What I'm Reading

I find myself doing a lot of re-reading these days for some reason, and I'm currently re-reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

If you haven't read these books yet, you need to!  They really are very well written, even if they are young adult books.  The Hunger Games is the first in the trilogy, then Catching Fire, and then the conclusion Mockingjay.  The books are set in a future version of our world, where the United States doesn't exist anymore.  The country is now called Panem and is comprised of the Capitol and twelve districts that answer to the Capitol in a form of servitude.  The Hunger Games follows Katniss Everdeen, a young girl from District 12, as she goes to the Hunger Games as one of the tributes from her district.  There are two tributes from each of the twelve districts and they fight to the death in the Hunger Games, for the viewing pleasure of the Capitol.  This has been going on for 74 years.  It's really quite repulsive.  Katniss is a very complicated, introspective girl.  She is incredibly smart and a very efficient hunter.  The three books follow her struggles and her personal growth for over a year.

I want to say more but I don't want to give anything away to anybody who hasn't read them!  There are so many horrific things that happen in her life and you really feel compassion for Katniss.  But then there are other times when you want to shake her and make her grow the hell up and act differently!  It's very interesting to read about the progression of her relationships with Gale and Peeta, the two men in her life, and see her mature from a girl to a young woman.  That all sounds vague enough!

What I'm so, so, so incredibly excited about are the movies they are currently making from these books!  Entertainment Weekly seems just as excited as I am and covers every move on the movie making.  They recently had covers with the stars of the movie, and the actors portraying them look almost exactly how I picture them when reading!

Katniss

Gale & Peeta

Yay yay yay!!!  I can't wait!  And I think that these movies will be more true to the books than the Twilight series has been, because Suzanne Collins has been involved in the screen writing process.  Lenny Kravitz is going to play Katniss' stylist, Cinna; Woody Harrelson is going to be Katniss and Peeta's mentor, Haymitch; Donald Sutherland as President Snow; Stanley Tucci as Ceasear Flickerman, the Hunger Games interviewer; Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket, the escort.  I think it's a great cast!

Check these books out - they're so worth it!

Questioning My Fashion

First let me preface this post by saying that I generally feel very confident in my fashion choices.  I kind of pride myself on being appropriately dressed for whatever the occasion dictates.  I know that I don't have the best or the most expensive or the trendiest clothes, but I think I generally look good and fashionable.

I recently attended two different events to which I wore the same dress.  A photo taken at the second event shows the dress I wore - a black and white cotton print, fit and flare, knee-length dress by Ralph Lauren.  It has a self-tie belt and fun pockets.  Though the picture below isn't the best, it's a really flattering dress and I've gotten a ton of compliments on it.  When I found it, I had no event to wear it to, but I absolutely loved it, so I bought it anyway.

The first event I wore this to was an anniversary party for my cousin's boyfriend's company.  (Whoa, that was long winded!)  I wore it with very simple kitten heel sandals.  I was dressed completely WRONG!  The girls who were there were some of the trendiest dressed girls I have seen in a long time.  Super trendy clothes, purses, and shoes.  Every part of my outfit was too subtle, not trendy enough, BORING!!!  Even the guys there were seriously Euro-trendy, wearing skinny jeans, deep v-neck tees, and pointy shoes.

The second event I wore this to was a Design Council party on the rooftop of the Art Museum residences.  This time I dressed up my shoes just a bit to simple black pumps from Coach.  Not trendy by any means, but beautiful and timeless.  At this event, I felt appropriately dressed.  As you can see from the photo, some people were similarly attired, though some were fancier.  Some were dressed much more casually, too.  This time my shoes were the thing that stuck out.  They were much too simple.  Most of the other women had trendy wedges, platforms, booties, or funky sandals.  It made me want to update my shoe wardrobe - IMMEDIATELY!

Though I can't (and don't really want to) do anything about the trendy clothing, I can do something about the shoes!  I went to DSW this weekend on a quest for new, trendy shoes.  I didn't do too well.  :)  I only got one pair of totally trendy shoes.  They are fabulous peep toe booties with hella high heels and a front platform.  They're black leather with trapunto stitching.  So much fun!!!  But the other three pairs I got are much more refined and classic.  They are all peep toes, though, so I guess I had a theme going.

 Maybe I'm too old to have too much trendy stuff in my wardrobe?

Week of Annoyances

For some reason, there were many things that really annoyed me this week.  Here are some of them, in no particular order:

1.  People who ride their bikes on incredibly busy traffic streets where there is no bike lane.   
So there I am, driving down Downing along Wash Park in rush hour.  It's always kind of a cluster fuck along this strip because of everybody parking, the drivers people watching, cars turning without a turn lane, and all the pedestrians.  But then imagine a not-experienced bike rider riding along on the street.  Not twenty feet away on the bike path in the park, but in the street.  This is really not a good idea.  Passing her was a bitch once, but then any time traffic stopped for a turner or a light, she would pass all of us again and then we'd be stuck behind her again.  At one light, I stopped really far to the right so that she wouldn't be able to pass us again, but somehow she still managed to get past.  UGGHH!

2.  Contractors who don't come to the job site when they say they will.
My boss was in Dallas this week for an install.  I had scheduled various contractors to be on-site to do their various jobs.  Half of them didn't come when they said they would, screwing up getting the project done.  My boss makes it seem like it's my fault somehow.  Right, like I can control somebody in Dallas who I've never met.  For example, the wallpaper installer was supposed to be on-site Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The guy was there on Tuesday doing prep work.  But then nobody came by on Wednesday.  When we called the company, they said they got backed up on another job and wouldn't be able to have somebody there that day.  They would make it up by having three installers there on Thursday.  Irritating but okay.  By mid-day on Thursday, nobody had shown up yet.  Calling the company resulted in more excuses.  Nobody ever came by on Thursday.  Friday, finally an installer finally showed up.  But only one.  Until John sent a scathing email to the company and the clients.  Another installer came later, but not the three installers that we were promised.  So irritating!

3.  Finding out that somebodies excuse for not attending an event was a total lie.
This explanation is going to be a little cryptic, sorry!  Recently some friends gave an excuse for not attending a big event that seemed totally legitimate.  They had something else coming up that was really big and couldn't afford the time or money that this event would cost them.  It made total sense.  But then I found out that they did something else during this time that totally negated their reasoning for not attending the big event!  It is so irritating.  Don't lie about something when your lie will be totally obvious to those you lied to!

4.  Parking.
I have always been a bit of a parking nazi.  When I lived in Capital Hill, I was constantly irritated with the way people would parallel park on the streets near my apartment.  I mean, really, parking was at a premium down there, so you had to park really tight.  This week, parking has been a bit of an annoyance.  At my current apartment, though I now have a lot to park in, space is still at a bit of a premium.  Especially if anybody has people over.  Mid-week one of my neighbors had a few friends over.  Really I think she was attempting to see how many people could fit in her apartment.  It was packed!  Therefore our lot was packed.  When I came home at 8pm there was not a parking space for four buildings.  I ended up parking in a no-parking zone.  Nice.  The other parking related item is an on-going annoyance.  My office is now at my bosses house.  We park on the street outside his house.  He lives on a corner and his neighbor around the corner and on the other side of the house, for some reason, always parks in front of his house.  But not only her, her nurse parks there, her guests park there.  Everybody who visits her house parks there.  She has a driveway.  You can park on the street in front of her house.  Why do they all insist on parking over here?  When I come to work, I have to park halfway down the block because of them.  It's annoying.  And I know it annoys my boss, too.

Hopefully this week will be much better!  Thanks for letting me vent!

Visiting Mecca - I Mean Ikea

I was so super excited for Ikea to finally open a store here in Colorado.  It felt like it took forever for them to build the blue and yellow monstrosity down near Park Meadows Mall, but actually it went pretty quickly.  I never planned to go right when they opened; I knew I wanted to wait a while for the crowds to die down.  But I don't know that the crowds are ever actually going to die down.  Why I need to go - I rearranged my guest room and now have room for a small desk, so I found one in Ikea's catalog.  And of course I need all the fun organizing accoutrements to go with the desk, too, like a wall shelf, a metal rod that stuff hangs off of, and a magnetic strip with little containers for paperclips, etc.  Eventually I'm also going to replace the bookshelves in there as well so everything can match.  And I'm going to get a new cocktail table and end table for my living room.  But first I need Michelle & Russ to have their garage sale so that I have somewhere to get rid of the existing stuff.

I finally got down there yesterday.  I thought that if I went at "dinner time" there would be less families crowding the place, but boy was I wrong!  First you encounter the police and traffic directors directing everybody to a place to park.  I was shocked that they were still doing this.  Honestly, I think things would go more smoothly without them.  For example, when I left, I didn't want to go north to Dry Creek.  I wanted to go south to County Line because I wanted to go to Chick-fil-A while I was in the suburbs.  But they wouldn't allow any cars to go south and because of that, Chick-fil-A didn't get my business and now it's Sunday and they're not open!  But I digress.

I go to the lot I'm directed to without realizing how far away from the entrance it is.  I hike up the hill and across the street, entering the main Ikea lot at the back.  There are no helpful signs directing us poor walking folks where to go from here.  So I just start following a woman and her two kids.  She probably thought I was a stalker.  Finally after going down a level and walking for like a mile, I see the entrance signs!  YAY!  Up two levels and we're there!

Now, I must say that I've been to an Ikea before.  With Kristen in Portland.  So I was familiar with the drill already.  But obviously most people don't understand it and there were very few Ikea personnel near the door to explain to people that it's not necessary to get a cart now.  Don't worry.  Just pick up a bag, a pencil, and a map and you'll be good.  It was kind of a cluster-fuck.

I also did my  homework before I went because I recently got a catalog in the mail.  I pretty much knew exactly what I wanted and knew which areas I would find the items in.  I didn't need to browse through each display to check everything out.  Which is good because I probably would have killed somebody if I had to do that with all the throngs of meandering people.  I don't have the patience for throngs of meandering people.  Or for the people who go against traffic - there's arrows on the floor for a reason, people!

Oh, the people!  Ai yi yi!  Nobody was paying attention to anybody around them.  They'd stop without warning right in the middle of the main aisle without regard to the hundreds of people behind them.  They'd leave their (empty) carts everywhere and anywhere, clogging up traffic.  They'd walk five abreast, making it so passing was practically impossible.  Parents were letting their kids jump all over the furniture - I literally saw one boy do a belly flop on a bed.  His parents did nothing to reprimand him.  The last section they heard you through is the children's section - I couldn't get out of there quick enough!


Next you go downstairs to collect everything you want.  While this was a little less insane than upstairs, it was still crazy.  And this is where you tend to spend more money than you ever planned.  Why buy plain cotton drapes when you can buy velvet?  It's only a few dollars more.  And though I only had a cheese grater on my list, yes I do need a cheese slicer, too.  And yes I also need a garlic press.  And those super cute lime green napkins, too.  You always need napkins, so why shouldn't they be cute ones from Ikea?  And those cute shapes ice trays.  And the well-priced towels.  It never ends!


The calmest part was the boxed furniture section.  Ahhhhh..... Serenity.....  Though you really should have a shopping buddy to help you move those heavy boxes, which I didn't.  Nor did I have room left in my cart for the big box.  And since there is no way I could maneuver both my regular cart and a flat cart, I had a very precarious situation on my hands.  I made it work though.  Check-out here I come!  Holy shit!  How did I spend so much money?!?!  Ummmm,  okay.

Now, how do I find my way to my car?  Let's just say that I think I spent as much time walking to the car as I did in the store.  There was absolutely no easy way from the entrance to the lot I parked in, while maneuvering a heavy cart.  And the guys directing traffic in the main parking garage were no help.  One guy directed me to an exit that had stairs.  Hmmm... not gonna work with a cart filled with a ton of shit.  The next guy told me to go back up to the front, out to the side and around the whole building.  Four miles later I was out to the street that my parking lot was on, but I was way down at the bottom of a hill.  I looked forlornly up the hill towards the lot, really not looking forward to a hike with my getting-heavier-every-second cart.  Then a parking directer took pity on me and told me he'd push my cart to my car for me.  Such a nice man!  Finally at the third lot we come to, I say - this is it!   We're here, we're finally here!  Thank god I can finally sit down!

I was too exhausted to put together my new stuff last night, so I still haven't gotten to see the fruits of my labors.  And now I'm getting a cold.  Although I sort of felt it coming on before I went to Ikea, I'm still going to blame it on the throngs of people and germs there.  As soon as I have the new bookshelves in there too, I'll take pictures.  I just hope I can actually psych myself up enough to go back!

The Ugliest Chair Ever

I see a lot of ugly furniture in my line of work, but this one takes the cake.

This chair is from Sicis, a company that makes beautiful glass tile.  Why on earth are they making furniture?  They have absolutely NO business making furniture.  And I'm sure it's expensive, too.  Please, people, stick to what you're good at.

I Feel Like a Bad Mom & Holy Cow the Dog Kennel is Expensive!

When I go to Portland next week I have to board Lulu in a kennel for the second time in her 11 1/2 years.  I am (ridiculously) upset about it.  When I was researching kennels online I was actually crying thinking about how abandoned Lulu is going to feel.  Which is why I feel like a bad mom.

The first time I boarded Lulu was when she was still a puppy.  I was traveling a lot for work and one of my trips coincided with my parents summer vacation.  We decided to board both Lulu and Zelda at a kennel that was recommended by my aunt.  This was so long ago that it was before the days when everybody really pampered their pets.  It became such a hassle.  First, they didn't want to keep Lulu and Zelda together because Lulu is a small dog and Zelda is a big dog, and they usually separated the dogs by size.  Then it was a huge ordeal to feed them their own food, an ordeal to feed them a mixture of wet and dry, an ordeal to feed them twice a day.  To me those things should just be standard operating procedure.  They wouldn't allow them to have their own beds or toys.  I would think that those items from home would help with the separation anxiety.

Even with all those problems, we felt like the dogs would be okay there.  When I picked them up, I decided that I would try to never board my dog again.  And I would definitely never board my dog there again, if I had to board her at all.  Lulu was pink when I picked her up.  PINK!  She had been wearing a pink halter collar and during her stay she chewed it off of herself.  The kennel employees never bothered to take it away from her, so she kept chewing on it and turned herself pink in the process.  Nor did they bother to give her a bath to remove the pink.  Thanks.  They never returned the container that held Lulu's food (which was a nice one!) nor the 1/2 cup scoop that portioned out her food.  I still have the rest of the set of measuring cups and every time I see that the 1/2 cup is missing, I'm irked all over again.

For the last 11 years, my parents and I have always made sure one of us can take care of the dogs because of that kennel experience.  But now since all of us, as well as the rest of our family, will be in Portland for Kristen and Stacy's wedding, we have to kennel them again.

After some research and talking to my vet about it, I decided on the PetsHotel at PetsMart.  It's expensive!  $28 per night for their regular room.  But included in that is two feedings per day, and they actually provide the food!  It just so happens that they use the same food Lulu already gets.  It's absolutely no problem to feed a combo of wet and dry and they'll even include the green beans Lulu now gets (part of her diet) if I provide them portioned out.  And they didn't bat an eye when I told them the particulars about how much she eats - 1/3 cup of dry food, 1/10th can of wet food, and 1/4 cup of green beans.  No biggie.  They also said that it's fine to bring her bed.  Because its makes the separation easier to have something from home.  Of course you can bring a favorite toy, just no squeakers because it's a choking hazard.  They also walk the dogs multiple times a day.  If Lulu wasn't so old and wasn't such a bitch, she could also go to the doggie day camp to play with other dogs.  It would cost me and extra $16, but since she doesn't really like other dogs, I don't have to incur that expense.

Turns out that my parents plans for Zelda fell through and she has to be boarded, too.  We thought it might be nice for Zelda and Lulu to be near each other, but they do get sick of each other and definitely need to be separated at meal times, so a shared room wasn't a great option.  The PetsHotel people had a wonderful solution!  Adjoining rooms with a close-able door between them - perfect!

They will give your dog special treats - a treat filled kong or doggie icecream ($4 each), and will give your dog a bath before you pick it up ($11).  They will give your dog it's medication ($2 per day).  You can give your dog individual play time, I guess for if your dog isn't good with other dogs ($9).  They actually even have what they call a Dog Suite - it is a larger room, with a better bed, and a TV tuned to doggie programs. :)  That once costs $38 a day.

I had to fill out a three page form about Lulu and her history.  It was really quite funny.  I had to provide a local emergency contact, too.  Since, again, my entire family will be in Portland, that honor goes to Michelle.  Hopefully she doesn't actually ever have to go get Lulu, though.  Although Lulu absolutely LOVES Michelle and Russ, she doesn't exactly care for Tuli or Mira's method of love by smothering and hugging to death.

I feel so much better about the situation knowing that the PetsHotel people have figured out how to make it work for us.  Although I'm sure I'll have a shock when I pay the bill, I know it's worth it for my precious baby Lulu.

A Twofer! - What I'm Reading and a Little Rant about Equality

I finally read Jodi Picoult's latest book, Sing You Home.  It came out in March and it's been sitting in my "to-read" stack since then.  I always like Picoult's books.  She writes about current, hot-button topics, and doesn't shy away from controversy.  She's written about teen suicide, autistic kids and murder, and this one is about infertility, gay rights/equality and evangelical Christians.  There's some serious controversy for you!  A lot of Picoult's books trade off narrators in every chapter, which I really like.  It lets you see different characters point-of-view.  It was especially helpful in this book because the main characters have such VERY different points-of-view.

In this book, Zoe and Max have been trying to have a baby for ten years.  Their infertility has taken over their life.  In-vitro treatments have cost them a ton of money.  They have had multiple miscarriages.  And after they lose their baby, a still born at 28 weeks, Max decided that he can't do this anymore and wants a divorce.  Max, an alcoholic, copes with the loss of their son and their marriage by drinking.  Then one night, after a drunken car accident, he finds Jesus.  He joins a "born-again" church and becomes a completely different man.  Zoe copes by finding a new best friend, Vanessa.  Vanessa happens to be gay.  Zoe and Vanessa fall in love.

Now, I'm probably going to give too many spoilers for people who want to read this book, but I have to talk about the rest of the book.  I have read many, many books.  They've made me sad and I've cried, I've laughed, I've been bored, I've been confused.  But I don't think that a book has ever made me so angry.  I'm sure that part of the reason I got so angry is because my sister is gay and I see all the time how the world treats her differently because of that.  But I also know that I would feel this way about gay rights even if she wasn't gay.  My sister is getting married this summer, but gay marriage isn't legal in the state of Oregon.  I think that absolutely sucks! 

And full disclosure here, I'm not religious.  I was raised Catholic and I have found that my beliefs and the Catholic church don't match up well at all.  My ex-boyfriend considered himself a born-again Christian, and though I went to church with him and his family and I enjoyed the music, that didn't fit me either.  I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything by not having religion in my life, but I don't begrudge people their beliefs and their religions, even if I don't exactly understand it all.

 In the book, Zoe and Vanessa go to another state to get married.  They discuss their options for having children and Zoe remembers that they still have three fertilized eggs from when she and Max were going through treatment.  She wants those eggs and the children they might produce.

When Max finds out that Zoe is gay, he is understandably shocked.  That news would be shocking for anybody's ex-husband, but it is doubly so for Max because he is now so ultra-religious.  His church believes that gay people are..., well, basically, the devil.  He and another member of the church, a women who was formerly "gay-identified" (because being gay is a choice, and now she chooses differently), try to talk some sense into Zoe.  They quote bible passages at Zoe and Vanessa, trying to get them to see the error of their ways.  At the end of the visit, Vanessa finally goes off on them and says: "How dare you tell me that what makes me me is wrong?  How dare you say that you're tolerant, as long as I'm just like you?  How dare you suggest that I shouldn't be allowed to get married to someone I love, or adopt a child, or that gay rights don't qualify as civil rights because, unlike skin color or disabilities, you think that sexual orientation can be changed?  But you know what?  Even that argument doesn't hold water, because you can change your religion, and religious affiliation is still protected by law.  Which is the only reason I'm going to ask you politely to leave my home, instead of throwing you out on your hypocritical evangelical asses."

I wanted to clap when I read that passage!  Good for them!  I'm sure that any gay person who has been preached to about how wrong they are, in the name of God, has wanted to have a retort like that.

The rest of the book is about the lawsuit that happens when Max doesn't want to give Zoe the fertilized eggs.  It becomes a fight between gay rights and the evangelical Christians.  It gets messy and disgusting.  Most of the arguments Max's side brings up pissed the shit out of me, to be honest.

At the end of the book, one of the characters says, "Jesus didn't make exceptions, Max.  He didn't say we're supposed to love ninety-eight percent of our neighbors...but hate the ones who play their music too loud or who always drive over our lawn or who vote for Ralph Nader or who get tattooed from head to toe.  There may be days I don't really want to love the guy whose dog ate the heads off my day lilies, but Jesus says I don't have a choice.  It's not love if there are conditions."

That's they way religion is supposed to be.  There isn't supposed to be hate or condemnation.  Everybody should be accepted, no matter what.  And no matter what your sexual orientation is, you should be allowed to marry the person you love and have children how you choose to have them.  Last week New York passed a law giving gay people the right to marry.  Though they are not the first state to do so, they are one of the largest.  And it seems like it got the most press.  Now we just need to rest of the states to do the same.  This country was founded because people wanted freedom from England.  How is this freedom any different than that?  I have to believe that our country will eventually do the right thing, because they have always done it in the past.

I highly recommend this book, and any of Jodi Picoult's books, but reader be warned that this one may stir up some serious feelings and thoughts.