Saturday, November 7, 2009

Sunday Salon: A Little Less Chaos Please!



Happy Sunday everyone! Hope you've all had a bountiful week. My cup overfloweth this week, in all ways possible. By Friday night, I was an inert form, lying in my reading/drinking chair in a fetal position, with a glass of wine in my hand, not able to form a coherent sentence.

Let's talk about the underbelly of the week first. If you read my update post Friday for my 100 Mile Fitness Challenge, you know that I had two funerals to attend this week, which rearranged my priorities. One was for my friend's aunt, who recently succumbed to a long, brave battle with cancer. The other was an unexpected heart attack of my 46-year-old neighbor Louie. I don't rebound well from these things, and lost some emotional traction as a result. The cherry on top of all this was on Friday, when I learned that a wack-job started shooting people in downtown Orlando, a mile from my kids' school. The school, of course, went on lock-down, which completely freaked me out, at least while the guy was running loose in the city. We get our share of psychos down here in Florida, that is for sure! On Saturday, my son's football team also lost their championship game...boo.

On the bright side, I had the pleasure of meeting Jennifer @ The Literate Housewife (my first face-to-face blogger experience!) when she was down here at Disney for a conference. We met for dinner at the Grand Floridian Resort, and talked non-stop for three hours. You might be surprised that we didn't just talk about books (although we had a pretty funny conversation about Nicholas Sparks), but about our kids and balancing our lives. It was like we'd always known each other!












I signed up for ANOTHER challenge this week, one that just couldn't be ignored. It is the Shelf Discovery Challenge, hosted by Julie @ Booking Mama, and runs November 1, 2009 through April 30, 2010. The challenge revolves around the book "Shelf Discovery" by Lizzie Skurnich, which lists all those books we read as teens that formed our young literary minds, that we hid in our underwear drawers, that we passed secretly to our friends. I am thinking that in a week or two, I am going to have a Shelf Discovery Read-a-thon, and try to knock out at least half of the books on my list. Maybe my daughter can read SOME of them with me (not all, thank you). Here is my post and list of books I plan on reading.

In my bookish life, I finally finished "Laura Rider's Masterpiece" by Jane Hamilton. It was only a little over 200 pages, but I only picked up my reading pace towards the end. It certainly unearthed some crazy emotions in me. I can't remember the last time I had such a violent, negative reaction to a character. But more on that later...review coming 11/20. I then started and finished reading "The Good Good Pig" by Sy Montgomery, getting back to my farm roots. I don't suppose this book will win any awards, but is a sweet, pleasurable read. I also finished "The Night Watch" by Sarah Waters. I know last week I said it wasn't tripping my trigger. Well now I'm not sure. Waters is like that...she seeps into your subconscious. I think maybe I liked it more than I originally thought. I haven't yet written the review. I think the idea of it needs to brew a little more in my mind. On audio, I started "The House at Riverton" by Kate Morton, but I'm only into the 2nd disc, so it is too soon to comment. The kids and I are still enjoying ourselves with The Goblet of Fire on audio as well.

I'm looking forward to starting fresh in a new week. I am going to aggressively attack my 100 Mile Fitness Challenge, and try to close in on the 100th mile. I'm going to catch up on my yardwork. I'm going to attend another book club meeting. I'm going to start planning my Thanksgiving feast. Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday!


27 comments:

Unknown said...

Sounds like you had a pretty busy week with one thing and another. Can't believe you were so close to the shooting in Orlando, I saw that on Sky News here in the UK and couldn't believe it! I'm glad your kids were ok. Pretty scary though I bet.

Hope this week is a better one for you x

Book Bird Dog said...

What a distressing week, that had a silver lining at the end - a three hour visit with a fellow book blogger. Hope this week will go smoother.

Unknown said...

I'm so pleased that you finally got to meet another blogger. I love chatting with other bloggers, as they are the only people who seem to understand my passion for books and blogging. It is fantastic to be able to talk about these things in the flesh and I'm so happy that it worked out for you. Sorry to hear that the rest of your week wasn't so good. I thought of you when I heard about the shootings on the news. I'm glad to hear that you are all OK and I hope that next week is much better for you.

Rebecca @ The Book Lady's Blog said...

So glad you got to meet Jennifer. She's great! And it sounds like your evening was a nice ending to a difficult week. Hope you get to recharge this weekend.

rhapsodyinbooks said...

Glad your week improved, and can't wait to hear about the feast you're planning! (I assume it will include pinot noir?!!!) :--) By the way, we actually found an inexpensive pinot that was pretty good - Meridian.

gautami tripathy said...

Glad your week ended well despite a bad start!

Here is my Sunday Salon post!

Amy said...

So glad you and Jennifer got together, she's such a fab person and I think you're pretty awesome too...hopefully this was just the beginning of many book blogger meet-ups for you!

Alyce said...

Wow! You have a lot going on and a lot planned. It's very cool that you got to meet with Jennifer though, and have such a nice time chatting together.

ds said...

What fun to have met another blogger and connected so well! That is such a nice way to have ended this awful week. Trust this one will be easier. Enjoy your Sunday!

Kathleen said...

Wow your week has been one of great heights and great lows. Sounds like you are getting through it all with your strength and with your sense of humor intact. Here's hoping this coming week will be "uneventful" for you.

Ti said...

I'm not participating in that fitness challenge but I normally walk a few miles every morning and these past weeks with the accident and all, I have not been doing it and my pants are already getting snug around the waist! Needless to say, I will be back to hitting the pavement tomorrow morning.

Unknown said...

That is so scary about the Orlando shooting Sandy. I'm relieved to know your kids are okay. So sorry you have had such a rough week. Life is so strange, you're on a lovely vacation with good friends one week and the following week you're dealing with death in a variety of ways. I'm glad you relaxed on Friday night and recharged. It's great that you were able to meet another blogger, Literate Housewife is an awesome woman so I don't wonder that you found so much to talk about. I hope you are having a fun & relaxing weekend.

Ana S. said...

Hooray for meeting fellow bloggers! I'm glad you and Jennifer had such a nice time together :)

And that's so scary about the shooting :(

Florinda said...

Hope things can settle down a bit for you this week. Glad you've signed on for the Shelf Discovery Challenge (and that the book is on its way to you - hope Amy is quicker to send it out to you than I was in getting it to her!).

nat @book, line, and sinker said...

wow!! busy (and challenging) week for you! on the bright side, meeting jennifer must have been fun. i really enjoy her blog. found you through kathy of bermuda onion fame. :) cheers!

Carrie K. said...

What a crazy, crazy week you've had! That would have been so scary - I know I was afraid for you when I saw you post on Facebook about the shooter. I hope this next week is much more relaxing for you. :)

Heidenkind said...

I'll definitely be look for your review of Laura Rider's Masterpiece. That's a book I got for one of the Take A Chance challenges, and I read about 7 pages before I was like, "Nope." *toss*

Alice said...

What fun! I'd love to meet up with fellow book bloggers in my neighborhood too.

I hope you will enjoy a better time this week and beyond.

I'm going to aggressively tackle my 100 Mile challenge as well. I slacked last week so I'm making up for it this week. :)

Literate Housewife said...

I am so glad I got to be a little bit of sunshine in your week. I could have kept on talking for hours, too. Great meal with a great friend. Who could ask for anything more.

Let's do it again really soon (if we can).

bermudaonion said...

I'm sorry you had such a stressful week. All these shootings are enough to stress anyone. I'm so glad you got to meet the fabulous Jennifer - she's enough to brighten anyone's week.

The Bumbles said...

You know, when Amy mentioned the manic type weeks you've had - highs with the cruise and lows with death - it got me to thinking. How awful would it have been had all those terrible things occurred while you were off with your friends out of town? So although the stress of the shooting location and the passing of your neighbor & friend's aunt were a lot to take in, at least you were able to be there to do something and your cruise was guilt free.

And I think it is wonderful that you got to meet a blogging buddy. And even better that the connection in real life was as enjoyable as it was online. That must have been your reward to balance out all the sad stuff.

Jen - devourer of books said...

Meeting other bloggers is always so fun, it is amazing how easy it is to talk to one another!

Melody said...

How fun it is to meet up with a fellow bookblogger! Glad to hear you and Jennifer had a wonderful time!!

Was feeling unwell yesterday thus that explains my late reply.

Jenners said...

Wow ... that was a crazy week and not in the best of ways. I'm sure losing a neighbor who is so young is very disconcerting and upsetting.

Melissa said...

Funerals are always hard and a couple of them close together is an even bigger bummer. Glad you and Jennifer were able to get together. Sounds like you had a great time!

I thought about you when I heard about the shootings and am glad everything was ok with your family.

Darlene said...

Sandy, I'm so sorry to hear about the losses you've suffered. Funerals are always so hard and, like you, I don't rebound well. I'm glad your kids were ok with that nut case there. It was all over our news as well. How fantastic that you got to meet Jennifer! I'd love to be able to meet both of you some day. Hope this week turns out much better for you. On another note, so sorry about my bad commenting lately. With the colder weather my hands have been bothering me but I'm sure it's going to get better. With not reading and commenting I sure do seem to be missing a lot.

Anonymous said...

Hi Sandy, I hope all is better for you this week; last week was awfully heavy on you :(

I'm in awe that you're so close to the 100 miles already! Well done! But I've done better (so far) on the Japanese Literature Challenge ;)

I wish you all the best!