Bookish Penguin

Entries in blogging (43)

Monday

01Mar2010

Happy Award

Monday, March 1, 2010 at 7:30AM

My friend Nagehan gave me a Happy Award! And this after I recently had two entries about how I'm not your Susie Sunshine type of gal . . . glad to know I can still make someone happy!

The rule after receiving this award is to list 10 things that make you happy and pass the award to 10 other people. I'm not sure if I will end up giving it to 10 people. I read blogs that make me really happy, but I've already given them all awards so I might follow Nagehan's lead and just pick one good one.

10 things that make me happy:

1) Reading a real page-turner of a novel, biography, or non-fiction book. I simply adore finding a book that I never want to put down (it happens fairly rarely).

2) When the hubby feels the baby kick. It's like a little moment when we're the family we're about to fully become in May.

3) Trying a new recipe and having it turn out deliciously.

4) Going to school and actually having all of my reading and homework done. It hasn't happened yet this semester, but I have hopes.

5) Buying a toy for Buster that lasts more than half a day before it loses all of its innards. (His two newest toys are made out of firehose and tire rubber, respectively. I have high hopes for these toys.)

6) Looking at my wedding photos.

7) Curling up in bed at night.

8) Seeing The Force on a sonogram and being told he's doing well.

9) Finding a shirt or other item of clothing that makes me excited to look at it, excited to wear it, and feel good about how I look when it's on.

10) Receiving long emails from good friends.

I'm passing this award on to my friend Kyra at Crouching Girl, Hidden Woman. We grew up together, walking to school together nearly every day for years in elementary and middle school, singing Madonna and Cyndi Lauper songs in our fluorescent leg warmers and stylishly mis-matched earrings. Now she's a happy designer living in North Carolina, just a week or so away from becoming a mom! I love hearing her thoughts on life and her pregnancy and I'm looking forward to hearing about the birth and parenthood process.

Candice |

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Monday

22Feb2010

Always Look On the Bright Side of Life

Monday, February 22, 2010 at 12:13PM

As I've said before, I'm not the "glass half full," cheery, "go get 'em tiger!" type of gal. I'm just not. I could say it's because then you're not let down as often, if you're prepared for what might happen, but I think that's the answer I cultivated as an angst-ridden teenager. These days, it's just how I feel most comfortable approaching life.

But, that said, I kind of secretly tend to look on the bright side of things. There's no need in being pessimistic about things, because then you just expend so much negative energy waiting for something to go wrong and bringing down the other people around you. Being realistic about life doesn't mean you have to be a Debbie Downer.

As Monty Python says, "What've you got to lose? You come from nothing, you gone back to nothing. What've you lost? Nothing!"

No one would ever consider me a Suzy Sunshine type... ever... but there's a way to see the positive side of things that isn't obnoxiously sunshine-y. For example, this past weekend, the hubby and I went to IKEA and picked out a new dining table and chairs and new shelves for the living room, hallway, and soon-to-be nursery. This probably took two hours. We got to the self-service section of the store only to realize... WE LOST THE SHEET WE WROTE ALL THE DETAILS ON. You know, that little paper where you write what you wanted and where it's located in self-service?

Oh lordy. The hubby was pissed. PISSED. If you see a hole in the wall of the Paramus IKEA, don't bother wondering why it's there. Hulk SMASH.

Me? I was disappointed, sure. My feet were aching, it was too hot, my pants were annoying me, and the children running rampant everywhere with no parental intervention were annoying me further... but I didn't see a point in getting upset. We had two choices - start over or just leave with nothing. So we started over. We had already spent so much time making the decisions, so now we just had to go through, remember what we decided earlier, and write it down again. It probably took 1/3 the time our first trip through took - and it was totally worth it. If we were both angry and steaming, it would have been torturous - but I stayed calm and we just went ahead with what we had to do, and all went well.

So, sure, life is a bit tough right now. There's the rehab thing. And the whole being-pregnant-and-worrying-about-everything thing. But you can choose to face these things with hope.

And sometimes the universe rewards you. Yesterday I got an email letting me know I won a free copy of the movie Whip It (starring Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page) from a contest I entered on Babble.

I'm so super excited about this. I didn't get to see the movie when it was in theaters, but really wanted to. Now I'll be able to watch it whenever I want!

Then, as I tweeted, I won a free pass to BlogHer '10! I was out to dinner with the hubby when the email came in and I just said, "Oh my god. OH my god. OH MY god!" so, of course, with the week we were having, the hubby was like, "Uh, is that a good oh my god - or a bad one?"

It's a good one - no, a GREAT one! I signed up for the BlogHer '10 conference months ago because, as a student, I get a discounted rate so it's affordable, and it's in NYC so I won't need a hotel or travel (except for a bus into the city). Danielle, of Delightfully Sweet, wanted to go, but the non-student passes are a bit pricey so we were trying to find a way to make this work. Whoever won the free pass could use the pass herself or share it with a friend, so we gave the contest a whirl... and now we get to go to BlogHer together!

For me, the news came on a day where I was just tired, exhausted by the goings-ons of the week, Buster's continued rambunctiousness, and thoughts of all the schoolwork I'm behind on plus all the apartment baby prep we have to do. These are all just tiring things brought on by good things, though - I'm glad that person is in rehab, I'm overjoyed that we're having a baby, and I love going to school and having Buster around... but it all gets tiring.

Yet, sometimes, when you're having to work a little harder at looking on the bright side of life, life itself gives you a little boost. And, other times, it steals your IKEA notes. But, whatever, it all evens out in the end.

Candice |

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Thursday

04Feb2010

Yay, newlyweds!

Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 9:39AM

The hubby and I are featured over at Newlyweds-blog.com today!

Head over and check it out! If you're newly married or are going to be soon, I highly suggest submitting your name to Sweet Pea (the site's bloggess) because completing the interview was really, really fun.

Thanks, Sweet Pea, for this opportunity!

Candice |

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Tuesday

02Feb2010

The 2010 Blog Improvement Project - Week 1

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 9:30AM

I've decided to participate in the 2010 Blog Improvement Project (BIP). I love what I do here, but who couldn't make an effort to improve, right?

From Kim and Jackie at BIP: "The BIP will consist of twice-monthly activities to improve your blog. Every first and third Monday of the month there will be an activity posted on this blog that will related in some way to making your blog better. Each participant should spend the next two weeks focusing on that aspect of their blog. Possible topics include goals setting, writing better content, building community with readers, getting more readers, and blog layout and design."

This week marks the first activity: decide which areas of my blog would benefit most from improvement and then write a post setting out all the things I'd like to do. So here we are...

This was harder than it seems. I am really pretty content with the blog as it is. I still adore Katie's design and don't want to change anything about the format and layout, so that leaves me some basic cleaning up as well as some exploring:

*Find out why my Twitterfeed isn't working and fix it

*Clean up tags

*Make sure my blog is listed on Technorati (code ZZFP3B9S9R4F)

*Clean up old tags that lead back to Wordpress

*Delete old Wordpress blog

*Find out what Squarespace features I'm not taking full advantage of

*Make a conscious effort to comment on other blogs more regularly

I started off with the Twitterfeed issue, which has been broken longer than I can remember - seems like it had the wrong RSS link. I think I fixed it, though (we'll see when I post this!).

The Squarespace item is a bit vague, I know, but the goal is based on the fact that I haven't really looked into or learned anything about Squarespace since I first moved the blog over here in July. I think there are a few things Squarespace is not capable of that I wish it were (threaded commenting and private entries, for two) but I should take a look around and double-check.

So here goes nuthin, err, something.

Candice |

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Sunday

31Jan2010

When Everything Changed

Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 8:52PM

16. Read 30 books I haven’t read before and blog about them. (20/30)

When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present
~Gail Collins

If you are a woman: RUN and go read this book. If you know a woman: RUN and read this book. If a woman gave birth to you: RUN . . . now . . . and read this book.

The narrative and stories in this book are amazing. I've been tinkering around in women's studies since college and so I've read plenty about how things have progressed, but the stories in this book still made me so incredibly furious at how things were not that long ago. The book also made me grateful for what's changed, but then increasingly angry about what hasn't changed yet.

For example, did you know we almost had universal child care in the 1970s? The amount of time I've spent reading, thinking, and talking about daycare is incredible and I don't even have a child yet. We were almost there but, in episodes eerily similar to what is currently happening with the health care debate, rumors were spread about what exactly "government run child care" would be like and how it would "Sovietize" our children (*cough* socialism fears *cough*) and so it was voted down. That was a particularly depressing and upsetting passage of the book to read because it hit so close to home.

Did you know that women weren't widely allowed to get credit until 1974? That means credit cards, car loans, mortages, et cetera. If a woman wanted to buy a car, the dealer would ask her about her plans to have children since (the assumption was) women who had children then didn't work and would no longer make their payments. And, of course, there was nothing illegal about this question. The part that was extra crazy-making to me? I was born one year later in 1975 . . . so roughly until right before I was born, my mother would not have been able to buy a car. It's unfathomable.

Did you know there were laws on the books preventing women from doing jobs that required them to lift more than 30lbs? A woman wanted a promotion where she worked but it required pushing something 35lbs, so she was told she couldn't do that job. She realized the typewriter she had to lift every day weighed 40lbs, so when they told her she couldn't have the new job, she refused to lift her typewriter, which, naturally, the company fought her on and penalized her for. She continued to fight and eventually won. Thank goodness for women like her.

And, you know, of course women shouldn't lift more than 30lbs... because, you know, I'm sure no woman ever lifts a child who weighs more than 30lbs. Silly womenz, thinking they can do things like what their bodies are capable of.

Women were shot and run off the road just for being in the car with black men. Women's workstations were defiled with trash and urine when they dared work in a traditionally male, blue collar environment. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg was denied a clerkship when first starting out because she liked to wear pants and the judge hated women who wore pants. Female flight attendants (back when male flight attendants weren't allowed) were required to bend over to serve drinks and light cigars on "men only" executive flights. And, per the book, if you go back far enough (if I recall, we're talking 100 years ago), men would never be punished for rape if the woman got pregnant because the theory was a woman couldn't get pregnant if she didn't enjoy the sex. I couldn't believe that when I read it. My heart goes out to the women who were negatively affected by that law.

Are you angry yet? Because I'm furious just remembering these things and the thousands of other instances in the book that made my blood boil. So, yes, I highly recommend this book. It's amazing how far we've come and gives me hope that we'll be able to make it to true equality one day.

Candice |