Rory Gilmore’s Reading List

Procrastinating doing something important without a fixed deadline like researching your retirement and/or insurance options?  Well, why not look up an arbitrary list of things you mostly haven’t read?

I did not get heavily into Gilmore Girls, but this list seems pretty well rounded and is at least 90% of what I would like to read eventually.

I did count pieces read in high school and college if I read them entirely and can still remember them.

It will be nice to come back to this list and strike through items.

1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
3. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
4. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
5. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
6. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
7. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
8. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
9. Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
10. The Art of Fiction by Henry James
11. The Art of War by Sun Tzu
12. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
13. Atonement by Ian McEwan
14. Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
15. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
16. Babe by Dick King-Smith
17. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
18. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
19. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
20. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
21. Beloved by Toni Morrison
22. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
23. The Bhagava Gita
24. The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a
25. Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy
26. Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
27. A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
28. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
29. Brick Lane by Monica Ali
30. Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
31. Candide by Voltaire
32. The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
33. Carrie by Stephen King
34. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
35. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger – read
36. Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
37. The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
38. Christine by Stephen King
39. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
40. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
41. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
42. The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty
43. The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
44. A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
45. Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
46. The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
47. Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
48. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
49. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas père
50. Cousin Bette by Honor’e de Balzac
51. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
52. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
53. The Crucible by Arthur Miller
54. Cujo by Stephen King
55. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
56. Daisy Miller by Henry James
57. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
58. David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D
59. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
60. The Da Vinci -Code by Dan Brown
61. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
62. Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
63. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
64. Deenie by Judy Blume
65. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
66. The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
67. The Divine Comedy by Dante
68. The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
69. Don Quijote by Cervantes
70. Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
71. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson – read – 2009
72. Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
73. Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
74. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
75. Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
76. Eloise by Kay Thompson
77. Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
78. Emma by Jane Austen
79. Empire Falls by Richard Russo
80. Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
81. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
82. Ethics by Spinoza
83. Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves
84. Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
85. Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
86. Extravagance by Gary Krist
87. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
88. Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
89. The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
90. Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
91. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
92. The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
93. Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
94. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
95. Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
96. Fletch by Gregory McDonald
97. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
98. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
99. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
100. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
101. Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
102. Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
103. Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
104. Gender Trouble by Judith Butle
105. George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our
106. 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
107. Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
108. Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
109. The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
110. The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo
111. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
112. Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky
113. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
114. The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
115. The Gospel According to Judy Bloom
116. The Graduate by Charles Webb
117. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
118. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
119. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
120. The Group by Mary McCarthy
121. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
122. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
123. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
124. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
125. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (TBR)
126. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
127. Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
128. Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
129. Henry V by William Shakespeare
130. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
131. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
132. Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
133. The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
134. House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III (Lpr)
135. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
136. How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
137. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
138. How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
139. Howl by Allen Gingsburg
140. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
141. The Iliad by Homer
142. I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres
143. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
144. Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
145. Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy
146. It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
147. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
148. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
149. Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
150. The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
151. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
152. Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
153. The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
154. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
155. Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence
156. The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
157. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
158. The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
159. Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
160. Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
161. Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
162. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
163. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
164. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
165. The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
166. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
167. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
168. Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
169. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
170. The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
171. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
172. The Love Story by Erich Segal
173. Macbeth by William Shakespeare
174. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
175. The Manticore by Robertson Davies
176. Marathon Man by William Goldman
177. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
178. Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
179. Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
180. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
181. The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
182. Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
183. The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare
184. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
185. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
186. The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
187. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
188. The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
189. Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
190. A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
191. Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
192. A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
193. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
194. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
195. Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
196. My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
197. My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
198. My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
199. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
200. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
201. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
202. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
203. The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
204. Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
205. New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
206. The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
207. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
208. Night by Elie Wiesel
209. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
210. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan
211. Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic
212. Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
213. Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
214. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
215. Old School by Tobias Wolff
216. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
217. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
218. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
219. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
220. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
221. The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
222. Oracle Night by Paul Auste
223. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
224. Othello by Shakespeare – read
225. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
226. The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
227. Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
228. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
229. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
230. The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
231. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
232. Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
233. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
234. Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
235. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
236. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
237. The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
238. The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
239. The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche
240. The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of
241. Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
242. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
243. Property by Valerie Martin
244. Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon
245. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
246. Quattrocento by James Mckean
247. A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
248. Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers
249. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
250. The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
251. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
252. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
253. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
254. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
255. Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virgini Holman
256. The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J. R. R. Tolkien
257. R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
258. Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
259. Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
260. Roman Fever by Edith Wharton
261. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
262. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
263. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
264. Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
265. Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
266. Sanctuary by William Faulkner
267. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
268. The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
269. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne 
270. Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
271. The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
272. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
273. Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
274. Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
275. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
276. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
277. Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
278. Sexus by Henry Miller
279. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
280. Shane by Jack Shaefer
281. The Shining by Stephen King
282. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
283. S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
284. Slaughter-House Five by Kurt Vonnegut
285. Small Island by Andrea Levy
286. Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
287. Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers
288. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the
289. Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
290. The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
291. Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de
292. Burgos
293. The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
294. Songbook by Nick Hornby
295. The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
296. Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
297. Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
298. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
299. Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
300. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
301. The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
302. A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams
303. Stuart Little by E. B. White
304. Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
305. Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
306. Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
307. Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
308. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
309. Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
310. Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
311. Time and Again by Jack Finney
312. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
313. To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
314. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
315. The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
316. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
317. The Trial by Franz Kafka
318. The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
319. Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
320. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
321. Ulysses by James Joyce
322. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath
323. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
324. Unless by Carol Shields
325. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
326. The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
327. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
328. Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico by Joe Harvard
329. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
330. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
331. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
332. Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten
333. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
334. We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker
335. What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
336. What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
337. When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
338. Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson
339. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
340. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
341. The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
342. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
343. The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
344. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Discrimination

So the boyfriend and I were talking about the Oscars and how certain groups claimed discrimination when it comes to Oscar nominations.

Boyfriend:  [turns to dog]  They never give Oscars to dogs.

Me:  They never give Oscars to the handless.  You have to be able to hold an Oscar to win one.

How not to fall on your bum

Hey Sean,

I miss you and my tribe very much.  The local grocer just got in some hummus and the brand was Tribe–it made me think of you all.

Not much has been going on really.  I keep procrastinating polishing up the resume draft and even starting a cover letter.  There are a couple of jobs postings that I’ve seen in town, but obviously nothing like working at a concert venue like I used to do.  Plus there’s the whole thing about it being snowy and/or super cold, so I don’t really want to be walking to work.  Also, sharing Kyle’s car might be difficult.  I’ll try to get my own vehicle around summertime so I can go to school if need be.  It was so nice being able to walk to the grocery store this summer.  I miss being able to go out the door without having to layer up and strap on boots.

I still walk at least twice a day because Richard (the dog, see previous posts) demands it with his whining despite snow, sleet, or negative Fahrenheit temperatures.  Today I finally fell on my ass in the snow.  It had been pretty precarious for about a week, so I should have seen it coming.  It’s been icy near the garage where I walk and today we had a fresh 3-4 inches of snow.  So I thought the icy patch that I had kept balancing on, but not slipping on, would be covered with powdery snow protection.  This is not true.  Apparently my boot went down through the powdery part and hit the icy part with sliding ridiculousness.  Well, to be really honest it was actually my hip and hand, but it’s still the kind of thing that makes you say, “Fucking snow!”

Other than that the trees look beautiful today because they have a beautiful white layer on them for a frosted effect.  When I first got here I thought I had truly moved to the frozen tundra.  The temperatures were in the negatives and you could see the wind swirl along the ground with motes of snow like how sand swirls in a windy desert.  For now temperatures have been fluctuating to snow thawing temperatures, so you get a variety of cold states.  Apparently it’s a myth that the Eskimos have tons of words for snow.  They just have modifiers like in German that make words longer:  dascrunchysnowyo!  So, powdery or crunch snow, even though it can pile up and look menacing, is actually the easiest kind for walking despite sinking your boot into white and coming up with wet pant hems.  The ice patches and clear sleet are the worst because they make it more dangerous to walk on than a banana peel in a comedy movie.

So, basically during the day I try to keep the dog occupied, clean, look up recipes, stalk the tribe through the internet, just whatever.  When Kyle gets home we hang out, make dinner, and watch Netflix.  Tis a simple, comforting life.  This week Kyle and I have been painting the room upstairs, so that can be our room instead of the one downstairs.  The walls, closet, door, trim, and molding are painted except a few parts that need a second coat or touch-up.  It was fun to just kind of zone out and listen to music while painting.  Spotify is pretty neat, hmm?  I have yet to bust out all the music I saved on my external hard drive and sent up here  because I don’t have my laptop. Also, I think I lost my ipod.  Sadness.  That had a lot of pictures on in including the one of you guys looking kinda bummed at the airport.  That just means I’ll have to take more pictures when I get back!  Especially since I just got this crazy camera with a zoom lens on it.  I can make everyone look like a model!

I miss Houston a lot.  I hope to get back sometime in May or at least sometime in the summer.  Hopefully it won’t be too freaking hot.  I imagine last summer was brutal.  I can’t wait to see what’s going on with Adamantium!

Platonic Love!

The danger with dogs

Richard has not been seen for about 2 hours.  Kyle, our roommate and I have all tried calling him.  He usually runs home and beats any of our cars home at lunch time.  The few people that are around their homes at this time haven’t seen him, except for one guy that saw him around the same time that I saw him.

I had a bad feeling when I called him twice and I didn’t hear the familiar jingle of his collar tags in response.  He usually comes quickly when I call him and rarely have to call twice.

I told Kyle as much when he came home at lunch (toting the dog treats that just arrived in the mail).  So he drove around looking for him while I stayed home in case he came back.  This is a small town, so it doesn’t take that long to make a roundtrip drive.

After I dropped Kyle off at work I even drove around to his favorite running spot at the dam, around the neighborhood, and questioned kids at the park across the street from the house.

Obviously I’m very worried about him because I haven’t heard his tags jingle, his running, or anything.  I haven’t seen his jacket or collar anywhere either.

I just hope he gets home safely.  He’s run off on Kyle before and came back, so hopefully he’ll come right back.

 

UPDATTE:  The kids at the park had cellphones and called Kyle to pick him up like I asked!  Yay!  I was so worried.  Damn dog.

The double life of a dog

I walked Richard to the grocer’s yesterday and when I came back out to untie him from the post, a seventeen year old was staring at Richard.  Apparently the teen “recognized” a pale spot on Richard and thought he was his friend’s dog Sam who they lost in November.  I said he wasn’t trained and the guy replied that training him was next on his list and that he was a “kennel dog” with papers.  He also said he wasn’t sure if his friend even still wanted the dog.

Richard can be a pain sometimes because he’s not fully trained, but for the first time I really felt defensive of him.  I basically didn’t promise the guy anything and said he could contact Kyle if he wanted.  I think Richard has a good life here and with us.  Plus, he was found in December and flyers were posted around town.  So, not only did this “friend” lose his dog in bitter winter, he didn’t post flyers to find him, didn’t respond to the flyers that were posted , he also kept this hunting athlete of a dog in a kennel.  This is not a little toy dog that you just keep around the house for warmth, he needs to run at least if not be trained to do awesome skills.  Why have a dog if you’re just going to cage it up anyway?

Richard had frost bite on his poor ear tips and had a collar with “Scooby-Doo” on it.    He didn’t respond when I tried to call him “Sam” because his name is Richard!

Don’t ever let a 3 year old pick the room colors.

Dear Josh,

This is the crazy color scheme I told you about.  It’s a circus with black ceiling, trim, and doors.  Craziness.  Apparently the little one wanted the entire room black, but the parents thought that would be too extreme, so they came up with this lovely rainbow scheme.

The only problem is that this is quite possibly the hardest color arrangement to cover.  Black and red are supposedly the hardest.  So Kyle and I have bought the paint and supplies.  It’s slow going–so far we’ve only sanded down the walls.  We decided we both liked the color blue, so we went with a softer one and picked a dark maroon for ceiling and accents since that’s the color of our sheets.  I hope that color combination turns out well.  I thought some sort of teal and brown might be nice, but blue is relaxing.

I don’t know anything about painting, but I’ll assist with whatever.  I’ve already made Kyle get face masks after I saw crazy green color on a facial tissue from inhaling paint that we were sanding off.  We’re also going to rip up the carpet and shine up the wood underneath.  I just think carpet gets messy (having 4 cats and a dog in the house doesn’t help).  At least we don’t need to buy drop cloths to cover the floor since we’ll be re-doing it anyway.

It’ll be interesting to see what the final product looks like with all the books and furniture arranged.  Thanks again for helping me pack those books–it was like a second Christmas when I got them in the mail.

Peace and love, Brother.

You got a face with a view

Dear Tribe,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTPqPZzH-LA

This would definitely make a great wedding song, but I can’t help thinking of you all when I listen to it.  I miss you all.  A lot.

Love you.

Losing weight

Dear KK,

This is Richard Padovan (last name might change soon).  Padovan comes from the Padovan sequence and Richard because that’s what the guys at the shop named.  Kyle felt he had to stick with that name for political reasons.  When we bring the dog to the shop, they definitely call him Richard and remember him.

He would whine at hotel doors and at the doors at home.  I even caught him whining at the closet door near the front door.  Richard must not like closed doors.  The fool wants to be outside all the time.  On the first day back to Tapioca (current town) during a bought of me wondering why in the world I left everything I know and love 1.000+ miles away, Kyle tried to console me by saying, “You have me…and Richard.”  The Richard part made me want to cry harder because I really disliked that dog in the beginning.  He’s a hunting dog.  I’m not a hunter.  He’s definitely not trained, except for being house broken.  Richard is not a custom car that was designed for fit, form, and functionality.  He’s a rescue dog and you take what you get, I suppose.

There’s also this runaway rebel streak in him that makes him want to go 25 mph for a good while.  I know this because Kyle will “run” him with the car!  The trick is to not run him over and for him not to run off into the tall grass.  Now that I’ve seen him run like a crazy cheetah/antelope near the dam in town it gives me a greater appreciation of his power.  He’s an athlete.  Sixty pounds (minus some manly parts that he had removed recently) of running power.  There’s something to be said for dogs.  He has that comforting dog smell and sincere golden-eyed puppy stare.  His face is very sincere and sometimes a bit British.  Now that he’s fixed he whines much less and he hardly ever barks.  He has the potential to be a really good dog.

Sometimes I wish he was a cat.  I could pet him in the warmness of the house without going for a walk in -12 degree weather.  He could even be a cat who doesn’t use a litter box, and goes outside instead.  You are very lucky to be a cat lady.  Although you’ve had your own bouts with the feline companions to be sure.  There are 4 cats here to help with separation anxiety, but they belong to the roommates.

I should probably go for a 15 minute training session with Richard now.  We’re still working on “sit” and “stay.”

Give the felines a hug for me, would you?

Love you.

Cheers

Kendricx,

You cannot imagine how much these mean to me.  I use them every day and think of you and also how awesome they look!  It’s a little bit of home and a lot of fun and I’m sounding like a crazy person waxing poetic over glasses, but dammit these are awesome!

 

 So, basically while I was away, Kyle lived as a bachelor on frozen pizza, diner burgers, and beer.  This is how the shelves got a bunch of weevils on them with what looks like a bunch of sawdust.  I found this out the hard way by trying to pour myself some granola cereal and finding black things floating in the milk among the cereal.  Inspection of the fridge revealed green cheese and green hot dogs.  I do not like them, Sam I am.

Aide couldn’t immediately pronounce the name of my current town, so she started calling it Tapioca.  It’s based on a “Who’s Line is it Anyway?” sketch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVpyhwuzFJY .  I think I’ll be calling it that from now on.

Anyway, my first full day back in Tapioca started out pretty horrible with the weevils and then it got worse when I thought about what a colossal move I had made and whether it was a huge mistake (à la Arrested Development style).  I was pretty much sobbing in the living room for a while and had to postpone it because one of the roommates came home.  I think that’s when my sinuses started to go haywire–or maybe it’s just the breathing in of Arctic wind that did it.  Kyle came home for lunch and I told him that it hit me how I had left everything in Houston and he tried to console me with, “you have me and Richard.”  The Richard part did not help me stop crying because that dog is a whiny bitch!  I have hated that dog off and on, but it’s getting better.  I have to make an entirely different post about him.

Basically I need to stay active, but it’s hard when I don’t have a job yet and it’s -16 outside.  It’s actually 0 degrees at the moment (the Weather Channel site says it just feels like -16 degrees fahrenheit).  These last few days it really has been around negative 12 degrees during the day.  That’s right I said negative.  It’s absurd.  I’m adjusting to it.  Apparently there is no such thing as a “snow day” here.  As it gets colder, the folks just put on another layer of clothes, plug in the cars, and work the shovel.  It’s never too cold to work.  Kyle made a good point that it could be worse–snow storms, etc that would obstruct your view.  I think it’s one of those things like how New York was a prominent character in Sex in the City, so is weather in Tapioca.

Love you.

The emo and the ecstasy

I’m not sure what direction I want to take with this blog, but I’m thinking it would be neat to have it be another connection between my friends and I with direct uploads or at least links to videos and special shout-outs to the ones that I love who are not so near.

I made a big decision to move away and as with any big change it can feel like a big mistake, big challenge, or big achievement.  I’m oscillating between those, but I think this blog will help with all that and I’ll try to keep the super emo ones to meself.

Let the juegos begin!