. . . But wait, aren’t ALL of my posts just my random mumblings?  Err… yes.  So, this will be random mumbling post #153.

• Since getting my stainless steel water bottle, I’ve been drinking a LOT more water.  It’s pretty great.  If the water in it is room temperature, I can pretty much chug the whole bottle in one sitting.  I’m still not drinking as much as I should be, but it’s gotten a lot better.

• I went through my book shelf and brought two bags of books to The Rabbit Hole, our local used/new book store.  In exchange, I got $21 in credit to use at the store.  Sweet.

• I went through my clothes for things to toss/donate, and decided to finally get rid of my Days Of the Week underwear.  I got them with Sally at American Eagle the Christmas of freshman year of college (2002) - so they’re just over six years old.  I don’t wear them anymore, but I just didn’t have the heart to get rid of them.  My underwear drawer is packed full of socks and such, and I just don’t have the room anymore.  I’m seriously a little sad about this - not about the underwear, but I don’t like throwing away memories.  I think of Sally whenever I see them.  They have reindeer on them, and each day is a little saying “Sunday I sleep in, Monday  I work, Tuesday is movie night”, etc.  I was always crazy about needing to wear Sunday’s on Sunday.  I couldn’t wear Sundays on Tuesday, that just wasn’t right.  I only knew two of them by heart - Sunday was red, and Thursday was dark green.  I couldn’t keep the other ones straight, and it was a pain to search for the correct day.  (Is it weird that I’m putting a picture of my (albeit, old) underwear on the Internet?  Probably.  But after this, they will end up in the trash.  For having made it 6 years, and still looking that good, they deserve a shout out in my blog.)

• I made dinner tonight from a recipe I got off the internet (olive oil and garlic with pasta).  It was craptacular.  It didn’t have enough “taste” - I even added TONS of garlic.  Plus, it was way too spicy; it made our lips burn.  It called for one tablespoon red pepper flakes, and I thought that was too much, so I added one teaspoon.  And that was too much.  It sucked.  I’m not satisfied by it, and even though I’m not really all that hungry, I’m still craving more food.  I wish that I just had a bowl of cereal and egg whites for dinner.  Now all I’m craving is a big bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats.  Stupid HBoO - why are you so delicious???

• It’s finally warmer out (30s) - so I’m going to get serious (again) about walking to the gym from now on.  Each way is about a mile, and I read that for every mile walked is 100 calories burned.  Plus, it helps add to my steps - and I’ve been lacking in them lately cause it’s been so cold.

• I took off my pedometer to take a shower, and look at the number it was on!  Make a wish! Oh, and my pedometer is out of batteries!  This morning, before I put it on, I saw that it had a small battery sign blinking!  Oh no!  But my mom stopped wearing her’s, so I just went to her room and grabbed her’s.  Like I could just stop wearing one cold turkey?  I don’t think so!

• I went to Walgreens, and I saw that they had The Snuggie for sale!  Holy crap!  And yes, it’s basically a backwards robe.  There was nothing in the back.  My blanket with sleeves has a back… it snaps together in the front.  It is awesomely ridiculous.

• When I look at recipes online, I need to see a picture of the food.  If not, how will I know if I will like the food?  Megan will think this is silly.  But, it’s one of the things I look for when going through a cookbook, or looking for recipes online.

• I hate how all of the fitness/lose weight guides say “Eat breakfast Every Day.”  I have the opposite problem - I want to eat breakfast 5 times a day!

And this ends another post of random things that I think of throughout the day.  I need to go read.  I also need to give up the Internet.  It’s turning me into a lifeless zombie.  I need to find a good blanket/afghan pattern so I can start knitting!  I found one, but, after she found out it was a blanket for me to keep, Megan said, “I think you should find one . . .  less ugly.”

Happy last day of President Bush!

Oh, and I had a nice big bowl of HBoO with half a banana, and I am now fully satisfied.

Anyone want to be in a book club with me?

Pat, Megan and I used to do an online book club back in 2005.  We had a livejournal page where we would post our comments and thoughts on the books we read.  http://operation-read.livejournal.com  (I had to do quite a bit of searching to find that!)

In our bookclub, we read She’s Come Undone, A Clockwork Orange, and Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal.  Then, for some reason, we stopped doing it.

I think books clubs are great, and I would like to do one again.

We all use Good Reads, which is a way to keep track of books you’ve read, and your thoughts on them, and to keep a list of books you’re planning on reading.  It’s a neat idea, but I don’t use it as often as I should (as often as Pat does).

I just finished reading Eat Pray Love, and here are some thoughts about it.

The book is set up into 108 short little “stories.”  I don’t know if she took journal entries to write them or what, but some of them are short (a page), and others are longer.  It made it very easy to find an appropriate place to stop reading.

Elizabeth goes through a really bad divorce with her husband (he refused the divorce, and it dragged on and on), then she falls crazy in love with another man, David.  That went down the crapper as well, and they loved each other, but things just weren’t working out.

She decides to take a year off and go to Italy (to learn Italian), India (to stay at an Ashram, where she prayed for HOURS every day, beginning at 3am), and finally to Indonesia (where she rented a house, and hung out with an old Balinese healer).

In Italy, she ate and ate, and gained ~30 pounds.  She had lost about 20 through her crazy divorce, so she’s didn’t really get fat.  It seemed as though everything she ate was the best meal she had ever had.  In India, she did a LOT of yoga and meditation, which made me want to start doing that.  When I live in my little house, it’d be nice to wake up every morning and meditate for one hour before beginning my day as a gardener.  In Bali, she spent time with two people whose jobs it were to be healers.  The one woman owned a “shop” where people would come to her to be healed.  This portion of the book made me want to live in my little house and still be a therapist and have patients come by to my house.  I’ll have a very small private practice.  Expect a short story about that topic very soon, I’m currently working on it.  (I’ve been enjoying writing lately with my spare time).

There wasn’t really anything that I disliked about this book, but I’m not as picky about my books as Pat is.  I couldn’t put it down, and wish that it was longer so I could keep reading it!  It was a very easy read, and I love non-fiction books.  It reminded me a lot of the movie (and book) Under the Tuscan Sun, but this one was a LOT better.  I hear they’re making it into a movie with Julia Roberts.  I’m glad I read the book before that movie comes out, though.  Wow, I just read that one of her short memoirs was turned into the movie Coyote Ugly!  How about that?!

Read an excerpt of the book here.

Next, I’m planning on reading (in order) The Host by Stephenie Meyer (I have it from the library, and need to read it before it’s due), The Last Lecture (about that college professor who recently died) - a fluff piece, sure, but I’m interested in reading it, and it’ll probably be a quick read (and I’ve already requested it from the library).  Then, I want to read Animal Vegetable Mineral by Barbara Ehrenreich (she wrote Nickel and Dimed, which I LOVED), as Megan just finished it, and loved it.  I’d also like to read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (the same author who wrote The Omnivore’s Dilemma - which I started, but never finished).

My brother is a senior at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  His school is super lame, and whenever Massachusetts has a Monday holiday (and we have tons of them - Labor Day, Presidents’ Day, Patriots’ Day, MLK Day, Memorial Day, etc.) they NEVER get the day off.  All of the other schools have the day off, and banks are even closed.

But WPI stays open.  It’s like they don’t believe in these “bank holidays” (actually, I guess that’s a British term, in the US they call them “federal holidays).  It’s weird.

This year, however, it is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and WPI has closed their school to honor MLK Jr.

I find this very interesting, and I think that they have only decided to do it is because we now have a black President.

I wonder, if John McCain was our new president, would WPI have class today?  I bet they would.