A few Easter Pics...

We had Easter dinner over at my mom's. My neighbors (well, her neighbors) were also there, as well as my little brother. It was nice to see everyone, it's my favorite part about any holiday!

Here are a few pics from our little Easter...

All in all, it was pretty quiet and simple, with great food. We don't have any children in the family right now, so no Easter egg hunts or fun stuff like that...

Hope you all had a nice holiday too! Today I am back to school (last week was Spring Break, though I still had a ton of school work). I'm actually really excited to go back to school. LOL, I can't say I've felt that way on a Sunday night/Monday morning in a LONG time.

-K

Happy Easter Weekend!

(Thank you to Brittany for my cute Easter Tag! Find her work here.)

I just wanted to post this in case I didn't get a chance to later...
Hope everyone has a...

Happy Easter!!

April Showers...

Well, we're having a bit of a break in the lovely weather that we've had for the past few weeks. It is grey and raining outside, and has been this way since Tuesday.

To be honest, I don't really mind... the weather was warming up at an alarmingly fast pace, and I was worried that Summer would be here much too soon. Summer is generally our longest season where I live, and like I've said, it gets smoldering hot.

I have been wanting to get rid of my car and "downgrade" to something less expensive, and something I won't have to worry about as much. I worry constantly about that stupid car, and about my parking places because it has been dented before by other cars and by being hit by shopping carts. To be honest, I just want something older right now, especially while I am in college. It just isn't a practical student car... but on summer days in California, I know I'll miss its ice-cold a/c.

I have been attempting to go "full speed ahead" on my assignments that are due after my Spring Break, and today is my last official day of Spring Break, though of course I still have the weekend. Some of the big projects included a short story due in my writing class, which I was literally sweating beads of frustration over. I finally came up with a so-so plot and just went with it. Do I love it? Definitely not.

My other paper was a paper on cultural rites of passage as an adjustment strategy. I chose to do mine on Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in Mexico. I'm a little worried about its connection to the term "rite of passage" but I think it can be argued that it helps adjust to the concept of death and dying... so certainly a cultural adjustment strategy, I think.

Okay, I'm sorry. This post has been complete garbage... I'm really just avoiding finishing up that paper I just mentioned, and to be honest I've been feeling pretty crummy these past few days. Yesterday I was so dizzy (allergies?), but had some sizzling rice soup from takeout Chinese and felt immensely better for at least a little bit, although my head is fuzzy again today, which is making it hard to seriously work on papers. (Excuses excuses...)

Hope you all have some better weather where you are, and have a wonderful weekend, if I don't blog before then!

-K

Book Review: The Almost Moon

Hmmm... I realize I finished this book before the book in my "I am currently reading section".

I actually picked this book up first, set it down to read The Historian for awhile, and then picked this back up after seeing a scary movie a week ago, and being too freaked out to read anything scary. LOL, I know, it's dumb.

I have been pretty scatter brained about reading lately, I have been picking things up, then switching to another book. I did finally finish this one this morning though...

The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold

It was hard to find a very good plot summary/review of this book. Here is what I found at a Wikipedia entry that seems pretty accurate:

For years, Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her mother, to her father, to her husband and now-grown daughters. When she murders her mother, her life changes.
The novel begins with Helen's murder of her elderly mother, Clair. Clair, a former lingerie model, suffers from an undisclosed mental illness (of which agoraphobia is a symptom), that only intensifies at the onset of old age and dementia. Over the following twenty-four hours, Helen enlists the help of her ex-husband Jake (who becomes an unwilling accessory to her crime), begins a relationship with her best friend's adult son, while on the run from the police. Present day events are interspersed with recollections of Helen's childhood, and her often traumatic relationship with Clair.

My Review:
I have previously read Alice Sebold's other two novels, Lucky and The Lovely Bones. I didn't care for Lucky but I DID really love The Lovely Bones. Sebold chooses topics that are hard to talk about, and for this reason, I think the way she approaches them isn't always enjoyable to read. I thought that The Lovely Bones was enjoyable despite dark subject matter, because of so many other redeeming story lines in the book.

I felt the same way about The Almost Moon that I felt about Lucky. The Almost Moon seemed very forced, and I feel like Sebold relied on her shocking subject matter more than an actual story line. The main character has absolutely no redeeming qualities, in my opinion, and there aren't really any other likable characters in the book. This always makes it hard for me to like a book.

Sebold also seems like she is trying to create more meaning and depth to her writing than is actually there. I can understand that she wants her book to have meaning and to make the reader think, but it just wasn't quite there. Basically, I felt like she was trying much too hard, and the forced effort shows in this book.

So if you decide to pick up any books by Alice Sebold, I would recommend The Lovely Bones over this book and over her memoir Lucky.

Have you read this book? What was your opinion?

The Weekend in Pictures...

Well, pictures and a LOT OF words. :)


The weather has still been very nice here, and I've been trying to soak up every bit of it before it's so ridiculously hot like it will be very soon.


Saturday was a fun day, aside from our little auto accident. (Rolls eyes) NOT us at fault, a lady backed into the side of our car in a parking lot. Then, the (insert profanity here) started to yell at ME about how she was looking the entire time. I had to try not to lose it as I explained s.l.o.w.l.y to her that obviously she was not, if the BACK of her car hit the SIDE of mine. She was a little confused, we'll just leave it at that.


After we got home, we went for a bike ride, which was amazing. I really need to start exercising more, and Russ and I are determined to make bike riding our new thing. My mom has gotten into incredible shape by bike riding. I am not a runner or jogger (though I love walks, even speed walks) so I think that biking may be my best bet.


The only thing with biking is that, as strange as this may sound... I didn't really learn how to ride a bike until I was much older. I get very embarrassed when I ride bikes, because I can't do all the things that Russ does, like simply riding in circles and rolling down curbs. I know it sounds really pathetic, but I'm still "getting the hang of it" so to speak.


We went on a bike trail that ran in between a golf course and a stream, so it was very pretty. Wildflowers were in bloom everywhere, butterflies floated around us, and there were horses and cows aplenty. There were even a couple of vultures, who I think saw my lack of skills on that bike and were hoping for a big filling Kaileigh dinner. Well, too bad for them, I actually did the whole thing!



Later on Saturday, Russ and I went to a big casino that is near us. I had never been although it was built years ago. We just took some of our money from our change jar, which actually ended up being quite a lot for change... that stuff DOES add up! We didn't win a thing, but we didn't lose much and we did have fun. :) We mostly just looked around and we each had a drink.


Sunday we went to the Biblical Gardens in Grass Valley. It was very pretty, I hadn't been there for a very long time. I used to go pretty often with my mom, and it always seemed to be closed whenever I'd go with Ariadna. We trekked out there though, and it was open and in bloom. Very pretty and relaxing.


Wow, didn't mean to write so much, without further ado, here are some pictures.

And these are just some randoms of us at a cool abandoned house :) How could the day be complete without that??

Midtown in Bloom

My friend Ariadna and I went to Sacramento yesterday to enjoy the nice weather & have some lunch. And of course, we took pictures... we are both quite snap-happy, particularly when we get together.

Chic Chat!

Hello All!
I just wanted to mention that we have a new blog called Chic Chat! It is five women bloggers blogging about women's issues! It has just opened today, and you should see some posts by some of us soon! If you'd like to check it out, you can find it here, or via the clever button that Brittany made for all of us! Brandi also designed a lovely layout just for us! If you like the layout she made, you should check out her others, here!

Wow, that was a lot of exclamation points, but I AM excited! :)

Hope you all enjoy!
-K