Yay!

My dad, who had a minor stroke last Wednesday and has been in first the hospital and then a rehabilitation facility, has been given a release date of next Wednesday. Yippee! The initial estimate is that he’d have to be at the rehab facility for 3 weeks, so this is much better than we could have hoped.

I guess my niece thought it would be fun to sit in the refrigerator

So she did. I like that kind of follow through, although it made for a lot of “Porkchop in the fridge” jokes.

Not at all suspicious

Oh, Republicans of the Missouri House of Representatives. You have to know that if inducting Rush Limbaugh into the Hall of Famous Missourians requires a secret ceremony, you might not be doing the right thing. Especially if you 1) don’t invite any of your Democrat colleagues and 2) only tell reporters a half hour before the event. Guilty much?

A really awesome dinner I had the other day

Paul and Mari, two of my more fabulous friends, took me out for birthday dinner a couple of weeks early. We went to Smoke Chophouse, a steak restaurant across the street from my job. I’ve worked here for nearly five years, and I’d never before eaten at that restaurant. Big mistake. On Mondays they have $15 lobster (total, not per pound), and Mari and I really enjoyed ours. Paul got an Angus burger, which he said was very good. Tuesdays they have happy hour, so I think that Luz and I may have another happy hour to add to our rotation.

Now you know who’s [NOT whose] to blame

It’s not my fault! Teaneck public schools made me this way!

But he’s still responsible for Charlie Sheen

President Obama might have had a nice day today, but I saw everybody’s favorite tv president, Jed Bartlett, today in Port Authority. Martin Sheen might very well be awesome, but having fathered Charlie Sheen knocks him down to just aight.

This is why Atlanta rocks

(Written while I was still in ATL, hence the present tense.)

Why doesn’t stuff like this happen to me at home?

I’m in town to hang out with the fabulous Joy and take in an Ingrid Michaelson show (omniscient future-living editor: it was awesome). This is what we encountered at our pre-show meal.

The opening act was Scars on 45, who were really good. I didn’t know their name, but recognized one of their songs from an episode of The Vampire Diaries. Best show on tv right now, and you can just keep it to yourself if you don’t agree.

Familiar book covers

I saw the book cover on the left, for Words Get in the Way by Nan Rossiter, and it immediately made me think of this book cover, for Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos. I guess that rainboots aren’t the most unique things ever, but still, you’d think that, only four years after Belong to Me was such a successful novel, the marketing people behind Rossiter’s book would have gone for something else. Unless they’re trying to draw a parallel without being too obvious?  The descriptions don’t sound similar, so maybe not? Still, a curious choice of cover art.

Trend?

I recently read two contemporary romance novels in which the main dudes (must I really call them “heroes”?) were recently released prisoners. Innnteresting. America has a huge prison epidemic on our hands, and yet I don’t really see this reflected in what I read.

Of course, neither of the guys in these books did anything really awful. In fact, one hadn’t done the thing for which he’d been imprisoned. How noble. The other guy was undoubtedly guilty, but his crime was too stupid to take seriously (he DOS-ed Twitter). I’d never really had occasion to think about what it would be like to date/marry somebody with a prison record. That’s something that must be disclosed on employment applications; you can’t vote for a certain amount of time; you face a certain amount of societal prejudice.

It’s not that I read novels expecting to find realism, but I was fascinated how a genre that is commonly held to be completely frivolous could handle such a sensitive topic in completely different ways.

FYI, the books were Julie James’ A Lot Like Love and Kristan Higgins’ Too Good to be True. Of the two, I preferred the latter, although both books were enjoyable.

Do not want!

Yay! I’ve been super productive lately. I set up the Jezepals penpal service, which is so brilliant that I can hardly stand it (except that there is a Pin Pal service that dates back to January, but I didn’t know about it when I made the suggestion on Jezebel). I received a post card from my Jezebel person today, and a postal letter from my Pin Pal last week. I have all the letters! I will write back to each person this weekend!

I also set up the Google Group Sharepin, where people can post things that they don’t want and hopefully find a non-landfilly home for them. This is perfect timing for me, as I clearly have too much stuff and not nearly enough space in which to keep it. My Birchbox castoffs alone would comprise a pretty hefty shipment. Add in some gently used, still adorable, but no longer “me” clothes, and that’s a metric ton of stuff that is needlessly cluttering my life. I’m doing things now, not just joining, and it’s a good feeling!