in cute skirts...)

Sorry...random Jessica Rabbit quote...but I was bad and went on Urban Outfitter's website...bad, oh, bad! However, I found a precious necklace and darling summer shoes on sale.

Best of all! I got a little tip from Style A Work in Progress that suggested searching the web for coupon codes for the specific website you're on. I did just that and found one for 10% off my order. Score.