Adventures in..

Yay for the blooms! My birthday is always during cherry blossom season (aren't I lucky?) This year the peak is two days before my 26th. I have that whole week off of school and plan on spending most of the time I have free somewhere surrounded by cherry blossoms. Sadly there will be no sushi under the trees this year until after Pesach ends, but I can wait : ) I'm so excited.

Speaking of blooms, things are popping up in my garden. I'm so excited to see what was not eaten over the winter (the crocuses were definitely all consumed). I'm still waiting for my seeds to arrive. Supposedly there was a back up at the Seeds of Change facility. This stinks- I think I may be too late to start the snap peas but we'll see. If N and I are feeling better on Sunday we're going to go get stuff for the square foot garden and compost pen this weekend. Send good healthy vibes this way. I was out of work all week (this is unheard of for me) and N is just starting to come down from the adrenaline high from her IGJ event and is starting to feel the nasty bug herself. Poor kid. My ear is killing me and I'm tilting right-- weird how important the inner ear is, isn't it?

Did I mention that N started an important government job (IGJ) a few months ago? The pinnacle of this IGJ comes today. Meaning, primarily, I've seen N more on cspan this week than in person. Thought having her working weekends, every night until 9 (or ten, or 12 or like last night, 2 (!) ) sucks I am very proud of her. She's been under a whole bunch of pressure because of how fast this all revved up but I think she's handling it with a ton of class. Yay for N.

I got kicked in the butt by some nasty virus and have been out of school for 3 days. Went to the doctor today and got some cough meds and an antibiotic. I do not like to be sick. Anyhow, the cats are no good getting me tea and soup so I've had to do it myself. Next time I get sick it will not be during this important time of the year for the IGJ... or I'm getting cats who know how to boil water.

Books have always been an important part of my life. My mom, the first grade teacher, would sit in a c-shaped old fashioned reading group table during her pregnancy and teaching phonics. She also keeps my first books and first little outfits wrapped up together in yellowing tissue paper. Now, I've noticed that a lot of my reader friends talk about teaching themselves to read at 2 or 3. I didn't. I remember sort of reading some little sight words with my mom in kindergarden (I remember the word "see" in particular) but not really catching on the reading thing until the end of first grade, begining of second. Once I caught on I couldn't stop. I was the kid who hung out in the library instead of going out to recess. I read through the children's sections of any library that I came into contact with. I also became a book snob- I loved the Babysitter's Club books (very big circa 1989) but would ONLY read the extrabig ones (were they called the Secret Specials or am I making that up?). I also went through a Little House on the Prarie obsession (as did N. we also both dressed up as Laura for Halloween numerous times. Once she thought it was such a cool original costume and wore it to a costume party. She was welcomed by 9 other Lauras and a Smurf. I love that story). I've been reading some memes on other blogs- you're supposed to highlight from a list of books (it looks like it could maybe be the 100 best sellers of all times). Let's make it more fun. Here are my top 25 (fiction, grown up books) that I can think of right now. I'll do installments of my favorite kids books, non-fiction books, etc later on.

Enjoy (ps I just wrote this list and already remembered one to add, oh well)

1. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
2. I Know this Much is True by Wally Lamb
3. Fried Green Tomatoes at The Whistle Stop Cafe by Fanny Flagg
4. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
5. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
6. Child of a Rainless Year by Jane Lindskold
7. The All-True Adventures of Liddie Newton by Jane Smiley
8. & 9. The Kid and The Commitment by Dan Savage
10. Donorboy by Brendan Halpin
11. The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
12. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alverez
13. The Blind Assasin by Margaret Atwood
14. Carmello by Sandra Cisneros
15. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
16. Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy
17. Out of the Closet and Nothing to Wear by Leslea Newman
18. The Human Comedy by William Saroyan
19. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
20. Bingo by Rita Mae Brown
21. Mila 18 by Leon Uris
22. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins
23. & 24. Yo! and How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents by Julia Alverez
25. The Girls by Lori Lansens