Two months later, I finally have something I want to share with the universe and I decide to just bite the bullet and update.

So, first of all, hey, Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s not a holiday I’m all that into, but I’m also not a Bitter Single Girl about it. Valentine’s Day just isn’t really on my radar. I don’t get time off from work (although, coincidentally, I did have today off!), my mom stopped giving me a tin full of peanut M&Ms years ago, and I’m not really into the whole pink-and-red color scheme (pink and red clash, people!). But I am not down on holidays and for those who are inclined to celebrate, I hope you get lots of flowers and candy and a nice dinner or whatever.

Okay, so second. Remember “Jagged Little Pill” by Alanis Morissette? If you, like me, were born prior to 1988, you probably own a copy of this of the album (it hit when I was in middle school, but I’m sure some people listened to it even in elementary school). And possibly, like me, you have not listened to this album in about ten years. I implore you, go and get your CD (or open up iTunes) and listen to it again because…it’s so good! I mean, Alanis has sort of a weird voice and she’s so ANGRY and some of the lyrics are a little stupid, but damn. It’ll take you back to being an angsty thirteen year old – but without the actually having to be an angsty thirteen year old part. Superb.

Third. I have not read the fifth, sixth, or seventh books in the Harry Potter series yet (I know, and I work in a LIBRARY, for SHAME!). But I’ve been sufficiently spoiled (by choice!) for the whole series and…I saw the fifth movie this past weekend and sort of loved it. But I wonder how much they cut from the book. I’d be curious to know. Which means…I basically have to read the book now. Dammit.

Fourth! You know what the great thing about working at a library is? I check my own books out so I don’t feel ashamed about checking out juvenile or young adult books any more. I enjoy adult books, but I think YA is probably my favorite genre. And there are so many excellent juvenile books (or, um, middle grade, I guess, is what most of the cool kids call it) that I missed out on as a child. For example: E. L. Konigsburg. Now, thanks to the Baby-Sitters Club series, I was well aware of the plot of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, but I only read it two days ago! And it’s so delightful! I wish I had read it when I was little because, wow. I mean, I would’ve picked a library to live in, but Metropolitan Museum of Art isn’t too shabby. (By the way, I am now really determined to go to NYC because that book made me want to go there and to MOMA and a bunch of other museums like…incredibly badly. Museums are cool, you guys!) Then, today, I just read The View from Saturday and I’m pretty sure I liked it even MORE than Mixed-Up Files. The whole thing was so damn charming. Middle grade/juvenile books are so great because, even though I am a sucker for a romance, they usual don’t involve romance at all (or there’s just a smidge of puppy love, which is lovely and adorable). And that means authors get more creative with plot because they can’t just fall back on a love story. Awesome.

Okay, I don’t really have a fifth thing to talk about, but I can’t stop at four because it’s an awkward stopping place for a list. So, let’s see. Oh, you know what the best thing in the world is? Finding a new (to you!) blog that has been around for a while and has a bunch of archives, then going back and reading it from the beginning. Example: I am working my way through French Laundry at Home (I’m only on like, the fourth entry) and it’s pretty awesome. I am such a sucker for cooking blogs with pretty photos and if the blogger is working her way through a cookbook that has really difficult, fancy recipes, it’s even more fun!

Okay, so there are my five things I had to share with the universe. I’ll see you in April (hah! Just kidding! I’m sure I’ll have stuff to say before then!).

So. Five things you never knew you wanted to know about me! Or maybe it’s five things you never wanted to know about me. Who knows?

1. I’ve never had the chicken pox. Alright, this is a pretty basic one that a lot of people actually do know about me, but it’s basically the most interesting thing about me. Not many people in my generation make it to twenty-five without getting ‘em at one point or another. I know I should probably get vaccinated (especially since I work at a public library where there are lots of children), but I hate getting shots so…I guess I’d rather risk getting them as an adult and potentially winding up in the hospital. But that won’t happen. Because I’ve secretly convinced myself that I have some superhuman gene mutation and I was actually born immune to the chicken pox! (Alternate theory: I had them as a baby, but they were really mild so nobody even knew! This theory doesn’t work as well, though, because it makes me sound like my mom neglected me. Seriously, what kind of mom wouldn’t notice if her baby had the chicken pox, right?)
2. I took biology for three years in high school…and I never dissected a damn thing. Oh, I sat at a lab table and took notes while my lab partner cut open all kinds of things – a cow’s eyeball, a frog, a crawfish, to name a few – but I never held the scalpel in my own hand. Also, I barely remember anything I learned in bio class, but every once in awhile I’ll surprise myself by rocking a science category on Jeopardy! and knowing it’s all due to my awesome high school bio teacher.
3. I have never seen all of Forrest Gump…and up until a few months ago, I’d never seen all of Jurassic Park either. I know, where did I grow up, UNDER A ROCK? (For the record…my family saw both of them in the theater when they were released. I just didn’t want to see them.)
4. When I was a baby, my legs were slightly…not straight (? I guess I was bow-legged, but not in a major, noticeable way) so I wore casts on my legs to straighten them out so I wouldn’t have any problems with them later on in life. And it worked and there are only a few pictures in existence when you can see BabyLori crawling around with plaster encasing her chubby little limbs so…yeah. I guess that’s more interesting than the chicken pox thing.
5. I was born on my exact due date. It was the Friday morning after Thanksgiving so my last meal in the womb was turkey and mashed potatoes.

And I would take a photo of it and post it here, but…the digital camera I’m getting for Christmas isn’t going to arrive until December 20th. So, darn, I guess I’ll just have to make it again when I have my camera. See, I am already willing to make sacrifices for the sake of this blog!

ETA: Just a warning, if you eat too much spaghetti alla carbonara, it will make you feel sick. Not that I experienced that tonight. No. Not at all.

Anyway, as soon as I finished my twenty-four YA books, I dove into The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. It’s one of those books everyone talks about and it’s been on my mental “oh, hey, I should read that” list for a long time. It’s lengthy, but a surprisingly quick read. And, yes, it’s depressing, but I knew it would be so I didn’t end up a weepy mess at the end like some people say they have. Of course, I don’t think I cried when I read Little Women either so…maybe I’m a just a heartless sociopath. Anyway, read it! Before the movie comes out! I would say more, but there’s not much to be said about it without ruining some of the plot. Just don’t be scared of it because it seems like, with all the time traveling, it’ll be confusing, but I found it extremely easy to follow.

Let’s see, what else? Oh, yeah, I just finished Jasper Fforde’s fourth Thursday Next book, Thursday Next: First Among Sequels. I basically love all of his books and, while this one wasn’t quite as good as the first three in the series, I still enjoyed it. The literary references in his books are just so clever and amusing. Plus, it was nice to see that even though Thursday Next has gotten married and had kids throughout the course of the series, she’s still pretty sassy and feisty. I have a feeling Fforde’s reaching his limit with the series, though. Hopefully he’ll focus on new books and characters instead of dragging TN out longer than he should.

Another author who could learn that lesson is Megan McCafferty. I loved her first two Jessica Darling books, Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings, was less than impressed by Charmed Thirds, and was downright disappointed by the latest offering Fourth Comings. McCafferty’s writing is still sharp and funny (at times – some of the “jokes” border on unnecessarily mean), but Jessica Darling as a twenty-two year old is not charming like she was when she was sixteen. Basically, Jessica is the kind of girl I’d find annoying in real life, full of “witty” sarcasm and honestly, a little bit full of herself and her Ivy League degree. Plus, the conflict in this book (Jessica finds out that Marcus, her boyfriend, and Hope, her best friend, were childhood friends before either one knew her; she freaks out about this) is ridiculous and juvenile. I think the biggest problem is that I, personally, have outgrown the books. I’m twenty-five now and I realize that boys like Marcus Flutie aren’t attractive, they’re kind of just assholes. Unfortunately, I don’t think Jessica has gotten that message yet. There’s one more book coming up in the series and I’ll read it because I didn’t hate this book and I want to see how it all ends, but each new book in the series just feels like a disappointment compared to the first two.

And now I’m reading The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta and I’m really liking it. It’s the first book I’ve read by him, although the film adaptation of Election is one of my favorite movies and I liked the film adaptation of Little Children, even if I found it pretty disturbing. I’ve read reviews that say this one isn’t his strongest work, but I’m really enjoying the dichotomy between the sex ed teacher and the fundamentalist, born-again Christian protagonists. But I’m only about halfway through so…we’ll see where it goes.

<3 BOOKS!

Um. Yeah. Let’s see how long this lasts.