insomnia and nerd-dome

Blehhhh. I'm a tired girl. Night before last J and I were hit with insomnia. Boring, mind-numbing insomnia - J got three hours of sleep before heading to work and I got four before our neighbors decided to start fighting and wake me up. Needless to say yesterday evening we both sat in front of the TV and stared mindlessly, even though the writer's strike has officially hit and there were only stupid repeats. We did this because we had several conversations going something like this:

"*mumble* hmmanumana"
"Huh?"
"yuhgabadee."
"Oh."
"What?"
"Huh?"

It was a long, confusing night.

Today, however, I woke up (to the neighbors fighting again) and made sure all my Christmas cards were stamped and ready to go (they are, yay!!)...well that's about it so far. My mind is still sort of numb and after a couple weeks of feeling pretty good my FMS is flaring up a little. So...I'm stealing the following thingy from my mama because let's face it...today is no day for original composition.

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What have you just read?

I recently finished a streak of Sinclair Lewis works - from most recent back: Kingsblood Royal, Babbitt, Dodsworth, and Ann Vickers.

What are you reading now?

Stories for Christmas (Charles Dickens) - a collection of long and short stories that appeared in various Dickens publications that I'm finding quite amusing and alternately a little disturbing. 700+ pages of goodness from my favorite author.

and The Brethren (John Grisham) - which I recently picked up at a rummage sale. I don't normally read two books at once since I'm easily distracted and confused, but Stories for Christmas is large and heavy and I needed a lighter, less arm-straining book for my bubble bath reading.

Do you have any idea what you'll read when you're done with that?

Truman Capote's first novel, Summer Crossing, that we got used at Barnes and Noble (that most wondrous of book stores!).

What's the worst thing you were ever forced to read?

Moby Dick. I hate Moby Dick. It's boring and long. And The House of the Seven Gables - curse you, Hawthorne, for putting me through that. And Catch-22 - oh my gosh. BORING. Redundant. Preachy. The kind of book that makes you want to stab out your eyes.

What's one book you always recommend to just about anyone?

I can never recommend just one, but I'll try to keep it short:
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Hiding Place
Jane Eyre
Dracula

Admit it, sadly the librarians at your library know you on a first name basis, don't they?

They don't because J and I are the book-owning kind of nerds and not the library kind - we prefer to deck our apartment with hundreds of volumes of classic lit, history books, and the like and then choose what's next from our own shelves. Our library sustains us quite well. They do recognize J from when he came as a kid to book hours and things and laugh because we usually only hit up the library to check out movies.

Is there a book you absolutely love, but for some reason, people never think it sounds interesting, or maybe they read it and don't like it at all?

To Kill a Mockingbird. I love it to death, it's my #1 fave and for some reason whenever I recommend it people are like 'eh.' - and they either never touch it or say they read it in high school and didn't like it. Foolish people.

Do you read books while you eat?

I have tried for years to master this practice, but have failed. I either end up reading and forgetting I was eating my food or have to close my book and eat first...I just can't seem to keep the book open while I use my fork, spoon, or hand to eat. It's too unwieldy, it's just too hard.

While you bathe?

All the time. I never bathe without a book, and usually if I'm looking around the apartment and can't find my volume it's because I've left it in the bathroom from when I took my bath. I have only dropped my book in the tub once or twice, but I've ruined many a bookmark from this particular habit.

While you watch movies or TV?

TV, not movies. Books are a great commercial-filler.

While you listen to music?

Yep.

While you're on the computer?

Not all the time, but I have been known to sit and check email with a book open at my elbow.

When you were little did other children tease you about your reading habits?

When I was little my friends were even nerdier about books than I...talking about you, Betty and Melissa...

What's the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn't put it down?

I know that this has happened, but if it's night I'm usually wiped out and even when I want to stay up reading I fall asleep. J has closed my book and turned out my light for me countless nights because I just can't do it.

Have any books made you cry?

Jane Eyre, David Copperfield, Beloved (Toni Morrison), East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Jungle, ... I'm just gonna stop and say yes, many books have made me cry.

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Now THAT was a questionnaire I enjoyed. I love books, I just love 'em...it's put me in the mood and I'm gonna knock off a few more Dickens' Christmas stories. :)

she's a tired girl

We woke up this morning and had warmed apple cinnamon muffins I'd baked the day before - then J took a shower and by the time he got out I'd fallen asleep for a sound 3.5 hour nap. I think maybe I've been using up more than my normal allotment of energy lately...

Yesterday J got home and said GooberBear and Munchkin were over and Mom2 & Dad2's house again so off we went to play! Three more beautiful hours of chasing kiddos in circles...well that's not exactly true since GooberBear and I spent a solid hour of that making up stories. Out of nowhere he says "Aunt B I'm going to put you in the garbage!" Of course I was outraged and told him I'd escape and this somehow morphed into an hour-long discussion of who would put who in the garbage and how we'd get away. Needless to say I was tired of coming up with ideas loooong before Goober was, but how can you not play along with that crazy 3-year-old imagination?

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I've almost finished reading A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens) for, believe it or not, the first time. He's my favorite author, but somehow I've skipped the holiday classic until now...after all I've seen numerous versions on video every year (The Muppet Christmas Carol reigning supreme) and I guess that was good enough for me up until the present. I shall leave you this blurb, the reading of which made me love Dickens all the more, since I've often questioned this very thing:

"Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of iron-mongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail."

I shall write a more thorough and interesting entry on Monday, I hope...for now I'm ready for bed!