Tomorrow is my first day of vacation. Is there a better feeling in the world that the first day of vacation? I don't even think Christmas morning when you're 6 years old is competition.
I like to think of it as 17 weekends in a row.
I am weird in that i love staying home on vacation and doing what i do. Stay up late. Get up late, watch HG TV, maybe a DVD series (this year my series will be Mad Men), going for a nice easy 5 mile run, good coffee, reading outside on the patio or at the pool. Riding my bike to the Farmer's Market. Cooking. More reading. And occasionally having folks over or meeting them for wine.
We do have an almost week long trip to flyfish the Yakima and found a new cabin to stay in right on the river so i just have to walk outside. And then a trip with the GalPals to Cannon Beach the next day after we get home, where i don't even have to unpack. AND we get to take a cooking class while we are there!
I finished reading Wild on Saturday - the book about hiking. Which is also strange for me in that i never ever want to hike, nor have i ever. But i thought it was a good read, even though she irritated me sometimes with how she did not use CAUTION as she started out. (reference to my previous blog post). But what she accomplished was amazing and i liked her more and more as i kept reading.
I am totally attracted to survivors and problem solving people.
What are allofy'alls plans for vacation?
P.S. Amanda, i'm sending the book with Brian to give to you tomorrow at work. Let me know what you think, since you are a hiker. You are likely to have a different perspective.
14 comments:
Day one: very busy. I went through some of my cds and found many i had never burned to my iTunes library.
Ran for 53 minutes with Karie in the park this morning.
Took a bath.
Washed by quilt and my blanket off my bed. Rinsed three times.
Watched "Rachel Getting Married".
After i make my bed, i'm sure i'll be exhaused.
The reason i started the CD project was there is part in the movie where the groom sings a Neil Young song a capella and while i knew it was Neil Young (halfway through the song) i didn't know what cd it was from. I have the Harvest Moon cd, only i never burned it, nor can i find it in the stacks.
But i started obsessingly looking for it. And came across some cd, i knew i didn't have loaded: Pete Yorn's first one, an Ottmar Liebert that i played to death when i came out, a Stevie Ray Vaughn, Don McLean's American Pie. So i have lots of new songs to listen to for my run tomorrow!
Thanks for the book, Jo. I started it this morning and I love it so far. That first chapter about her mother tore me up! I was at the gym, on the stair machine, and was hoping my open weeping was running together with my excessive sweating, causing no one to think I'd gone completely off my rocker. "Oh, Amanda always sweats like that. Nothing to worry about." Her mother is exactly what I used to daydream about having when I was a kid. (My actual mother left when I was 11 and I haven't seen her in about 12 years.) That chapter was really tough, but good tough.
I'm excited for the actual trip, but I can already see what a dunderhead this woman is. How could she have not done several test hikes and short backpacking trips? How did she not consider how much her pack would weigh? Yikes.
I'll be in touch.
Fifty Shades of Red
I have been saving this idea for Jo’s vacation post. My plan was to describe the color of my face and the sunburn I got while reading Fifty Shades of Grey at the pool in Vegas.
Problem is, I did not get burned (I know that’s not really a problem, and not really a surprise considering the amount of sunscreen I wear), and I was not that embarrassed to read the book.
Questions/comments I have about Fifty Shades of Grey:
1. Does this sub-culture really exist?
2. How did she do her research? I’m afraid to Google any of the topics because I figure I’ll start getting targeted ads for sex toys. Right now my targeted ads are all about a Puyallup woman who either
a. Lost 100 lbs or
b. Made 100K from a business in her own home. Hm, maybe I’ve already been targeted and I need to start a home business that specializes in items mailed out in plain brown paper packages. I can get a personal trainer with the proceeds and get to work on the weight loss.
3. I find some of her word choices so odd. She uses words I don’t know. And I"m not talking the dirty words, here; those I know. I have a decent vocabulary and I’m not about to use a dictionary to read this sort of a book. It reminds me of my first year in college when I had to look up words to read/understand some of my texts.
4. She introduces so many characters and sub plots that she doesn’t follow up on (I thought if there was a gun on the mantle in Act 1, it had to be used before the final scene), it makes me crazy.
5. So is this all about the sequel?
We are having a swell time, we saw Vegas! The Show, and the Cirque du Soleil, Beatle’s based show, Love, both were great. Also rode the giant roller coaster and checked out most of the Casinos. Have done some good eating too and a lot of people watching. It's crazy. Not sure why anyone would bring a 2-week old baby, a toddler and 3 other kids to Vegas and walk around the casinos and streets (it’s been 105 or hotter each day) all hours of the day and night. The pool has been perfect. I’m glad we’re not in one of the big strip hotels with the crowds of young singles.
Jo, I’m sorry I did not know I was supposed to bring you to Vegas as my maid of honor so you could walk through town wearing high heels and a tight “I’m the Sexy Bride’s Maid” T-shirt, while I wore a matching “I’m the Sexy Bride” shirt over our bikinis carrying giant blended drinks, smoking cigarettes. I guess our next opportunity will be “I’m the Sexy Mother/Aunt of the Bride” shirts.
Don’t think we’ll have such chance in Cannon Beach at the end of the month.
OMG, louie, you need a camera for those skanky Vegas brides. I would love to see that!
Are you talking about her 'inner goddess' in 50 Shades?
DO NOT do searches for those items on your own internet account. Hack into a computer at work of someone you don't like. Then do the search.
you know what? i do think this subculture exists. When you think about how some people get off on pain. Did you ever see that movie Secretary with Maggie Gyllenhall and James Spader?
weird.
Amanda, you will get irritated by her at the beginning because she has not prepared herself in any way as she starts out. Even i know you go out and do practice hikes with the pack you plan to carry and i never hike. Not to mention being very careful about your shoes. I feel like it's a book you could have written.
The only reason i would ever want to go out on such a hike is to meet the people along the way. That's the best part in my opinion.
Day 2 of my vacation:
I tried to do the SUPEREASY Sodoku in the paper today. I haven't done these in years and i thought i nearly had it until i got near the end and couldn't get it to work and realized i had two '7's' in one column which through it all off. I called Brian at work to tell him. He's been worried that he used to be better at online chess and is going to get alzheimer's. I told him that we are going to get it together but to look on the bright side. It will be like a new romance every day. He'll think i'm still that waitress who waited on him in Magoo's in 1986 that got him so flustered he couldn't even talk when i went to take his order.
The only downside of that is he will be ordering food from me.
The upside is, now i'll get a tip for serving him!
Amanda, i mean it feels like a book you could have written, only YOU would be prepared!
You know what i meant.
In better news, i did complete the Word Jumble. But i couldn't solve the riddle.
Hi Jo!
That book looks interesting - I'll have to check it out. We are hoping to hike the Pennsylvania sections of the Appalachian trail on long weekends, but I need a lot of training and practice before I can start that. Anyway, I'll look for WILD.
On the vacation front, I'm hoping for an extended weekend at the beach in September, and possibly Iceland in December for the winter solstice.
I would love to organize my itunes and upload more CDs, that is such a huge project.
Enjoy your vacation!!
~equeyaya :)
equeyaya, have you read Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson about hiking the Appalachian Trail? YOu would think i was a hiker since i read that one too and really liked it.
I hope you get to the beach. You should contact Kylee about Iceland. She loved it on her way to Paris last May.
I think you would like Wild. It's at Costco, but if you don't mind waiting, i can mail it to you after awhile.
I'm reading Wild now and it is hard..very hard for me to read. My mom died when I was 22 and I felt all those feelings she describes. The feeling that I wanted to be alone has really never left me. My life was on track till Mom took the final turn for the worse. I made decisions that I wouldn't have made otherwise (like getting married..I would have not done that).
It is a good book and I'm pissed about how unprepared she was but then I was completely unprepared for marriage.
Oh susieatl, i'm glad you weighed in on this book. I don't relate to her mom's death as much because my mom is still alive and i'm not as close to her. But she wrote that part very well. I hope you and Amanda come back here after you're done reading and let me know what you thought.
Here's something i've observed about myself. I probably picked up that book "Wild" about 5 or 6 times before i ever bought it. For some reason the first 4 or 5 times i put it back down thinking it was not for me. I did the same thing with "The Art of Fielding" and "Cutting for Stone". I never bought any of these books on a first glance. And yet, they are some of my favorite books that i have read recently.
And i own many many many books now that i HAVE chosen at first glance that i could not finish reading. So if i keep gravitating towards a book over and over but not quite feeling like i need it, i'm going to remember this. My next thought is "The Paris Wife" (cause i keep picking that one up too).
Anyone read that one? I was thinking you did, susie!
dammit. i hate this mouse. i barely moved it and lost my brilliant post.
It was about:
The REd House.
Taking bowling lessons.
Redeeming my archery coupon for lessons.
Sunny and 75+ degrees for the next week.
Spending money on books in lieu of traveling.
Traveling in my own home.
Needing to get a job post-retirement.
Completing the Word Jumble today AND the riddle this time.
Finding 24 out of 27 words in the word 'mescals'.
I loved the Paris Wife. But I love reading about the spouses of famous men. I also loved Loving Frank for the same reason.
I'm off tomorrow..I'm going to finish Wild.
I'm going to get it then, susie. Thanks for letting me know. I too loved the book Loving Frank.
Brian and i played two Stratego games tonight. I thought i might do better since the other times we've played i was drinking wine. But no. I lost both of them. And i even cheated by sticking teeny tiny post it notes on the back of his bomb when i knew where it was after it blew me up.
Beautiful day here. Sunny, blue skies, near 80 degrees and i didn't have to run in it cause it's my non-run day. I even got about an hour to myself at the pool around the dinner hour around 6:30.
I would love it if you send me that book, Jo. I am such a slow reader, it takes me months to finish a book. I'm about 140 pages into Mockingjay (I think I started that in May). I did read the Bryson book and I liked it. I like how he decided he could do it his own way and it still was meaningful for him even though he didn't hike the AT all the way through. We are planning to do the Pennsylvania section of the AT backpacking on long weekends at some point. Life keeps getting in the way.
When is your retirement date?
Enjoy your vacation!! :)
B
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