Monday, June 7, 2010

Confessions/Obsessions - A Copycat Post

Amanda recently posted a list of confessions and obsessions, and since Photobucket hates me and doesn't want me to share the rest of my winery pictures, I'm going to share a list of my confessions and obsessions!

Confession: I do Josh’s homework. Ok, not really, but I do type his papers for him. He writes much better when he can scrawl and cross out and draw arrows to unify his thoughts. I’m the lucky one who gets to decipher and put the pages in order… It saves so much time because he’s not the fastest typist. Plus, I can proofread at the same time, killing 2 birds with one stone. I’m pretty sure this isn’t cheating because it’s all his thoughts, I’m just the transcriber.... right? It's totally legit... right?


Obsession: Young Adult Literature – when I want a book to make me think, I always head to the YA blogs and then to that part of the library. Rarely predictable, sometimes haunting - where was this stuff when I was a kid? This weekend I read two books: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Andersen. Both were phenomenal, if a little dark.

Wintergirls chronicles the life of an anorexic teen who had just discovered that the girl who she made a 'skinny pact' with has committed suicide. It's an interesting look into the mind of someone facing such a disease. She tells how her goal weight is to be uner 100 lbs, then continues to 95lbs, then 90lbs, and so on. Anderson, who also wrote Speak and Catalyst, is known as quite a controversial author in the YA world due to the truthful nature of her books and their hard to stomach (wow, no pun intended) topics. I loved this book and I can't wait to see what she does next!

Thirteen Reasons Why is a truly unique book. It's a little morbid, so bear with me. The story is told over one night. The main character receives a package of audio tapes, sent from a girl from his school who recently committed suicide. The tapes tell the story of how various people contributed to the reason she killed herself - there are 13 people total, and the tapes make their way to each person. The book jumps between the voice of the main character, and the voice from the tapes. It's haunting to realize how small actions and words can have such a huge impact on the lives of others - often resulting in unintentional hurt. This book is powerful, even for an adult.

Confession: I hate reality TV. With the exception of Chopped, Project Runway, and Design Star, I hate all of the contrived, scripted, fakeness that comes about with reality TV (And I’m sure that the 3 I’ve listed here have elements of all of that crap too). I also hate watching anything with celebrities who will do anything for more time in the spotlight (Dancing with the Stars and Celebrity Apprentice, anyone?). I'm so completely over American Idol and I've never watched an episode of So You Think You Can Dance... I hate how these shows dominate TV! I like shows where people create things… I hate shows that people watch only for the fake drama. I once loved The Hills, but one day, realized that I was actually stressed out about Heidi/Spencer. So I quit watching. Cold Turkey. And I haven’t looked back.

(ok, I realize that I used the word 'hate' quite a bit in that paragraph. So sorry, I'm really not a raging maniac, especially when it comes to TV)

On the other hand, I love (nerd alert!!) the History Channel's miniseries America: The Story of US (it's over now, but I seriously was obsessed and have all of the episodes on the DVR still), Glee, The Big Bang Theory, reruns of Gilmore Girls, The Office, and Parenthood. Yes, I realize these are fake and scripted, too, (with the exception of the History Channel) but they're not pretending to be real!

Obsession: Phantom of the Opera

OMG to die for. Josh's parents got me a ticket for part of my birthday present, and yesterday was the day! Josh's mom, Adeline, and sister, Ashley, and I, had a delicious lunch at Mitchell's Fish Market before we headed to the Wharton Center in East Lansing to watch the play. It was phenomenal! Why had I never seen this before? I'm dying for the soundtrack because it's seriously amazing. I adore any type of live play, especially musicals, so this was the perfect gift. We have made tentative plans to go see Chicago and Mary Poppins when they come to the Wharton Center next season!

Confession: I’m addicted to shopping – actually, make that bargain shopping. I cannot pass by a store if they are having a sale. Case in point- although I need a new bra, I left VS without buying because they didn’t have any sales. Then, although I do not need any new clothes, I went into Ann Taylor Loft and purchased 4 tops and a skirt. For $43 dollars, total. The skirt was on final clearance for whatever reason for only $4.88. Yes, the decimal is in the right place. Four. Dollars. and. Change. Of course I can’t find a pic of it online…. I also got two tanks and two t-shirts that were BOGO 50% off. They're the perfect solid colors to coordinate with all of my jewelry (yes, I realize it's sad that I buy clothes to match my jewelry). Then I went to DSW for some new black shoes (because Diesel adores black shoes just as much as I do, although he loves eating, not wearing, my shoes) and scored my new faves, which I also could not find a picture of. Suffice it to say they are black slingback heels, with a peep toe and bow on the front! Adorable!

Obsession: Dowloading fonts. I absolutely love downloading new fonts! There are so many out there, and I love typography anyway, so to me, downloading fonts is like… duh… a fave. My favorite place to get fonts is DaFont (check out peach sundress, Ashley, Riesling, Delikatessen, and Honey Script for starters). I also like Kevin and Amanda's site for lots of free fonts created from actual handwriting! Download a few and tell me what you think, or give me your favorites to check out!!


Ok, so that was kind of a long list.... Tell me, what are your confessions and obsessions at the moment?

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3 comments:

Melissa said...

I have the second disk of Phantom if you want me to send it to you, I have no idea why I don't have the first.

Amanda (WannaBe Chef) said...

Yay for confessions and obsessions! I'm ashamed to say that I have enough reality show obsessions for the both of us...

Carrie said...

I use to love Dancing with the Stars, but I was a bigger fan of the professionals than the celebrities. I still love So You Think You Can Dance. I too gave up on American Idol. This season I thought was not very good at all.

Anyway, Love the Post. I can't wait to see my new jewelry and do a post for a little free publicity for my friend ;)