The Great Gatsby

Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach ...

Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing and debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby - young, handsome, fabulously rich - always seems alone in the crowd, watching and waiting, though no one knows what for.

Beneath the shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled. And soon this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel.

How do you know when a classic book is being made into a movie? Because I just read the book! Ha!

I almost didn't want to put the description of the book on this post because I figured anyone in the world who might possibly want to read this book would already know what it's about... but I figured, I had better anyways... just in case...

The interesting thing about this book that I discovered PRIOR to reading it is it seems that my circle of literary friends are torn about it. It's about a 50/50 split of love/hate. Very few "middle grounders". I noticed this when I went to update my Goodreads page, and it let me know who else I knew had read it. And let me tell you, it's a lot of people. Which, I suppose, is the norm with "Classic Literature". Sometimes it's not really a tough sell. I have a bit of a tough history with "Classics" because, in my [relatively educated] opinion, they are classics because they are epitomes of the style of  writing at the time. This being said, I was not reading, or alive for that matter, in 1925, so the popular style of writing then is not what I am accustomed to, or what I prefer now. "Classics" I have read in the past I have not particularly liked mainly for this reason. I hated reading Northanger Abbey (Austen) and Great Expectations (Dickens) in University, so I was skeptical about this one. But the advantage to Gatsby is that it's short, almost a novella really. My copy was only 177 pages. So if you don't like it, it won't take long to read anyway.

However this book is the exception to my dislike of classics. I found this was a really interesting perspective on what makes a book a tragedy. When considering Shakespeare's tragedies, you are guaranteed to be exposed to lots of violent deaths, however in contrast, this story's tragic elements seems to be in the loss of humanity within society, and the loss of integrity within individuals that have a greater impact on the tragic element of the story. Far more subtle, far more intriguing and elegant.

I really liked this book, I recommend it to pretty much anyone who likes to read. Period. I think it has an appeal to both a male and female audience, race is not an issue within it, there is a bit of classism within it, but the way it plays out I think anyone within any socioeconomic status would find it enjoyable.

If you haven't read it, I think you should.

The New Gardener

I come from parentage of polar opposites when it comes to gardening.

My dad has a BSc in Soil Science and has been part owner of a crop hail insurance company, yet my mom has "black thumbs" and manages to kill most plants that she comes into contact with.

Previously, I have counted myself in the latter of the two. But, I think my problem was lack of trying. I have this problem of getting bored with things and then just forgetting about them (For example, that videogame that I couldn't stop playing and needed to make rules for myself so I didn't become a crappy parent. Done. Haven't played it in weeks), this has happened with previous potted plants. I religiously water them for a couple of weeks and then I forget about them and they die. Granted, last time I tried this I was working 2 jobs and I was going to school fulltime, but still...

THIS TIME, I am dedicated. I am going to channel my inner paternal genetics and become a plant growing genius! We have some nice gardening area at our house, and last year I couldn't do anything with it because the mini-dictator was so young, and it would not have been a good time to learn. But this year, she's a bit more durable, so time playing out in the grass is a good thing. I now have everything planted, which I figure was the hard part, so it's now just a matter of keeping things alive, and because they are in flowerbeds and planters rather than pots inside, I'm hoping mother nature will help me out a bit, if not, I'm figuring the sprinklers will make it on more than a few times this year ;) Plus, I am pretty OCD with routines, so as long as I water them every day when Rosalie is down for her morning nap, and then go weed (and possibly water again) during her afternoon nap, everything should work out fine. I just have to remember that Tuesdays are going to be "Plant Food" days. Can't forget to fertilize!

So here are the pictures of what the gardens look like today, and I figure I'll do an update when/if things start to bloom, and then at the end of the summer...

Front Flowerbed - from the top right to bottom left we have Lunaria (aka Money Plant), some bulbs that I didn't plant in the corner around where that snail lawn ornament is, to the right of that, I have forget-me-nots, then some Asters, and Zinnias, also a few sunflowers mixed in there somewhere. Then you can't see the other bulbs that have sprouted (once again, can't take credit), and some more sunflowers 

Front Planters - I'm realizing that these planters probably need to be painted... anywhoo, I have two different kinds of  Nasturtium, and then you can see the other bulbs that are sprouting in the flowerbed, they are kinda red stemmed.

Back Planters - These are my veggie planters, this was really late in the day, so the first planter is in the shade,  but the vast majority of the day, both are in the sun. We have cucumbers and carrots in the first planter and lettuce and [the future home of the] tomatoes.

My Baby Tomatoes! - These little guys were planted a week before everything else,  the  package said I was supposed to plant them "4-6 weeks before the last frost", but apparently I don't read packaging. I think I made a few mistakes with them. Like, I planted about 5 seeds in each egg cup, hoping I would get one of them to sprout... and it looks like ALL of them sprouted. So... not sure how that is gunna work out... Not sure exactly when I should transplant them, but I have a friend that has lots of know-how.

Happy Planting everyone!

Shakespearian Nerd

For a long time I had been hearing that the show Sons of Anarchy was absolutely amazing, but hadn't gotten around to watching them myself, and all I really knew about it initally was that it was about a motorcycle gang. Just like initally all I knew about The Walking Dead was that there were zombies in it. Sometimes it's hard to sell a show on such limited information, but sometimes it totally pays off. Sometimes it's better to know next to nothing about a movie or television show before you watch it, then everything is a surprise.

Just before Xmas we got a free magazine in the mail that had Kim Coates on the cover. Being that his is somewhat of a Saskatoon celebrity (not quite as well known as, say, Joni Mitchell, but still pretty famous), and he also went to highschool with my mom, I read the article and was intrigued by two different things. First, that he was in Sons of Anarchy, and second that Sons of Anarchy was based on Hamlet.

I heart Shakespeare. I love the timelessness of the tales, the relatability of all of the themes, the elegent language... so this made Sons of Anarchy actually end up on my "must watch" list. Roland had also read the article, and being a slight motorcycle enthusiast himself, I figured season one would be a good choice as an Xmas present. Once he had completed all four seasons on DVD [within a week], and once life settled down, I started watching them myself.

Now, it is not blatantly obvious that this show is based on Hamlet, and there are some definite HUGE differences. After completing the second season, I decided to google the parallels between the two to get a little clearer picture and maybe make some predictions of my own. However, that was not as easy as it initially seemed to be. I have determined that there is not a lot of overlap between fans of Shakespeare and fans of Biker Gang dramas. The problem here is that most of the people that post their thoughts on Sons of Anarchy have no clue about Hamlet. I find that most people get the blatantly obvious right (Jax = Hamlet, Clay = Claudius, Gemma = Gertrude, and John Teller's Diary and Letters = The Ghost), but the problem is that people try to speculate about other characters without ever having read (or understood) the play. They seem to just have read a synopsis, and because Polonius and Laeretes are Father and son, that must mean that Piney and Opie are those characters, but that does not make any sense to me at all. Piney is unhappy with Clay's leadership, whereas Polonius is in Claudius' back pocket. His right hand man. Tig is far more like Polonius in my opinion....Granted, I have only finished watching the first three seasons, and there are still two more to go until we are caught up with what plays on television, but... it just seems so damn unlikely!

I have my own theories on the who's who of Hamlet, but at this point, I'm just figuring that the final season of the show will play out like Hamlet, but we'll just have to wait and see, I guess...

If anyone has any insight into this show's parallels to Hamlet, PLEASE, I would love to hear your theories! They have to be a million times better than the tripe I've read online...

Potter Update.

This is slightly overdue, not because I have been done it for a while (I just finished it 3 nights ago), but because this book should not have taken me nearly as long as it did.

As my second favourite, yet longest, book in the series, Order of the Phoenix is delightful in it's loathsome characters. Snape always such a jerk, but does things to make you question if you should hate him or not, and then the addition of Delores Umbridge who is so fantastically vile... just fabulous. She is such a fun character to hate. Also, the death of a wonderful character that you love to love is totally devastating and somewhat signifies the beginning of the series' delving into a slightly older (perhaps teenage) audience.

A little historical fact about this book cover (I've mentioned it previously, but whatever), is that this is the one that made me want to get the Adult Hardcover set... Isn't it pretty? Doesn't this just make you want to read the series? Possibly for the 45th time because the cover looks so nice? Well.... I did...

Also at a whopping 766 pages, it's basically the size of a dictionary. So that's why I took this picture from a different angle than the others. So you can see how thick this book is if you aren't familiar (and also maybe to justify it  a bit, and give myself an excuse for taking so long to read it...), it's pretty huge...

And pretty pretty, don't cha think? ;)

Back to Work

I am now officially off of Maternity Leave.

Friday night at 11:00pm I returned to work at jail. This was a pretty difficult transition for a couple of reasons. The first and most obvious one, is that I hadn't been away from Rosalie for longer than a couple of hours ever.

So I cried. Like... a lot.

At first I thought I was going to be OK. I mean, the days leading up to my return to work I was totally fine. But in hindsight, it kinda seemed like I was in denial a bit... like that day would never come. Then once it did, and I was pulling out my uniform... I just choked up. Then I went to say goodbye to Roland and I lost it. Then I drove to work and cried the whole way there. Then put on my big girl face when I walked up to the door. The shift itself wasn't that bad. I had the great fortune of working with someone I had only seen twice since I went on mat leave, so it flew by with all of the gossip and updates from one another. And the shift on Saturday night was easier than the first (psychologically) even though my partner was someone I had never met before and had to do that crap small talk stuff :) Last night's shift, I worked with another new person, but this one was pregnant! So that helped me out a lot. We sat and talked about pregnancy, and labour, and babies, and anything else under the sun that was related really.

Another reason it was difficult to transition back is because I hadn't had to deal with shift work preparation in over a year. Since I was working nights, I had to do what I could to be awake until 7am-ish. This is far more difficult than it was pre-Rosalie. Back then, I would just gradually make my bedtime later and sleep in in order to get ready to be up all night. Now, that is no longer an option. I am up with Rosalie whenever she determines we should be up, so I never get to sleep in anymore. And I wasn't about to sleep deprive myself before heading back to work. Saturday and Sunday we got through it. I showered right when I got home and then fed Rosalie after I showered and was de-jail-ified (she and Roland were up before I got home all 3 days, I even got home at 6:30 one morning and she still was awake before I got home! Little rascal.), then went promptly to bed. I still woke up whenever she cried really loud, and if Roland had to come upstairs to change her diaper, I still woke up, but otherwise I slept pretty well.

Monday was a completely different story. Roland was back to work, so once I got home I showered, and then took over for Roland. No sleep. I figured this would help me transition back into a normal sleep routine because I would be REALLY tired that night. I still napped when Rosalie napped, so I got a little bit of sleep. But I was so tired that day that I was like a zombie. My mom called and I barely remember the conversation. Roland would have to ask me a question two or three times before I could understand what the question meant. And Yes, I was REALLY tired that night (words can't even describe how tired I was), I slept well though, and was good to go at 6:45 when Rosalie woke up, so even though it was tough, the plan worked pretty well.

So, all and all, it wasn't as bad as I expected. To be honest, it's kinda like I forgot what it was actually like to work there and work night shifts. I remembered all of the bad and none of the good. So, now, I am coping well. But I don't have to go back for a couple of weekends, so that's a plus. It really is easier to grin and bear it when it's already behind you ;)

I Saved a Bird Today

One of the few problems with having large windows on your house is the poor little birdies that fly into them when the reflection of the sky is just right. I have never had this problem before on my own house, but today while my niece and Rosalie were playing in the front room *SMACK!*, a bird hit the window. I gasped as loud as I probably would have if someone had shot at our house, and ran to the window (I hope I wouldn't do that if someone shot at us :/), and saw the little guy crouched on the ground next to our front step.

I left the girls playing (to come back to find them stuffing their faces with stolen puffs, but they were happy and occupied, so I wasn't about to complain), and brought the bird inside and gave him a drink of water from a slow running tap. This is always what my mom had done at the lake when birds had hit our enormous windows there. While I was getting him watered, I noticed that his feet were gripping my fingers, and that if I petted him, he didn't seem to flinch anywhere. But his little heart was just a-hammering, and he was breathing so fast I was worried, plus his little eyes were squinted, which made me think he was in a lot of pain...

Poor Birdie :(

I ended up deciding that he was probably going to be OK, but I wanted to keep an eye on him just in case. So I went and got Diggory's old carrying case (Diggory was my hedgehog, not sure if I've written a post about him or not, but I am guessing most of you know who he is anyway), and left him with some seeds and water and just gave him a little time. And for the record, this guy had clearly been eating well, he pooped on my hand about 100 times.

After about an hour, I checked on him and he made an attempt to fly when I opened the carrying case, so I took him outside and opened my hand, thinking he would fly away, but he just stayed put. So I put him on top of our BBQ and figured he would fly away when he was ready.

See? Looks WAY better doesn't he?

After about 20 minutes and he was still sitting there, I went out again and moved to pet him to see what was up, but I guess he just needed a little motivation, because he flew over to our neighbour's shed and hung out there for about another hour.

Bye Bye Birdie!

The whole experience kinda made me feel like a superhero. Although I hope that no more birds fly into our windows, I'd do it again if another did. I just hope I don't have to deal with a death. I'd end up with a little birdie graveyard in the back yard if I did, I think...