Monday, January 25, 2010

Birthday Love

I'm feeling very loved.

After a small avalanche of birthday wishes on Facebook, topped off by a cozy family evening of fondue and red velvet cupcakes, my love tank is full. It doesn't take much to make me happy these days.

After all the sadnesses of Haiti, a friend's husband struggling with brain cancer and another gal pal who is beginning radiation and chemotherapy, I know I have a lot to be thankful for. I have my health, a great husband, a lovely son and a stunning collection of friends who are good with computers.

The beauty of social media is it's snappy ability to remind everyone that it's your birthday. As always we still get to enjoy birthday cards, birthday lunches and of course, presents from our close family and friends.

This year brought birthday wishes on steroids -- as I got celebratory wishes from my chiropractor, grocery stores, retail stores, the vet and yes even my dentist. Some may think that this is really cheesy, as they don't really care about your birthday, they just want your business.

True, but I'm still going to bask in my birthday love wishes, even if they are from my mechanic.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

What to Do with a Bad Book?

After treasuring the book Julie & Julia by Julie Powell, I was looking forward to picking up her next book, Cleaving.

The Julia book was a blast for me -- My mom practically had a personal gourmet shrine to Julia Child growing up. It was a treat to read along as Julie plowed through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking series. The "Cleaving" book was supposed to be what happened next to Julie Powell...I couldn't wait to see.

In one word: disaster. Quick summary: naughty cheating on husband story, going to work at a butcher shoppe in detail and all the horrible self-destruction style behavior to go along with it. Lovely. Just the sort of pick-me-up you need for 2010.

Not only had I bought the book, but also had taken the extra step of downloading it to my electronic reader. Truly, I felt invested. I had paid good money, now what to do with a horrible, drag you down electronic book? I felt sort of like watching the Tiger Woods debacle -- horribly disgusted, but for some reason unable to look away.

What to do with a bad book?

1. Stop reading -- Trash the book.
2. Plow through and hope it gets better.

Maybe I had high expectations, maybe I'm not cut out for the dirty little secret experience. I have learned this about my reading style -- life is pretty rough, so know what you are getting into before you go and spend good money on a book. Especially an electronic book that you can't even re-gift or take to charity or get your money back.

Perhaps I'm in the wrong state of mind for this sort of book right now. Maybe I will save it for another day and see if it strikes me differently. Perhaps never would be about the right time.