Get Me Out of Here: a brief review

There are days when you scan your shelves for the next book to tackle and Jane Austen is what you pick up. And then there are days when you just want the satisfaction of crossing something off a list and you pick a super easy book half-filled with pictures because you know you can crank it out quick and move on to something else. The huge bummer of it all is when that's the mood you're in, but right after you start reading your husband goes on midnight shift and your sister comes to visit for three days and your dog breaks his leg and Christmas presents need to be wrapped and suddenly it's Christmas Eve and you're traveling...you see where I'm going with this? I didn't exactly crank this one out quick and move on, but the couple times that I did sit down and read I was able to zoom through about 100 pages at a time, keeping the total amount of time I actually spent reading pretty short. So my theory was spot on, anyway. 

Get Me Out of Here, the second book in James Patterson's Middle School series, is just as cute and entertaining as the first...and maybe even a little bit more so. There were a couple of little things that irritated me about Rafe in the The Worst Years of my Life (the entire plot being centered around him breaking every rule in the school's code of conduct, for one), but those issues aren't here this time around. Either Patterson got some slack from other people and went a different direction, or he wanted to really show how his character had grown between books 1 and 2. Regardless, I like where he's headed with the series a lot.

As of the end of book 1, Rafe has been expelled from his public school but given an incredible opportunity to attend a private art school in town where his talents and creativity will be encouraged and fostered so he doesn't find himself itching to get into trouble again. Everything is perfect, until the diner his mom is a waitress in burns down and they find themselves jobless and homeless and moving to the "big city" to live in Grandma's tiny house. All seems lost until Rafe's mom surprises him with a special scholarship to a similar art school in their new city. Trouble surfaces once again, though, when he has a hard time making new friends in this cutthroat, hypercritical environment.

I still think the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books are slightly more funny and witty, but I can see a big improvement from the first book to the second in this series. Rafe is more loveable, his antics are more tasteful, and the interactions between middle schoolers is more realistic. Both good and painful lesson learned in this one, and I found it all to be pretty believable. There's even a surprise-ish ending you don't necessarily see coming like last time, but unlike last time I wasn't super conflicted in my feelings about it. Overall, I liked it a lot. It was indeed a super quick read, and I'm excited to read the others at some point soon.

Goals and Such

Well, it's happened. Christmas is over and I'm already jumping ahead to the new year and the various personal goals I have as we move forward. I've always been a little skeptical of New Year's resolutions...and I've always been pretty terrible with keeping them when I've attempted to make them myself. That's why this is not a post about New Year's resolutions. It's a post about my goals for 2014. The things I would love to change about myself and/or learn how to do; the ways I want to use this new year for personal growth and crossing stuff off my lists. I know that sounds like New Year's resolutions...but it's not. Just take my word for it.

My goals for this year are many, and they cover many different arenas of my life. Because of that, some of them are more personal than others, but I'll do my best to be as transparent as possible.

Reading Goals:

• I have thought long and hard about this one. I love my little countdown of the 94 (now knocked down to 81) books that I've owned but haven't read, and I want to continue that. But I also want to make sure I allow myself the privilege of reading new books too. I've also struggled to find a number of books to shoot for that is both a challenge and realistic. And since I don't really have a concept of how many books that would be for me (I tend to read in spurts, making it hard to know how much I'm capable of reading if I do it consistently), I'm shooting for 40 books total, 20 off my list of books I already own and 20 new books. 
• This is a silly one, but since I'm relatively new in town, I want to get a library card from my local library. It's kind of a no-brainer way to read the new books I want to read while restraining from buying all of them outright. I'm guessing that's why libraries were invented, after all.
• Related to the previous goal, I want to get my Kindle set up with the local library system as well. I do love my Kindle - and miss using it with all this reading of paper books I already own - and want to take advantage of that system that is, once again, free.

Personal Goals:

• Figure out an exercise routine and stick with it. This is a little self-explanatory, but the goal is that I actually follow-through. Whether this is the year we are able to start a family or not, I want to make exercise a consistent, long term part of my life. I've had seasons of my life where that's been the case, but I want it to stick. Honestly, I need it to stick. It's about time. 
• Figure out a quiet time routine and stick with it. Also self-explanatory, but a little bit of that transparency I was talking about. Just like my struggles with inconsistency in my exercise routine, I have struggled with keeping a consistent time in the Word for a long time. I've done them in the mornings, in the middle of the day, and at night, but I'm currently living without a dedicated time, place, and plan. I need all of those things, and I need it to be permanent. I need it to be just as much a part of my day as eating. I'm willing to experiment with different times, places, and plans, but the point is that I need to stop winging it and make it a priority. 
• Finish the book. That's right, everyone. I've been withholding a pretty big secret: I've been writing a novel - based on a friendship I had growing up - and now that what I've written so far has been given as a Christmas present I feel like I can talk freely about it. I meant to finish it before Christmas but it just didn't happen, so I want to finish it as soon as I can so I can start the editing/revising process. I'm sure that will stink. Maybe something will end up happening with it and maybe nothing will and that's not on my goal radar as of right now....right now I just want to finish it. 
• Since we moved to Berryville, we've spent our fair share of church hunting in between the hubs having to work alternating second and third shifts (including an awful lot of weekends), and right when we found one we truly love and that we think we want to be our home, those pesky alternating work schedules started up again and we haven't been able to go back. This year, though, since the work schedules should be back to normal for quite a while, I want us to have dinner with the church's pastor so we can get our questions answered and know for sure whether we want this church to be our new church family. 
• If this church is the one, I want us to join a Bible study together. We miss our Woodbridge couple's study so very much, and all the friends we felt like we were just starting to make because of it. We still miss them, but we're excited to finally feel like we have friends and community here in our new town. 
• Time with friends is so important, and even though this introvert loves her time at home, I very much cherish time investing in the relationships and friendships God has blessed me with. I would love to have lunch and coffee dates every week with friends, but that just takes way too big a hit on our budget, so instead I want to maintain at least one out-of-town friend date a month. Obviously there will be months where there will be more, but I want to make sure I'm seeking out the friends that mean so much to me that live a little bit farther away from me now since we've moved. 
• This may seem like a random one, but I want to learn the basics of how to sew. It's something I don't feel comfortable doing - and haven't done at all other than seventh grade Home Ec class - and I feel like between pillows and curtains it would be an easy way to save money around the house.

There are more things that I want to accomplish this year, obviously, but these are the things that I want to be intentional and vigilant about. I'll keep up with my list throughout the year in the sidebar, for your tracking and viewing pleasure. 

2014, guys. Kind of sounds weird, doesn't it? 

Stargirl: a brief review

Stargirl is one of those books that's just always been there. It's always been in the library, and it's always been in all the YA sections of stores. Jerry Spinelli is a big deal, and Stargirl has always been a big deal. That's probably why I bought it at some point, and it has been sitting on my shelf ever since.

When I started diving into it, I honestly had no idea why it was such a staple of YA sections of stores. It's a little weird, to be just brutally honest. I put it aside and read a page or two at a time over the next couple weeks, and worked on some other projects instead. I saw it yesterday though, just sitting on my nightstand, and I decided I needed to power through and finish it so I could just be done with it and move on to the next book. I ended up finishing it that same night, and truthfully...it gets a lot better. I'm still not sure I'm as in love with it as your typical Barnes & Noble would suggest I should be, but I'm definitely glad I read it.

Leo is a high school student in Arizona where everyone is exactly the same. The same clothes, the same hair, the same level of apathy. (It's not some weird dystopian novel where they're literally robots or anything, it's just an exaggerated conversation about how all high schoolers think they need to be the same...just in case I made that unclear.) But then a new student shows up and is the complete and total opposite of everything that Leo's classmates have always been. She dresses in ridiculous hand made costumes. She has a pet rat that she carries around in her purse all the time. She carries a ukelele with her, too, and sings to people in the cafeteria on their birthdays. She's loud and doesn't have a care in the world about anything that might be considered "normal." I don't want to spoil the plot, so I'll just say that a lot happens - both positive and negative - all because of this girl who has named herself Stargirl. Leo has kind of a front seat to everything, and develops a unique relationship with her throughout the book.

I said that at first I didn't like the book. That's mostly because Stargirl is a complete whack-a-do. She is so over the top with her counter-cultural antics and wardrobe that it made me a little uncomfortable to read. And that's not because I identified with the popular kids in this story; I was not the most normal of high school kids. She's just too much, similar to how her classmates' reactions were too much. Too cruel, too mean. At first that was really annoying to me because I wanted a genuine and authentic look at popularity and what being "cool" requires of high school kids and I didn't feel like this was it. But after finishing it, and seeing how it all tied up in the end...I think I've changed my mind. I think Spinelli did it on purpose, making everything the exaggerated version of what's real. With it all said and done, I still had issues with the believability of some of it (how could an entire school population go from completely hating a girl to completely idolizing a girl to completely hating her again...all within the same calendar year and all with total unity?), I also felt a bond with the characters as I closed the last page. I felt like I got them a little bit more than I had throughout the rest of the book. Stargirl wasn't quite as whack-a-do, Leo wasn't quite as clueless, and the rest of the student body wasn't quite as heartless. It's (very) possible that my change of opinion about all of these characters was influenced by the fact that I was coming off of a week-long binge of Freaks and Geeks on Netflix at the time...but regardless, I think I get it. Different is frowned upon in high school. Different is frowned upon in all of life. And even though Stargirl seems to look at this issue at its extreme, it brings up some great points along the way. There's a sequel, and I plan on looking it up sometime.

Timing is Everything

Two years ago today, I went to a Christmas party hosted by some of my friends. It was freezing cold outside and I was warm and lazy in my apartment and my introverted self really didn't want to go. I  did, though, and ended up spending most of the night in a large circle of people talking and hanging out. There was a guy there who was nice and funny and easy to talk to. We chatted about football (my Pack was actually kicking butt that year), and he teased me when I exchanged my four inch heels for  Uggs at the end of the night. He called me the next night and I got so nervous I let him go to voicemail. Like a chicken, I texted him the next night, and we set up a date for the end of the week. I wasn't really all that sure about it, but I decided to give it (him) a try. What could happen?

Seven months later, I married that man.

When the stars line up, and you catch a good break
And people think you're lucky, but you know it's grace
It can happen so fast, or a little bit late
Timing is everything

I didn't want to go the party that night.  Hubs wasn't even technically invited to the party; he asked his friend who he never hung out with on the weekends if he had any plans, and that friend invited him. He didn't have to call me, and I didn't have to say yes. I didn't have to have the courage to ask him some hard questions on date #1, and he didn't have to answer me with the level of honesty and transparency that he did. A lot of things could have gone differently two years ago, and we might still be complete strangers living across town from each other, going to the same church and sharing a lot of mutual friends. Maybe we would have gotten together a different time, and we still would have ended up spending our lives together. There's no way of knowing what would or wouldn't have happened if something had been different two years ago...but I'm in love with that did happen.

I could have been another minute late, 
And you never would have crossed my path that day
When it seems true love is hard to find, 
That's when love comes along, just in time

December 10, 2011

January 1, 2012

May 2012

July 21, 2012

July 2012 (honeymoon)

July 2013

October 2013

You can call it fate, or destiny
Sometimes it really feels like it's a mystery
It can happen so fast
Or a little bit late
Timing is everything

Gift Wrap Crafting

I've seen some cool examples of creative gift wrapping on Pinterest here lately, and I decided today to give it a shot. Quite a bit of snow on the ground, a husband sleeping in the house because he's on the midnight shift, and a dog who was spending the day at the vet for the second time in a week because of his broken leg...why not make my presents for people pretty?

Step one was to scrounge for pretty and useful items throughout the house. First I grabbed my brown card stock, second I went through my scrapbook paper and found red and green varieties, and third I said "ah!" and grabbed the new pack of a couple hundred coffee filters that I have in my pantry that I have no more use for (when my coffee pot died, I bought one with that fancy built-in coffee filter). Step two was to find things I could trace for consistent templates. All things gathered, these were the things I used:

• coffee filters
• card stock
• scrapbook paper
• pencil
• sharpie
• Elmer's glue
• scissors
• large bowl (used the bottom to trace the bigger circles)
• large can of chicken (used to trace the smaller circles)
• rectangular ring box (used to trace the name tags)

  
First, I traced and cut out all the name tags I needed. I kept these consistent and made them all the ring box's shape and all in the card stock. I set them aside when I was done.

 
The next couple steps don't have a lot of pictures. I used three different scrapbook papers that were either red or green in pattern. You can see them in the picture with everything I used, but one was a red base with small green polka dots, one was a red plaid, and one was a green base with different shades of green stripes. I used the different size circle templates to create different color and pattern combinations, and finished every combination off with a coffee filter on the outside. Here, it's easier to show you than to describe it:

 
I didn't tackle hubs' gifts today, so I only made six different name tags and it was easy enough to come up with a different color and pattern combination for each one. I really love how they turned out, and they definitely add a lot of bling to the gifts (which are wrapped and under my tree but will not be shared on here due to the fact that every person whose name tag is featured here reads my blog. You can wait, family.). I do have a couple things (one practical and one aesthetic) I would do differently - and will do differently when I wrap hubs' presents: the coffee filters are pretty and cool and I love finding a use for a couple of them since I have so many, but they're quite huge. If every present was in a decent sized square box, that wouldn't be so bad, but some of the gifts I wrapped today are a little awkward with such jumbo name tags hanging off all sides. I also would definitely use something smaller than the ring box to make the name plate itself. I love that it's a rectangular shape in contrast to all the circles, but it's just too big. Too big for the name, and too big for the circle sizes I used. I do love the card stock's color, though, and will definitely use it again to give contrast against the patterned scrapbook paper (ditto the coffee filters). 

The design might need some tweaking, but I really like that I broke outside of a rut and tried something different and pretty this year with present wrapping. Normally I use fun, stock wrapping paper and write the name of the person it's for on the outside with a Sharpie. Not bad, gets the job done, but a little boring. And even though it's a present and whatever wraps it will be destroyed in just a couple weeks (ah! a couple weeks!), I love putting thought and sentiment into the gifts themselves, and I like the idea of doing that with the wrapping as well. This year it's plain silver wrapping paper or plain gold wrapping paper, and these name tags. Thanks for yet another craft inspiration, Pinterest.

Where I am now.

This is going to be a very different kind of post than what I've been writing. There's no house update, no craft project, and no book to cross of the list. I want to instead share a little bit of personal information about something pretty big that the hubs and I have been dealing with over the last four months.

Last January sparked a lot of discussion between us about when to start a family. We had always said going into the wedding that we wanted to wait about a year so we could really spend that time investing in us and our relationship before throwing a whole new set of adjustment and change to our marriage. But with the start of the new year came a really incredible opportunity for me to go back to teaching. The decision then had to be made to either go back to teaching in an environment that would be healthy and supportive - and that I would want to stay in for more than a year or two - or to start trying to start a family instead. Our pros and cons list was long, and every discussion seemed to just go back and forth. After a month of listening for the Holy Spirit's leading in every sermon, every time in the Word, and every conversation, we decided that starting a family was definitely more important to us than me going back to teaching. We decided May would be the magic month to start, and I spent the months in between praying earnestly for peace and trust with whatever God's will would be. Between the two of us, I'm definitely more of a stresser and a planner, and I also have a hard time handling situations that don't go the way I've planned (although marriage has been a great opportunity to grow in that area). I spent so much time praying that God would prepare us, but mostly me, for anything He has planned. I knew that it could take us months to get pregnant, it could take years, and it may never happen. We had no way of knowing how it would go, and I truly wanted to surrender the process to Him.

So when we got pregnant that very first month, I felt such relief. We couldn't have been more thankful, and to some extent I really felt like we'd gotten through the hardest part. The Fourth of July was right around the end of my first trimester, so we thought that would be as good a time as any to announce. First to extended family during a Melchione reunion on Long Island, and then to our friends during various coffee and lunch dates, and then the rest of the world. We had told almost everyone when we went in for a routine 12 week doctor's appointment and found out that our baby no longer had a heartbeat. Our doctor was casual and flippant in delivering the news, and we were left speechless, stunned, and extremely emotional. We opted to let the miscarriage happen naturally so we went home to mourn and wait.

I wish I could describe for you everything that those next several days were. When I look back to that week now, it's mostly a blur of tears, questions, and more tears. The texts, emails, and cards that came from so many of you were so comforting and thoughtful. My mom was able to come stay with me for about 24 hours a couple days after the appointment while the hubs had to go to work, which I deeply appreciated. It was hard to be alone during those first few days, even for a couple of minutes at a time. I was just so confused, and so hurt, and so angry. Neither of us understood why this had happened, and we did our best to comfort each other. When the miscarriage actually happened the following weekend, he held my hand and cried with me while I went through the worst experience I've ever had. He was my rock throughout that entire night, and there is no way I could have done it without him. I definitely wouldn't have wanted to.

There was a part of me, although I never would have admitted it out loud, that assumed that when we were able to start trying again we would pregnant right away like last time. That has not been the case, though. Those first couple of months of getting to the end of the month and realizing that we hadn't been successful were really hard. Something in me changed when we didn't have the immediate success of last time. It became my obsession, and truthfully it became my idol. I was ruled by the calendar and all of my thoughts were about planning for when I would be pregnant (if we get pregnant this month then we could announce it this month and I would be having the baby this month...). It just never ended, and there was no relief from it. During the weeks when we were waiting to find out if we'd been successful that month, I'd live as if I was pregnant just in case and stay away from caffeine, alcohol, and the motorcycle, etc. I can't even describe the heartache each time we got a negative symbol on a pregnancy test. I was so frustrated. We were doing everything right, we were trying so hard, and we should be pregnant.

But then came last month, when I felt multiple pregnancy symptoms during the weeks before I could test. I tried to put it out of my mind, but we all know how hard that is. By the time I could take a pregnancy test, I was fully and 100% convinced I was pregnant. You can imagine how I reacted when it came up negative. I was broken, angry, confused, and beyond frustrated. I wouldn't listen to the sound wisdom and encouragement from my husband; I was borderline inconsolable. I had to go to work at our old church that morning though, and I am so thankful I did. I spoke with some of the ladies there about it and as I talked and shared with them - who were intimately aware of our struggle by this point - it felt like a curtain was lifted. I was finally able to see what my dear and wonderful husband had been trying so hard to tell me: I had made this an idol, I was harboring deep resentment and anger towards the Lord that I'd never dealt with, and I was not in a healthy place. I spent a couple of hours talking all of this out with these women, and then had the gift of going to a coffee date with a friend right after where I got to talk it all out again with her. With each word that I spoke, I felt the weight lifting from my shoulders. I was mad at God: we had prayed so much and felt so strongly that He had led us to start trying for a family in May, and He had allowed us to get pregnant right away, only to take my baby from me in July. I was holding on to that anger and was refusing to let it go, no matter how hard I worked to act like I had. Instead, I had tried to take things into my own hands, planning and counting and scheduling everything in order to make God give me a baby. And every baby I saw (in public, on television, in friends' families) added to my resentment that He wasn't doing what I wanted. To say it out loud and to type it now seems utterly ridiculous, but it's what I did. It's the process I went through, and I'm so thankful for it.

I went home that day feeling free. Free from my calendar (no more counting days, no more planning anything), free from the "maybes" (I drink caffeine and I drink wine although I do it responsibly and in reasonable amounts), free from the pressure. I got to go home and go through all of this again with my husband, and then apologize to him for the unfair pressure I'd been putting on him (without even realizing it) to do this for me. I wanted to release it all to God once again, and to truly learn what it means to rest in His timing and His timing alone. I've said this to quite a few people, but I really wanted to grow into a place where I would be surprised with pregnancy rather than expecting it or watching for it like a hawk.

With His grace, it's happened. I have found that for me, doing things like eating and drinking like it's business as usual has helped me stay in a healthy mental state: if I'm always thinking "maybe I'm pregnant so I'll hold off on the glass of wine," I start to think "maybe I'm pregnant" all the time. I painted the nursery because we'd had the paint for months and it occurred to me one day that I'm not afraid of that room anymore. I started a running training app this week to get into better shape, which was a big deal for me because I'd been putting off exercise with the thought of "there's no point trying to lose some of this weight I've gained if I'm just going to get pregnant and gain again." It's little steps like that, giving myself the freedom to just live my life, that has made such a difference for me. I truly feel good. I feel patient and I feel at peace. I trust Him. I trust Him.

Earlier this week I was at a Bible study that I've joined here in Berryville, and Beth Moore was talking on the corresponding DVD about wounds and scars that we carry with us. She was talking about how we all have them, and how they have potential to do so much damage in our lives if we don't release them to God and allow Him to work through those wounds. As I watched, I felt blessed that I couldn't really think of any real scars that I've gotten in my life. It took me until about three-quarters of the way through the lesson for me to remember that I actually have a huge scar. I had a miscarriage this summer. My husband and I lost a baby, and we were completely devastated by it. But rather than dwell on that pain and on that very real wound, I just sat in shock of the fact that it hadn't jumped right to the forefront of my mind. I'm someone who can turn every song on the radio (happy or sad) into something about my life. I'm someone who can find a way to relate every sermon to some obscure facet of my life and every difficult time someone else is going through into something about my own life. I'm someone who has a lot of pride and really struggles with not making everything in the world about me. But I sat through three-quarters of a Beth Moore lesson about the wounds that damage and stay with us, and I didn't even remember that I'd experienced a horrible wound just four months ago. To me, that's not a sign that I've forgotten about our baby and that I don't care...it's a sign that God is healing and restoring me. He is actively working in me and has done exactly what I've asked of Him: He has taught me how to trust Him, and He has granted me an incredible peace while we continue to wait. We're still trying, and we're still waiting, but we're waiting in peace. I can't even describe to you how thankful I am for that.

Miscarriages are not uncommon. My doctor told me that it happens in one in five pregnancies, but a friend's doctor told her that it's one in three. That's a lot. We are not a rare case, and I fully realize that. But it happened, and we have mourned our baby, who we named Sam. We can't wait to fill our beautiful new home with kids and to start the next chapter of our life...but God is doing so much with us in the meantime. God taught us more than I can express with Sam, and He is teaching us so much now while we wait.

Divergent: coming to the big screen

I've talked a lot about how excited I am for Catching Fire to hit the big screen (at the end of this week!), but there's another one coming out this spring that I'm equally excited about. Even though Veronica Roth's Divergent series doesn't tug on my heart strings quite the same way as the Hunger Games series, and even though the end of Insurgent totally ticked me off, I'm excited to finally read the third book soon and I'm definitely excited for the movie. Since it's not coming out until March, we've got plenty of time to reread the first book or read it for the first time, and get totally hyped. Something that makes me especially excited about these movies coming out is that I convinced hubs to read Divergent this summer, so he's going to be just as excited as me to go see it and we've already done our fair share of analyzing the first trailer together. Two thumbs up for getting the man in your life excited about Young Adult dystopian novels!

Here's the first trailer. For those who are interested (all of you, I know), me and the hubs have similar reactions: Shailene is an unexpected choice for Tris but will be great, I thought Jai was a terrible choice for Eric at first, but then I saw him in Jack Reacher and 100% changed my mind because he's terrifying, the trailer certainly makes it seem like they stuck to the book closely and that it will be pretty awesome, and that trust fall into the pit of blackness gave us both the willies to watch. And I still remain unconvinced in their choice for Four. In my mind, he is and always will be Pearl Harbor-era Josh Hartnett (hubs might not agree with me on that one). What do you think?

Catching Fire: a brief [reread] review

Guys, I am so excited. And being a huge dork. And I know that I already have a post from a month or two ago about how excited I am about this but...

I finished rereading Catching Fire - the #2 book in the famous Hunger Games trilogy - today, and to say that I'm excited for the movie to come out next week would be the biggest understatement ever. (Not the biggest ever, just the biggest in most recent history.) I loved it back when I originally read it, but holy goodness do I love it even more now. I actually think Catching Fire is my favorite of the three. The surprises are bigger, the shock factor is way bigger, and the hatred you feel towards the Capitol and President Snow is off the charts bigger (or is that just me?). And that ending? I'd remembered generally how this one ended but I had forgotten that it ends with such a bomb dropped and then no additional explanation or comfort, so here I am just freaking out and crying on a plane wishing it was already time to go to the theaters.

There's that line in the first book/movie that has become pretty classic and repeated, because it's so representative of the spirit of the books as a whole: Peeta tells Katniss the night before the games that he doesn't want to be just a part of their games. He wants to show them somehow that they don't own him. Well the line in Catching Fire that sends equal shivers down my spine is not nearly as epic or mockingjay-worthy, but it made my heart absolutely melt when I read it this second time. Katniss and Haymitch have just received some pretty earth-shattering news, and I'm not going to say what it is just on the off-chance that someone who reads this hasn't read the book and is going to be surprised by the movie. But as the two of them sit and mourn over a bottle of some kind of hard liquor, Haymitch turns to Katniss and says, "You could live a hundred lifetimes and not deserve him, you know."

Team Peeta, y'all. November 22.

PS: according to IMDB.com, my source for everything, Taylor Kitsch was a possibility for the role of Finnick. I'm guessing I don't have to share my thoughts with you on that one. (But just in case, I would have absolutely loved it if Taylor Kitsch had been cast as Finnick.) As it is though, my personal opinion is that Arnie Hammer, also listed as a possibility, would have been the best choice. A Winklevoss is pretty much exactly who you want to be battling robot monkeys and/or the Capitol with.

How I Finally Got my Nightstand

When the hubs and I got married, he already had a fancy bedroom set that we now share. He had a bed, two dressers, and one nightstand. When he bought said bedroom set, he didn't think he needed a second...much to my sadness after we got married. I went a couple months without a night stand at all, and nearly lost my mind. You really take the ability to put a book or a drink right next to you for granted, until that ability is gone anyway. I snagged a $7 Lack side table from Ikea and stuck it next to my side of the bed, and that's how it's been since. It's not the same color and therefore doesn't match anything else in the room, but the much bigger issue is that those $7 don't buy you a drawer. Another thing you really take for granted is the ability to put something in a drawer. More than a year and multiple swaps in who gets what side of the bed (and therefore who has the real night stand and who has the dumb drawer-less one), and we finally settled into a firm and concreted ownership pattern, with hubs getting the drawer-less table. He didn't mind, and I didn't either. But in the back of my mind, I also wasn't going to turn down a potential "real" nightstand to replace the Ikea one with one day. At some point this summer, I found it. In my favorite antique shop, at a reduced price, I found this absolute beauty.

That's kind of how everything in my favorite antique shop looks: covered in a thousand other things that I want. Because it's a little hard to see under all that stuff, it's not very wide but is quite long, and has two large drop leaves (one on each side). It also, you might notice, has a drawer. I left it in the store, took hubs back the next day, and took her home for $50 to be my new nightstand. I was ecstatic...until about six minutes later when I realized that because it's not very wide, it would be a perfect side table for the end of the couch where hubs has been begging for a place to put a drink and/or remote. It's not a huge amount of space next to the couch there and most tables would cut off the entire walking path into the room, so we'd been on the lookout for something narrow. And this table was narrow. I pulled up my big girl pants and gave hubs my new nightstand so he could have an end table.

(Sorry for the weird colors in that photo...it was really dark and I had to do some editing.) It fit really nicely, but you better believe I've been on the lookout for a replacement ever since so I can have my nightstand. Months passed, and I really didn't have any options (or available money in the budget). I'd all but given up for the foreseeable future until I had a brain wave one day that nearly knocked me over. I had a bar stool. A bar stool I'd been meaning to paint. A bar stool we bought in the middle of July and I never got around to doing anything with. Remember this Instagram photo?

Yup. The one on the left was one I painted in college and love, and the one on the right was picked up in a thrift store this summer for the purpose of also painting. (The rooster's not really my style.) I went back and forth and couldn't decide what I was going to paint on it, and then did decide but never made time to actually paint it. So it's been sitting in our extra room since...until it hit me. Bar stools are narrow. Bar stools are reasonably stable and won't be knocked over by a rambunctious Captain. Bar stools provide just enough table space for a drink AND a remote. A 500 word, rambling text message to hubs later, and we were on our way to getting me my nightstand back!

The first step was to sand all that green off. This is the part where I'm super thankful for the man I married, because he knows how lazy I am when it comes to important steps like this, and he knew that I would want to skip it. I totally could have painted over it...it just would have taken about seven coats. So he volunteered to - and insisted on - sanding it all down and getting it ready for me.

My photo skills are lacking, and I didn't feel the need to get a shot that didn't also include my own shadow, but hey, you can see how great a job he did. In the end, there was still some finicky green showing but it was almost all gone and I was ready to start painting. $7 of paint later, and this is the finished product.

In that second picture there, you can see why it was so important to find a narrow table that wouldn't block the entire walking path. And this guy delivers! We went with the beige because it matches a lot of the colors in the room (the stone fireplace, the huge map covering the wall above the couch, the future curtains we will one day hang...) and the shade of red we picked was inspired by both our brick house/fireplace and a table we had seen at that same antique store that we wanted to work but wouldn't have been sturdy enough. It looks great next to the couch, and complements the green wall color without making it too Christmasey.

And yes, I got my nightstand!

Other than the ugly cord conglomeration that needs desperately to be hidden, I'm in love with my new nightstand. And the extra space on that wall let me move a dog bed from the dining room (where I never really wanted it to be) and into our room.

So that's it! The night stand was $50 (in August), the bar stool was about $20 (in July), and the paint was $7 (last week). Because it was all spread out though, I like to just believe that I got a new nightstand and end table for the cost of the paint. And I'm going to stick with that.

The Schwa Was Here: a brief review

I need to take a moment to say that I'm writing this with my brand new MacBook Pro, which I've wanted since I got my first ever laptop when I went to college. Two laptops and more than a few computer viruses later, the day has finally come and I am bubbling over with excitement. Seriously. This thing is beautiful.

That being said...this book was super cute. It's the first of Neal Shusterman's "Antsy" books, but because I didn't realize that I'd actually already read the second book, Antsy Does Time, a couple years ago. It didn't matter all that much; they have the same characters but not necessarily linked plots. And they're both pretty great, so you should read them both (although you should read them in order, just because).

Antsy Bonano is Brooklyn through and through, and his character shines through his narration. The plot centers around Antsy's friend Calvin, who goes by "the Schwa," who is fully convinced that he's partially invisible and will graduate to full invisibility one day. The boys perform experiments to test peoples' ability to see the Schwa performing ridiculous acts, and in so doing get themselves into some comical trouble. It's an interesting concept, and I was really curious about where the author was going with it, but it's a pretty wonderful story in the end.

Here's an excerpt from the beginning of the book that really made me laugh, and also really shows the writing style used in The Schwa was Here:

My older brother Frank looks up from his dinner. "Bullpucky," he says - although I'm editing out the bad word here, on accounta my mother might read this, and I don't like the taste of soap. As soon as Frankie says it, Mom, without missing a beat, hauls off and whacks him on the head in her own special way, starting low, swinging up, like a tennis player giving a ball a topspin, just grazing the thin spot on his head that's gonna be bald some day, probably from Mom slapping him there. "You watch ya mout!" Mom says. "Mout," not "mouth." We got a problem here with the "th" sound. It's not just us - it's all a Brooklyn, maybe Queens, too. My English teacher says I also drop vowels like a bad juggler, and have an infuriating tense problem, whatever that meant. So anyway, if you put the "th" problem and the vowel thing together, our family's Catlick, instead of Catholic, and my name's Antny instead of Anthony. Somehow that got changed into Antsy when I was little, and they've called me Antsy ever since. It don't bother me no more. Used to, but, y'know, you grow into your name. (page 3)

My family isn't from Brooklyn, but let's just say that I spent my first couple years of life living on Long Island and my friend across the street was most definitely an Antny, not an Anthony.

New York Italian accents aside, this book was truly an enjoyable read. The characters are rich and loveable, and even though the plot seems strange it all feels genuine and realistic when you're reading it. It's a fun, light read with heartfelt sincerity, and I definitely recommend it.

The Cheapest Office Redo in the World

Yes, that title is true. I rearranged and completely reorganized our guest room/office for $3.69. That's the price of the small potted plant that I bought from Food Lion to sit on my desk (I know, that's not that thrifty, but it's super cute and it was calling my name). Everything I used to organize this room was something we already owned, and I'm so excited with how much the room has changed with such simple updates and shifting!

First, some before shots. The day I started attacking this room, this was literally what it looked like:

A. Mess. 

It hadn't always looked this bad - I've gradually gotten lazier and lazier with putting things "away" - but to be honest it's never been very organized. We only moved in in April and this room just hasn't been a huge priority. Even though it's a mess, it's all localized to one side of the room so guests could sleep in the bed and still have plenty of room. But I dreaded doing much of anything in here...the desks are narrow and any amount of clutter on them makes me feel claustrophobic, even to write a thank you note to someone. I certainly wasn't doing any craft projects or doing any work on the computer in here. Something definitely needed to be done. 

Those pink and purple bins in the pictures used to be in my closet, holding things like socks, underwear, and shoes. I've had them for years, and even though they've been great storage devices I decided to get rid of them while I was reorganizing my closet a few weeks ago. That's what really got the mental ball rolling on this office redo...I could use those bins for something. What, I wasn't sure, but they could have purpose again. And even though the colors are a little brighter than my current taste, they're free, and you just can't argue with that ever. Then I remembered those little white bins, which I got off a clearance rack for $2 each several months ago. I'd tried them out for a couple different purposes/places but they just didn't feel like they'd found their home yet. I knew they could be used in the office for something too. And that, friends, is when I got really excited about figuring out this room's potential.

My first goal was to take the back off of my bookshelf. I never realized the dramatic change this simple action would make until we put in the Billy bookshelves in our book room back in April. When two of the bookcases came without the backs (oops), we decided that the shelves actually look so much better without them. Being able to see the wall color through and behind your books/items makes the shelves look much less cheap and much more "built-in." The reason why I decided to do it with this bookshelf, though, is because of how dark the wall color is. Although the white pops against it, the black really doesn't. I had originally been toying with the idea of painting the desks, cart, and bookshelf all white....but then realized what a waste that would probably be. Waste of both time and money. So I took the black back out of the bookshelf instead, hoping that it would lighten it just enough to make it look better in here.

My second goal was to figure out the furniture layout that would be best. It took several tries (praise the Lord for lightweight Ikea furniture and really hard-to-scratch wood floors).

My first instinct was to buddy the desks up back to back. I mentioned before how narrow they are and I liked the idea of a bigger workspace that's not making you feel quite so face to face with the wall. But it stuck out way too awkwardly into the room and just didn't seem functional. Plus there are the logistics of the metal legs not matching up with each other, and the rolling filing cart only being the depth of one desk, not two of them buddied up. So I went back to a long desk option...and got super frustrated.

I wanted to take advantage of that long wall and put the bookshelf, the two desks and the filing cart all side by side by side. And I came so stinking close to making it work.

Missed it by that much.

It would have worked if I'd moved the bookshelf to the other wall, but by that time I was remembering the matching bookshelf I had sitting with no purpose in a different room in the house, and I realized I needed to figure out how to make both bookshelves fit in this space to maximize storage possibilities. And after some standing with my hands on my hips and serious thinking, this is what I came up with:

It's perfect. No more claustrophobia while working (I'm not facing the wall at all anymore), the legs all match up right, and it makes that wall feel longer by not cramming it full end to end. After this, I just had to move that cart to a better place (to the left corner of this picture against the wall), take the back off of the other unused and unloved bookshelf in the next room and move it into place. The hubs just had to help me attach the bookshelves to the walls before I could put things on them, and then I could start organizing in all those beautiful bins.

Here's the final product:

Please excuse "You've Got Mail" playing on my laptop.

Some close-ups and explanations:

The bins are each organized by item (fabric, paint, random craft supplies, etc.), and help keep the shelves looking a lot better by giving all of those items designated homes. It also helps me because when I'm feeling lazy, I just have to throw an item into its bin and it won't leave a mess like throwing it on the floor or on the desk does. Each shelf is organized as well: the paint shelf with all my craft paint supplies, the random craft shelf with supplies like buttons, glue, and Popsicle sticks, etc. All my resources from teaching are together too - in the binders - for whenever I need to access them again (they were in boxes in the closet before). That top shelf with all the glass bottles isn't our liquor cabinet; I collect empty wine and whiskey bottles as well as empty candle jars, mason jars, etc. so I can recycle them in projects in the future. The pencils, paint brushes and such you see in mason jars were already organized that way long ago, so they were no extra cost or effort for this project.

The labels you see on each bin are made from the card stock I used for the DVD storage project, and I just used simple twine I already had on hand to tie them on.

The desk itself is neat and tidy, and that's how I want it to stay. The printer and laptop are the only office-related items allowed on there to give me a consistent clutter-free and large workspace. Even though a picture frame, mug with often-used pens, and that cute plant are on the desk too, I put them all inside a tray (which was our mail spot for the kitchen counter in a former life) to keep them all contained and in one spot.

It's not a very attractive pic but it's an oldie and a goodie, and one of my favorites.

You may have noticed in one of the pictures that only one of the two desks has drawers. You may have also noticed that I arranged them so the drawers are on the opposite side as my chair and computer. Although I would like to say that there's some grand and intelligent reason for this...there's not. When we first bought the desks back at the old house, we arranged them in an L, and one overlapped the other. It made no sense to install drawers that wouldn't be able to open because the other desk would be in the way, so we put the drawer parts in a closet and forgot about them. Well, here we are with two perfectly functioning drawer slots and only one set of drawers...because someone threw the directions out. (Me. I threw the directions out.) It probably wouldn't be too difficult to figure out, but I just haven't ever felt the need to tackle that yet. One day I will, and I'll have that much more storage and I'll love it. The reason why the drawers we do have are on the other side of the desk are just because I liked having the metal legs on the outside and the solid legs on the inside. The solid legs seemed too abrupt and made the room smaller, while the see-through metal legs lets you see all the way under the desks and the continuation of the floor makes the room seem bigger (brought to you by many hours of watching HGTV).

So there you have it! My new office space, which I'm really excited to use and have organized. My absolute favorite part about this room is that I used everything that we already had. Between repurposed cloth bins, empty bookshelves needing love, and small craft supplies I already had on hand, I literally didn't spend a dime on anything except the plant. As someone trying to figure out the logistics of budgeting and saving money that would normally be used unwisely, this feels like a major accomplishment. I still have some things to hang on the wall (bulletin board, white board, some pictures) but I'm going to wait to show you those pictures until I hang curtains. Yep, I've been asking guests to stay in a first floor room with no curtains all this time. But they're coming soon! And so will pictures.

Number the Stars: a brief review

When I looked at my bookshelves a couple months ago and realized how many books I hadn't read yet, this was one of the ones that embarrassed me. I'd heard people talking about it for years, including colleagues who mentioned it casually in conversations about Holocaust fiction as if everyone had read it. I knew I should have been included in that "everyone," and rather than admit how I'd managed to overlook it all this time I just nodded my head in agreement and reminded myself once again that I really should read this soon. Well the day has finally come (and it literally only took a day to read because it's a short 130ish pages, yet another reason why there's no excuse for not having read it long ago).

Lois Lowry's depiction of the Holocaust in Number the Stars is a little different than most that I've read. Ten-year-old Annemarie lives with her parents and little sister in Nazi-occupied Denmark during World War II; soldiers with guns on every street corner are a reality she and her family are used to. When Jews in their neighborhood start to disappear, though, fear rises. Annemarie's family isn't Jewish, but their best friends and across-the-hall neighbors are. When an opportunity to help them escape to safety presents itself, Annemarie and her parents must weigh some dangerous risks for the sake of friendship and human decency.

There are a couple reasons why I think this book is different than most I've read on the topic, and I'll try to explain them without giving too much of the plot away. First of all, the protagonist is not Jewish. I know that there are several other examples of this approach (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, for one) but I feel like most literature comes from the perspective of the oppressed (Diary of Anne Frank, Chains, The Color Purple, etc.). I think the biggest reason I find Number the Stars to be distinctive, though, is because of how little Annemarie understands throughout the entirety of the plot. It's not a naive and frustrating lack of understanding, though, like I expressed in my review of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas; Annemarie trusts her parents and her uncle and bravely follows their instructions even when she doesn't fully get the big picture or most of the details. She acts courageously and helps them all relocate many Jews to safety without ever being told any actual facts or insights into what the plan is, and she doesn't complain like I imagine most 10-year-olds would in such a situation. She is extremely observant and picks up on clues along the way, but doesn't press for more information.

I'm mostly just in love with Annemarie and her family. They don't seem to ever question their role in this dangerous fight against the Nazis, they just act. Quickly, bravely, and wholeheartedly, they dive in and completely surrender themselves to what they know they need to do. It makes me wonder whether I live my life in that way, or if I would if I felt like such an opportunity was presenting itself. True, we don't live in a Nazi-occupied country that's been stripped of all rights and basic necessities, and we also aren't watching neighbors be inexplicably ripped from their homes in the middle of the night...but am I missing out on opportunities to quickly, bravely, and wholeheartedly throw myself into something that would change the lives of the people around me? It's worth seriously considering, I think.

The Battle of Jericho: a brief review

Slowly but surely, I'm getting back into reading regularly again. But if you notice, I'm also not doing as much crafting either. So I'm not really learning how to balance my time...it's a work in progress. As you can see by the picture, this book spent some time in a violent 7th grade classroom being read by hooligans, but it did survive which is more than I can say for some of my books. I'd never read this one but felt comfortable putting it on my classroom shelves because I'd read what is probably the author's most well-known trilogy, the Hazelton High Trilogy. Just as I assumed, this one is really similar to the other books of hers I'd read, so I can breathe easy and know that I wasn't putting some crazy and inappropriate book in my kids' hands. I also found out after finishing this one that it's actually the first book in a trilogy, so yay for more books being added to my list! (That sounded sarcastic. It wasn't. I really do love reading.)

Jericho and his cousin Josh are tapped to join a prestigious secret society at their high school along with their best friend Kofi. When they're told that everything that happens during their pledge activities must be kept secret at all costs, no one challenges it. They're all more than willing to put any misgivings or nervousness aside in order to get to that final goal of wearing a black silk Warriors of Distinction jacket. The dangers of hazing do catch up to them in the end, though, and everyone is forced to face the fact that their own desires for popularity and acceptance led to disaster.

Typical of Sharon Draper's gritty urban teen books, The Battle of Jericho has a fairly controversial plot, this time tackling the dangers of hazing. She also works hard to shine a light on how easy peer pressure is to succumb to in areas such as underage drinking, the need for popularity, and even life-threatening activities. Draper, an English teacher for more than thirty years, has a unique understanding of how teenagers interact with each other and the real-life consequences that are more than possible when bad choices are made. There's almost always a shock value (towards the end) and this book doesn't disappoint. Even though I really do love Draper's books, I have one tiny little itty bitty issue: she works very hard to keep the books 100% clean from profanity and sex, and although I appreciate that SO much, the characters' conversations sometimes comes off sounding a little bit doofy. Think Remember the Titans.

It's hard to not have some laughable dialogue when you're trying to depict hardcore, troubled teenagers without any bad language. (ie: what exactly is a plug nickle, Julius?). But I love Remember the Titans and I love Sharon Draper's books. And I'm excited to get my hands on the rest of the trilogy.

The Worst Years of My Life: a brief review

The first time I heard of this book, it was during a commercial James Patterson made to promote its release (...has it ever weirded you out a little bit that he is always doing commercials to promote his new books? Just him sitting there talking dramatically about his books? No? It's just me? Okay.) I was really intrigued with reading it one day, and filed it away in the back of my mind. When Books a Million emailed me over July 4th weekend announcing that all four of Patterson's Middle School books and his first I Funny book were on a crazy sale, I caved and got them. In hindsight...they make libraries for things like these. But I figured if they're good, they'd be nice to have in the long term, right?

Middle School: The Worst Years of my Life is the first book in Patterson's Middle School series. Main character Rafe Khatchadorian starts sixth grade with less than great expectations. His mom is engaged to a man who sits on the couch all day drinking soda and watching TV while collecting unemployment checks, his little sister is going through an annoying phase known as the fourth grade, and he's having to start sixth grade in a new school with new teachers, new girls, new bullies, and new rules. It's actually the rules that become the main source of conflict when Rafe decides with his best friend to break each of the rules in the entire student handbook over the course of the year...while also dodging the bully that just won't leave him alone and trying to woo the pretty girl he has a crush on.

The plot of this book certainly isn't super original. Middle school is a real low point in most kids' lives, because of all the new rules and bullies and teachers and cute girls. Adolescent boys want to challenge those bullies, appear cool in front of the cute girls, be tough and rebellious towards the teachers, and break the rules when they can. And that's pretty much this book. But even though most of it is pretty predictable, there are several really surprising twists along the way. Obviously I won't spoil them, but the phrase "whaaaaat?" escaped me more than once. (At least twice, maybe three times.) It's also pretty funny. Not necessarily laugh out loud funny, but the cute kind of funny. The style the book is written isn't super original either; the pre-teen diary-style book featuring lots of drawings and doodles throughout is pretty popular right now. Diary of a Wimpy Kid was probably what started the little genre off, and series like Dork Diaries have also really taken off. I know I still have four more books left to go in this series, but I honestly much prefer the Wimpy Kid books to Patterson's. (I definitely laugh out loud to Wimpy Kid....I'm kind of lame, I know.)

I also feel like it needs to be said that a book encouraging awkward and unhappy boys trying to find their way in a new school by just systematically breaking all the rules in the code of conduct - while disrupting classes and publicly disrespecting teachers - might not be the best idea. And maybe I'm just biased because I have had my class disrupted and have been publicly disrespected by middle school boys...but hey. I'm just throwing it out there.

More of a Guideline

A couple months ago I started my own personal challenge of reading all the books I own that I haven't ever read. When I started the challenge, I had 91 books. I found a couple in various hiding places around the house, though, and also bought one at a yard sale, bringing my total to 93. But then today I was peer pressured into going to the Green Valley Book Fair (one of my favorite places in the entire world), and I picked up three books. Two I'd read and love, and one that's new. I've heard really great things about it for years, and it was $2.99. I know it's breaking my rule (I'm not allowed to buy any new books that I haven't read before I read all the books I already own that I've already read), but I decided to respond the same way as Captain Barbossa of the Black Pearl.

The code is really more like a guideline. And I can decide when I'm allowed to break it.

So yeah. 93 94 books to go.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: a brief review

It's with somewhat mixed emotions that I write this post. I literally just finished the last page of the book, and even though I'd seen the movie and knew how it was going to end, I'm obviously still deeply saddened. Saddened that such a time in human history ever occurred, and saddened that it is still happening now.

John Boyne's novel/fable The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is the story of nine-year-old Bruno, whose father is the Commandant in charge of the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp. Bruno doesn't know what goes on in the little town on the other side of the big fence, and he stares in curiosity at all the little people who wear matching striped pajamas every day. When he finally decides to get out of the house and go exploring one day, he finds another nine-year-old boy to be friends with...but this boy is on the other side of the mysterious fence. Thus begins an odd and secret friendship that lasts over a year as the boys continue to meet and talk while sitting at the fence line.

I said I had mixed emotions about this book. The topic is one we're all too familiar with as 21st century Americans, but it's told here from a slightly different perspective than we're used to and that adds a unique new effect. As if the topic itself isn't enough, the book's conclusion is just absolutely heartbreaking. But my confused emotions come from a state of frustration: the gaps in logic are quite large at times. Bruno would not have been nearly as clueless as he was in real life WWII-era Germany; the nine-year-old son of a Nazi Commandant would have definitely been involved with Hitler Youth and would have had Nazi propaganda instilled in him continuously. It also makes no sense that Bruno would be confused by the word "Auschwitz," replacing it with the phrase "Out-With"...he is a German-speaking child after all and the words "out" and "with" are English. The idea of a spot in the fence around Auschwitz having a hole big enough for an adolescent boy to fit under that is also never ever guarded or patrolled at any point over the course of an entire year is probably ridiculous. A house positioned directly next door to a concentration camp in which large amounts of humans were burned alive routinely would smell so strongly that no one in Bruno's family would have been able to stand it (or be confused at all about the purpose of the camp). Your typical nine-year-old child wouldn't be half as stupid as Bruno, either; he is probably the most annoyingly dense character I've read in a long time. But all of that aside, let's keep this in perspective. This is a work of fiction. A work of fiction that doesn't claim to be anything other than fiction. It's based on real events and a real place, yes. But it's fiction. And with fiction sometimes comes moments in which we need to suspend disbelief deeply rooted in hindsight and adult wisdom. Would I use this book as a lone tool to teach the Holocaust to a child? Nope. But I probably wouldn't mind using it as one of many tools, because it offers a unique voice not provided by most other books (it's also one heck of an opportunity for teaching inference and drawing conclusions).

In his author's note at the end of the book, John Boyne explains his choices:

"Throughout the writing and rewriting of the novel, I believed that the only respectful way for me to deal with this subject was through the eyes of a rather naive child who couldn't possibly understand the terrible things that were taking place around him. After all, only the victims and survivors can truly comprehend the awfulness of that time and place; the rest of us live on the other side of the fence, staring through from our own comfortable place, trying in our own clumsy ways to make sense of it all."

Honestly, I get it. Bruno is stupid and you want to strangle him to death throughout a lot of the book (either because he just will. not. get. it, or because he often whines about how bad he has it while watching his friend literally starve to death in front of him), but if Bruno wasn't quite so stupid the story wouldn't work. And honestly...are there areas in our personal interactions and/or areas in this world that we are as stupid as Bruno about? Are we the people whining about how our new house only has three floors when our old house had five while a dear friend sits across the table from us going through something that is literally killing them? Is it possible that we, as mature and intelligent adults, could be missing something right next door to us that's just as huge and heartbreaking? I hope not, but maybe Bruno can get us thinking anyway.