September

It is hard to believe that Summer is coming to an end. It was a really good summer. I got to travel and see my friends B&R get married in St Louis, spend two weeks in Duluth and be a bridesmaid in my sister's wedding, and see a wedding of a good friend here in Columbus. I got to spend the summer doing what I wanted - which was a LOT of reading and a lot of Rock Band. I spent nearly every Sunday with my extended family at my Grandma's house. I went hiking three or four times (although only once to a real destination, read not Metro Park). I had friends over all the time, watched the 2nd and 3rd seasons of Torchwood, ate lots of good food, and enjoyed time with the pets and DH. And in the end, right when I started to really get down about being unemployed, I found a job.

There are some things I did not get to do. I did not plant my garden until July and thus do not have my own fresh produce (though I still hope some of it will have enough time to develop). I did not go to very many farmer's markets. I did not have a BBQ and did not make potato salad. However, its nice to know that these things were skipped not because I did not have time, but because I chose to do other things with my time (I was busy with friends nearly every Saturday for example).

In light of this, I am now making the decision to try and take the time to squeeze in an end of the year BBQ next weekend. It will feature brats, corn on the cob, two kinds of potato salad, and the USC/OSU game. I am excited :-)

So what else have I been up to you might ask, besides reading and reminiscing? I have been enjoying the cool weather. I have been playing Rock Band again. On Monday DH and I went out and got sushi and then went to see Inglorious Bastards. I quite enjoyed it - different than any other movie I have seen. Tuesday I went out to girl's dinner at the Winking Lizard with my internet friends. Last night we went to Trivia night with our OSU friends.

Life is good.

Summer Reading

As most everyone knows, I participated in an online reading challenge this summer hosted by Cynthia at The Next Best Book Club on Good Reads. Here are the books I read. Each fulfilled a task worth points. (Example: I read Strawberry Hill because it had a fruit or vegetable in the title in honor of summer farmer's markets). I earned 540 points overall. I have listed the books by how much I liked them

Five Star
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Book Thief by Mark Zastrus
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by JK Rowling
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin
Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo

Four Star
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collin
A Short Wait Between Trains (anthology)
A Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
Spiderweb by Agatha Christie
Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Soshentieyn
North and South by John Jakes
The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld
Touching Darkness by Scott Westerfeld
Blue Noon by Scott Westerfeld
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkin

Three Star
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Bitten by Kelley Armstrong
Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
When the Emperor was Divine by Jule Otsuka
Dream of Peaceful Dragons by Katie Hickman
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Strawberry Hill by Mary Ann Hoberman
Wife, No. 19 by Ann Eliza Young

Two Star
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Black Juice by Margo Lanagan
You Drive me Crazy: Love Poems for real life, edited by Mary D Esselman
The Single Hound by Emily Dickenson
Specials by Scott Westerfeld

One Star (actually all of these books deserve less than one star, but thats not an option!)
Away by Amy Bloom
Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evonovich
Wild Animus by Rich Shapero
The Shack by William Young


Point Total: 540
Page Total: 14620

That's right, I read over fourteen-thousand pages this summer. That is an average of 158 per day. Go me!

Ahh. Freedom.

In case it has not been clear, I am been spending my time since securing a job lazing about, reading, watching TV and movies, being social, and in general, being gloriously relaxed.

I took this relaxation party up to Cleveland last night. I made the two-hour drive to meet two of my cousins and my sister at a Mexican restaurant. We ate Mexican food, then saw my Cousin's new house. We discussed the bio-mechanics of arm circles, the differentiation between fruits and vegetables, the merits (and demerits) of pet skunks, and other important topics. I accidentally stayed an hour later than intended and thus did not make it home until 1am.

This morning was my fantasy football draft. DH has run a league for about seven years now. It has come to include people from all parts of our lives - family members (my in-laws), college friends, current Columbus friends, and parents of friends. This year we have 10 people in the league. My team's name this year is the Minnesota Man Bear Pigs. This is a South Park reference, I did not make it up. Anyways, I do like my team quite a bit.

After that I ran off for some Outlet shopping down in Jeffersonville with some friends. I was buying clothes for the new job. The place was packed, and the sales were huge. I have never seen such big discounts there. On top of the already outlet prices, there was things like 40% the entire Old Navy store, Black&White dresses starting at $29.99, and 40% the entire Puma store. I bought quite a bit, though no shoes and only one pair of pants.

DH and I finished off the exciting day by watching Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus on the SyFy channel (do not ask me why they decided to look like uneducated nincompoops and switch the spelling of Sci Fi to that ridiculousness, but alas they did). The movie was as gloriously bad as anticipated. For some of the most priceless scenes, you tube it!

Random Happy Moments

I got a copy of X-Files season 5. I have watched two episodes and look forward to continuing. It makes me want season 4 and 6 as well.

Saturday night I made a cup of Raspberry Hot Chocolate and lay in bed watching Twilight.

Sunday I went to my Grandma's and chillaxed in good company.

Monday afternoon my friend R came over. We ate lunch, went on a beautiful walk in Sharon Woods metro park, and then hung out for a while.

Monday evening DH and I walked to DQ together with Grim puppy and got Ice Cream. I got a super big Moo-Latte. Grim had an ice cream cone too and loved it.

Monday night I lay in bed watching television and reading with a glass of wine. Super comfy.

Tuesday, after a junk food run, DH and I watched a movie together and ate way too many calories or Skittles, Raisonets, and Hershey's.

I could get used to this.

Headache Rating System

In case you had not noticed, I get a LOT of headaches, and they come in all kinds. I was going to post about the headache I had yesterday (and other of yesterday's events), and I realized I need some sort of system to explain just how my headache was, comparatively. (OK, I don't actually intend to use this system but I thought it would be interesting enough)

1 - minor headache, not even enough to change my behavior or require sunglasses, can also be the "after aura" of a full blown migraine

2 - medium headache, one step up from a minor headache, it is bothering me, my shoulder has some tightness and may make me use sunglasses but it wouldn't be the end of the world if I did not have them and I might mention it to friends or DH, but its not dominating my attention. There are also non-migraine style headaches that might fall into this category.

3 - underling (of a migraine), my head hurts a lot, but its not enough for me to change plans, I need sunglasses, I keep rubbing my shoulder without realizing it, and a lot of my energy is spent thinking about the headache. It would be obvious to someone who knew me I had a headache.

4 - migraine, I wish I could just sit home and deal with the headache, but its not serious enough to warrant it. Wherever I am, whatever I am doing, I am pretty unhappy about doing it. I constantly rub my shoulder, cover my offending eye (whichever is on the same side as the migraine) and avoid light if possible. I have food aversions (seeing the wrong commercial on TV or someone bringing in the wrong kind of food makes my stomach turn over and/or my head pulse). The headache is the first thing on my mind.

5 - bad migraine, this headache is severe enough that I might cancel plans to stay home and nurse it, but I am still capable of some level of function if what I need to do is really important or cannot be rescheduled. It dominates nearly all of my attention. My shoulder is so stiff massaging it myself seems pointless. I fantasize about someone injecting the muscle with a relaxant or cutting off my arm. I wear sunglasses, maybe even at night or indoors, and I keep a hand over my offending eye if at all possible. I might also be caught holding a hot compress (often in the form of a coffee) up to my eye. It is clear to other people I am not well (though it might come off as tired). I get spells of being nauseous and cannot think about eating most things, I consider running to the bathroom at the low points of these spells. I may be dizzy or have blurred vision. If I am at home, I lie in bed or on the couch wishing it would stop, maybe watching TV (with my eyes open or closed depending on the moment).

6 - nightmare migraine, stop all activity, I am not getting out of bed with this one, I can't even have the TV on because even with my eyes closes/covered the moving light is too much. I also might start to be sound sensitive. I am constantly nauseous and might actually throw up. I toss and turn, unable to sleep, and wimper a lot without thinking about it. All I can think about is the headache, nothing else can distract me.

Yeah... so that is the reality of my headaches. Those ranking 5 or 6 are few and far between, but the other varieties are all too common.

Yesterday I a bad migraine. I went to my informational meeting for the Columbus Literacy Council anyways (partly because it was probably just a regular migraine before I left and partly because it would be a month before I could do this again), and spent the entire meeting miserable, making other people gawk as I wore sunglasses during the tour of the building and kept my hand over my right eye anytime we were sitting down. It got so bad at one point that I considered called DH and having him pick me up because I couldn't fathom driving home in the sunlight. Luckily by the time the meeting ended it had dissipated enough for me to get home. At home I used DH's neck as a hot compress (surprisingly effective), and waited it out on the couch in front of the television, considering the whole time hanging a blanket to block out more light. Around 2pm it started improving. By 3pm it had greatly improved so I could read and be on the computer, until by 4:30 it was nothing more than a level 1. I am very happy it was short lived.

Girl's Night

Last night we had a girl's night. My friend J had us over to make jewelry and watch girlie movies. We started out the evening by looking at her supplies then headed to Byzantium. It was my first time there, and my assessment (comparing them to other bead stores I have been in) is that they have a huge selection of international and vintage beads, but not very many real stone beads at all, and their display system is annoying/hampering to the creative process (i.e. a much higher percentage of their beads are kept in cases meaning you have to request to look at them rather then being able to browse them). I ended up getting the Hematite stars I have wanted a necklace from for a LONG time and some other filler beads. I had to make a conscious effort to stay away from orange. I think about 75-80% of my jewelry is orange. Back at J's we ordered pizza and got to work. I ended up making two necklaces with the hematite. I am very happy with both necklaces so I thought I would show them off (as best I can, its hard taking good pictures of little beaded necklaces!)



Also, two of my friends said, in separate cases, "the stars fit your personality." I am not sure what to make of that. Why do Hematite Stars scream Amanda? Well, at least my tastes fit my personality?

Instead of watching girlie movies we watched the season premier of Project Runway that was being replayed on Lifetime. (For those of you who don't watch reality TV, it is a competition for fashion designers). I think it will be a good season. I really liked lots of the designs, and I totally agree with who got kicked off. The challenge this week was "red carpet look" (judged my Lindsay Lohan?!?!) and this dress looked like a deflated metallic soccer ball had been jammed over the model. I was going to try to post either pictures or links here but it appears that Lifetime does not want us blogging about their show since they thwart every attempt. It is a very poorly/inconveniently designed site. I think they may need to reconsider their social networking strategies.

An Empty House

The Rock Band party last night was a smashing success, good turn out and good times. This morning, our roommate left to move back to Missouri. I knew I would be sad, I did not realize I would cry. I am pretty sure it will be several weeks before I walk by their office without looking to see if he is in front of his computer, or stop checking when I get home if his car is here to know if he is home. The house is going to seem very empty for a while.

As a parting gift he left us Madden 10, MLB 09, and Rock Band 2, along with the 2 guitars and mic stand he bought while he was here. That is a huge gift. Shortly after deciding we were NOT going to buy a PS3 to replace the one Ben had here, I got a job and they announced a price reduction. Its calling our name, and we will get one when the price drop actually occurs in September. So we will have Rock Band still after all.

I was going to write more about other random things, but I just don't feel like it anymore. We will hopefully see Ben at Thanksgiving (if we go to DH's extended family, which is near where he lives).