boxes, schmoxes

Why unpack when there is reading to be done? Please. As if books are not the single most important inanimate objects in my world.
Here's a little walk down recent Book Memory Lane. Caro & I hit up Charis Books here in Little Five. Yes, it's your local feminist bookstores, and quite fittingly painted lavender. There, I picked up Crescent, which was oh-so-wonderful until the end. I think, though, that it was still worthwhile, despite my bitter disappointment in the author for what I thought was a cop-out of an ending. It's very to-the-minute, talking about the war in Iraq in a deeply personal way. It's set before Saddam's overthrowing, so it's good for a bit of perspective. (And for those of you who don't know that I'm obsessed with Iran & Iraq, now would be a good time to tell you that I am, in a cultural way, obsessed.)

Last Friday, Lindsey & I went to Decatur, where we were able to visit Little Shop of Stories. Oh. My. Goodness. They are living my dream. They have BOOKS and ICE CREAM. Yep, together. In one store. As in, get a cup of mint chocolate chip AND look at books. (Although, they don't encourage you to get the books sticky, which is probably important from a financial perspective.) We won't even talk about how wonderful the people are who work there, or how many precious families were bringing their kids to get BOOKS (not video games), or how they have Petit Nicholas translated into English, or how they have two whole sections of books for adults. No. Instead we are going to talk about The Penderwicks which may be the best book written for 4th-5th grade girls in the last decade. Or longer. It's up there, for me, with Anastasia Krupnik & everything Beverly Cleary ever wrote. Words cannot describe how beautifully & timelessly it is written, and how magical the plot is. Here's the best part: there is not a wizard in it! So much fiction written since our little lightning-bolt friend started raking in the moola has focused on Fantasy that writers of fantasy-in-the-real-world can't seem to get ahead. It's about girls, but I think boys could be encouraged to enjoy it (there are some male characters who are very important), and there's enough action to keep it moving for reading aloud. I'll hush, but you should read it. Now.

And, finally, the nice postman brought me a box from Amazon, which contained this:
Now, I do stalk Amy Karol's blog. I may in fact be on the verge of becoming a groupie. Nonetheless, this books rocks, and actually has projects in it that I will complete. I know this because I already want to give some of them away, so naturally I need to go & buy the fabric that will let me make them!

So, now you know why IKEA bookshelves are an integral part of our home decor. It's a problem, I'll admit, but it's better than heroin, right?

One final note: my partner for Garboodle's Soup's Vintage Kitchen Swap is Maria, of the Junk Drawer. Check out her cute site & her Etsy link. I'm excited to get shopping!

Still can't find the camera cord....

....so you get to have a pictureless post. Since I've been a little hermitte (misspelled on purpose, don't freak) here lately, I owe a gigantic apology for a bunch of unanswered phone calls & emails. Maybe I'm cranky from all the unpacking & never having a minute to breathe, or maybe I'm just in an anti-social phase. But I'm sorry, really & truly, I am.

Caro & I had a fabulous visit that involved visiting this gem of a restaurant in Decatur, and buying cute matching hairbands. She also brought me an adorable bag for my birthday, which matches one she has. Did I mention we match - a lot? She went with me to buy a top for my rehearsal dinner and let me buy one that was exactly like the one she had brought to wear, only in blue instead of purple. We've bought each other the same birthday card, and we used to independently register for the same classes. It's just that way. We had dinner with Torrence, as well, which was pretty entertaining, as he told us all about his Ph.D. research on balance, and he tried to demonstrate on my cat, but that didn't exactly work. She doesn't perform for strangers.

Work is good. We're getting ready for training, which still seems very far away, but in only a month I'll be hauling myself all over the great state of Georgia to teach people about Social Studies instruction. It's going to rock, if I do say so myself. If I can just convince people that Social Studies is worth teaching, I'll be a very happy girl.

Have a great weekend. I'm going to try to change the decorating scheme of my house from "cardboard boxes" to "house." Here's hoping....

Just a little out of order...

I promise there will be pictures of the house soon. As in probably next week, after Caroline (!) leaves.

I spent last weekend in a cabin on top of a mountain near Sevierville, Tennessee, with some of the best members of the Tulane University class of 2002. We rock. These folks were my roommates, my down-the-hall neighbors, and my very dearest friends. We've done the wedding thing a couple of times now, and lived through some pretty sad moments, personal and otherwise. We sat together on September 11th, and we called each other in shock after Katrina. It's definitely the sort of group that sticks together. We don't see each other too often any more, since we're spread out from Houston to Louisiana to Chicago to Atlanta (and soon) to New York, but we keep up via these ridiculous group emails, and we finally managed to arrange a vacation for most of us. Caro wasn't able to be there because of work, and Bear wasn't able to be there for reasons that I'm too well-bred to mention on my blog.

The boys grilled, and we ate REALLY well. We also drank well, no thanks to the Evil McGee Manahattans. We picked blackberries, and the boys climbed to the top of the mountain. We had near-death experiences on the gravel road climbing to the cabin, and we also survived the Forbidden Caverns, where the oh-so-loverly tour guide captured this fantastic shot:



From the left, that's Torrence (soon-to-be Dr. Welch), me, the Feather, Peter (soon-to-be Dr. McGee), Lauren, Jason, Andrew's girlfriend Julia, and Andrew. Two Ph.D.s - not shabby, huh? These are the people who beat me (SOMETIMES) at Trivial Pursuit. Jason kicks Scrabble butt, I learned, but he did let me serve as his partner (that means I got to pull the tiles from the bag) for his second victory.

We've always been an emotional crowd, so there was no shortage of soul-baring & meaning-of-life determining. In a testimony to the fact that we are getting OLD, Peter did not have to bend the universe one single time. It would appear that we are getting to the point that we can do it ourselves. Three of us now own homes - crazy.

I'll stop now, I think, but I am very grateful for last weekend. Let's leave it there.

this one's for lennye

I'm alive. We're moved (mostly). Our stuff is not unpacked. I had a great time in Tennessee with the Tulane crowd, and I managed to send my package to Amy for the Sweet Goodness Swap. That is all I have accomplished. Mad props to Ryan for attempting to accomplish slightly bigger goals.

Lennye, Freda, & I are all reviewing CRCT items this week. It is unbelievably fun. Seriously.

More later.

whew.

1) Back from Chattanooga, where we went to deliver the cat for babysitting-during-moving, and escape the blistering heat.

2) In a moment of sanity, our landlady decided to replace the air conditioning unit here, so we are decidedly less stressed about moving.

3) Finally got all the items together for Amy, my Sweet Goodness Swap partner. (I am willing to admit freely that finding yellow & orange "Stuff" is HARD!) Now, I have some sewing & gluing to do, before I package it all & send it to California.

4) Our walk-through is tomorrow, & we close on Thursday. Wowie.

5) Congrats to Lennye, & Melissa, hope you're feeling happier. :)