TGIF, people!

BRB - Going to Get a New Sister!

These two are getting hitched.

I'm not old enough for them to be of marrying age.

Just sayin.

We Take Our Dirt Seriously

Back to yard work! I potted almost all the flowers this morning and re-mulched around the house. It's starting to look like actual humans live here. The kind who contribute to society and stuff.

The flowers are teensy right now, but I'm hoping with enough TLC (and coffee grounds!) they'll bloom marvelously like my flowers did last summer. One can never tell. I don't exactly have a green thumb. They could be dead by this time next week.

Meanwhile, I put down more topsoil and grass seed in the area I ripped up over Spring Break. It's been raining a lot lately and I keep chanting for my grass. Turns out you need to be careful chanting for grass in Denver. Just sayin. :) BUT I MEAN LITERAL GRASS.

Even with all the rain, I make sure to water that dirt regularly. Lots of weeds are popping up, so I take that as a good sign. At least they're green. I coo encouragement at the dirt and I know the Scotts people are seeding these areas, too. We'll probably end up with a rain forest and I'll complain about it but whatever.

I sweet talked G into making the dreaded trip to Home Depot last night with the promise of a dinner at Chili's first. It worked. We got caught in a hellacious thunder storm, though, and had to wait it out for like half an hour inside the store. We roamed around, looking at light fixtures and welcome mats until it was safe to go outside again. At which point I made G load up about 550 pounds of mulch and dirt.

He was thrilled.

He loves walking around looking like Eddie from this scene in the Vacation Christmas movie:

Source

That's all I got over here. Today will be spent running pre-wedding trip errands, doing chores, and reading voraciously. I only have two weeks of summer break left!!

Brunch + Book

Look who I saw today!

It's been approximately a million years since I have gotten together with the Russkie. I was buried under homework and grading. Then she was in Russia. Then I was sick. Then she was still in Russia. Then she was sick. Then I was hyperventilating over finals. Then she didn't feel good. GAW! Finally!

Nothing like a brunch at Snooze to help us catch up! There were 1,000 people there yet the wait was only about half an hour so, you know, that's doable.

Why does champagne mixed with orange juice just automatically make everything better??

 

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In other news entirely, here's my latest book review.

Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer

First of all, let me just say that if you've never read anything by Krakauer, you need to! He writes true accounts of compelling events and the man (1) does his research, (2) manages to arrange lots of facts and details into a compelling and intriguing narrative, and (3) writes about controversial topics while getting his point across in a non-sensationalistic way, which I really appreciate.

If you're new to Krakauer, start with Into Thin Air (about a disaster on Mt. Everest in the 1990's), move on to Into the Wild (about a young man who disappeared into the Alaska wild and died mysteriously) and then read Under the Banner of Heaven (about all kinds of historical and modern funkiness that has happened with Mormons in Utah).

Missoula is the compilation of all kinds of rapes and sexual assaults that have happened to college-aged girls on the UM campus. Sounds uplifting, right? :) The thing is, rape is the only crime in which people question the victim. If someone ran into a police department, yelling that they had been burglarized, the police would not start questioning them about why their door may have been unlocked, or are they absolutely sure the assailant hit them? Yes, even though there are bruises? Etc.

I was drawn to this book because of the Feminist Thought class and all the theories we have discussed about woman as a social construct and the absolute importance of a woman's body belonging only to her and that she is able to maintain control of it and set boundaries. Krakauer includes a lot of research about the psychological effects of sexual assault that may cause the victim to act in ways that people don't understand and therefore scrutinize. What do you mean she didn't scream? Why did she wait 2 months to go to the police? Why didn't she tell her parents? Why does she say "I think I was raped" instead of "I know for sure that I was raped"? Etc.

The book includes references to women crying wolf as well, but did you know that false rape cases make up under 2% of all rape cases reported in the U.S.? And that most women - a crazy percentage of assault cases, like 80-90 ish percent - never report them? Which means that of the thousands of cases that are reported each year, there are literally thousands upon thousands that are not reported at all?

The statistics and the psychology blew my mind.

Caveat: The book may be disturbing to read. In my opinion, it's worth it. I think women need to know this information, men need to know it, and moms (of girls and boys) need to read it.

Krakauer rocks.

Another Book + A Few Favorite Things

Another good summer read:

All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner

Jennifer Weiner does it again! This book is about an upper middle class housewife who, in her struggle to be a good wife and mom and daughter to an increasingly-needy family, finds herself turning to pills in order to cope. It's a modern (fictional) account of a modern trend, with humor, insight, killer dialogue, and creativity. And there's one particular part that just has to be a reference to "A Room of One's Own." I need to look into some interviews and see if that's the case. At any rate, this is worth a read.

In other news, A-peep flew back home today. Buzzkill. Man, it was such a nice time of catching up and chillin' like villains before an insane - and I mean insane in the membrane - summer.

A few of my favorite things:

OBVS

Lucy didn't appreciate having a roommate.

AND. Remember how G went to the Denver Comicon? He saw some pretty rockin' costumes, including this one, which, at first, may not look like much to you. But he texted me the pic and I immediately knew that she was dressed up as one of the clones from the best show ever in the world, Orphan Black.

Here's what the character looks like (below). Isn't the similarity amazing? I was really impressed! Almost impressed enough to go next year. Oh, who am I kidding? Not really.

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Ok, time to read. Must enjoy this leisurely summer schedule while I can, people.

In Memoriam

The Best Surprise Since Last Weekend!

Soooo....look who's here!

I want to go on record as saying that this picture is proof that Type A's can be spontaneous.

Yesterday morning we were texting back and forth and somehow that conversation ended up with A-peep on a plane to Denver.

FOR A GIRLZ WEEKEND.

All I'm sayin' is that I now expect a honkin' surprise every Friday! Steamboat Springs? Yes, please! An unexpected girlz weekend? Sign me up!

G spent the day at Denver Comicon, i.e. Nerds 'R' Us.

Colonel Tye from Battlestar Galactica!

And, the rest, as they say, is history binge eating:

This is shaping up to be the best weekend ever. Since last weekend.

Book Time

For the next couple of weeks, I plan to spend most of my time reading. Then the summer job and a couple of tutoring gigs will kick in. Plus, planning syllabi for next semester. I had designated the rest of May for yard work, but then, it's Denver and practically snowing outside, so, you know, that's not happening.

So! Reading!

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

The thing about Jodi Picoult is that she picks compelling, controversial, and timely topics to write about. Leaving Time is about a girl searching for her mother, who may or may not be alive. Her mother had been a scientist who researched elephant cognition, so much of the book is set in Africa and is about African elephants, which just slays my heart. In true Picoult fashion, she weaves mystery, humor, science, skepticism, and love together. And there's the characteristic twist ending that you know is coming yet you never see it. This one is a doozy and it's good!

It's the perfect summer book. Enjoy!

It's not that I can't. It's that I don't want to.

Lucy and I managed our trip to the vet, though it was harrowing ("hare"-owing!) and neither one of us wants to repeat that experience anytime soon.

Last night, G was attempting a pep talk, and was going through the 400,000 steps of how to get her from her cage to her carrier. I held up my hand and said something along the lines of "I know I know I know! The problem is not that I don't know what to do. It's that I don't want to do any of it." Lucy nodded in agreement.

Getting her into her carrier and then wrangling everyone out the door took about 5 hours. Which is approximately how long we waited to see the vet - this isn't her usual one who coos and coddles her.

Yes. I REALLY am this stylish. No autographs, please.

We both sat and seethed, thinking about G at work, leisurely twiddling his thumbs or something, all zippedy-doo-dah.  Must be nice.

When we finally got called back to the exam room, I was trying to tell the sweet tech girl how anti social Lucy is, and she was busy unzipping the carrier, trying to get her to hop out. I may or may not have yelled, "STOP! RIGHT NOW, STOP! WE'LL NEVER GET HER BACK IN IF SHE HOPS OUT." The poor woman looked traumatized and I had to explain exactly how long it would take an entire team to wrangle Lucy back into that thing. And also that I would not be paying for any of it.

These amateurs, gaw!

She got it.

An hour later, Lucy and I needed a drink.

And some food.

Then we went home, double fisted the Ibuprofen, and took a nap.

Wildlife

Before we talk about wildlife, let's talk about some domestic life.

This one has gotten to the point that she'll let us love on her even when she's on the floor (rather than just in her spot by her bought friends on the hearth). Occasionally, we can just reach down and love all over her face and ears and she lets us.

It's a sporadic miracle. It's only taken two years.

Today she helped me enter final grades.

I have to take her to the vet tomorrow. By myself. Because G has to like, go to work and stuff. We are prepping her for boarding when we go to my brother's wedding, and we board her at a facility that's different from her regular vet. And they make us come in for prep stuff even though they've boarded her like 55 times already. Oh, it's going to be terrible. Did I mention I have to do this alone?!

But enough about her. Let's lower my blood pressure by talking about the weekend vacay.

Remember how we saw a moose on the way to Steamboat? We saw one on the way back, too, and this time we got some pics.

Isn't that awesome? We also got some shots of a double rainbow from the resort:

Yes, it's snowing in the middle of May. Yes, our heat still comes on every day. As I type, I'm wearing flannel pj's, a jacket, and my house shoes.

But that's ok because you know what I did today, after I entered grades? Nothing. All day.

Because I'm saving my energy for tomorrow with this one.

Steamboat Springs