Madson family Christmas

A couple weekends ago Ben and I visited his family in Indianapolis. I tried to stay true to my promise of using an actual camera to take photos. 

Ben's parents have 3 Boston terriers and his sister just got an english setter puppy so it was a busy house!

and one lonely cat who stays upstairs all the time.

Only 3 more days till Christmas and my family just came to town!

I'm excited to be around them!

I love the holidays.

What I've been reading lately.

With working at Target my brain has strongly refused to do anything.

My current reading reflects that...oops.

After trudging through A Casual Vacancy (which I did not finish)

I think my brain wanted to go to the land of rainbows and kittens-minus the kittens I'm already queen of that place. So, I stuck with digital comics for awhile.

I found Mystic a brilliant fantasy series with stunning artwork. My only complaint is that it wasn't long enough.

I was introduced to Deadpool and...I don't think I'm ready for that side of super-heros yet. I caught up on the X-Men/ Avengers world. A lot has happened since Jean Grey died and I still can't stand Emma Frost. (Also, if you ever have upwards of two hours the Charles Xavier wikipedia page is the most detailed page I've seen yet and Prof X has apparently done everything there is to do in the universe.)

I did read Jane Eyre. I chose the graphic novel version because I didn't know how I'd like the story. I ended up really enjoying the whole thing and plan to read the actual book. 

I also picked up this book. I've read A Wrinkle in Time when I was younger and this adaptation did the story justice, and to this day it still freaks me out. 

I'm also listening to Interview with a Vampire on audiobook and now I know why Anne Rice is the queen of all things vampire.

I do plan to pick up an actual book soon. Right now it's a toss up for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series or Castle in the Sky. It's so tough to choose!

I hope you have a Happy Wednesday!

Latergrams

I have my final interview today at the hospital!

We're wrapping things up and I'm giving her a massage.

That part is pretty standard in all massage interviews.

But that means we won't be decorating and cleaning and organizing today.

We will be doing kitten damage control. They ripped open some Goodwill pages and drug 

clothes everywhere and somehow knocked over our table by the door with

alll our change on it... I'm sure you can

picture it.

So, while I have to delay Christmas pictures I do have some "latergrams" to share with you.

They do involve a lot a cats because that's our life now.

This happens to be my favorite picture ever. I'm thinking about getting it printed.

Something, something sunrise. 

The best sushi dinner ever

A lunch beer on a lunch date.

This is Boo, or the mama cat. She never lays with me so this was special.

It's Christmas music time!

I know this is a bad picture but I had to act fast.

This is in the bathroom of a movie theater the opening night of Breaking Dawn (which I didn't see)

and that is a pink cocktail with a lime in it. I just got so much humor out of that.

Well I hope you enjoyed my cats! I promise to start using a real camera again now that I'm actively blogging again.

Have a Happy Thursday!

What we're doing on our day off.

Ben doesn't know this yet, but since Thursday is a day off for both of us we will be cleaning

organizing and

Christmas Decorating!!!

I've been super jealous of reading about everyone around me decorating and putting up trees.

It's our turn! 

Honestly, I hated Christmas up until the year before last.

I was working at Starbucks with it's blasting Christmas music and horrible, angry customers 

and all my co-workers and I were at war with the "holiday season."

I saw all the non-Starbuckers happy and enjoying the season. One night I was sitting with Tazo the Cat

and we were both being grumpy (he's always grumpy and I was too then) when I made a decisison.

"You know what, Tazo?"

No response

"I think I'm going to start liking Christmas."

No response

"You ask why? Well because I'm tired of being mad about it"

No response

So I went out and bought a whole six Christmas decorations.

It was a start.

Now I love decorating and Christmas music and I can't wait to do it!

I feel like I'm tardy to the party even though it's not December.

Que pictures of Christmas decorating that I lust after.

I think I need to do this for my tree!

I'm sure there will be more to come, hopefully I'll have pictures of my own Christmas decorations tomorrow!

Happy Wednesday!

Dear Diary

I think I've always had a blogger identity issues.

I read all these cute blogs and I want to be like them.

It would be nice to have some followers.

I know to make a good blog I need good content, good pictures, and good writing.

I know I've been lacking on almost all of these fronts.

Sigh, but I miss blogging.

I've gone through a life slump.

My massage career has come to a road block, and I've been working on climbing over it, 

but it's going to take some time.

In the meantime, I've gone back to making lattes-

in a Target.

I didn't think it would bother me as much as it does, but I'm stuck in a uniform (with a hat. I hate hats)

working for people who are new to the coffee game (it's only be open for six months)

and all of the people I went to high school with are home for the holidays and shopping at Target. 

I know it's not true but all these factors make me feel like I've failed.

I'm angry about where my life's at and at the same time I don't want to face the reality of it.

I come home and crash on the couch, turn on the tv and turn off everything else.

I'm quick to temper, sad, and scared.

Then I realize that I'm just letting life slip by me. 

The only thing I do outside of work is watch tv and stress about what to do with four three-month-old kittens (that no one wants-are you kidding me?)

I need this blog. I need something to do that will keep my brain working.

Keep me wanting to read, write, move, anything besides just existing.

So, I'm going to keep trying with this blog even if no one follows me, or no one even reads it

because I need this to get me to the next step.

In Progress: The Casual Vacancy

So, we all know how I feel about J.K.Rowling.

Brilliant writer, but I dislike her publicity stunts.

That being said I did really want to read her new book which I thought was a murder mystery.

It's not.

It's a character study I guess. I'm still not sure though I'm over 200 pages in and I'm haven't quite figured what I'm reading. Everyone is an asshole.

I jumped on Goodreads to see if I was alone in feeling that this book was not up to snuff.

What I found was a lot of J.K. Rowling fans saying she's super awesome and don't compare it to Harry Potter.

Why would I ever compare a super mundane story to Harry Potter?

Then I ran across this review from Entertainment Weekly, and feel much better about how I view the book.

"Rowling seems determined to distance herself from the innocent pleasures of wizards and Quidditch, and The Casual Vacancy piles on the unpleasantness — rape, child abuse, suicide, self-mutilation, mental illness. It's all just too much: When the novel finally arrives at its predictable and heavy-handed ending, what started as a lively comedy of manners has turned into an overwrought slog."

I still intend to finish the book for now- I mean I've made it through worse, but it was not a gripping or enlightening tale like I anticipated.
The writing is still brilliant, but the subject matter might not make it worth it.

Book Review: Outlander

It is finished!

That's what went through my head when I reached the last page of this book. 

So many things happened and so much time past during this story I feel older after reading it.

To portray the passing of time well in a story is a true talent I believe and Diana Gabaldon possesses that talent. 

The characters were believeibly real, there was a good sprinkling of historic fact amonst the fiction. 

I learned something about the Scottish clans and the Bonnie Prince Charlie uprising which was nice because I had no previous knowledge of Scotland period. 

Claire and Jamie and lovable characters with realistic flaws and Randall- the bad guy- was truly evil.

My problem with the plot at several points was I had to stop and say to myself- where is this going?

If I look at the bigger picture, like this novel is a set up for the rest of the series, I could understand the meandering plot line, but I spent the first half of this book ignorant of that fact so I was annoyed at some points.

Claire's problem solving for the roadblocks she faces is genius. Smuggle cattle into a prison so they could smuggle Jamie out? didn't see that one coming at all. 

Throughout the whole book there is a good spirit of adventure so to speak that keeps things seeming lighter than they are, but near the end the plot took a dark and awful turn that I'm not sure was necessary. 

Jamie is taken captive by Randall and to save Claire's life he offers himself to the Captain.

After an odd and slightly unbelievable scene that has Claire fighting off a pack of wolves with her bare hands she finds help and rescues Jamie from the hangman's noose. He later tells her of the torture he underwent. 

I had read ahead of time through Goodreads about this scene and many people were throughly disgusted by it. I figured this was an exaggeration since the scene where Claire was punished for almost killing half the clan wasn't nearly as bad as everyone said it was. But they were definitely right about this one.

Jamie was sexually, physically and psychologically tortured by Randall and it was later inferred that Randall did this same thing to his younger brother. 

I mean, damn.

Then of course Jamie lost his will to live so Claire had to put him is some drug induced rage on the edge of death so he could face his demons, almost kill her, but than realize that he wants to live and have sex with her.

Oh okay.

And for such a horrible villain to have such an anticlimactic death off screen.

I was actually happy when the ending showed up abruptly because things had definitely spiraled down as far as plot and feel of the story.

I enjoyed most of the book and the adventure that was happening until the last 100 pages because that's when the adventure stopped and the horrors began. I had thought of reading the rest of the series originally, but after an ending like that I don't think I could do it, so I probably won't.