SYTYCD rant

I've been watching So You Think You Can Dance since season 2. Lots of great moments, performances and choreography. Unfortunately, the viewer voting tends to reward personality over actual dance talent. And sometimes those who get voted for have neither personality OR talent. And at the moment, I am SO effing pissed off at the idiot teeny-bopper voters. Seriously? Evan and Kayla should have been voted off ages ago. And now the actually TALENTED dancers like Jeannette and Jason get cut? Whatever. All I can say is if either one of those hacks wins the whole thing, I am so done with the show. gahhhh.

/end rant

one down, one to go

Wow, to look at this blog, you would think I'm a total slacker. No updates for 10 freaking days? eeeeeek!!!

I feel like I've been trapped in some sort of parallel universe. Getting up in the morning and reading my marketing book over coffee before hurridly throwing together lunches for DBF and myself and rushing to work. Coming home from a full day at the office and sitting right down to study until bed time. I'm not sure what exactly it is about this semester but it's been much more time-consuming than the previous two I took on this MBA path. A combination of lots of busy-work in the marketing class (not hard, just takes a lot of time) and really dense theory in the economics class. Last night after completing my marketing final in record pace, I came home and worked on another assignment for econ. That final won't be until Sunday night. So from today till then, I have to focus on memorizing four or five chapters of scintillating material on topics like unemployment, inflation and whatnot. Thrilling.

But on the positive side, I did get a new book in the mail (yay PBS!) and have been reading it in agonizingly slow increments as I find the time. This is a different way of reading for me. Usually, I sit down and devour a book in roughly an hour, maybe two. This time around, I'm just grabbing 5 or 10 minutes to read a chapter or two. So at least it will last longer. Which book? Ah yes, the incomparable Loretta Chase. The Lion's Daughter. I believe I put this on my wishlist after reading that Chase-a-thon over at Book Smugglers. Or maybe it was something else. I can't remember...just that I read that it was good and stuck it on my list and when it was available, the nice people at PBS asked me if I wanted it. So far it is entertaining. The heroine is teetering dangerously close to annoying, but she hasn't crossed the line yet so I'm happy about that. And the hero is funny and charming and reminds me a little of Rupert from the other book. Anyways, yay books. The cover makes me laugh.

(see why I haven't been blogging...I really have nothing interesting to say. lol)

In other news, DBF and I will be staying home this weekend instead of going on a four day vacation as we had planned. The long story short is that we had made some plans with a group of three other couples to go to the beach and rent two houses, go fishing, relax, etc. We're not super tight with any of said couples, but we are acquaintances and thought it would be a good opportunity for us to get out and see another part of the state...do something we normally would not do on our own. A week before the trip, we were asked by the couple who has been planning everything if we would mind not sharing a room (mind you, said room had two single beds in it, lol) because they are hosting a European exchange student who had marked on her application that she is a Christian. And they are Christian (pretty religious too, but we've always been able to live and let live in the past) and didn't want to offend her sensibilities. Apparently the idea of me and my BF, a couple in their late twenties that have been together for five years but aren't officially "married" sharing a room (again, with TWO SINGLE BEDS) might offend her. or something. Anyways, DBF was so not pleased to be asked this question. Highly insulted and really upset. At first I just thought it was silly and was inclined to shrug and say, sure whatever, just let them have their way. But now I see his point. We were supposedly equal participants in this venture, were going to be PAYING for the privelege of our sleeping quarters just the same price as everyone else. Out of all four couples, why would we be asked to split up just for the sake of some stranger's potential ease of mind? And they didn't even know if this student would actually CARE (she's from freaking france, I'm sure she's been exposed to the concept of unmarried couples) AND she was going to be staying in the other house anyways and not in the house where we were. Even though it was a "request" and not a demand, we felt that we wouldn't be comfortable now with the group, so we cancelled. ugh. It was a big freaking mess.

so yeah, no mini vacation at the end of the summer term. :( We'll try to come up with something that the two of us can do cheaply and funly (heh) before the end of August, but it won't include random 'friends'. *sigh*

so much to do, so little time

I find that the more things that are dumped on my plate, the more I procrastinate. Instead of rolling up my sleeves and diving into the fray, I tend to shy away from even beginning the simplest of tasks. Partially because I'm afraid of failure and my effed up logic is that if I don't start something, then the final product won't be a failure. Ha. Great logic that. Also partially because I'm probably just plain lazy. IDK.

Anyways, I have a big stack of deliverables in my work and school lives this week and I'm trying to find the motivation today to really knuckle down and get to it. Then perhaps that focus will carry over into my blogging life and I'll actually finish some of the reviews I'm working on. heh. All part of my master plan.

How do you push yourself to finish things that you don't really want to do? Any great tips for self-organization? Time management skillz? Let's hear it.

showing my true colors

If you hadn't noticed yet, I'm not a blogger that reads a lot of new releases. I do try to get about one a month or so depending on the author and the buzz, but honestly, I can't afford all new books all the time. I'm a huge fan of the library and more recently started using paperbackswap a lot. Oh and then there is always trading with other online bloggers and buddies. (thank goodness for the ARC fairy).

Yesterday, I made it to the library before closing time, and after dropping off the DVDs that were due, I made the requisite head-turned-sideways shuffle down the paperback shelves. For some reason I wasn't in the mood to take chances and instead ended up with a lot of old favorites that were just begging for a re-read.

First off, I made a beeline for the classic Lord of Scoundrels. Apparently, enjoying this novel makes me a woman who is either the equivalent of a 13 year old masochist or who likes abusive heros. Huh? Alrighty then. Honestly, I don't mind people disliking books that I like. Heaven knows I hate a lot of books that get raves. But you don't have to make assumptions about the "kind of women" who read a book you don't enjoy, do you? Oh well. I am determined to make lemonade out of lemons. Last month, I read a thread at AAR about how someone hated The Serpent Prince, so I picked it up and reread it...and loved it even more! That person did me a big favor by getting me interested in the book again. So I will happily reread LOS and feel the lurve once more.

I kept going down the alphabet and saw a group of Jane Feather books. Now back in the day, I used to read Feather a lot. I'm not sure what happened but I haven't read her in years. Well, I seem to remember reading The Hostage Bride and enjoying it. And it was so long ago that it might as well be new to me. Into the stack it went.


Next up, the Kleypas section. Ooh, Dreaming of You was back on the shelf. Our library's copy of this book is tattered and worn and speaks to how beloved it is. It's rarely on the shelf, so when I see it, I often just have to grab it. Yeah, I've read it, but it's always good. A comfort read. And this will be my first time reading it post N&S. Richard Armitage dancing through my head as Derek? Natch.


After K comes L. And what could be a better guilty pleasure (and probably shows how much of a tasteless romance reader I am at heart) than a reread of Stephanie Laurens' Devil's Bride? I think Laurens' Cynster books were the first set of pb romance novels that I actually spent money on and purchased new. They seemed awesome in college. Ok, so that whole Cynster schtick hasn't really aged well and nowadays they all blend together, but going back to the ORIGINAL is always a good time. Devil and Honoria. Alpha male falls in love at first sight. To have and to hold. la ti da ti da....

So far all of my choices were re-reads. Comfort food, so to speak. I thought that I ought to include at least one new-to-me book. I believe I may be the only blogger in romancelandia who hasn't glommed and followed the entire JD Robb In Death series. And I'm not shooting to read all 500 or so books just to catch up with everyone. BUT I thought it would be worth seeing what all the fuss is about, so since Naked In Death was in stock, I semi-reluctantly topped off my stack with it.

Who knows when I'll get a chance to read all of these great books. Manlove Monday is coming up and I need to go away and collect my deep thoughts so that I can be worthy of participating in such a weighty event.

on the road again, and again, and again

Happy new years indeed. Last night my brother, my boyfriend, and I went to a small party hosted by a few of my friends. It was lovely, good food, good company, dancing, etc. but we had to cut it short because my brother was supposed to catch a flight at 8 o'clock the next morning. It takes about an hour to drive from my door to the airport and security lines being what they are nowadays, we got up at 5am and left the house by 5:30 in order to be there with plenty of time to spare. Mind you, I was the one who woke up early, made a hot breakfast for everyone, woke them up, herded them out the door in time, etc. We get there fine and drop him off, heading back for home just as the sun peaks up from behind the mountains. After getting home, we crash into bed, bleary-eyed from lack of sleep and look forward to a nice leisurly morning sleeping. Forty-five minutes later, my cell phone rings. I miss the call. I look at the number. No one I know. It rings again. Against my better judgement, I answered this time on the off-chance that my brother's flight was cancelled due to bad weather at his destination. Well, it was my brother but the flight wasn't cancelled. It was just supposed to leave at 8 o'clock at night. ARG! Why in heaven's name did he not double-check, triple-check and brand this information on his mind? So being the pushover I am, I fell victim to his whining about having to spend 12 whole hours in the airport and I drove back to pick him up. And I still have to drive him back tonite. And then drive home. I calculate that I will have spent about 6 hours of my last vacation day sitting in my car. If there was a way to insert a very angry looking emoticon, you would find one here.

the joys of shared living space

This will be a quick little post as I'm heading out the door to an internet-less weekend. Yesterday evening I agreed to dogsit from this afternoon until Monday morning back at the house in the country where I was housesitting all November. Great house, very cozy. But yeah, no internet. meh. I am bringing 6 new books and 2 that I need to review. Maybe I'll just curl up with some popcorn and hot cocoa and read for two days non-stop.

All of my roommates except one have cleared out for the holidays. The one who's staying is gone for the weekend. My house is empty. Of course, they were nice enough to leave both sides of the kitchen sink chucked full of dirty dishes, the dishwasher full and un-run, and the stove covered in dirty pots and pans. yay! Merry Christmas to me! And of course this weekend my big plan was to do a major cleaning of the house since my parents are coming to stay starting Monday night. arg! I am really annoyed.

So I've spent the last four hours in domestic bliss. Loading and unloading dishwasher, washing pots and pans, scrubbing grime off the stove, wiping down all counters, sweeping, scouring and mopping the linoleum floor. The fun just never ends. I intended to wash out the fridge too, but that's just going to have to wait. Vacuumed the living room and dining area and realized that I will have to go buy some sort of carpet shampoo because it is atrociously dirty. wahhhh!

Anyways, the sky is threatening and the forecast calls for snow. So I'm off to the other house before I get caught in inclement weather. They do have satellite and BBC America which means Robin Hood and RICHard! Here's hoping I can come back here on Monday morning and finish all of the other cleaning items before picking up the parents at the airport.

There's a whole 'nother level of foreboding at having two weeks of my parents here but that's for another post. I'll leave it with a simple equation. Conservative Christian missionary parents + Muslim African boyfriend = good times fun.