I had yogurt for breakfast and after class got myself a late--how do I get the ' above the e, anyone? Came home for lunch and had chicken salad on a whole wheat pita and drank some water. I had about an ounce of super dark chocolate then had two bowls of oatmeal with blueberries and flax for dinner. An hour later I was still hungry so I had some of the other kind of chicken salad. I'm now drinking a glass of red wine and REALLY want to get in bed. I was up last night working on a presentation I gave in a class today and then just couldn't sleep. So I've been running on 4ish hours all day.

A note about the Dickens project. I'm taking a break. My buddy and I got three books in and I realized to pull decent grades this semester I really need to be studying stuff for school. I was having fun, too much maybe, looking up random works and places and names from the stories, reading reviews and commentary...yes, I'm a geek, but I like it. :) SO when school is out for this semester I will have a Dickens laden summer, at least I hope to! I'm fortunate to have an understanding friend taking this literary journey with me. :)

More Pages

Working on this art journal has been fun. I wish I did it everyday. More than once a week at least. I've been thinking it might be neat to incorporate my thought about Dickens and his characters as I go. Reading Oliver now and it is hard sometimes because the situations described are so sad and often the people I read about remind me of people I knew through my dad's ministry. The human state. But the contrasts he gives are so poignant and beautiful it makes the whole story more bearable.

Last night I went with some friends to a local belly dance hafla. It was a blast! I love seeing women dance and embrace their will and beauty through dance. More on that later. Below is a photo of the beginnings of a project long over due. Most of that stuff is what I coved the walls of the various rooms I occupied in my early adult years.

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!

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...

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.