return of the book monster

I am, at heart, a total bookworm. When I was a kid I would spend all of my free time reading. Also so not-technically-free-time, I kept a book open in my desk at school, and when I finished my work/declined to pay attention to what was being taught, I read. Monday was library and piano lesson day, and my mom limited me to seven books a week (maybe ten in the summer), at least until I was 12 or 13 and became less agreeable to limits. I would get home from town monday night and anxiously rifle through my pile of new adventures, trying to figure out the perfect one to start with. Once I picked a book, I would devour it. I would be inseparable from it until it was done-I would carry the book with me to the breakfast table (where I was allowed to read), on the bus to school, during school as I could sneak time to read it, on the bus home, curled up in the recliner until dinner (where I was not allowed to read). At night I was technically allowed 15 minutes after bedtime to read (measured by egg timer), but I usually needed to be told to turn the light out more than once. If my mom wanted to punish me, she did so by taking minutes off of my reading-before-bed time. I usually ran out of books by thursday, which led to a lot of boring weekends and an early exposure to the yellowed classics one my parents bookshelves (as well as an earlier-than-ideal exposure to Michael Crichton's Disclosure). I was a book monster. I grew out of it, of course, as I got older and school got harder and it became harder and harder to find books that engaged my mind. More difficult still when I went to college and focused on science instead of literature and had less and less time for curling up to read a book cover-to-cover. Once I went to grad school, forget it. I barely get my chapter or two or literature read for P. Sister book club. Still, occasionally something would pull me in and when I turn the last page I realize that it is 3 AM and there was no egg timer to remind me it was time to put the book down and go to sleep.

It has been a while since anything grabbed my attention, and I missed it-both reading a book for the unadulterated thrill of figuring out what happens next, and the experience of devouring a book-struggling to keep your eyes open and unable to put it down. This weekend, though, I found one! A few friends recommended The Hunger Games, and I picked it and its sequel up at the bookstore Sunday night. That was less than 48 hours ago, and I finished them both. Now, to be fair, they are technically books for teenagers and not the most rigorous reading. But SO GOOD. So, so, so, so good. Great characters; engaging story; smooth, elegant, evocative writing. The worst part: They are a trilogy, and book#3 doesn't come out until August! I will, theoretically, be preparing to defend my dissertation in August. I think I'll be able to spare a few evenings for ravenously devouring a book:)

Too Fast

The weekend has flown by. I worked in the lab allllll day saturday, followed by dinner with a friend and her family. Today was lab again (where I learned my saturday experiment did not turn out the way it should have, boo), shopping for spring clothes, groceries, weekly phone call with dad, scraping together dinner, and now it is 9:30 on sunday night. Of course the worst part of the hurried weekend was that I did not bake at all. No cakes, no bread, no muffins, no cookies. Whatever will I eat for breakfast all week?

The tulips I was so excited about on friday have already started to droop. I love spring here, it is the only time I find this city remotely appealing in and of itself. There are so many flowering trees, painted more shades of pale pink and green than I knew were possible. When the wind blows, the petals swirl down to the ground like snow (real snow, not Alabama snow). They're already starting to fade and drop. I forgot until tonight that this is probably my last spring here, and it's come and gone so fast.

A few random things

It has been a while, once again. Not much going on, and at the same time crazy busy and stressed. At any rate, a bullet point update. More in depth thoughts later.

• My little sister came to visit a few weeks ago. We had a grand time, despite it being horrifically rainy the whole time. Probably the best day was when we got rained on while trying to hike at one park, discovered the trail was flooded, went to another park to eat a picnic and got rained on again. We ended up eating lunch in my car and then heading back to my apartment. We wanted to watch movies, but also to be warm in bed so we folded out the futon and curled up under all the blankets I owned for the remainder of the afternoon and watched dMad Men, Up, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. There were other highlights of the weekend as well-an epic shopping trip, roasted pork tenderloin with apples, regaling my grad school friends with tales of the insane games we played as kids at a thai house lunch, homemade pizza and popcorn, dinner with some of our good college friends and meeting their ridiculously adorable puppies, honey glazed pear upside down cake, a brief road trip to Atlanta and the Coke Museum and then she flew away. A short, sweet visit.
• Speaking of my sister, the P. Sister Book Club finished our "Dysfunctional Families" reading list and has moved on to a study of the "Devil and God".
• I am inching (so slowly!) closer and closer to graduation. My second paper, on a project that has been incredibly draining in terms of effort and the ridiculous politics among various people involved, was accepted for publication a few weeks ago. I found out today that a review I wrote in December was also accepted. woot!
• I am trying my hand at gardening once again this year. I always have high hopes of growing a beautiful patio garden full of flowers and herbs and vegetables, and I always fail miserably. I planted tulips and hyacinths, and so far so good! All are blooming and lovely. Of course, the constant rain means that their chances of dying because I forget to water them for two weeks is very low.
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