3 Word-Bending Novels

The first really "absolutely-freaking-weird-as-hell-but-still-pretty-darn-cool-because-I've-never-seen-anything-like-it" book I ever read was House of Leaves. That book is awesome. Of course, you kind of have to approach it with a VERY open mind and at least somewhat know what you're getting yourself into before you attempt to read it. My senior year of high school I recommended it for one of the four books we read for book club, and that turned out to be a pretty big mistake. Those 14, 15, and 16 year-old kids just weren't really prepared for the 700 page mess of wordy sentences, copious footnotes, constantly changing fonts, and the necessary flipping between appendixes, exhibits, and chapters. Very few of them managed to finish it in 9 weeks, and what they did read pretty much went right over their heads. My English teacher didn't care for it much either, probably because it's full of run-on sentences, drug abuse, and unnecessary narrative- but that's part of what makes the book what it is.

Besides, I mostly only recommended it so that I could get my own free copy.

The Little Things

I sat around for the last few days feeling utterly unmotivated and rather glum. My DARLING roommate decided to invite her boyfriend to come stay with us for a few days(I found this out by reading something he posted on her Facebook, not by her actually telling me). He was supposed to be here from this Thursday (tomorrow) until this Sunday. Only, Last Saturday night my roommate walked in and announced that he was actually going to be arriving the next day (last Sunday) and staying until this Saturday. No checking with me beforehand (like she's supposed to do), no willingness to maybe, y'know, have him get a hotel for a few nights of this busy week in which I had a 10 page research paper due AND a midterm, no witnessing my shock and irritation and realizing she had crossed the line, nothing at all. And so, for the last three nights I have been sharing my room with my already tiresome roommate and her camo-duffel-bag-toting, neon-orange-hat-wearing, godzilla-roar-snoring boyfriend. I can't believe it's only Wednesday.

Saturday Night Tunes: Iron and Wine

In writing the first few posts of Girl of a Thousand Faces, it's become clear to me that the best way for me to make sure I keep trucking away at it and maintaining lots of variety is to have some structure. I'm a world-class procrastinator and I don't always put 100% effort into everything, but I do, for some strange unknown reason, thrive on lists and calender dates and memo books. I get satisfaction from crossing things out to mark their completion and I get excited when I have weekly or monthly appointments or commitments to look forward to. This doesn't necessarily include stuff like going to work in my college phonathon on Sunday and Monday evenings or going to Biology lab at the ungodly hour of 8:50 AM every other Friday morning. Only the fun stuff- like writing this blog [almost] every day!

Wine, Cheese, and Chocolate

I just finished watching Julie and Julia. I adore that movie. The first time I saw it was last summer, when S worked at a little movie theatre and we spent a whole afternoon and evening watching movies for free, taking a break only to go out to dinner at my favorite Indian restaurant. I hadn't seen it in it's entirety since then because, although everyone admits it is a good movie, most people don't want to rent it for a movie night or spend the money to buy it. But me, being a foodie, cooking blog geek, and new blogger myself- imagine my delight when I discovered it had been added to Netflix's list of instant movies!

Julie and Julia is a great movie for aspiring food bloggers and chefs alike, because that's exactly what it's about- two women who love to cook and are able to fill a void in their lives with food. Isn't that what a lot of bloggers and casual cooks are doing? We want a hobby, something that makes us happy and brings new dimensions to our lives. Plus, it gives me hope. If Julia Child didn't know how to boil an egg when she got married and Julie Powell didn't get readers until 60 days in, just imagine how far I can go. At least I'd like to hope ;)

St Paddy's Countdown: Day 1 and Spring Break!

So... This is going to be a terribly sad and boring entry for the time being because I left my beloved camera/USB cord in Arizona... so, until I get it in the mail, Girl of a Thousand Faces will be tragically devoid of pictures. Still, I didn't want to get out of the swing of writing so after giving it a good 5 days to see if a temporary cord would magically turn up, I opted to just suck it up and write an entry anyways.

As you know, I was in Arizona for spring break. It was amazing! Spending lots of quality time with my family, boyfriend, and friends in the glorious sunshine with a car to drive and a kitchen to cook in- what more could I possibly want or need? Needless to say I did a LOT of cooking (and movie-watching, and lounging around, and sleeping... not blog writing though! S and I both lapsed into lovey-dovey too busy for the computer mode.) and got to try out a few new things. For instance, the colcannon I made with my Grandma's mashed potatoes- AMAZING. I'm both happy and disgruntled to say that the two casserole dishes I made of it (incredible how adding a head of cabbage makes a mashed potato recipe grow in size!) disappeared entirely before S and I had a chance to eat more than a couple servings of it.