Vicarious Teenage Literary Angstiness and a Very Shallow Pool

But I mean that in a good way.

Here’s how I am I spending my summer:

I wake up, make coffee, slob around the house a bit, rouse my offspring from their sound sleep – much to their vociferous dismay – to get dressed and eat some damn breakfast already, drive to the pool, and park my butt in a deck chair under a big umbrella.  And there I sit for about three hours while my kids have swim practice and then frolic in the heavily chlorinated pool with their friends.  And while I sit, I drink more coffee with my friend Tara and discuss Very Important Matters.  Such as which pool dad might actually be a secret agent.  And what is really involved in a Brazilian bikini wax.  And how good the new kind of yogurt with the two flavors mixed together is, because really, the one with the chocolate and the raspberry together?  Wow.

When I’m not wrangling these Very Important Matters, I’m sometimes reading books.  I’ve finished re-reading fifteen of the sixteen Janet Evanovich books in preparation for reading number seventeen which just came out, which I think pretty much guarantees my spot in the trash reading Hall of Fame as well as the OCD Hall of Fame to say nothing of the Please Get Over This Thing With The Secret Agents Already (sort of explains the pool dad thing, yes?) Hall of Fame, as well as a few books for work, and approximately thirty-eight women’s magazines in order to maintain the appropriate balance of self-loathing and feelings of mediocrity and poor body image poolside.

I also read a book that I would normally not have picked up, had the lovely people at Penguin, via BlogHer, not sent to me, Whatever Happened to Goodbye, by Sarah Dessen.  Sarah Dessen has written a veritable truckload of young adult novels and I am forever seeing teenage girls with their noses buried in one of them.  I’ve never read any of them, but now that I have, I see why they are ever ubiquitous.  I wrote about the book at BlogHer, and I would be thrilled and delighted if you’d head on over via clicky clicky and read the review.  In short, I said it was well written, authentic, and, if I do say so myself, I happen to know a thing or two about teenagers, so you can take that to the bank.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to some Very Important Matters – like whether it’s more important to have well shaped eyebrows or perfectly manicured toes.  Feel free to leave your opinion in the comments.

Peace.

Love.

Deep thoughts.

Wear sunscreen.

 

Please, Join Me in My Ivory Tower, The View Is Sublime

The best part about my job?  Today.  This afternoon at 3:30, to be more precise, when I walked out the door, not to return until the end of August.

Well Read Hostesses are supposed to do, at minimum, two things:  read and hostess.

As for hostessing, I had seventy people over for spaghetti a few weeks ago and at least once a week there are some extra shorties running around the joint, so that’s going to have to count for a while.

Reading…unless a boatload of Lord of The Flies essays qualifies, the pickings have been slim of late:

I’m re-reading the fifteenth Janet Evanovich Ranger Joe Morelli Stephanie Plum mystery book in preparation for reading the sixteenth, which came out today and which I bought for myself the moment I left work did not pass go did not collect $200.  For those of you out of the loop, these are hugely sophisticated, high brow literary works of great importance and scholarly merit.  Ahem.

I read the section about broken foot bones on WebMD a few times because my foot had an unfortunate collision with the rim of a heavy duty recycling bin this afternoon.  Rico Suave.  I know it.

I read a bunch while in search of this kick ass piece I heard on NPR the other day about a totally awesome nutty dude in…wait for it…wait for it…Texas (surprise!) who turns out to be completely awesome in his nuttiness.  I can’t for the life of me find the piece I heard on NPR, but the guy, Joe Halsey, is the closest to a religious zealot that I don’t want to kick in the teeth I’ve ever found.  Peace, Joe.    OOH WAIT.  Here it is!!

I have read a bunch of Facebook status updates.  My friends are funny!

I have read the NOAA tropical report repeatedly, because I’m headed to the Bahamas on Friday and need to be prepared to bust out the voodoo if it looks as though any kind of tropical depression is kicking up.

I’ve also read a number of handbooks about how to starve Bengal tigers so that mine are fully hungry and ready to devour any interlopers should they attempt to set foot on the premises while I am out of town in said tropical-depression-free Bahamas.  Got it?

So I guess I can concede that I’ve come up RAWTHER short on the Well Read bit.  In my defense, I have set aside an entire corner of my closet for books that I plan to read over the next few weeks.  Among them:

The Kathy Reichs Temperance Brennan forensic scientist mystery novels – a recommendation from my oh so cool sister in law.  Same sister in law responsible for my secret and totally delusional and imaginary life as a bounty hunter with a Cuban American mercenary boyfriend.  These are a little more, I dunno, upscale.  Not that it matters – I don’t seem to be all that deterred by the lack of upscaleness in the Evanovich 16.  Deja Dead is the first in Reichs’ Temperance Brennan series.

Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas

P.S.  What I Didn’t Say: Unsent Letters to Our Female Friends, Ed. Megan McMorris.  I’m not sure where I heard about this one, but it’s an anthology of letters from women to their female friends – unsent, duh, and looks interesting. I’m sort of hoping it inspires me to write some letters of my own.  I might also be sort of hoping it doesn’t.

Bonk by Mary Roach.  The subtitle of this book is “The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex.  Nuff said, yes?

Little Bee by Chris Cleave.  My awesome friend – another who I see about 1/10 as much as I”d like to recommended this one a while ago.  I came home from work (Did I mention that I’m on summer vacation now?  Oh.  I did?  Good.)  the other day and it was on my kitchen counter with a sticky on it that said, “Happy summer/vacation reading!”  love, name of awesome friend I wish I saw more.

Read on, people.

And then, in a few weeks, come over for spaghetti.