Read Read Read

So, if you know me you know I love to read. Apparently, I just like to read books that aren't listed below. I only italicized the ones that I know right now I wanted to read. I will have to read descriptions of the other books to see if I would be interested.

Take a look at the list and see how you do and if all of your favorite books are considered in the Top 100 The National Endowment for the arts estimates that the average adult has read only 6 of the top 100 books..How about you?

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Star the books you LOVE.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen*
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling *
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee*
6 The Bible*
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy*
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (I will not be reading this. I did NOT like Lord of the Rings.)
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald*
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy*
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis*
34 Emma - Jane Austen*
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen*
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis*
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini*
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden*
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (Angels and Demons is much better)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery*
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon*
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck*
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett*
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White*
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince- Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Disney Monopoly

Sunday night my roommates are spending quality time together. I accidentally knock the money tray on the floor and Disney dollars go everywhere. The banker (Tricky Nicky) says the following:

"If anyone pockets any of the money while we are picking it up you will have to go directly to jail. Wait, You will have to go to jail with DUMBO and you know what he is like!"

We laughed and laughed. Who knew Disney Monopoly could be so funny.

I guess you had to be there.

My Newest Purchase

This is my newest decor purchase. I have been wanting something similar for so long. I added the pearls, I may take them off and add a ribbon around the middle. It is rather girlie and I love it.

3 Things

3 things that made me happy in the last 24 hours:

1. RS Presidency meeting. Seriously these girls are amazing and make me laugh.
2. Getting up early, and I mean butt crack of dawn early.
3. Laughing at work.

1 thing that made me sad...

1. Not getting the FAVORITE THINGS list from JL.

Who Am I Really?

When I strip away all the pomp and circumstance, who am I? When I take of my mask what is left? Who is the real me?

I have been thinking about this a lot over the last couple of weeks (thanks rendezvous) and asking some people to describe me in 3 words...no holds bar.

consistent, forgiving
bitter, happy
alive, negative
anxious, idealistic
adventurous, consumed
caring, stubborn, intelligent

These are some of the words that have been used to describe me. I would agree that some could describe me all the time and some would only describe me at certain points in my life. There are some I don't ever want to be remembered about me and some I hope describe my whole life.

Hearing some of the responses made me shudder and want to cry, while others made me laugh and smile, and still others made me ponder. The words reminded me of times I treasure and times I regret.

But what words describe the real me? Do any of the above words do this? The people who offered these words, I wonder if they have seen the real me or just the me who I want them to see...or the me they want me to be?

I used to hate mixing people from different areas of my life. It made me completely uncomfortable. I did not want my family and friends mixing, my work friends or school friends definitely mixing was a no no. But now I am do not care as much. My family has met more of my friends, I am okay with mixing friends from church and friends that I met through "FRED". I think this is because I am more and more comfortable being me and being on the journey to becoming the best me.

So, what words do I pick to describe my life? You will just have to wait and see...or maybe ask me another time. But I will be sure to keep these words close to remind me of the me I am striving to be.

Dreams

(I stole this picture from Jill's Blog...Jill...don't be mad! Love you!)

This last weekend I went on to a "Rendezvous" with my ward. The theme was "The Power of Balance". I must have gone with an open heart and mind...or just been deprived lately, because I came away with some amazing ideas to mull around. I will explore more of these ideas here publicly and also privately...but the one I want to start with is this...

We had a concert Thursday night with Sam Payne (AMAZING, I love scatting), Ryan Shupe, and Ryan Tilby. One of the songs they sang had this line:

"When you dream, dream big. Because sometimes dreams come true."

I have been thinking of my dreams lately so this line struck my particularly hard. It is making my think about my dreams and are they big or small? Are they want I REALLY want or just what I think I can achieve or what will be easy to achieve? Who doesn't deserve to have their biggest dreams come true?

One of my dreams, aspirations, or whatever you want to call it: When I have children of my own I would like to be financially situated so that we can spend some or all of the summers doing humanitarian service along with vacationing in other states and countries. I would love my life long job to be a volunteer, and I would love to do it with my future husband and children. I can almost see summers spent working in an orphanage in South America, or teaching English in China, building a school in Africa, or even working to build/repair homes in the United States. I love the world and have a strong desire to learn more about the people that live here and would like to have the opportunity to do this with my future family. What a better way to learn about a culture than by serving the people? The key is me starting to work on this now...so that I have a good chance of achieving this dream, and the many other dreams I have.

So, what are your biggest dreams?

A Story About Two Lovely Ladies

A long time ago (June) two fair ladies, DaNarla and Kisterina, went on a journey to the southern region of their state. Whilst there they had a grand time. The reason for their journey was to attend very important meetings for their rulers (our boss at our job). Since they had to go such a long way they decided to have fun while going.



They went to a town that has been known to have a constant carnival (Las Vegas). They visited local industries (Hoover Dam for a DAM tour). They learned all they could about the building and construction and even ventured to go deep inside the beast. They were brave women and were not afraid.



Wanting to get into the spirit of the town, they participated in local good luck customs. (Rubbing the toes of the weird statues at Hoover Dam to be lucky in the casinos.) However, they determined later that the good luck customs did not work.



They also partook of the local spirits and food, finding both to their liking. (Mine were virgin drinks lest you get any ideas about me.) The tavern they choose to rest a while was magical in nature and had bricks of fire lining the outside.








Of course, in the new land they encountered many wondrous and strange creatures. Thinking that descriptions were not enough, they pulled out the paints to capture the creatures full beauty.



Now DaNarla, was known in her village to be very vain and loved to look at pictures of herself. It is no wonder that she had some portraits painted of her whilst at the carnival. She was assured that even though the pose was quite unnatural, she would nonetheless attract many men with just one glance. (So, I like to take pictures of myself...sue me.)


As a final act in the City of Carnival the fair maidens received the carnivals mark. Each one choosing a symbol to represent themselves. Kisterina chose a flower because she is as a delicate little flower. DaNarla choose a butterfly to represent her longing for frequent travel. The maidens were not overly concerned about their ruler finding out as they were assured the mark's were only temporary and would wear off within a fortnight.



The next day having conveyed the necessary information from their ruler at the meetings they departed for home. Whilst on their way home they were lured by signs of sweet frozen cream in the land of Beaver. Had they known before they stopped what danger laid in wait, they may have forgone the temptation. Alas, while purchasing their treat Kisterina set down the magical key to their chariot. When the fair ladies were getting ready to depart they discovered they magical key gone. DaNarla and Kisterina looked high and low to no avail. The magical key was gone.



Since they had borrowed the chariot from the ruler for this important trip they sent word and were directed to have the chariot taken to the nearest city with wizards able to produce a new magical key. Kisterina was quite distraught, for the nearest town was several leagues away (Richfield) and it would add half a work day to their journey home.





However, DaNarla upon hearing the news decided to put the time to good use and have many additional portraits drawn of her practicing the pose she learned in the City of Carnival. For she was young and wanted to snare not just one man, but many men to use and play with as her moods changed.














Epilogue: Kisterina was sent a parchment a week later containing the magical key. A distracted woman picked up the magical key thinking it was hers and did not discover the error until the next day.





Moral of the story: Losing the keys to your work car in Beaver is junky. But on the bright side I did have a lot of fun taking pictures of myself!

Fillmore, Beaver

Playing At Work

Remember that one blog I wrote about HATING plastic covered paper clips? Well, I was out of the office one day and what do I come back too?

PLASTIC COVERED PAPER CLIPS hidden ALL over my desk. On my chair, in my papers, taped to bins, inside of drawers, on my can of soup, behind things hung on the wall. Pretty much everywhere.




And who would do such a thing???
THIS GUY.
Chay.
My arch nemisis and BFF at work. I have to admit he is pretty fun MOST OF THE time to keep us all entertained.

I took me days to find all the paper clips. With the last one being found on August 6th. Every time I find one I shake my fist and then silently laugh.


But now, I have all these paper clips just hiding in my desk and waiting.Seeing them gives me inspiration in thinking up a new prank for CHAY.


Although the best thing you can do to him is stare at him. Too bad he doesn't sit by me anymore. I would stare at him for 10 minutes everyday. It freaks him right out of town and he has to get up and leave his desk. I know because I did it once and it made me laugh so hard.

(p.s. I finally learned how to use some things on my camera and took all these pictures and the pictures of the Afrikan coins. I love the MACRO setting. Thanks Megs.)

You're Going To Have To Wait...

Today I went on a roller coaster ride, an emotional roller coaster ride.

I have been happy, excited, annoyed, irritated, dumbfounded, sad, giggly, hopeful, crying sad, tired (if you don't think tired counts as an emotion...just come talk to me), proud, elated, calm, holding back tears, thoughtful, and finally NUMB.

So, if you want to see me express any emotion...you're just going to have to wait because mine are all used up.

Just consider me for the next week or so DEAD INSIDE.

(Do you ever have days like this. I hate/despise them. And then later...looking back...I appreciate them...but NOT for a long long long long time.)

(((Opinion POLL))) - This Guy

One question: ultra-fantasti-fabulous OR how about ultra-fabu-lame? Also, please feel free to tell me why you feel this way?