Less Ordinary

I finished Atlas Shrugged early last week and had thought I'd post my thoughts on the book, but now that I've waited this long I find that I don't have much to say. It is a good story, the ending is ridiculous, given all the build up to it, but the characters and world/reality are very interesting. It's very preachy, but the art of getting a political point across in a novel doubtless requires talent and brains far beyond even the most acclaimed authors. The fact that the book is so very relevant to this day and age, is nothing short of scary. I asked Jason if we could run off and live in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming or something and he just raised an eyebrow at me.

Meanwhile Pickwick is getting himself in all kinds of mischief! I laugh and laugh at times while reading this book. Strikes me as a forerunner to Wooster and Jeeves. The more I think about it, the more I see how this is the work of a younger Dickens, the descriptions are great, and the characters are just that, and I try to keep in mind that these accounts were written as a series printed over time in a magazine, but all the little stories various people interject to read to the Pickwickians or to simply recount to them are exhausting!

On a personal note, my mom came to visit this past weekend. It was great! She beat the bad weather and stayed with my Aunt and Uncle for a while, seeing Grammy during the day and then came up to see us. We took her to the city wide yardsale and had a blast! Then ate delicious dinner and watched Return to Cranford. I LOVE that series!!!! All in all it has been a good week!

Journal Update and a Dance

Visioncon came and went and the dance happened and is over. I think we did ok. I'd like to do it again, and again, knowing that we'd get better and better as we did it, but there is really very little venue for anime dance art fusion, or whatever it was called. Jason thinks we need to get a new camera, and I'm tending to agree, this is one of the better photos. Anyway, it was a blast and I am so glad Emily decided to do it and asked me to be a part of it! These are a few of the pages I've done lately. I've been preping backgrounds like I've read is good to do and it really makes a difference. I need to get going, school is in full swing. Bye!

Happy 30!

This past Monday was my honey's 30th birthday! He took the day off work and we celebrated by doing whatever he wanted to do. But first he had to open his presents. The above gnome was in the box below along with a book, the other box had two more books. Got to keep him in new books! The gnome, well, when we went on our honeymoon he wanted to get a Gnome for our garden, and instead he found a very cool praying monk which now lives on our hearth. So I thought he might like to get a gardening gnome. Birthday boy just got a steal of a deal on a NordicTrack WalkFit! We are going to get fit this year! That is a sweater I made for him. Started it last year, was glad to at least have in finished in time for his actual birthday. After two hours in an awesome flea market we got some Subway and went to the park to feed the ducks some old bread we had for them. The first view is from the bench where Jason proposed. When Serenity was there this summer she dubbed it the Love Bench. Silly girl. All in all it was a good day. We have such a good life, I never thought I'd be this happy!

Clairify

I feel a strong need to point something out as briefly as possible. I have no problem reading long books. Dickens Bleak House, need I say more? But the thing that has irritated me about Atlas is the amount of repitition. She makes the same points over and over and over again using different settings, and sometimes not so different settings. I guess it bugs me that the "point" of this novel is so blatent and in my face. It bothers me Because I like the story and characters. Also because I don't like being assumed to be an idiot. If I didn't get her point the first 4 times am I really going to get it the next 20 times? Doubtful.

Still enjoying the story, and Mr. Pickwick is pretty funny...

Confession Good

Atlas Shrugged. And Shrugged and Shrugged and then Shrugged some more. Basically, I agree with the political point Rand is making, and I like the story and most of the characters. The length she goes to is the problem. There has been a lot of waisted ink read by this reader in the last two weeks. Rand is passionate and serious about her point and wants to be surer than your average sure that her readers know the fullness of her opinion and its, in her opinion, impeccable rightness. I have enjoyed reading about Dagny, and Rearden reminds me a bit of my husband. I have not finished the book. I do like it. I will finish it, likely quite soon. There are many unanswered questions at this point, but I will break a rule I've held for two years now and read two non-school books at once. I used to be terrible about reading several books at once and it was easy to leave several unfinished for long long periods of time. That first year I read one book at a time I read more books than I had in the previous two years combine, so there is some thing to be said for taking it one at a time for this reader. I am making an exception because I care more about starting the Dickens Project and I know I'll feel better about all of it if I do. I will stop resenting Rand for keeping me from Dickens and I will begin to more fully get into what I want to be into concerning both books.

Pickwick Papers, Hello! Let the journey begin!

Grind Back

This is the most recent collage I've done. I wanted to do something for Jason's parents for Christmas. I'm so glad we were able to get there safely and deliver this in one piece!

Part of married life is balancing time with family. We each want to see our own families, and at the same time look forward to spending time with the other's families too. It's great to build on the newness of being a part of their family. Jason's birthday is in January and from that first year we were dating I've gone with him to visit his family for a combination Christmas Birthday trip. His dad and aunt have birthdays close to his and they all meet at his folks house for a party. This year was great. The food was delicious and wholesome, and the cake, wow, the cake. Jenni and Granny combine efforts and produced a confection worthy of much praise!

Today I go back to school. The grind as it were. I hope this semester is full of positive directions and satisfying learning. Time will tell I suppose.

Travel

Jason and I will be taking off for his folks house today. This is an annual trip to combine Christmas and three birthdays, his, his dad's, and his aunt's. There has been more snowing this week than I remember ever having at once since I've lived in Springfield! I'm glad it came this week though, school starts next week and I hate starting out behind because of weather.

I don't have much to report. I'm still working on Atlas. If I spent a day reading I'd have in finished, but there is so much knitting and colleging to do! Well, and baking and cooking. I would like to start the Dickens on Monday. I think that will be a realistic goal. We shall see.

Snow

It was only supposed to snow a mere 1-2 inches today. Oh, no. last count was 5. They haven't plowed our street yet and I really don't want my husband going out to work in this. But he will do what he thinks is best, and I 100% trust his judgement. The girls were going to get together here later, but I cancelled that. So now it's just me. I think I will do a lot of reading. I want to finish Atlas so I can get started on the Dickens project. A friend of mine has offered to read them with me. She doesn't live here, so we will correspond about them as we go along. This is the same friend who so encouraged my teenage love of Shakespeare. I'm looking forward to this journey.

Soon this holiday will be over and school will start. I will be on a day schedule and Jason and I will only see each other on the weekends. I miss him just thinking about it. Love is so wonderful, and I am so blessed. I have made several new years resolutions. The biggest one being that I will do my morning pages every single day this year. All 365 of them. The link between keeping up with those and doing well in my life, school, love and all of it is strong and dramatic. Perhaps that should be dynamic, but I feel dramatic about it. So I leave it there.

Snow.

Some Pictures from Christmas

We had a Julia Child breakfast christmas morning. Jason gave me two of her cook books and we found some episodes of "The French Chef" online, he was so excited about the eggs episode and to find that he's given me the recipe, that of course we got cookin'. The girls raided Aunt Cinda's scarves and hats and played dress up, then made some beautiful collages that I didn't get photographed. Iris is so silly about the camera! The star quilt. Aiden is my star, so I thought this was appropriate. Iris with her purple/green/Dora quilt. Still hiding. Finally Serenity with her pink explosion quilt. When I started the quilt that was her favorite color, she seemed happy with it even though she said that was now only her second favorite color. :)