Of Mice and Men

My first introduction to Steinbeck was Of Mice and Men. And I still love it. The tender story of two grown men, one taking care of the other, for no real obvious reason. Talk about friendship. George cared for Lennie. And Lennie, with his great big heart, cared too much and knew too little. 

Of Mice and Men touches my heart in such a special way. I can't help but love Lennie. I can't help but wonder if I could be as strong as George, if I could care that much. At the same time, I feel so bad for both of them. Such a hard situation to be in. All they really wanted was their own farm, all to themselves. They wanted to mind their own business and live their own lives, and they just couldn't. 

If you're familiar with Steinbeck's life, you'll know he had a terrible relationship with his first wife. I wonder if that impacted how Steinbeck wrote the character of the woman in Of Mice and Men and why he made her so evil, almost made her the antagonist. 

Of Mice and Men also brings up the important question of how to treat those with handicaps. Do we pretend they're not different? Do we admit they're different? Do we protect them from others? I don't know. Would being upfront about Lennie and his needs have given the book a different ending? Maybe. Maybe it would have been the same. 

I absolutely love Of Mice and Men, and it's so great because it's enjoyable on so many levels. It's rated about a 5th grade reading level with the Accelerated Reader Program, so younger readers can enjoy it too. It's one of my highest rated novels, and I highly recommend it! 

Flashback Friday: Middle School

Cass and I have been trying to de-junk the whole summer, so the other day I was going through my old files and getting ride of stuff I don't need. A lot of it was old school stuff that I have been hording. For real. Old notes from classes my freshman year at SUU. Don't worry, I got rid of a lot of it!! But I found myself missing school. I'm a little sad I don't get to buy new pencils and notebooks. I don't get to take exciting classes on interesting topics and have engaging discussions on them. [I'm over-glorifying school. Just a little] 

Instead, I get to go to middle school again.

Unfortunately, it's as a grown up. Too bad I can't go back to my middle school days. 

[which I'm also over-glorifying. who really wants to go back?]

Despite the acne and the drama, middle school was good. 

I may have looked like a dork, but I'll focus on the happy memories. :)

Grati-Tuesday

Welcome to Grati-Tuesday!

Today I am grateful for:

1. my lover and eternal families

2. This great big crazy family of mine! 

[as well as all my in-laws but I have no photos of everyone together]

3. Disneyland

4. Friends

5. Dance . . . especially this beautiful piece!

And, of course,  6. BOOKS! 

What are YOU grateful for today?

The Robber Bride

The Robber Bride is a different sort of novel than what I was expecting from Margaret Atwood, but it was still a hard book to put down! The title references 
the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale: The Robber Bridegroom which I had never heard of before, but you can read here. 


Atwood is writing to her age group in this tale, which is an older deomgraphic than I usually read, but it was still intrinsically an Atwood novel.  The narrative rotates between three old friends, Tony, Charis, and Roz, as well as the past and the present.  The three women are tied together by one more woman, Zenia, and the university the four attended.  Zenia, the dead and the vil, ties these women together as she destroys their lives, betrays them completely, but she never gets a chance to tell her story (though I would have loved a Zenia point-of-view!). 


The women think they have moved past Zenia and the pain she has caused, until they see her while they're out to lunch, or at least, they think they do. Is Zenia still alive? And how can she hurt them now? 


As I already said, I could hardly put this down.  This was a great novel. I loved it. Read it & read on!

Trafalga

Since we were already up north for Michael's homecoming, we made plans to see Morrell 

and Carma on Monday night for dinner. We ate at Z'Tejas and it was delicious! And then, since we were already that far up north, we figured we could meet up with Cass's

friend Forbes. We decided to to meet at Trafalga, and since it's only in Lehi, Cass thought we

should invite Jordyn, because it's so much more fun with a kid! Jordyn thought it was a

great idea, too, and had a blast playing with us!

(and I just used "since" waaaaay too many times in this paragraph!)

We raced go-carts, played mini-golf while we got to catch up with Forbes and Jenni. We had a great time, even though we all suck at mini-golf. But I did beat Forbes at the go-carts, or, at least, run into him and almost pass him, so we had a fun day!

we raced in the batmobile go-cart

"I'm Doctor Gregory House!"

trying really hard to get the balls in the hole!

Forbes and Cass doing the same thing as the kiddos!

Jordyn just got a little nervous on the frog hopper,
 but she rode it three times!

The Forbes Family had to head back up north around four, but we stayed and played a little bit longer. We rode the go-carts again, went on the water-spraying boats, played some arcade games, and made a 10x return on our tokens for tickets, which we used to get "sticky hands." Jordyn's choice, obviously. I would have picked candy, but they didn't have anything good!

Jordyn almost always gets upset when I leave, especially when she doesn't know when I'm coming back up. So when we were getting read to leave my mom's house and head back to Cedar for who-knows-how-long, we had this little exchange:

"We had such a fun day today, don't ruin it by throwing a fit."

"Don't ruin it by leaving!"

I couldn't help but laugh, especially when she followed it with, "Ooooh, burn!"

We had a great day at Trafalga and loved playing with Jordyn and the Forbes Family!

Of Bachelorettes and Bruises

July has been a super busy month for me so far!

So while I haven't blogged in a bit, I do have lots to blog about!

Two weeks ago was Darci's wedding weekend. Cass was on-call and had lots of work responsibilities, so I drove myself up. It wasn't a bad drive, and I got to listen to my nerdy podcasts, until it started raining. Turns out the driver's side windshield wiper isn't very effective! 

The bachelorette party started with a pole dancing class at Onyx Pole and Aerial Fitness Studio. As you can see from the name, the focus is more than just looking sexy. And WOW! It is hard work! I found myself thinking, "Gosh! I can do all this stuff without a pole in dance, why is it so hard now?!?!" Plus, I have absolutely no upper body strength! Hard stuff, ya'll!

All sweaty after class!
Natalia, me, Whitney, Jessie, Darci, Jill

Sassy!

Jill's baby, Kylie

Darci, showing off her new abilities!

"Go upside down!"

You can't see it very well, but I got an awesome bruise on my calf and shin!
I got more little purple bruises on my inner thighs, but I thought I'd keep those out of sight . . .

We played some crazy games after the pole dancing class and Jill made us dinner. It was delicious and we had a great time, and Darci gave us some super cute stuff! 

bridesmaids presents: including self-made earrings and necklaces!

the note she included

The wedding ceremony was on Saturday and we were all to get ready together at Darci's apartment. However, I woke up super sick that morning. I slept as much as I could before it was time to go up to Darci's, but I still felt gross. Unfortunately (for everyone!), I kept throwing up at Darci's and they sent me home! I'm sad I missed out on all the wedding fun, but Darci and Tyler had a great wedding day and it was great to see Darci! 

Darci's Bridal Shower

One of my best friends, Darci, is getting married next month, and this past week was her bridal shower. The shower was in Salt Lake, so decided to go up to Mapleton a few days early and spend some time with these lovely dorks: 

We had some great girl time and Jordyn barely left my side! She even enjoyed watching So You Think You Can Dance and Breaking Pointe with me! 

The shower was Saturday and it was great to see Darci! She lives too stinkin' far away! The shower was fun and it was nice to see the other bridesmaids, too. Someone took pictures, but they're not on facebook, so this will have to suffice:

at the wedding expo

 I had a great weekend and I loved seeing everyone!  

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

A few weeks ago, Cass and I were redboxing and I saw that Snow Flower and the Secret Fan was made into a movie, so I absolutely had to get it.  It's one of my favorite books and I thought Cass would like it, since it has to do with China (he did!). 

Well, so the movie inspired me to re-read the book, so that I could remember everything as well as compare it to the movie. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan  is about two little girls, Snow Flower and Lily, preparing for their footbinding.  Instead of being sworn into a sisterhood with girls from their village, they form a laotong relationship, or an eternal bonding of two as kindred sisters. They are soul mates. Snow Flower tells the story of Snow Flower and Lily as they grow up and lead their separate lives. 

As I said, this is one of my favorite books. It is so relate-able. It is timeless. All women form intimate friendships. We all have heartaches. All of our friendships wax and wane. We all have misunderstandings. But when it comes down to it, your true friends are always there when you need them, as with Lily and Snow Flower.

Sisterhood Everlasting

I'm sure most of you have read Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I was about 13-14 when it came out and was the perfect age. Well, at the library, about a month or so ago, I unknowingly picked up the last book of the series. When I realized it was the last book, I decided to read it even though I hadn't read the in-between-ers.  They turned out to be completely unnecessary to this story. And for the most part, I really liked Sisterhood Everlasting.  I thought it was a good conclusion to the Sisterhood and wrapped everything up nicely. I generally like friendship books [not to be mistaken for clique books!]. My main concern while reading it was that it was marketed as a young adult novel. First off, the characters are in their late twenties. They live the lives of grown ups. It's not exactly YA material. Which leads into my second concern: the content. When I think of 11-year-old me reading YA books, I wouldn't want me to read it. There were just a few things that were too sexy and explicit for my taste. There is also talk of suicide, which may also be a little too strong for some younger girls. As an adult book, I didn't find it inappropriate. And overall, I did like Sisterhood Everlasting. There wasn't anything terribly connected to the other books and I feel like it could stand alone. This was an easy read and, while not necessarily fantastic, I do give it a medium recommendation. Read on! 

Uprising

I'd had a faint interest in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, but [as you can probably guess] I initially was interested in Uprising because it's by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Told from the view points of three young girls- Yetta, Bella, and Jane- we also see how the factory conditions, the strike, and the fire, affected all those in the building. 

This book was the perfect storm for my cravings. Historical Fiction. MPH. YA novel. It was fascinating, and factual in events. The characters were relate-able. They were very real, very much the people I would picture working at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. And, as a side note, it showed how far women have come in the last century, as well as workers conditions. I highly recommend it. 

And for those of you who are wondering- Triangle is the name of the company, although a shirtwaist does form you, relatively, into a triangle. And a shirtwaist looks like this: 

Angela's Ashes

So my amigita favorita had the lovely idea that we, along with another chicita bonita should start a book club. [I'm the only non-ginger allowed, so back off! :)]

And so we read Angela's Ashes.

 

Not gonna lie. I legit picked this book up on a dollar day at the bookstore with no idea what it was about. I just looked at the cover and assumed it was a holocaust novel. My bad. So it was sitting in my pile-o-books-to-read when Nat suggested our book club and reading this. However, with the wedding and the moving and the honeymooning and the five other books I was reading, Angela's Ashes took a back burner. 

My first thought on finishing this book was that I clearly need to read Joyce again because I'm starting to think all Irishmen are the same.  But seriously.  Near the end of this really started to remind me of Portrait. Maybe Stephen Daedalus knew Frank McCourt? Okay I'm being ridiculous. 

My second thought was "Why is this book titled Angela's Ashes? I don't get it!" 

But I did enjoy this book. I didn't speed through it, but I did read it rather quickly. I do recommend this book. It also has a sequel, apparently, which is now going on my list.  

But really. Anyone know why a nice gent like McCourt would title his memoir with his mother's name?