Sign Me Up!!!

I am a magazine addict. Perhaps no one knows this better than my poor husband. He has begrudgingly hauled my "permanent" collection from home to home over the past few years as we moved around the state. I love Martha Stewart; he has a unique reason to hate her with a passion.

A few months ago I discovered that I could buy used/donated magazines from the public library for .10. You seriously would have thought I'd won the lottery. I was that excited! While the selection isn't exactly what I would call vast, I do usually find a few treasures to feed my habit.

So imagine my absolute delirium when I heard an advertisement announcing Maghound a few months ago. For a monthly fee, you get to choose which magazines to have delivered to your house. You can change your selections throughout the year. I immediately logged on, but was devestated to find that it was not operational yet. I signed up to be notified as soon as it was up and running. Today, the long awaited email arrived! And..... there is a free 30-day membership!! Woo hoo! Now I can try out all those magazines I wouldn't order before in case I didn't love them. It's like Christmas in September.

If the Straitjacket Fits

Working in a psychiatric hospital for the better part of eight years was sure to leave lasting effects. I might be a bit of a mental health diagnosis hypochondriac.... maybe. Over the years I've wondered if I could possibly have Bipolar Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Paranoid Schizophrenia, Depression, Anxiety Disorder, Compulsive Eating Disorder, and so on, and so on, and so on. (I'm thinking it might be a good measure of self-preservation to disable comments for this post.)

Anyway, today I found a "syndrome" that I am absolutely certain I have and which, I am sure, is responsible for a significant amount of the frustration and anxiety in my life. It is called "Preparing to Live Syndrome." The article I read was an awakening of sorts. While it was geared toward lawyers, I am certain that it applies to a much broader demographic.

JD Bliss sums it up this way: "Specifically, the problem is that 'we trade what we truly have'--the present moment--for a future that does not yet and might never exist. As a result, many of us seek relief in 'addiction, pay raises and promotions and all manner of frantic behavior.' Dolan points out that the present moment is 'the one moment of the only life we will ever have that we truly possess.'"

Hi, my name is Angela, and I am a compulsive list maker. I have more lists about more things than anyone I have ever met or even heard about. It's sick - no really, it is. I'm not going to lie, I've actually written things down that I had forgotten to write down but already done, just so I could cross them off my list. I am pretty sure if I started right this minute I could never possibly complete everything waiting on my various to-do lists.

When I'm feeling out of control or unhappy, I need only a pen and a piece of paper (or the back of an envelope, a napkin, my arm - just kidding - sort of), and I can outline all of the shiny happy possibilities for the future. I love imagining what I could potentially accomplish - later.

But every minute of the day, my precious lists taunt me, reminding me that I'm not accomplishing enough, not keeping up, not living my life to the fullest. I get so frazzled and overwhelmed that I check off very little. And I oftentimes have a difficult time enjoying the things I do accomplish or the time I spend with my family and friends. I always feel like what I am doing right now is at the expense of something I "should" be doing.

So, now that I have admitted I have a problem, what is the next of the twelve steps for this disease? "Dolan suggests that lawyers promise themselves: 'Today is the only day that belongs to me; I will live it the best way I know how.'"

Sounds so simple, right? Now if only "the best way I know how" wasn't open to so many differing interpretations... Maybe I should go make a list.

Today I Love My Life

Today I am so in love with my life that I feel guilty for ever complaining about anything. Seriously, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. I am married to the most amazing man in the whole world, and we have an absolutely incredible little girl. My parents have always loved, supported, and inspired me. I have seven fantastic siblings plus quite a few more of those in-law type brothers and sisters that are just as great. Danny's family is so thoughtful and wonderful and adds so much more to my life. I am healthy and happy and truly have a blessed life. I had a perfect weekend just spending time with Valerie and Danny, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I tend to get so wound up in activities and to-do lists that I seldom take time to just hang out with the people that I love. This weekend, I did just that. The peace and the joy that I felt today make facing another Monday a little more bearable. I hope that all of you can take a moment to find those things that are truly great in your life to help put all the rest into perspective.

Wedding Inspiration

I love weddings. No, I really really LOVE weddings. So when my cousin Brittany blogged about the wedding design contest on coco+kelley, I had to play. You pick a room and then design a wedding around that room. It was tons of fun, and now I'm ready to head to Key West to throw myself a little vow renewal celebration. Who's in?

I Love Slimquick Commercials

Seriously, aren't they the best? I swear there is one more, but I can't find it online. I don't even have to comment. The commercials say it ALL.

Today (and everyday) I Love Batman

Yep, it's true. I'm a sucker for a man in a batsuit.

I've loved them all. Even Adam West was pretty impressive to a pre-teen after-school-television fan. But, oh how the batsuits have improved since the 1960s...

I had the good fortune of seeing Michael Keaton in real life at the Relay Station in St. Anthony in about 1997 or 1998. I was rendered speechless (astonishing, I know). I couldn't even look him in the eye. Danny somehow finagled an autograph for me (isn't he great?). Today I will say that Michael Keaton was my favorite. But don't expect the same answer tomorrow. Val Kilmer was pretty hot. And George Clooney was surprisingly good. Christian Bale has been impressive so far, and I can't wait to see the new movie. I'd be Catwoman or Poison Ivy opposite any one of them. Meeeeow.

With that said, here's a trip down memory lane. Which one is your favorite?

I Love Summer Weekends

I should have posted these sooner, but I've been a little preoccupied with ultra-important stuff. We brought my little brother Brandon and his Nintendo Wii home with us on Sunday.

**Word of caution: Don't even pick up the Wii remote unless you've got hours to spare and don't want to be in bed before midnight!!!


So we travelled to Eastern Idaho for the holiday weekend. My adorable little nephew, Christopher, turned one-year-old on July 2. We had a party for him on July 4th with volleyball, slip-and-slides, barbeque, and fireworks. The city of Menan was sure excited to celebrate his birthday! ;)

Fun was had by all, but all the photos to prove it are on Mom's fancy camera. I'll have to update later.

We were also fortunate enough to attend Monte's & Barb's annual 4th of July barbeque in St. Anthony.


Always good times. This year's festivities, however, included one activity I could have lived without. Danny lost a football bet last October, and the 4th was the predetermined reckoning day. A picture's worth a thousand words, so I'll just let it do the explaining.

Valerie and I pretty much shared the same reaction.

We spent some time in Chester at Grandpa and Grandma Hermosillo's. I am again reminded that I need to hire a personal photographer to follow us around because we didn't get any pictures taken. I did catch Valerie growling at Grandpa's bear, though.

I have been informed that this weekend will be spent camping and boating at C.J. Strike. With a seven-year-old, a thirteen-year-old, and a husband that doesn't believe in growing up, I'm hoping for the best, but preparing for...

Stay tuned for details.

My Favorite Quote of the Day

"When I was young, I was convinced that all so-called liberals were evil. It was an immature assumption on my part. Over the years, I came to realize that there are millions of liberals who, while they may be confused or uninformed, have good intentions. "
- Robert Ringer

What's Your Number? Mine's 34

By way of my cousin Nichole (her number is 38) and thebibliophiles.com:


"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. "

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.

2) List it in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austin
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkein
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible - New Testament - (The WHOLE thing? Okay, not so much.)
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare - (almost all; I've missed a few, but I'm totally counting it)
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck -
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres -
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel -
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


Epilogue: So apparently I'm reading the wrong books. I've read almost 50 books this year, but none of them made the list.
P.S.: If this were high school English I'd have scored a lot higher because I've seen the movies of about 15 more.

DO MY EYES DECEIVE ME?

Can it possibly be true? Beverly Hills 90210 is back?!?! I was a die-hard fan back in the day, and I have the Dylan/Luke Perry earrings to prove it. I sobbed during the last episode (so what if it was in 2000 and I was 21-years-old). Chances are not that great that I will watch the new show (at least admittedly), but hearing the theme song sure brought back my younger years in a flash! There are promises of cameos by Shannen Doherty and Jennie Garth. If they get Luke Perry or Tiffani Amber-Thiesen, resistance will be futile...