Tagged!

I was tagged by Ally at Today is my Birthday! to do this fun tag. It came just in time, too, because I don't have much to write about right now.

I left the rules for the tag at the very end...

What is your current obsession?
Hmm… I always have something that I seem to be obsessing over. I guess today it’s my hair, because it looks terrible and I’m getting it done tomorrow, yet not sure what I should do with it. This is a big ridiculous dilemma that I seem to go through every time it’s time to get my hair done again… and I’m sick of thinking about it.

Big sunglasses... (though these are a joke, I promise)




Other than that I’m really obsessed with bright nail polish right now. It’s just so FUN!

Oh, and Sims 3…which just came out a few weeks ago. Yeah. Pretty much obsessed. :(

What is your weirdest obsession?
My weirdest? Hm… Dachshunds (Wiener Dogs), Owls… I don’t know that those are weird though… Also obsessed with Sushi, Thai Food, and Pho (Vietnamese soup, YUM)… Once again, not that weird. Hmm, sorry you guys, not too much juicy stuff here!

Coffee or tea?
Tea. I never drink coffee, I guess I just haven’t acquired that taste for it yet. I do love tea though!

What’s for dinner?
Very good question. I have no idea, and maybe I should start thinking about it.

What 5 words best describe you?
Sarcastic, Easily-Amused, Worrywart, Friendly

I think the 2nd one counts as two words...

What was the last thing you bought?
My dad’s birthday gift, a shirt from Harley… I have a double whammy, his birthday and Father’s Day in the same weekend, Oy. Luckily Father’s Day gift was purchased awhile ago.

What are you listening to right now?
Cheesy soft rock on the radio in the living room. Currently playing: “You’ve got a friend”

What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Probably Green Tea or Strawberry… usually have frozen yogurt though.

What do you think of the person(s) who tagged you?
She seriously has one of the funniest blogs I have ever read. I first found her blog via Andrea's lovely A Cat of Impossible Colour blog. I believe it was the entry about giving the dog a haircut and making a moustache. I was instantly hooked, she is very witty and writes hilarious Haiku as well!

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
For just an hour? Hm, I guess to a place in Switzerland that I went to once after I graduated from high school, I think it was called Lucerne. I could just sit for the entire hour and look at the beautiful scenery around me.

Which language do you want to learn?
I would love to be able to learn Japanese… but I took years of Spanish in school and guess that when I have to take language again I will continue with that.

What is your favorite colour?
Purple and Teal

What is your favorite piece of clothing in your own wardrobe?
I am replacing this question, since I hate just about everything in my closet right now.

The new question is…

If you could travel anywhere this summer, where would it be?
Since an hour simply isn’t long enough to spend anywhere, I would love to take a vacation to Thailand. There are many other places I would love to go (Japan, Italy, Switzerland), but I think Thailand is topping the list right now…

What is your dream job?
Hmm… Well right now I feel like my dream job is to be an elementary school teacher. I hope I still feel the same when I am in the classroom.

What is your favourite body part? Of your own.
My eyes, I guess. Or the eyelashes, since they are quite long, and I like that.

What is your worst habit?
Where to start? Haha, kidding (kinda). Well, I bite my nails, pick off the nail polish (and usually don’t even notice that I’m doing either), I watch too much tv & play on the computer much too much, and always longer than I plan…

What's your party trick?
I can wiggle my ears… does that count? No? Well too bad, I’ve got nothing else :(

Do you admire any one’s style?
I admire a lot of people’s style, and not always the same “type” of style either. I really love feminine and vintage looks especially though.

Describe your personal style?
Non-Existent.

What are you going to do after this?
As I was filling this out, my mom called, and said that she passed this huge test that she took for work. Huge as in she's been studying for it for over a year, and the test itself was over four hours. I think we will be celebrating with her tonight :)

What are your favourite movies?
I like a lot of movies… I really love Harry Potter. I do. I don’t care if I’m twenty two, I will always love these books and movies.

Some other movies off the top of my head: The Hangover (just saw it, hilarious), Amelie, Gone with the Wind, Coraline, Classic Disney Movies.

What is your favorite fruit?
Strawberries…Pineapple…Mango…Blackberries. I don’t think there’s a fruit I don’t like actually…

What inspires you?
Other people inspire me… books I read… I find the Dalai Lama very inspiring as well.

Your favorite book?
Oh boy. So many… I will just say a few authors… Wally Lamb, Amy Tan, J.K Rowling. As for single books, I loved The Alchemist and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The Time Traveler’s Wife. So many more… must move on though.

Do you collect something?
Books, sometimes random things, nothing in particular really. Clutter. I collect clutter basically.

What is your favorite smell?
Fresh just-picked strawberries at the stands by the road. Pine leaves and wet dirt. Oak trees and dust. My dog. (I don’t care if that’s weird, it’s true. She isn’t a stinky dog, anyways, maybe because she is small & indoors a lot.)

What are you most proud of?
Lately… just getting my butt back in school I guess.

How many times do you press the snooze button before you get up?
At least twice. Usually close to five times, which is why I have a backup alarm as well. If I know there is something urgent that I MUST get up for on time, I usually get up right away.

Cats or dogs?
I would say dogs. They are just so lovable and playful. I do love cats too, just not as much as dogs.

What’s your biggest fashion mistake?
Geez… I don’t even know, there have probably been many. I definitely know that in high school my friends and I overdid the glitter and rhinestones so much that I cringe at the thought of it…

Complete the following: Love is...
Hard to describe.

I think Love is loving someone else more than (or maybe it is simply as much as) you love yourself.

What's the best life lesson you've learnt?
I think Ally’s answer was perfect.

Kindness is so incredibly important. Treat other people the way you would like to be treated. The world would be such a better place if everyone could do just that…

"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." - Dalai Lama

If you could be a fly on the wall in any person's living room, who would it be?
Hm.. well maybe not in a living room, but in whatever meeting room the writers of “Lost” gather in. I’m curious if they just have a dartboard full of possible events on the show and just take turns throwing darts at it and writing it into the script… or is there some logic going on and everything will be explained in the last season?

So here are the rules for the Tag…

1. Fill out questions with your own response and replace one question that you don’t like with a question that you made up.
2. Tag four people

I’m not going to tag anyone in particular because I have already seen a lot of you do this… if you haven’t please do it, and let me know if you did!

-K

Surprise!

How fun! And I'm sure glad I put on some makeup because I was tagged by Kirby Leigh over at The Invention of My Life to do this fun tag :)

Basically just snap a picture of yourself, this VERY moment, no hair and makeup adjustments.

Actually quite a nice picture, aside from sunglasses marks on my nose :)

I'm not sure how many we were supposed to tag, but this seemed fun to me so I'll just tag a handful of you...
-How about all Chic Chat Authors :)
-Tricia
-Brandi
-Author of Pretty Little Pictures
-Stacy
-And some new readers to my blog, Emily & Tiffany

I'm off to go get my "weenie baby" (Delilah) from the groomer :) I mostly take her there for the teeth brushing that they do... last time I tried on my own, there was doggy toothpaste everywhere.

-K

Double the Fun

Above: Myself, Lilah, and Skipping Christmas by John Grisham


For this post I have written two different parts... I decided to just throw them together right here, since I know that sometimes when people post a new entry, I usually only see the newest one!


So first, my book review, and then a fun tag that I received!


Amazon.com Review:

John Grisham turns a satirical eye on the overblown ritual of the festive holiday season, and the result is Skipping Christmas, a modest but funny novel about the tyranny of December 25. Grisham's story revolves around a typical middle-aged American couple, Luther and Nora Krank. On the first Sunday after Thanksgiving they wave their daughter Blair off to Peru to work for the Peace Corps, and they suddenly realize that "for the first time in her young and sheltered life Blair would spend Christmas away from home."

Luther Krank sees his daughter's Christmas absence as an opportunity. He estimates that "a year earlier, the Luther Krank family had spent $6,100 on Christmas," and have "precious little to show for it." So he makes an executive decision, telling his wife, friends, and neighbors that "we won't do Christmas." Instead, Luther books a 10-day Caribbean cruise. But things start to turn nasty when horrified neighbors get wind of the Krank's subversive scheme and besiege the couple with questions about their decision. Grisham builds up a funny but increasingly terrifying picture of how this tight-knit community turns on the Kranks, who find themselves under increasing pressure to conform. As the tension mounts, readers may wonder whether they will manage to board their plane on Christmas day. Skipping Christmas is Grisham-lite, with none of the serious action or drama of his legal thrillers, but a funny poke at the craziness of Christmas.


My Review:
This book was actually chosen by my book club that I am in for our December read. I have to say that it isn’t generally what I would choose for myself, while I have heard people rave about John Grisham, I just haven’t had much interest in his genre of books. This was, of course, a Christmas book, and therefore quite a different book for Grisham to write.

Overall, I think that this book is good for what it is. It’s a short, quick read, and it’s a Christmas novel. What more is there to say? I went into the book not expecting much, and frankly, I didn’t find much. I felt that characters were unlikeable and underdeveloped (though the book is only about 220 pages, so that could be a problem with character development as well).

While I don’t ever want to give any part of the story away during my book reviews, I will say that I felt like parts of the book were extremely unrealistic. I guess I just can’t imagine a neighborhood where people are genuinely appalled that someone would “skip” Christmas. I’m not really sure why they would think it was their business. Then again, I also live in a pretty diverse state, and a town that while not quite a large city, could never be described as a small town anymore. I guess if someone didn’t celebrate Christmas on our street we would assume they had good reason; or to be honest, I really wouldn’t notice!

I guess what bothered me most was the way that the Kranks planned their lives around their daughter, Blair, who was much too old to be acting as spoiled as she did in the book. Granted, her character is always presented as a privileged and even spoiled “girl”, so I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised at the outcome of the book.

I did; however, like reading a Christmas book and I think that I will pick up another one next year to “get in the spirit” of the Holidays. Just maybe a better one next time!

So bottom line: this book is good for what it is. It was inexpensive, and very short, and meant to be somewhat of a satire. Pick it up for some light reading, but don’t expect too much from it! Also, there is a movie made after the book called “Christmas with the Kranks”. I have heard that the movie is pretty bad, but maybe will have to judge for myself!


And now for my "tag"...


I can’t believe what a dork I am. Brandi (of Excess Baggage) tagged me literally days ago in her blog. Brandi, I promise I read your blog, and often, I just don’t know how I missed this entry! I think it was what I mentioned before about sometimes only seeing the most recent one on my dashboard when I log in.

Here are the rules:

List 10 honest things about yourself, and then pass the award on to 7 bloggers. (I don’t think I actually KNOW seven bloggers… so I will do my best!)

1. I will be 22… tomorrow!

2. I am a perfume-aholic. I LOVE perfumes and I don’t buy them nearly as often as I want to, 'cause they’re too freakin’ expensive!

3. My favorite food can generally be lumped into the “Asian food” category. I especially love Japanese and Thai, and quite fond of Korean as well. My favorite by far is Sushi, but if you ever come to see me, I will make you try my favorite Thai place as well. Well, okay, I won’t MAKE you, but I'd highly recommend it ;)

4. If a song has crummy lyrics, I generally will hate that song. I can’t stand the stupidity of some song lyrics, and I guess that’s the general reason why I don’t really like Rap/R&B music.

5. I love, love, love to read! I doubt this comes as a surprise to anyone, since I probably mention it a few times in my blog. I belong to a book club (and NO it isn't a bunch of old ladies! LOL), a group that I have come to love so very, very much. I have met some amazing friends in my book club!

6. I'm obsessed with Vitamin Water. Yes, I am aware it's not as good for you as water. Yes, I am aware it is pretty loaded with calories. No, I will not give them up! Seriously though, they are basically my one vice. Other than nail biting. Oh. And shopping.

7. I have a little wiener dog, which you probably also already knew from my blog, if you are a reader. She is seriously the best dog ever, in my life I have had many pets, and I loved them all, but not a single one was like her. Yes, I'm obsessed.

8. I LOVE headbands! I wear one pretty much every day, and feel naked without it. The same generally goes for necklaces, it's just a staple for me to wear it!

9. I love taking pictures of things. Someday I would love to invest in a high-end camera and just take some amazing pictures when travelling. I like the camera that I have, but I feel like it just doesn't capture things as beautifully as they are in real life. It bothered me the entire time that we were on our little trip to Alcatraz.

10. I love to write. I would love to start writing fiction again, but just feel like I don't have the time to just sit there and do it (which really is probably bs, since I'm sitting here writing this blog). Well, okay to be fair to myself I did start this blog to get inspired to write, and have found that it's been coming easier lately.


Well there ya go! Ten honest, and completely random facts about me... I will tag... (and if you've been tagged, feel free to tell me or ignore it, I know there's no point in doing it twice).

1. Brittany

2. Bridgett

3. Remo

4. Jenn

5. The author of Pretty Little Pictures



Have fun :)


In other news, just have to mention that Russ and I finally got our new mattress! Instead of doing Christmas presents for each other, we decided to "get ourselves a present", and finally get a nice mattress. Our old one was terrible. We got an AMAZING deal, and it was delivered yesterday night. Last night was one of the best nights of sleep I have had in a long time!



Thanks for reading!

-K