Childhood issues + Entertainment: 5/14 edition

last day of being 30… will make a “31” layout this weekend as I celebrate my birthday…

For most of my childhood I loathed the fact that my parents had named me, who was born within the month of May, MAY. I was teased, annoyed, and bothered to no end as a kid. I wished they’d switched with my middle name (Eveline) so I could be “evie” or “eve”. I tried to get that to catch on a while at school, it never did. As a teenageer and young adult I’d sneer and make obscene comments when annoying strangers would ask “durrr if you were born in June would that be your name?” and other obvious, not funny, and generally clueless comments. These days, not working in an office (thank heavens) I really don’t have these issues. Or perhaps I’ve just chilled. For the record, I was named after my (maternal side) great grandmothers, the names picked out before I was concieved, had NOTHING to do with month of my birth.

In the early years of our dating, Jason did something nobody else ever has: he made me enjoy sharing a name with a month. Yeah, I remember that the first year we dated (19th birthday) was my WORST of all time all around. Long story short- it started with finding my mom crashed (she was totally ok!) on a bridge, then all day at boring firefighter event where we carpooled to and I couldn’t get away from, then watching LAME movie w/friends… it was just all around a craptastic day.

After that day, maybe even that night I made my feelings clear to my boyfriend. The next year? He started a tradition that has been in place for 11 years now: because I share my name with a month, I get to celebrate for the WHOLE month. During the month of ‘me’ I can call out “It’s my month” and what I says goes. Now, that’s a powerful thing, and I am careful not to go insane with the almightyness of my reign. But it’s fun. and it makes me smile often.

Lesson learned: find the bright spot, look for the positive whenever you can!

So, you’re going to see some hefty “I been readin'” reports from me – because I can plop into a chair and know that novel reading = ok since I, queen of this month, declared it so.  I started Sherlock Holmes (movie) and turned it off 30min in bored as can be. So let’s move on to reading…

bottom to top:

Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris: Drama, family, conflict, more drama… and at the center of it all heroine Sookie Stackhouse who is one of my faves. What I love about this series is that Sookie is changing, growing, going places. She’s not the same exact girl as book #1.  Totally worth the hard cover price, though it wasn’t much since Amazon had it for $9.99

Savor the Moment by Nora Roberts: The most recent, and 3rd installment in the bride quartet series. Gah! I just loved Laurel and her story, and I baked my own birthday cake just ‘cuz talking about all that baking made me want to. 🙂 Add in that I got it for 50% off cover price, and I’m extra happy.

Avalon High by Meg Cabot: A teen/YA novel I found cleaning out a shelf that I’ve obviously read before, but have no memory of. Heroine finds herself in odd school where a lot of people seem to be King Arthur & crew reborn. but modern. and teenage. I liked it – and I know it’s slated to become a Disney movie. I could see that being cute.

Kiss the Bride by Patricia Cabot: This was the pen name Meg Cabot used once upon a time, and I bought it for about $1 at a used bookstore, all excited to see some of one of my favorite author’s early work. Um, I see why it’s out of print. GACK!!! It was repetitive, slow, had me saying “oh give me a break” and generally I hated on it. But that’s ok!!! Not everybody has winners always, and I still love me some Meg Cabot.

Breaking Loose by Tara Janzen: I discovered this author (all her books are a series, but can kinda be stand-alone) about a year ago and the thought of super secret ‘black ops’ + a good number of awesome tough chicks too + based out of Denver, CO… well it intrigued me. You know I can’t resist good spy/secret mission/hush hush action adventure!! Anyhow, this is her latest novel, and I’ve now read them all. This was one of the best of series for sure.  A few I wasn’t wild about – but there’s mega action and intrigue going down involving ancient Egypt, an art dealer/secret agent, missions crossing each other, and of course, a bit of romance.

I can’t tell you how good it feels to be devouring novels once again!! Taking a lot of down time when I can feels good, even if I am behind in e-mails and such.

FYI – if you are a bookworm like me you might be interested to know that I’ve started posting over at www.goodreads.com – it feels like facebook, but for books. I have already gotten some cool suggestions for books to read over there. If you’re a member – look me up!