Book Review Friday 9/25/09

It was a toss up this week...should I review the creepy one or the silly one?  And the verdict is:

Book: In This Way, I Was Saved
Author: Brian DeLeeuw
Pages: 320 pages

This book was creeptasic.  Told from the viewpoint of an unlikely narrator, the book follows a family through it's madness.  The overall feel of the book was dark so I wouldn't necessarily suggest it to most people I know, but it was an interesting read nonetheless.

Six year old Luke befriends Daniel at a playground outside the Metropolitan Museum.  What ensues is a friendship that borders--no, definitely crosses the line--of bizarre and strange.

As Luke matures into adolescence and adulthood, Daniel takes on a less dominant role in his life, but is always in the wings waiting for the right moment to reinsert himself as Luke's somewhat controller.  The moment comes when Luke is in high school, and Daniel takes center stage again.

In a classic story of good vs. evil, this book takes a hard look at what the assumed outcome is going to be and twists it.  Maybe good doesn't always win, but then again, maybe it does.

I didn't think I would like this book as much as I did, but I was thoroughly engrossed from the first chapter.  Word of caution: The language is a little strong and so are some of the situations.  But it does fit the book, if that makes sense.  Sometimes, authors put in language and situations because they think they can and it detracts from the overall feel of the book.  However, in some plots, these elements are warranted.

Definitely, a good book for a first novel.

Time Out for Bragging

So, I've been running for a while now.  Consistently, after having Aunika, since May of this year.  And I'll be the first one to admit I'm not fast.  I don't come anywhere close to what my husband and his brother can run--when they haven't even trained for anything.  And I've learned to let it slide.  I'm only me and I can only do the best that I can do. 

I'm not a natural runner either.  People assume that when you have long legs, you must be fast, but that's not always the case.  I'm built to be a soccer player, not a long distance runner.  I have a lot of bulk in my legs and it's taken many years to accept that I won't have skinny legs.  But, they're muscly and I have learned to love the muscle tone more than the actual shape.

But this last little while, I've been concentrating on getting my speed down.  I had been content at a 10 minute mile for shorter runs when I was training for the marathon, but I'm not going to achieve my goals at a 10 minute pace, so I researched some ways to get my time down and started implementing them.

Blah, blah, blah.  Since most of you aren't runners, I won't go into the details.  I'll just get to the bragging.

This morning--5:15 am, ahem--we (my training buddies + a new buddy) started off on a five mile "tempo" run, which is a run that we try to do the fastest we can, aiming for a specific time goal.  For the month of September, I chose (somewhat arbitrarily, but don't tell them that) a 9:30/mile goal.  (Not fast, I know.  But faster than what I was use to). 

We looped around Stansbury Park, noting that (a) it was very dark (b) the stars were still out so it felt like it was the middle of the ni...oh wait...it was and (c) people tend to like to drive with their brights on, shining them into your eyes and rendering you blind.

I got to be the rabbit--the person everyone is chasing down--for the first two miles.  Mainly, this is because I was the most alert of everyone.  Also, I have the watch that tells us how fast we're going so I like to lead the pack to get us on track.  In the past, I get us on target and then take up my rightful spot at the end of the line, chasing everyone down.  But, today, it felt good to be the one people were chasing, and I was able to keep it up for 2 miles.  Until I got so hot with my jacket on that I had to take it off and fiddle around with the reflective vest I wear when it's the middle of the night and I had to find someplace to drop the jacket off.  That's when I lost my spot.

But, we trudged--no, sprinted--along and ran the final mile--the 5th mile!--in under 9 minutes.  When we finished, I looked at our average pace--9:11! We just ran 5 miles, averaging 9:11/mile.  I've NEVER done that before.  Finally, I could see where all the hard work has paid off.

So, it's not fast.  It's not going to win me any awards--most likely, though those smaller 5ks have less of a pool to draw from, so maybe.  But it's faster than what I thought I was capable of just a few short months ago.

Man, I love exceeding my own expectations.

Thank you for allowing me to take a few moments to brag about something most of you don't care about.  Which is only slightly different than what most of my blog is anyways--random posts about stuff you probably don't care about.

But, it's my blog.  That's why.

Totally Random Tuesday

• Ever have those days (weeks, months...) where nothing seems to be getting done?  Yeah, that's today (this week, this month...).  I can't seem to muster up the energy to get much done past the normal stuff.  I keep thinking this whole getting up early thing is getting easier and then I have a day or two like the last two days, and I can't seem to kick the feeling of being completely wiped.  I need some purpose to work towards aside from keeping the kids and pets alive.  Preferably not something that is related--in any shape or form--to the basement.
• I have been trying to eat better the last little while.  More for how I feel while running then for any weight loss benefits, though those are nice icings for the cake--if it actually happened.  As it stands, I've lost something like 8 pounds (8.4 pounds, but who's counting, right?) in the last three months. But then, I succumb to a lunch at Taco Time and top it off with a Milky Way candy bar and I feel like crap.  Not because I ate at a fast food joint.  I don't really care about that.  It's that I feel like crap.  And so it's not worth it.  But yet, I still do it.  More often than I'd like.
• We have to bribe Josh--4 years old--to go to church.  And even that technique is pretty hit and miss.  Today, I went in search of new church clothes for him, but he was onto me.  He practically took a fit in the store and screamed more than once "I don't wanna go to church."  Meanwhile, I also had to pick up new clothes for him since he's grown out of everything else.  We came home with two Alvin and the Chipmunks t-shirts (because every kid needs two of them, right) and two dinosaur t-shirts.  He's easy to dress if nothing else.  No, no he's not.  He still has to wear his school clothes to bed on Sunday and Tuesday nights.  Otherwise, he'd be attending preschool in his skivies.
• I thought I'd welcome the cooler weather, but I haven't so much.  It's cold to start with, and then it heats up, and then it gets cold again.  And I'm constantly taking off jackets and putting them back on.  The last two mornings I've come home from my run and climbed back into bed (perhaps, why nothing seems to be getting done) and I can't get warm.  I sit under the shower for 20 minutes and then I'm cold again.  I don't know what to wear.  
• Speaking of jackets, I got the deal of the century on a "jacket" at Sears today.  "Jacket" because it's short sleeve and so it kind of defeats the purpose of being a jacket--an article of clothing you wear to keep warm.  But it's dang cute and it was $60.  I got it for $5.  Nevermind that I have nothing to wear with it.  Details, details.

Unhumorously Humorous

So, Thursday was our Humorous Speech contest at Toastmasters.  And for a girl that was SO shy that she peed her pants during class picture time in Kindergarten instead of telling the teacher she needed to use the restroom, it's amazing I was standing up there.  In front of all those people. Trying to make them laugh.

I came in 2nd.  Just so you don't feel like you have to scroll down to the bottom and miss all this wonderful stuff I'm spewing out up here.  And yes, there were more than 2 speakers.  There were four.  Thank you.

When I sat down to write the speech, I had a few ideas in my head.  But, I couldn't get them to come out right.  It was a little nerve wracking to WANT people to laugh at you.  I've spent so long NOT wanting them to laugh at me, and now I did.  How was I to achieve that?

But I finally settled on a topic Sunday and went with it, more because I was running out of time than anything else. 

Drum roll please....

College Football and my inlaws.  (and by in-laws, I mean the ENTIRE extended family.  Not just, you know, the "in-laws".)

I think I painted a 100% mostly fairly nearly accruate portrayal of my in-laws and their devotion to the game of BYU college football. 

And if the outcome of yesterday's game would've been different, I might have put most some of that "accurate" speech here.  But I value my life, so suffice it to say I kept it clean, I made them laugh, and I put a few jabs about myself in there.  And I didn't say anything that I wouldn't have said in front of them.

On a good week, when BYU didn't just get their pants handed to them on their own turf.

I will share this story though:

Wade and I met shortly before I was to return to school for my second year at CEU in Price, Utah.  It was a sad, foresaken place that no longer had a football team and I didn't grow up watching the game either, so I didn't know. 

I DIDN'T KNOW!

All that next year, we got together for the weekends, either here in Salt Lake or there in Price.  And not a single weekend was spent watching football.  Wade didn't even so much as turn on the radio in my presence. 

We married the following June and I settled into my new life blissfully unaware.  That is until one day in late August when I suggested we go camping that weekend.

"We can't go camping." Wade looked at me like I was nuts.  "It's the first football game of the season."

"What about next week?" I asked.

"There's another game then too."

So, there you have it.  He tricked me into marrying him. 

But the winner of the contest was a much better speaker.  He's been doing this for a few years now and he had some great stories.  I don't know that they were any better than mine (because, really, how can you compete with BYU football and my in-laws) but his candor was a lot smoother.  He definitely deserved to win, so I can't be sad (though I am--a little--because I'm intensely competitive).  But now I know what to work on for the next contest.

All in all, it was a lot of fun and a great experience.  And, like I mentioned, I was insanely shy up until I was like 15, so it's a miracle upon miracles I was even there.  But I've gotten a lot of encouragement over the last few months from family and friends and family of friends who comment on how "funny" I am, so that makes me feel good. :)  Thanks everyone!

Book Review Friday 09/18/09

Book: Picture Bride
Author: Yoshiko Uchida
Pages: 216

In any history--personal, family, or national--there is a lot to be proud of, but there is some to be ashamed of.  It's what makes it a history.  This period in American History is certainly not a proud one, and, sadly, is one that is often overshadowed by other atrocities that occured during the same time period.

Picture Bride is the story of Taro and Hana Takeda.  Hana arrived from Japan to Oakland, California in 1917 as a bright-eyed 20 year old sent to marry Taro.  She only knew him from a picture that had circulated around her hometown and was dismayed to find that he didn't resemble that any longer.

As she shuffled into her new life, Hana came to the realization that life with Taro, and America, was not all that she had pictured it would be.  Life was not as ideal as it had been painted in Japan, but bound by a duty to her new husband and to the family she left behind in Japan, Hana bears the pain of being an outsider in a country that shunned those who were different.

The story weaves itself through nearly 30 years of history, eventually leading to the Japanese-American internment camps of World War II after the attacks on Pearl Harbor.

As the story unfolds in the camps,  I found myself ashamed that this was what the American people did to an entire group of people, based on their nationality.  As though we weren't fighting a group of fascists in Germany with somewhat the same mentality at the same time.  While I "knew" of the Japanese-American internment camps, it is not a unit that is often dwelled on in American history classes.

I found this to be a very well written look at the history of the early Japanese immigrants to this country.  I thought the characters were well developed and intriguing.  I was surprised that the Depression Era was skimmed over seeing as Taro was a shopkeeper and must have felt that particular strain.  But I did find the parts about the internment camps very enlightening and informative.

Definitely a good read for anyone interested in this particular era.

Tea Parties

Once upon a time, Princess Sandra was invited to a tea party with other princesses from a different kingdom.  She use to know these princesses, back before the kingdoms got split, but she wasn't very close to them. She had a good time getting to know them better.  She would have considered them her princess friends.

Every month, they'd invite Princess Sandra to their tea party where they would hold intellectual conversations about books and politics.  They talked about books a lot.  You would have thought they were at a book club instead of a tea party, if it wasn't for the tea.  These princesses said they enjoyed having Princess Sandra at their tea parties because she was so funny.  They seemed to really like Princess Sandra.

Then, one day, they stopped inviting Princess Sandra to their tea parties.  Princess Sandra made some phone calls and discovered they were no longer holding tea parties.  No biggie.  There was a lot going on in Princess Sandra's land that she needed to oversee, so she went along her merry way, though she would remember every 4th Thursday at 8:00 pm how much fun she had at her tea parties.

One day, Princess Sandra crossed the river that divided her kingdom from the other princesses' kingdom.  While at the castle of a princess friend, she noticed a slip of paper announcing the return of the tea parties.  Princess Sandra was so excited, though a little confused as to why her tea party princess friends hadn't called her to invite her.  She decided to call the new princess in town, who was in charge of the new tea parties.

Princess Sandra called and asked the new princess if it would be okay if she came to the tea parties, seeing as they use to be an entire land event instead of just a kingdom event.

The new princess informed Princess Sandra that they were trying to keep the tea parties just for the princesses in their kingdom.  In response to Princess Sandra's audible gasp, the new princess said "I'm sure they won't send you home if you show up."

Princess Sandra ended this very awkward conversation as soon as possible and came to a few conclusions:

(a) No one really leaves Little Princess school
(b) It still hurts to be rejected
(c) You don't want to mess with Princess Sandra.  She knows people.  She can put together a pretty good tea party.  One that you will wish you were at instead of at some lameo party that bills itself as "exclusive".  Everyone is invited to Princess Sandra's tea party.  She doesn't  discriminate based on what side of the street river you live on.

Please Come to Boston

A few months ago, I started tossing around the idea of doing another marathon.  I talked to my running buddies and we agreed to put it on the back burner until after we were done with our half marathon.  H. went off to Hawaii for 10 days and C and I have been picking back up the pace we left with (going even faster.  Look at us!) and we called a group meeting tonight at "our" restaurant (Cafe Rio) to discuss the possibility of doing a marathon in 2010.

We decided to go for it.

It helped I had detailed plans laid out for us, including our training runs and what pace we needed to run them at.

I'm a nerd that way.

As I was putting together our training numbers, I noticed something...man, we're close.  SO close to qualifying for Boston. 

Boston, for any non runners out there, is the marathoner's mecca.  You have to qualify for Boston by meeting a pretty stringent time limit, and that's most of the lure.  To push your body to that point. 

Your prize for qualifying for Boston?  You GET to run another marathon...one significantly harder than the one you did, that was mostly downhill, that got you to Boston.

But it's Boston.

So, I also put together a training plan for Boston--which requires us to run 26.2 miles averaging 8:23/mile.  Which is about 23 miles and a full minute per mile faster than what I'm currently running.  (when I say we're close to qualifying for Boston, I mean to say that if everything goes well and we can meet our goals I've lined up for the rest of the year, we're like in Chicago.  But we're closer than Salt Lake).  I laid it out there, just to see.  And the response was pretty good.  We'll go for it if we can and we're ready.  If not, we'll try again later.

Crazy. (Yes, yes I am.)

But, man, that would be AWESOME!

I think I only know one person who's actually run Boston.  I get butterflies just thinking about it. Boston for my 30th birthday! That would be SHUWEET.