the help

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

i'm still not sure how i feel about this book. it was decent but it definitely was not as earth-shattering as some seem to think. it is definitely NOT on the level of "to kill a mockingbird." i feel like the author wanted to write a book about every controversial issue during the time period. what she managed to do was to touch on a lot of things but none of them very deeply. the ending felt abrupt and too convenient. i was honestly expecting this to be a tragedy that would have me crying but that definitely did not happen. i think my review of this book would have been better if i had not had such high expectations from the start. as just a work of fiction it is good enough but not as some great social commentary.

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one month later...

so much for keeping this updated while traveling. oops! i didn't realize just how tiring it is to drive across country in 3 days, especially through some of the more "different" areas of the country (ex. missouri). but now i'm here in georgia and i've been loving it! it's the weirdest feeling but i feel like i've known many of my classmates my whole life and not for just a few weeks. i feel like i just belong here. i haven't even really had a problem with being homesick except for the first day after my parents left. i've just been too busy to dwell on how much i miss home.
i feel like i should be complaining about how busy and hard school is but quite honestly, i'm not that stressed. i'm having the time of my life out here and i find the classes quite enjoyable. i'm glad that i got my bachelor's in chemistry before starting, though, and did more than the minimum requirements of prerequisite courses. it's made things a WHOLE lot easier, especially in biochem and anatomy/pathophysiology. the rest of my courses are pretty easy thanks to my experience in the field (thank you gibsons!). i'm just a little nervous that having things too easy right now will make me lazy for when things get harder in the future. but i'll deal with that when it comes.
besides school, i stay busy by getting used to the city and settling in with a new group of friends. i'm used to being fairly antisocial because i knew that i already had all my friends and i knew i could get together with them whenever i wanted. i don't have that luxury here so i have to force myself out of my comfort zone. otherwise, it will just be me dealing with myself all day every day and that is a good way to drive myself insane.
i miss and love everyone back home! i enjoy getting emails and letters, even if i don't reply with lengthy novels as my mother has come to find out. i know i don't keep in touch as much as she'd like but i figure that's a good sign because it means i'm establishing myself here and not having homesickness hold me back.
i'll try to write again later this week. no tests for the P1 students so we're partying all week! (not really, mom. don't worry. i'm not drinking or anything.) keep safe everyone!

KITTEHS!

so basically i'm completely emotionally drained after today. plus i have to be up in roughly 6 hours to drive 10-12 hours tomorrow. yaaaay. i leave you with this piece of adorableness (wow, spell check recognizes that as a word) to help ease the pain of my leaving.

i think i need a new town

one more day to go until i leave.
last night i went out to dinner with some of my close friends to say goodbye and then tonight i went to red mango with another who was in wyoming yesterday. i also said goodbye to everyone at work today.
i'm pretty proud that i managed to hold off the tears for as long as i did. but as soon as i heard natalie start sniffling when she was hugging me, i lost it. pretty much i've been crying on and off ever since. the one blessing in all of this is that i've been too busy to make myself too nervous or panicky.
i'm sure i'll have another post tomorrow night with more tears and then i'll try and take pictures and update while on the road.
one quick thing: if you look up at the top of this page, right under the banner, it has a couple links, "the posts" and "the muffin." i can add more pages to the blog but i don't know what to put there! if anyone has ideas, let me know. i know some people put lists of things they want to do during their life but honestly my list is pretty short and pathetic right now. maybe a list of books i own and need to read? or pictures of something? i don't know. i'll ponder it. maybe a calendar so my mom will know what i'm up to all the time. :p

the demon girl

Demon Girl by Penelope Fletcher

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


i'm torn on what to give this book. for starters, the concept is AMAZING and for the most part the storyline and characters are intriguing. you start off thinking it's going to be the same old love triangle with the girl whining about how hard it is to have two boys love you and blah blah blah but rae is actually a really strong character and you can see her feelings for both boys, making her seem more sincere. one of the smaller details i thought was really interesting was how fletcher mentions in passing that since humans were almost wiped out, they've had to set religions and races aside and band together, leading to one "religion" and a community where everyone has a similar skin tone with small variations. thinking about it, it's true that this would likely happen. i've never read anything like this in any other apocalyptic/dystopian novels.
okay, now for the bad stuff. as amazing as the story is, it's really frustrating to be in the middle of a good part and have to go back and re-read a sentence several times due to a grammatical/spelling error. i don't think fletcher had anyone edit this and if she did, she needs to fire them and find someone else for her next books. here are a couple of examples that really bothered me:
"There were few people wandering around who were not emancipated looking, and it was usually a sure sign the person was a Priest or related to one. Only they could afford to eat enough to be anything other than thin."
the word she means to use is EMACIATED. emancipated means a sort of freedom, no longer being constrained by custom or tradition.
"The class divided up into little clicks and Ro came over."
clicks are noises. cliques are groups of people who share common interests or personalities.
i'm not quite ready to give up on her and i'm hoping the next novel shows drastic improvements in her spelling and grammar, although the preview chapter at the end of this book doesn't seem promising.



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ready, set, don't go

fair warning: i will probably start to cry halfway through this post.
there haven't been any new posts lately because 1) i got deathly ill last tuesday (pretty sure it was west nile virus) and then 2) we have been running around like crazy trying to get things packed for georgia.
we rented a pod to put the majority of my world possessions in and my shoes are now on the trek across the country. i will be seeing them again in a little over a week.
i leave on sunday morning so this week is filled with a lot of last minute plans with friends and sad goodbyes. the first was today when i said goodbye to cody. my last words to him: don't kill anyone and don't get killed. his last words to me: you suck. i say that this exchange pretty much sums up our relationship though he says it doesn't. i'm going to miss everyone at the pharmacy like mad. i really feel like i have been adopted into this really weird but awesome family. i don't think they'll ever understand how much i appreciate them.
the hardest goodbyes will be with my real family but luckily those will be put off for another 2 weeks. unfortunately, this means 2 weeks of anticipating saying goodbye which is almost as hard. especially when my mom will burst into tears at random moments. it would be funny how she pretends to be irritated with me only to breakdown crying if it wasn't so sad and heartbreaking. it will be hard for a little while not to have my mom hovering over me and protecting me like she's always done but it will be good for me, i know.
aaaaaand here come the tears. luckily i've just about said everything i've wanted to say. the title of this blog post comes from a billy ray cyrus song (yes, i do realize it's BILLY RAY but it actually is an amazing song that makes me cry every time i hear it). anyway, i'll share it so all of you can cry, too. then i won't feel so lame.

penguileon (with pictures!)

roads

once again, very late post, although i DID take the picture on time for photo theme thursday. the theme was "roads" so i took a picture of the street i grew up on and the view i have lived with my entire life. the same street and view i will be leaving in less than a month. it's crazy that now i'm counting down by weeks instead of months. i remember when i was counting the years until i turned 18 and went to college. i am trying to make the most of these last few weeks while trying to finish up getting everything ready so forgive me if my posts are short or even non-existent.
the other day at work, i was helping cody compound and we started talking about random things (like we always do). our topic was global warming. i think global warming is a terrible thing and we need to stop polluting our planet but the scientist in me is kind of excited to see what evolutionary changes the climate will bring about. penguins, for example, will either need to evolve and adapt or die out. i think they'll have to learn to fly. cody thinks they'll have to be better at camouflage to make it in a world with more predators. and so, the penguileon was born.

penguileon: [peng-gwil-lee-uh n] noun - 
1. a hybrid bird species that displays a combination of characteristics from both the penguin and chameleon families. 
2. a unit of measure that is more than "a bucket load" but less than "a crap ton": He spent a penguileon on that bling.