Book Dilemma

I have a problem. I KNOW about this problem, have talked about this problem, but still have almost no desire to fix this problem...

In fact, part of the reason I started this blog was because of this problem. :)

I am talking about my book addiction.

A lot of the time, my book hoarding makes no sense. I have at least 100 books that I haven't read, sitting on my small bookshelf next to my bed, waiting for me to pick them up. But I still insist on wanting to buy more. If I go into ANY store for ANY reason and they have a table, shelf, or display of books, I stop to browse. Brayden's teachers pull him aside to make sure that the Scholastic Book Order forms got home if I haven't sent it back within a few days of getting them (so far, my orders have been sitting in Brayden's backpack, forgotten to be handed in until this teacher reminder, which I totally appreciate)... Yup. I have a reputation.

The book dilemma of today is one that my FB friends probably already know about. I found out about a new Jodi Picoult book coming out a few days ago (today is the release date) called The Storyteller. I loved the description and am anxious to read it... but then I realized that the book is coming out in Hardcover today. I forgot that Picoult books came out in hardcover first, because when I started my bookstore employment, she wasn't popular enough to sell $40 hardcover books, and I have only ever read her stuff in Trade Paper covers. So I forgot.

Now, here are my options...

1) Buy the hardcover... I'm not really a fan of this option. I dislike hardcovers. They are not really read-in-bed friendly. Too heavy. Too big. Too awkward.... and to a point, too expensive as well.

2) Buy the ebook... this is cheaper, but how likely is it that I will read it, love it, and end up buying the Trade Paper book 9 months down the road anyway? I wanted the ereader for library books for this exact reason, because I will read the books for free and then buy the books I like later. But I don't want to buy the book TWICE. Guh... which leads me to...

3) Wait for the Trade Paper copy to come out... But that is SO far away! I want to read it NOW. And what if I forget about it? Then I will never get to read it! That's why it's important to buy books right away and leave them on a shelf for years until you feel like reading that particular book. Or you've developed so much book debt that you can't afford to buy any more books. Then you will have a bunch of titles to choose from, and they were probably bought for a few dollars cheaper because of inflation and stuff compared to if you had waited and bought it when you could read it right then....

And 4) Sit here writing a blog post about deciding whether to buy a book while and then realize that it's not really even a problem compared to, say, people starving in Africa... then feel a bit petty and stupid... then realize that it doesn't really help you decide whether to buy this book or not... but no matter what happens, it really doesn't matter...

Wow... perspective can really take the wind out of your sails sometimes, eh?

Ups and Downs

I had meant to write about our February Break family getaway right when we got back, but events took place that made me need to wait and calm down before losing my cool over the internet. So bear with me, I am still a bit angry...

For last week's February School Break, our family headed out to see my cousin Jenn get married in Canmore Alberta. Back in November when we first found out that Jenn and Jordan had decided to get married in the mountains, Roland and I decided we would also scoot up to Edmonton for a few days after the wedding. We had been talking about doing this ever since we got custody of Brayden. We thought it would be fun to head to West Ed for the Waterpark, rides, and a bunch of shopping considering he had never had the opportunity before.

Canmore was absolutely beautiful. It was great going with the two Saskatchewan boys that had never been in the mountains "Look at how big THAT one is", "That one goes way up into the clouds!"... these are statements I heard along the way, but I can't remember who said what. They were both completely mesmerized. I remember feeling like that when my family went skiing when I was in grade 12. It was weird that the sky was only UP when you were right in the thick of the mountains at a ski resort. Although we didn't go quite that far in this time, it was still fabulous to hear how excited they were. We will definitely be going back to ski when the kids are a bit older.

View from our hotel room. Unfortunately, it was a bit foggy that day, you can barely see the bigger mountains in the background. Good enough for a couple of Saskatchewan boys ;)

The wedding was a great time. They had an outdoor ceremony, and it wasn't too cold, but it was snowing the whole time. Such a perfect setting for a winter wedding. The food was great and the party was fun. Hanging out with family I haven't seen in years was also great. We were totally pooped by the end of our night, which was at about 10:00, because Rosalie got really cranky, but that's ok, I think we were all a bit tired.

I got her shoes, tights, and diaper hider off before she rolled over and passed out like this. She is out COLD.

Monday morning we left Canmore on our way to Edmonton. Brayden has been talking about going to Edmonton for months and he wasn't disappointed. I think if he had it his way, we would have gone to the waterpark every day. He could go on every slide in the park except for the ones that drop straight down, and the Cyclone, which is the new slide that drops you straight down and then goes in a loop so that you are almost upside-down. Roland and I went on that one twice, although Roland almost didn't do it. I guess I have the more guts out of the two of us ;). Rosalie even got to go on a little slide with me, but I think she was actually happier just splashing around in the kiddie pool.

The day before heading to the waterpark, we all got our geek on at the Telus World of Science. We had tickets to an Exhibition called Star Wars Identities, which is a travelling exhibition where you build your own Star Wars character throughout the tour and see costumes, puppets, sets, concept art, and other memorabilia from all of the Star Wars movies. It was a bit of an effort to NOT go broke in the giftshop. We also caught an IMAX movie while we were there. Brayden had never been to one before. We had the choice of three films; one called The Flight of the Butterflies, which Roland had absolutely no interest in seeing; Hubble, which was narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio and was (obviously) about the Hubble Space Telescope, I'm sure it would have had some amazing pictures of space; and the one we went to, which was called Rocky Mountain Express, which was all about the CPR's development into the Rockies. It was perfect considering that we had just come from the mountains. VERY interesting movie, although I am sure that most of the IMAX films are. I can't think of a single one I have seen that I can say I didn't like.

It was an extremely busy few days. We shopped until we dropped and slept until the mini dictator informed us it was time to get up. We were exhausted every day, but I think that's a sign of a great vacation. We were definitely never bored, and we filled our time sufficiently. It was the perfect amount of time to be away from home, and we were glad to be on the road to come back home...

Until...

Brayden's mother called us. Guh.

Brayden's mother has not even seen him since last May. Almost a year. 9 months if you want to get technical. But she called just as we were filling the truck with gas to come home. She stated that this was her weekend and she wanted to come pick Brayden up...

Now, some might think this was a mighty big coincidence that she would all of a sudden want to pick him up on the very weekend we were out of town, but that is not the case. Her parents facebooked Brayden to call them on Saturday night (they never call us, just leave messages on Facebook on weekends which sometimes Brayden doesn't get until Monday), when we were just getting ready to go to bed in Canmore. Brayden informed them we were out of town until Friday, when we get back from Edmonton. They asked him to call when he got home, he said he would. Then TA-DA! The freakin' mother of the year wants to see her son when she KNOWS we won't be back in town yet. We told her so and said we would be back in town at about 10pm and she was more than happy to pick him up then. Brayden was a bit excited to go, so that was fine with us.

About an hour and a half away from being home (North Battleford for anyone that wants a geographic reference), she calls again and wants to pick him up at 9:00 rather than 10:00. It was about 8:15 at the time, so there was NO way that she could pick him up then, but called just to make a fight. She was talking to Brayden on Roland's Cell phone, until we said it wouldn't work and then she insisted on being put on speakerphone so she could talk to Roland.

What followed was not pretty.

Her and Roland shouted at each other over the phone for about the next 20 minutes. She spouted lies about calling every weekend purposely so that Brayden would hear, when she has in fact not called since the summer, at a time when clearly Brayden would not be awake, to tell us that she would not be taking him for her allotted two weeks and we should stop expecting her parents to see him (at that point, they would call to see him on her weekends, that stopped after that conversation). She also attempted to blame Roland for withholding Brayden from her, which is not true, he knows he can ask to call whenever he wants, but never wants to. When we told her that she can pick him up at 10:00, which she was fine with a few hours before, she said she was then going to keep him until 10:00 on Sunday night, to which Roland stated she couldn't because he has school the next morning. And her response "I don't care. It's MY TIME." Good that she would put her son's best interests before her own petty bullshit.

The other kicker is that she was demanding it was her weekend, but it actually wasn't if you counted back to when her first weekend after the summer was supposed to be according to the court order. But we didn't even mention that until she completely lost her cool on us and her main argument became "It's my weekend! You shouldn't have taken him anywhere!"... even though she hasn't seen him or showed any interest in seeing him since last May... right... And she still claimed it was her weekend after we proved that it, in fact, wasn't.

So all in balance, right? A wonderful perfect family vacation is ruined by a sociopathic cow...

To live with, or without...

I have this group of fabulous people called Film Club that I go to movies with whenever I can. We go to a movie on the second Tuesday of every month and rotate who chooses the movie in alphabetical order of last names. Then we go out for coffee afterward. It's a great opportunity to go to movies and have an in depth discussion of them. I discovered a few months into my relationship with Roland that he doesn't like to do this. He either likes a movie or he doesn't and he doesn't want to have to explain or justify it or discuss why with anyone. I, on the other hand  love to nit pick. As do everyone else in Film Club. Unfortunately, I generally don't get to go for coffee anymore, because I am rushing home to get Rosalie fed and to bed (only slightly later than the routine permits)

Last night was Craig's pick, and he chose The Impossible. He was interested in seeing Naomi Watts' academy award nominated performance before the Oscars on the 24th. (Note: I don't think it was all that stellar, and I'd be surprised if she won. Her performance can't really compare to, say, Meryl Streep in... well, anything Meryl's done really. SHE is stellar). For those who aren't familiar  it's the story of a family of five's (Mom, Dad, 3 sons) experience with the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004. I don't really want to say more than that, because if you want to see the movie I don't want to spoil anything. If you do see this movie I would love to talk about it with you!

What I really want to talk about is the perspective I came away with after seeing this film. I think most people walk away from a movie like this thinking about what they would have done or what they can do to avoid ever being in that situation (I have NO PLANS to go anywhere that's not landlocked for a while). What I came away with was thinking about what I could live with, and what I couldn't live with if that happened to me. The only answer I came out with for certain, is that as long as one of my kids survived, I would be able to keep going on living. I would, of course, still mourn the rest of my family, and I could never imagine having to choose to save one kid over another other. It would be devastating to lose any one of them. But to make it out without a single one of my kids, I think I would see no point in living anymore. Re-reading that, it sounds a little over dramatic, but it's true, and I don't know how to rewrite it so that it doesn't sounds cheesy or whatever.

This is by no means a profound thought, in fact, many of the parent's reading might be thinking "Obviously!". When I was telling my mom about this she basically finished my sentence for me. I said "If not even one of my kids made it out alive..." "... you'd feel you might as well have drowned" she said instantly. Which is exactly what I was thinking. But it was something I had never considered before. I don't think many people do. I think people would rather not think about those kind of situations. In that case, many of the unanswerable questions I really don't want to think about.

It seems like lately any movie I have gone to with a family premise, I come away thinking about my own situation. How I would react, what I would do... With any luck I will never be put in any situation where these things come to life, but for some reason I find comfort in knowing how I would feel before hand. Feeling like I know myself enough to know where my limits are, even if they aren't really pleasant to think about.

Fighting the Plague...

I've been a bit under the weather lately, which is no surprise if you and I are friends on facebook. So my apologies for the delay. Now that I have a plan for posts I can make if I don't really have anything interesting to say, I plan to post every Sunday night. I had planned to do that this past sunday, but mucus got in the way.

Alrighty! So, the second Bookfession post!

This made it REALLY difficult when I worked at McNally. Not so much Coles, maybe it was the limited selection? Not sure. I may have mentioned this before, but at one point I half-joked with my Manager that they should just pay me in books and cut out the middle man. I would have done it too. No jokes.

The good thing is that if I go in to buy a book for someone else, I can generally manage to curb my book junkie that way. I just need to learn how to go for lunch at Prairie Ink without browsing before or after eating. Another problem I have is that if I go in to get a book for myself, that turns into about 4 books for me. Financially, this is somewhat difficult. It's a good thing Roland and I have started an "allowance" system so that I don't end up spending the mortgage payment. :)

Bookfessions

I have figured out an interesting "filler" for my blog when I'm not reading anything I plan to review (ie. something I'm re-reading, like Harry Potter right now), or have anything even remotely interesting happening in my life to write about.

I came across this blog a few weeks back, when someone on facebook posted a bookfession and tagged me in it. It is currently my profile picture, but it's in the 1000s, so we'll get to that one eventually. ANYWHOO, I checked out her blog after I saw this one bookfession and realized that A LOT of them apply to me. So, I am gunna post some, chronologically in the order that she has numbered them in, if they apply to me. Plus I'll give a little explanation or story or something to go along with it... we'll see what's floating my boat that day...

I also added her to my suggested blogs on the right, feel free to check her out on your own :)

OK! So... Bookfession #1...

Reading is such a huge part of my life that I enjoy so much that I really hope I can share it with my kids. My mom and I swap books back and forth and I really enjoy discussing what she thinks of them... in fact, I do this with almost anyone that reads anything that I have read before. "What part are you at?", "Are you liking it?", "Oh good! You read the part where {insert book plot topic here}, I liked that part because..." are questions and discussions that occur often and sometimes cannot be contained. Sometimes I get a bit of a brush-off if people aren't really interested in talking about it right now, but I am relentless. We talk about it whether they want to or not. I also stalk people on GoodReads, so that I can harass them when they finish a book...

But back to the kids...

I'm doing my best to give Rosalie the opportunity to explore books, but we will have to tweak our routine a bit when she gets older so that we can squeak a book in before bed every night rather than just the occasional one that we do now (our functional routine really doesn't accommodate a book). I'm already buying her sets of books from Brayden's bookorders from school (his teacher loves me for this, I drop a crapload of money on bookorders), so that she has the staples when she's ready for them. So I am all prepared for a child that loves to read when she grows up... let's just hope she cooperates.

I'm actually not too worried about it. I have faith that as long as I can contain my book nazi, and lead my kids towards reading without pushing, it'll turn out fine. Hopefully... *cross fingers*...