Down Time

Sometimes the best nights are those in which you can curl up in your softest snuggie blanket, put on some easy listening, brew a cup of tea (or more favourably, pour a glass of wine), and get completely enthralled in your new favourite book.

One of my favourite pastimes is reading.  Put a book in front of me and chances are you will not hold my attention for very long.

It’s funny... you’re either a reader or not a reader.  Those who read get into their books and the characters and the story and can’t wait to pick it up again where they left off.  Those who don’t read simply can’t understand why you wouldn’t just watch a movie.  To them, I explain that reading is like watching a movie in your head... you get to imagine all the characters, the scenes, and it can last much longer than an hour and half.  (From that description, I usually just get an eyebrow raise and a response such as “Riiight.. I think I’ll just watch a movie”).

So for you fellow boring people that would rather spend time reading that pumping iron at the gym intellects, I bring to you a list of some of my favourite books.  If you have read some of the books below and you can think of some that I should read, please comment and let me know!

(These aren’t in any order.. just where they were on my bookshelf)

Little Women – Louisa May Alcott

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

The Help – Kathryn Stockett

East of Eden – John Steinbeck

Sarah’s Key – Tatiana De Rosnay

The Book of Negroes – Lawrence Hill

The Glass Castle – Jeanette Walls

Little Bee – Chris Cleave

Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen

Still Alice – Lisa Genova

Princess – Jean Sasson

The Forgotten Garden – Kate Morton

Oh, and by the way, there’s this really cool app on Facebook called Visual Bookshelf that allows you to search and rate the books that you’ve read.  And if any of your other friends have the app you can see what they’re reading as well and read any reviews that they’ve wrote. It’s pretty cool actually J

Happy Reading!

Dear Diary

Diary of a 6-year old

Dear Diary,

Today was good. Mom let me ware my new barete and even put my hair in 2 pigtails. Yes yes yes I love pigtails! The bad stuff about today was I was on the swings at resses and mary was pushing me relly relly high and I was having SO much fun then I got of and mary and me went 2 to the sand boxs and tommy and all his gross frends were there and tommy ran over and puled my pigtails and then my haire lookd bad and my barete came out and I cryed.  When I got home mommmy told me that tommy likes me cos he pulleded my hair and thats how you no that boys like you.  But if he likes me how come he pulled my hair?

Diary of a 16-year old

Dear Diary,

OMG OMG OMG Jake is a TOTAL asshole! I cannot believe that I ever liked him! WTF?!  And Steph?? Total slut.  She totally knew that Jake and I were texting and stuff and that at that party last weekend, when I drank wayyy too many vodka/OJ’s, I actually grew a pair and kissed him.  ANNND she knew that he kissed me back!  Then we were kinda hanging out all night and kissing and I thought that this had some real potential.  Jake is so cool.  He’s so grown up (well, he IS a senior!! J J J)   He was wearing American Eagle jeans and had a belt that had a bottle opener on it (!!),  and had his plaid shirt half tucked and was drinking Coors Light… swoon..!

So anyways, Steph totally knows all this, and she ALSO knows that since Monday, Jake has not even talked to me.. Like, he’s pretty cool and pretty popular and I know he’s got a lot of friends and stuff and can’t say hi to everyone in the hall, but whatever, I just knew that he was going to talk to me to today. UNTIL I saw him during 3^rd period making out with Steph in the hall!! I didn’t know what to do. I froze.  Then I guess they saw me when they came up for air (puke), and when we made eye contact, I ran. Like a baby.  As if!!!!! I totally should have told them both to go screw themselves!

THEN, at the end of the day and I’m waiting for the bus behind the school, Jake comes over to talk to me.  He told me that he was only doing that to make me jealous and how come I never talked to him this week? And that he’s having a party this weekend and we wants ME to go!!  Yes!!

Diary of a 26-year old

Dear Diary,

Sometimes I just don’t understand Jonathan.  We’ve been together for long enough that he should want to move in with me.  I don’t want to put any more pressure on him and push him away, but I’m ready to move on to the next step.  It’s strange.  It’s like he wants to still hang on to his youth and not grow up.  He still lives with roommates!  And it’s really not a big deal.. Until he has a serious girlfriend for two years.  Then it just becomes a nuisance.  Does he not want space? Privacy? 

I know that he wants to be with me.  He does really nice things and has introduced me to all his family and friends, and we talk about the future and where we should go on vacation next year.  But when we talk about anything involving the two of us moving in together, or getting married, he completely clams up! Why? It’s not like he’s 23 or anything.. He’s pushing 30!

I just don’t understand.  What do I do?  Does he just want to be with me right now? He says, no of course not; he definitely sees me in his future. 

I don’t know.

If it’s true that men are such beasts, this must account for the fact that most women are animal lovers. ~ Doris Day

The Power of Familiarity

Quick question – how do you all feel about your girlfriend or boyfriend’s ex?

If you ask me, I say they’re bad news.  I simply cannot understand those people that are in a relationship that say “oh yeah, my ex and I are great friends.  My boyfriend/girlfriend is totally cool with it”.  Why?!  I don’t understand.  How are they ok with it?

I’m of the opinion that once you enter a new relationship, all ties with the ex should be cut off (exception:  if the two if you have baggage together – kids, house, dog, etc.  If so, any communication should be about that only).  Does this sound like I’m a crazy, jealous girlfriend?  Maybe.  Ok, it might.  But I think I’m just being logical.

You think you know your boyfriend/girlfriend?  Better than anyone else?  Think again.  There’s someone else that knows them just as well as you do, if not more.  Just like you, they know:

·         What turns them on

·         What turns them off

·         Where they like to be kissed

·         How to get them to open up

·         What their dreams, hopes and fears are

Hypothetically of course, put yourself in a room with your ex.  If you really wanted to hook up with him/her that night, do you think you could do it?  Do you think you could be persuasive enough, to say and do the right thing to get them to go home with you? My bet is yes.

I’m just sayin… The random hottie standing at the bar?  Probably not worth getting agitated over. 

The ex, however?  Well I can’t say I’ve ever heard of them being good news.

The Chicken or The Egg?

Good news – I have a computer again and I’m baaack!!

Bad news – I have a couple weeks’ worth of blogs to post

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So as you know, my blog is gonig to take a little bit of a different direction now.  Although the ex and I still haven’t defined anything regarding the details of our relationship (living situations (you’ll recall that he bought a house in a different city), our future, etc.), we have agreed that we’ll be seeing each other exclusively.

I’m feeling really happy about this.  This is working for us right now.  I’ve decided that I’m just going to take it as it comes… no more trying to control my life and living by some sort of “societal clock” that must dictate what comes first and second and when.  And let’s be honest, him and I haven’t really done things by the book in the first place.  We started by living together and then getting into a serious relationship... And now 3-1/2 years later, we’re finally dating.

Since we’ve started talking again, he’s shown to me that he really can be the person that I need him to be.  Yes, I have considered that his may be the “woo-ing” phase and he’s got to do something fantastic to get me back, but I don’t think all these little things are it.

The things that he’s doing this time around aren’t things that he stopped doing at some point during our relationship, but things that he started doing now… because I told him that’s what I needed and he listened.

Don’t get me wrong… We have told each other before the things that we both needed from each other that we weren’t getting, but by the time this conversation was had, we were holding so much resentment towards each other (because they “should have known”), and it was just easier to chalk it up to “hmph… well this is me and I shouldn’t have to change; love me for who I am”. Looking back now I realize how lazy, silly, and completely untrue that is.  The things that we needed from each other weren’t personality altering characteristics, but simple things like: for me – him holding my hand; for him – me not reading before bed.  It seems so trivial now that these two things allotted for the majority of our arguments.  I do understand now that these were the “topics” and not the “issues” (thank you Dr. Phil!).  The issue comes down to the fact that we were both so tit-for-tat that we wouldn’t do something for the other unless the other did something for us. 

Beneath that, communication… or lack thereof.  For instance, whenever we got in an argument, we didn't speak to each other for about 24 hours.  And we lived together.  This is not an exaggeration.  We just didn’t talk it out.  24 hours later we were both calmed down and went on like it never happened.

Disclaimer: Granted, we’re still going to do things that bug each other (like me leaving my purse on the floor and him inevitably stepping on the buckle, and him using an inordinate amount of butter when he cooks, and me inevitably gaining a new roll).

The good news is we’re talking now.  Making a concentrated effort to communicate to each other what we’re feeling and/or thinking.  So far, it’s working.

Side note: I heard this the other day… Women in a relationship need to feel connected in order to be intimate; Men in a relationship need to be intimate in order to feel connected.  So what comes first? The chicken or the egg?

I'll be back!

I know I haven't posted in a while.. but rest assured.. I'm just out of a computer for a while but have written down (literally.. pen and paper!) some really great posts.

I've got a lot of updates for you!!

xo
Kristy