Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

OH GOSH did I love this book.

I was walki ng through the library the other day looki ng for an interesting read. Earlier this summer I read "The Stranger" which was far too heavy for hot weather. Under the Summer Reading section, I found this charming book. In short, it's about a family who lives in an enchanted home with a magic garden. In the garden is an apple tree whose apples, when eaten, show a major event in your life.


That's basically what you find out right away, but what you discover as you read is a sort of fantastical coming of age tale about the wayward people in a south town. It shows them as normal people who inherted a not so normal gift and is told as though practical magic is a normal part of life. The idea is very reminiscent of the tone Gaiman uses in "Anansi Boys". It was such a great change from the books I normally read and I will definitely read her new book "Sugar Queen" soon.

Anyway, if you enjoy a not too heavy read with a drop of romance and a lot of practical magic, you should definitely read this one!

On a brighter note...

Remember my infatuation with cookies? [See some of my older posts, namely: Cookie starts with C! ] Remember how I'm choosing to exercise more often and eat healthier thusly leading to a slimmer me and a better lifestyle? Remember how I had to take cookies out of the equation??? Well not anymore! ::crosses fingers::

Pillsbury came out with an awesome new line called ...simply Cookies. The ellipsis wasn't for dramatic affect, that's the name of the brand! There's no high fructose corn syrup or any of that other crap they put in packaged stuff.

The BEST news, however, is that I stumbled upon a cool blogger who is doing a super cool giveaway ! You can find her page on that cute little button I embedded on the right, or *click here*

Mmm, cookies.

xo

My cat is sick

So my cat does in fact have FLUTD.

After multiple visits, hundreds of dollars and an angry review on Yelp.com , my cat has a disease that occurs in 1% of cats. According to Dr. Jackass , it's a genetic disease that she's had "for years". All two years of her life, huh? Son of a bitch.

I went to the store and got her the new food she'll need now on her special diet. I also have to groom her regularly, get a water fountain for them to drink out of and have herbal painkillers handy for when stressful situations happen to her. It's like having a permanent baby that can't tell you what hurts on them. So frustrated.

Wacky Wednesday

Ugh, what kind of person am I? Blogging once a week.

It's been a tough one I suppose, if we make the week start from Thursday to Thursday. I had a really long Thursday last week that involved early morning bootcamp, doctor's appointments, taking my cat to the vet and a late night audition. It was probably the longest day of my life. And all the events of that day kinda affected the rest of the week.

• For example, I had to go back and forth to the vet. I wrote a hideous review for them on yelp.com and they saw it, so there was all this drama there.
  
• I was super sore from the bootcamp so I had to rest crazy amounts and not go to the normal gym
• I ended up running Opera Manhattan auditions two days in a row so there goes my weekend. not complaining, it was eye opening.

The rest of the week is a blur. I'm getting ready for audition season so a lot of the things that are happening are gelling together. I am considering getting serious about going back on the hunt for a job. Or at least temp work while I try to get certified to substitute teach. I complain a lot about not having a job, but I gotta tell ya, it's so friggin tiring looking for one that the thought of it all seems so daunting.

Anyway, I've been escaping the woes of life by reading... and I'm reading a fabulous book right now...can't wait to review it.

xo

Everybody wins!

Remember that OTHER ticket I got long, long ago where the Po-Po told me I "rolled through" a stop sign? Well, today was the follow up ticket hearing. I got no reminder whatsoever about it but somewhere in my mind I knew something was happening today.

So I called my friend that works there and had him look it up for me...sure enough, I had a hearing at 230pm. Got down there and the courtroom was filled with mostly men; good-looking, horrified men. I saw someone I knew waiting for his hearing and sat with him. One of my old friends from the nabe.

The judge was SUCH a hard ass. This one dude came in with complete proof that he was given a ticket for no reason and he was still found guilty. The only thing I had on my side was that my officer hadn't shown yet. Then, when there were at least 25 people left in the room, there were no officers there for the hearings! He should've let us all leave but he killed some time and took some other cases in while we waited for our officers to show up. What a meanie!

My officer appears of course, and he just so happens to have written about 7 other people's tickets in the room too. His first victim gets up and the officer says he didn't remember what happened, so the victim got off. The 2nd person goes up, he still doesn't remember...the 3rd, 4th person goes...still doesn't know. I'm like holy crap, I just might win this thing. With my luck, however, he would've pulled out a scroll of notes and video footage of me rolling through the stop sign. Luckily, I got off!


Yay! Pizza for everyone! Well, not really.

Are you *%±€\÷!@ KIDDING ME?

The one time, the *one* time that I don't have my seatbelt on. Gotdammit!!! And then the bastard has the nerve to just ask for my license and registration without even saying wtf he was pulling me over for. I don't think I even realized that it was for that. I thought he was gonna tell me some bs about running the stop sign or something like they always do over there.

UGH F-----ing A!!!!

PS: I know you're wondering how throughout my anger how I had the forward thinking to take a pic. Those idiots had me sittin there for a while. Son of a bitch.

Monday

I definitely started the week the way I wanted. I went in to practice at the conservatory and I worked out at the hidden Crunch in Lower Manhattan on John st.

I only practiced for a half hour. I figure I'd ease into it because I hadn't practiced all last week. It's interesting the things you find when you basically give yourself a voice lesson! Hmm! The next time I'll practice will be wednesday.

Then I went home for like 5 seconds and took the train to John Street which is literally the first stop in manhattan. Right before I got on the train, I saw Coach Davis from my high school...that's funny and interesting because I'm supposed to go to a bootcamp with him Tuesday morning. Even if I wanted to back out, now I can't. Hahah...just kidding?

Finally when I got back home, my friend Parker came to visit. I took him to the train and then I drove all around Park Slope looking for something to eat and ended up with Chinese food. Bleh.

Elo!

Today, I went to the opera to see La Traviata that was put on by Opera Manhattan. I called in to see if they needed help with tickets and things so that I'd be able to get work for my admission. I ended up Man-ing the camcorder [a damn good job if I do say so myself]. I had a few friends in it and made some new ones. I thought it was a really lovely production! Bravi!

After I went to the cast party with some old college friends and the cast, I drove home in marginal traffic. I really wanted to go to Trader Joe's to get some salad and almonds and things so I can diet tomorrow, but I left my burlap sack, wait, is that what they are? The bags that you carry instead of using plastic bags? Eh, you know what I mean. I left that home. Came home, took my bro to get some ice cream and am now sitting up planning what to do with my week.

I think I need "Time Management: For Dummies" or something because, I don't have a damn job, I don't have any outstanding responsibilities except getting my ass in gear to lose weight, find a job and become the best opera singer I can be. And not necessarily in that order. Meanwhile, I have bizarre bills and library fines piled up, I don't practice everyday and I haven't gotten more than 2 or 3 job applications out daily. Seriously? I dunno what my deal is. It's weird. I'm wondering if it has something to do with me giving up on finding an actual job. I had one, but that was a random crap shoot. I'd like to work in higher ed but that seems damn near impossible to crack into. Then I barely practice because I feel like i'm practicing incorrectly. Yeah I know right? Master of Music and I dunno if I'm practicing right lol. Wtf.

Hmm. Just some of the things I think about. Figured I type it out to see if it makes more sense outside of my head.

nope.

Let's go to the movies

I had about 30 things I wanted to do today. The things that ended up happening were: errands, laundry, gym and movie.

You know how you can just allow your day to become completely derailed? Hours and hours will pass before you realize that you haven't done half the stuff you planned. After I picked up a form from my lil bro's school, I realized that I had forgotten to eat. So I spent way too long debating on what to do about that. I walked my bro to the train, picked up food and finished reading that Stephen King book (review to follow shortly)
I had no clothes left so I did my laundry and headed to the gym for a heavy duty pole dancing class.

Finally, I met my friend Todd for dinner and a movie. We saw 'Funny People'. Not bad - it didn't need to be 2hrs and 26mins - but nice nonetheless. Adam Sandler was superb!! Super duper surprise cameo in it too. Totally worth it.

Anyway, after Todd and I parted ways, I had to walk down to bway to take the Q train. I started noticing all the slow walking a-little-too-dressed up-for-standing-around-outside tourists, I all but sprinted to the train while calling my dad to tell him I was on my way. Around the middle of the block however, I am literally stopped in my tracks by a young man who is doing the most elaborate, slow moving, tai-chi movements in front of me and eventually ON ME to block my way. Wtf? I try goin around him, I try stopping and starting again, I try pushing him. Once I touched him and felt how rock hard his chiseled body was and how extremely soft his skin was, I kinda got less frustrated
about the situation. Come on ladies, you know what I'm sayin?!!?!! ;-)

He wasn't a crazy person! He had a tight white shirt on with the top 3 buttons down, ridiculous amounts of bling and very neat, newly twisted locks. Still no reason for him to be @*$!ing insanely blocking my way with his flailing tai-chi arms - Delicious Nubian Chocolate Prince or not!! All the while, my dad's on the damn fone! Ugh so I hang up with him and finally say to crazy man (oh and he smelled good too), I say, 'WHAT R U DOING??' Everyone in the immediate area burst out with laughter. He then of course asked for my number, I told him was taken or something.

Now I'm going home. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

Attack of the Killer Tuesday

I woke up with a start today. I had a dream that it was already ten am and that my car was probably ticketed because I wasn't parked on the correct side. I got lucky and made it in time and got another spot, all before nine-thirty am.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden was on my list of things to do today, but I ended up watching a few episodes of "Snapped" before I went to pick my mom up from work. My lil bro rode with me over there and after I dropped everyone off home, I got dressed and headed over to Park Slope to do my normal rounds [Library, Gym, Practice etc.] I ended up meeting with Jen for Iced Coffee and going to the Center of Light for Bible Contemplation. Afterward, my friend Keshon was in the area so I waited for her around my car so we could hang out.
When I got to my car however, I was greeted by a horrendous, gigantic, slimy monster caterpillar!!! I took a few pictures of it, sent it to my bro and my dad. It was really horrifying! What was I supposed to do?? Everyone who walked by me thought i was completely insane. I guess I would've too if I saw someone standing 5 feet away from her car leaning over to take a pic with her cellphone! I waited for Keshon to get there so she could remove it from my car without killing it.

After all that excitement, we just checked out this vegetarian Asian cuisine place up the block called Dao Palate. Delicious Scallion Pancakes with homemade Mango Salsa, ooh wee! And some Italian chamomile tea!

And then we were attacked by silk worms and larger than life cockroaches on the walk back. Awesome.

Catch-up

There's a pic of this delicious white chocolate covered heart-shaped ice cream treat that I had at my friend Tanira's wedding a couple weeks ago.

I've had various fun outtings that I, of course, don't really remember. During the past few weeks, I've been getting ready for the opera and looking for work.

The opera's over now and a job may or may not be in my close future.

Kthxbye