Update from exotic new location!

I've said before that I'm pretty bad at keeping a consistent blog-diary-journal entry happening. It's been quite a change since my last entry. To recap life: now in Chicago, and loving it. Working, auditioning, paying bills, trying to find a scheme of bedroom decoration that has some semblance of order to it. That's the short story of it, really.

Speaking of stories-- I've been neglecting my book-reading duties something fierce. I actually don't know where The Terror is... either Leanne snagged it back or it's lost somewhere in the black hole that is everything I own. (Leanne, if you're reading, I'm sorry!) I've been thinking about it lately, though, because I really want to finish it. I went through a stressful period with it this summer, where I skipped forward a chapter accidentally, and was really confused and lost in the plot, but then couldn't find the right page to go back to, so it was just a whirlwind of Olde English names and icebergs and ship terminology and "Esquimeaux" and so on. Unnecessarily worrying.

Any reading I've been doing lately has been in the form of magazines, or online skincare / health articles. (I work in the office of a company that sells hand lotion and stuff, so I'm kind of always looking up that sort of thing.)

Regarding the articles: when I research for blog entries or what-have-you, I get on these tangents of looking at skincare facts and ideas that I'm more personally interested in (other than dry hands...), and there's a good deal of interesting tidbits. One thing I want to try is getting grapes, cutting one in half, and rubbing the cut side over your face. Apparently the fruit oils are really clarifying and exfoliating? I don't know, but I'm intrigued. Another is putting straight-up honey on your face like a mask, and then washing it off after a while. I'm more hesitant to try this, because as awesome as it sounds, I don't know how my skin will react. I don't think I have dry enough skin to benefit from this, so it may just gunk up my face. We shall see if I try it or not.

Regarding the magazines: I currently have a slew of bridal magazines. As to how I got them-- that's a whole tangential story of its own. I worked the National Bridal Expo downtown at the beginning of the month. It was totally overwhelming, but in a good, lots-of-things-to-do-and-look-at way. I dressed models for a bridal and pageantry gown company out of Florida. I got elbowed in the face by a model from LA while trying to yank a lace-up gown off of her. How often can people say that?? Ridiculous.

But anyway-- there were lots of current bridal magazines to peruse and take, from listings of local companies to Martha Stewart Bridal. I, of course, took them all. My love for style magazines and potential collaging materials dictated that I had no other choice, really. I love color and style stories that specialty fashion and design magazines have. Like, where they have variations on a theme, and create this whole atmosphere for you with suggested dresses and decor and color schemes? I love that. One of these bridal magazines in particular had a really comprehensive collection of them. They covered everything from bridesmaids to place settings to cake to flowers. It was all really beautiful and cleverly though out-- my favorite story was the mixed metallics. Classy, but still unusual and interesting.

In unrelated news: my roommate and I live above a series of little boutique places-- i.e., dog grooming, dentist's office, kid's clothing boutique. And there's a yoga studio. Their schedule for October features a "community" session / class once a week, which means it's free and open to whomever. I want to go today after work, but... I hope I don't have to bring my own mat. I don't want to show up and feel stupid because I'm the only mat-less one, and they don't have one to borrow. Sigh. My life is so hard.

Also: apparently today's storm is / was / is going to be the worst of the decade? WHY WASN'T I WARNED??

unfinished book ramblings.

Already July?? Ridiculous!

So I've been- what else is new- kind of slacking on my book list. It started to take a backseat to figuring out my life and my move to Chicago. (Which, by the way, I'm doing.)

I did get about halfway through The Terror, though, and I'm really loving it. Granted, first of all I had to get past the really irritating point of not being able to keep any of the characters straight from each other, but that's gotten better. There is this element of the supernatural and total fantasy to it, even though it's a period drama-- like, there's some unnamed creature/force stalking these iced-in ships. But, somehow, it doesn't seem too fake and hokey. (Yet. I could end up eating my words.) I think the author was really clever in establishing the crew's constant, underlying sense of panic and paranoia at being stranded in a completely unknown and hostile environment. In that frame of mind, this beast or demon or whatever starts to read as a witch hunt. No one knows what it actually is, no one has ever seen it, and we don't yet know if it's just a figment of consumption-crazed imaginations, or if it's really the work of a crewman or one of the two random Inuit people they brought onboard as aides.
(Sidenote about said Inuits: in the book, which is written to follow different crew members in different chapters without being in first person, they spell it "Esquimaux". It honestly took me about 20 pages to figure out what they were talking about.)
I'm excited to see where the rest of this novel goes. I need to start being more productively lazy-- as in, read more of my book list, pack for Chicago, get rid of things I've had since middle school, and keep working on a coffee table that I'm refinishing. It's sitting in our garage, looking very sad and covered in dust from sanding it down.

I've also got more books to add! One of my best friends from high school Maura has recommended The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and the other book by that author which I can't think of the name for right now. I know it just came out as a movie? So I'll have to avoid that until I can read it first. Movies are never as good as the books.
And Seth very emphatically answered my request with any and all Christopher Moore. I can't remember if he specifically named a certain one, but he made it seem like Moore's entire body of work would be right up my alley. Hopefully it's as horrible and irreverent as I am.
PS regarding Seth: I can't comment on his Tumblr because I don't have a Tumblr. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM ME, INTERNET. sigh.

...okay, time to go retrieve my cinnamon toast from the toaster, from where it has been glaring balefully at me for the past 20 minutes.

Take a look, it's in a book... Reading Rainboowwww!

Half-a-year from my last post, and I'm a college graduate. Time flies when you never blog.

Plans for this summer (other than find a job SOMEWHERE PLEASEBABYJESUSJUSTSOMETHINGTOGETMONEYAUGHHHH):

- make the money to move to Chicago in September.

- read.

On that second point, I've decided that it's been way too long since I've read for leisure. I still am just barely started in on a longform poetry/prose book that I bought last semester. So, I asked around my friends (and sister) for recommendations. Apart from getting suggestions for books I would otherwise have not really known about, it strikes me as a glimpse into the more private interests of other people. I mean, it's not too often that people discuss what they're reading in passing with each other, and sometimes people are really private about what they read. I like the opportunity of sharing a bit of this world with them.

Anyway! Enough waxing rhapsodic. My summer reading list as it stands now is:

- The Terror, Dan Simmons. (rec'd by Morey, although the book is Leanne's)
I'm excited for this one, because I like history stuff and war movies and the like. It follows the (very real, although novelized) events of late 1800's British sea exploration. By which I mean, the period in Britain's history where they sent ships out to travel up around the Arctic, basically sending sailors off to freeze and die in the name of the Crown. I think this book also has some b-plot of mystery something-or-other, but it still sounds good. And I agree with Morey, that this is going to be a good summer book-- reading about icy freezing waters when sweating profusely? Yes please!

- anything by Jim Butcher; possibly The Dresden Files. (rec'd by Kevin)
I'm also really interested in trying some of Butcher's stuff, but maybe for a more personal reason. Kevin loves to read, but is always really defensive and secretive about what he's reading. He probably thinks that he's going to get judged or made fun of, as a lot of what he likes to read falls under sci-fi/fantasy. What I think is that this genre of book has a stigma that carries the nerdy-D&D-reclusive-teenager association well past "Young Adult" books. Some people don't realize that sci-fi stuff can be clever and mature and well-written and meant for someone older than 13. I consider Ray Bradbury to be a sci-fi writer, and he is absolutely my favorite writer ever-- the way he commands words? Glorious. I can't get enough of his evocative use of language. LOVE.
...Um. Okay. Enough salivating. So back to Jim Butcher (who, for some reason, I keep wanting to call Sam Butcher. Different guy.). I'm really intrigued, because I've never read anything by or about him. I want to make sure to choose something that's appropriately indicative of his body of work. Maybe the first three of The Dresden Files-- apparently they can be found grouped into one hardcover deal-y. I'm excited to read him, because (among other reasons) I feel like I'm being afforded exclusive access to a little world that Kevin keeps kind of private. Accomplishment! Bonding! Et cetera!

- buttloads of Shakespeare; Hamlet, Othello, A Winter's Tale... (bagful given to me by Leanne)
I can't believe my personal *library of Shakespeare* quadrupled instantly! Leanne let me have a bag of 8 books that she has her own copies of, or something. Now, I already own the arguably more common Bard works (read: english class textbooks from high school)-- R&J, Midsummer, and Twelfth Night (that one's from college). I was pleased to find that the ones I got from Leanne are all new to me! Not that I don't know of them, just that I've never read them.
...Cue mutinous theatre-folk across the country perking up like disapproving prairie dogs at the fact I've never read Hamlet. ("But I've seen Lion King so that's good enough. Right? Right??")
So I'm excited to have some summer reading that will stretch my brain and require third and fourth readings. That's something I've definitely always loved about Shakespeare's mastery of the written word; there's so much there that more and new tidbits can be found in each subsequent reading!

- Only Revolutions, Mark Z. Danielewski. (edited-to-add; I can't believe I forgot to list this one! it's the book I mentioned in the beginning that I started but never finished!)
I can't *wait* to finish this. I am already in total and complete love with it. It's art in book form: it's a work of words that reads as a poem; as a rambling run-on sentence; as wanderlust feelings that you never knew you had, put onto paper. I don't even think I can properly describe it. It's the story (I say "story" loosely, as it is so oddly written) of a teenage boy and girl, Sam and Hailey, who meet and begin a road-trip/adventure of sorts across America's land and history. Hailey's take is written from one cover; flip the book, and Sam's begins from the other. The margins are packed with small lists of dates and events from the country's history. The covers are totally gorgeous in their own right; a visual shadowbox of stones, birds, trinkets, and flowers in a rich palette of yellow or green (depending on whose cover you're looking at). The author has a note in which he recommends reading 8 pages of each narrative at a time; there are 2 ribbons glued in the spine to help you keep track.
Here's a taste of Sam's narrative (misspellings are intentional):

From palisade and powdery saddle,
fumarole, flume and falls,
I hurtle free, even if Them allso
hanker to follow me,
something else trailing even
Them, beyond outrage & relief,
a Kindness
never outdone, never survived.
A horror I should easily outrun
but can't leave behind, traversing
all winds except for this one,
which dares me, dogs me,
bewares me to burn
the World quick.

I just can't get over how much of a beautiful and clever little complete package this book is. The cadence of the writing... the details of the presentation... the idea behind it... I love it. All of it. I can't even help how impossibly excited this book makes me.


Ahh, books. How I love you so.

On a similar, book-related note: I can't decide if the Kindle grosses me out or offends me. Like, I know I get this weird disgusted feeling about it... because really? People are *over* paper books? This displeases me.