Three of My Favorite Things

I’m not much for posting on a regular basis. That means you’re lucky to get the “important” updates about kids, broken arms, holidays, or life-changing drama. That also means that you rarely see a post here about mundane stuff like “What am I making for Dinner?” or “Today I Fell in Love with the TiVO”. When you rarely post, there isn’t much need for filler.

But, I have three things that have lately captured my attention and I really feel the need to share them with you today. Plus, Ethan is on a two hour delay for school. I swear I’m going to throw him, in his pajamas, in the snow/ice out the back door if he doesn’t use his INSIDE VOICE! WHERE DID THIS KID LEARN TO YELL?

Moving on….

Right before Christmas I downloaded the new Nickelback album "Dark Horse". I’m not a music connoisseur and certainly not qualified enough to tell you why this music appeals to me. I don’t know what genre it fits into or why I like it. I just know that I like singing along (out of key).

For Christmas Mark bought me an MP3 player. I think I was the last person in the Western world to own one. I specified that I wanted this one: Sansa Fuze. It is so tiny, and perfect, and I’m in love with it. I can listen to music while washing dishes or making dinner without the children groaning about the noise from my computer speakers or Mark grousing about having to hear country music. (Seriously, a boy from Kentucky who gets the twitches when he hears the Judds. Just.Ain’t.Right.) The "Dark Horse" album, along with previous Nickelback favorites, have “most played status” on my player. When, and if, we ever get an elliptical machine I’m looking forward to working out while jamming to my favorite tunes.

For my birthday Mamma bought me then next installment in the “Pink Carnation” series. If you have never read any of Miss Willig’s books, and you are a fan of historical novels set in the English Regency period, PLEASE go pick up “The Secret History of the Pink Carnation”, the first book in the series. Technically speaking these are historical romances, but not in the lewd “Please don’t let my mother/boss/professor of literature see me reading this” way. The author’s prose is polished but not stuffy. Her background, as a Harvard history grad and a lawyer, probably helps endear her to me. That she mixes the historical- and well researched history at that- action with a first person narrative of a self-professed American anglophile working on her dissertation research, only enforces my identification with the protagonist. Willig's characters are genuine, with foibles so recognizable that you’d swear she was writing about your slutty, but endearing, best friend, your outwardly mousy sophomore year roommate who secretly possessed a caustic wit, and your own not-so-minor “did he just look at me?”freak-outs about that gorgeous hunk in the vegetable aisle. Pick up a copy at your local library and tell me you aren’t hooked. I read "The Tempataion of the Night Jasmine" in six hours with barely a break to make dinner and tuck the boys in bed.

So that’s me: jamming to Nickelback on my MP3 player and consuming good books at an insane pace.

(Edited to fix "best fried" into "best friend". Sigh.)