Book review (in a hurry)

In order to make myself more accountable about reading one book every month (I'm trying!), I'm going to post a book review at the end of each month. This month, my book was Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. It is a young adult novel and a sequel to Stargirl, which is an excellent book that everyone should read.

Love, Stargirl picks up a year after Stargirl ends and is "the world's longest letter," written by Stargirl herself. I loved getting to hear Stargirl's voice more directly, and I loved the cast of crazy, eclectic characters in her new town. I was a little frustrated with how mopey she was for the first part of the book (nursing a broken heart) because it made her very much not herself. But partway through the book, she realizes she's losing herself and starts to become more the giving, caring, uniquely herself person that I loved from the first book.

Every time I read Stargirl, I am more inspired to give, to have compassion, to find beauty, and to live free of the worries and pressures of society. I am the kind of person who tends to worry about what is "right" in a social sense, but Stargirl only worries about what is "right" in a true sense. I always come away from Stargirl wanting to be more like her. Because she isn't quite herself for part of Love, Stargirl, I didn't have quite the same sensation. I did come away wanting to be her friend, though, and that was very reassuring.

My rating? Two thumbs up. Three and a half stars. If you read and loved Stargirl, definitely give Love, Stargirl a read.

Word(s) of the Day, Part 6b

Okay, I had to do a follow-up. I just keep getting more crazy words!

birr \bur\, noun:
1. A whirring sound.
2. Emphasis in statement, speech, etc.
3. A whirring sound. (Wait, again?)
verb:
1. To move with or make a whirring sound.

hotchpot \HOCH-pot\, noun:
The bringing together of shares or properties in order to divide them equally.

(Plain ol' "hodgepodge" isn't good enough for us anymore, apparently.)

Tim and I decided to start coming up with our own new words; so far we have "ahaps" (instead of "perhaps"), "strall" (instead of "stroll"), and instead of using "ing" at the end of words, we use "ib": I was walkib to the store and talkib on my phone, etc. Why? Because we can, and that's apparently how it works. Gotta love the English language!

Word(s) of the Day, Part 6

Lately I've had a run of Word of the Day words that either sound a lot like other words and mean almost the same thing, or just sound completely made up. I'm starting to think someone is letting the monkeys hit the keyboard again. Take a look:

alate \EY-leyt\, adjective:
1. Having wings; winged.
2. Having membranous expansions like wings.

natheless \NEYTH-lis\, adverb:
Nevertheless.

slimsy \SLIM-zee\, adjective:
Flimsy; frail.

educe \ih-DOOS\, verb:
1. To draw forth or bring out, as something potential or latent.
2. To infer or deduce.

bleb \bleb\, noun:
1. A bubble.
2. Medicine/Medical. A blister or vesicle.

outrance \oo-TRAHNS\, noun:
The utmost extremity.

viscid \VIS-id\, adjective:
1. Having a glutinous consistency; sticky; adhesive.
2. Botany. Covered by a sticky substance.

sprat \sprat\, noun:
1. A small or inconsequential person or thing.
2. A species of herring, Clupea sprattus, of the eastern North Atlantic.

lave \leyv\, verb:
1. To wash; bathe.
2. (Of a river, sea, etc.) to flow along, against, or past; wash.
3. Obsolete. To ladle; pour or dip with a ladle.
4. Archaic. To bathe.

noun:
1. The remainder; the rest.

adjective:
1. (Of ears) large and drooping.

fusty \FUHS-tee\, adjective:
1. Having a stale smell; moldy; musty.
2. Old-fashioned or out-of-date, as architecture, furnishings, or the like.
3. Stubbornly conservative or old-fashioned; fogyish.

hiemal \HAHY-uh-muhl\, adjective:
Of or pertaining to winter; wintry.

calvous \KAL-vuhs\, adjective:
Lacking all or most of the hair on the head; bald.

See what I mean? "Bleb"? "Slimsy"? "Calvous"? Really? I mean, who comes up with this stuff!?

Finally!

It finally, really, officially feels like winter! In honor of the glorious snowstorm I watched on Saturday night and the snow falling today, here's a little Gilmore Girls quote:

Lorelai: When I was five, I had a really bad ear infection and I had been home in bed for a week and I was very sad. So I wished really hard that something wonderful would happen to me. And I woke up the next morning and it had snowed. And I was sure that some fairy godmother had done it just for me. It was my little present.

Luke: Your parents never explained the concept of weather to you?

Lorelai: I'm making a point, Mouthy McGee. Of course, many years later, I realized that logically, the snow was not there for me personally. But, still, when it snows, something inside me says, "Hey, that's your present." I don't think it'll ever change.

Life Update

January is flying by, surprisingly - maybe it's because of the semi-warm weather we've been having up until yesterday? Usually January and February and so cold and gray, they just seem to go on forever. I wish we had snow so things weren't so brown and yuck, but I'm really not complaining about speeding through January.

Anyhow, here's the quick run down of our lives right now:

1. Hawaii!!! We leave six weeks from today! I still can't believe we're going but I'm so excited. It's going to be awesome.

2. P90X. Totally kicking our butts. Like, I can't stand up or sit down without help. But hey, if it helps us get/look more ready for Hawaii, we'll keep doing it! (Or at least trying...)

3. Work. Tim is loving his new job at Novell. He gets to contribute and knows what he's doing and I hear he's quickly becoming an important part of his team. Go Tim! And I have been extra motivated to get a lot done at work (I'm still writing and editing for Northridge Publishing) so I can go on vacation without worrying about what's going on at the office. It's kind of fun to have some goals to work towards - right now there are eleven things on my priority list that I need to get done before we go to Hawaii and I'm going to do them all, baby!

4. School. Tim's taking two computer classes this semester and I think we both got used to the month-long vacation schedule. It's been hard for both of us to get back into the groove and figure out how to schedule in his homework while still getting enough sleep. Workin' on it.

5. Scrubs. I quite enjoyed watching this show with my family back in the day and I love that I got Tim hooked on the show now too. We've already torn through seasons 1 through 4 and I have a feeling season 5 will be done in just a few days...yeah, we might be slightly obsessed...

And...that's really all that's going on right now. Everyday is just work, school/homework (for Tim), P90X, sleep, and repeat. We've been trying out various protein shake recipes (yum), along with recipes for homemade blueberry pancakes with whipped cream and Wisconsin cauliflower soup. There's been lots of good eating lately. Lots of free time spent on projects (Tim's creating a game, I've got some crafty things up my sleeve) and in general, we're just trying to balance all the things we've got going on. So, in other words, pretty typical January.

(Except for the warm weather part.)

The other blog - check it out!

The most miraculous thing happened last week: I started writing. Like, really writing. Like, deep in thought, connections and ideas and tangents, writing. It was fabulous! (Well, okay, one of the things I wrote about was my dad's cancer and that made me cry, but the overall experience was fabulous.) I haven't felt that much inspiration since I finished my Master's degree and it felt so good to be back. I felt much more like myself. As much as I love my new crafting and quilting hobbies, expressing myself through words is an integral part of my personality. I think it went missing partially because I was lacking the deadlines and assignments that kept pushing me forward during grad school, but also because I forgot how much I like it. It takes a lot of self-discipline to do something that isn't required of you that also takes a lot of work, but the current wave of inspiration has reminded me that it's worth it.

I'm working hard at not letting the inspiration fade by posting once again on my creative writing blog: katemherrick.blogspot.com (it's also on my sidebar). I started this blog for one of my creative writing classes and I'd really appreciate any feedback/comments/suggestions/questions that you might have. I'm mostly using writing prompts but I'm also going to start re-working some sections of my thesis and previously written essays. I very much miss having writing classes to workshop and discuss my writing with, but I guess that's one of the great things about blogging - you have a built-in forum and community for these kinds of things.

So stop by, check it out, come on over - I officially invite you all. See you there!