Posts without pictures are boring

And since I'm too lazy to upload mine, here's a google image of what I've been up to lately (because really this lack of pictures is boring me)

I didn't plan to blog about every book I read (in case you were wondering, I'm currently on a Sherlock Holmes kick) because honestly I read too much (what's a social life?) but another book with a narrator of questionable sanity caught my attention.

There's a pretty large chance that you've read Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" in high school at some point, but she's also written several novels, including We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I was fascinated by "The Lottery" but for some reason didn't consider that she had written other things too, until I heard about this book on a blog, read the Amazon reviews, and realized that she was the author of that much-loved short story.

Merricat (aka Mary Katherine) is blatantly insane, but in a more blatant/supernatural/unaware way than Susanna (from Girl, Interrupted). She lives with her beloved sister and equally (but uniquely) insane uncle, and within several sentences tells us in her usual straightforward, oddly unemotional manner, "Everyone else in my family is dead." Comments about "living on the moon," talking to her cat, and riding a "winged horse" are sprinkled liberally throughout the book in the same matter-of-fact manner.

The mystery surrounding her family's death is supposedly the cause of the villager's animosity towards Merricat and her family, although tension has always been present ("The people of the village have always hated us"), and the general impression is that Merricat would have been happy with her secluded existence even if the villagers malice had been less obvious. Although Merricat's sister, Constance, was accused (and acquitted) of poisoning her family, homicidal impulses may well run in the family, as Merricat frequently thinks, "I wished they were all lying there dead on the ground."

As in "The Lottery," mob mentality rules the villagers, and the children have been conditioned to chant a haunting poem as Merricat goes about her errands:
"Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea/Oh no, said Merricat, you'll poison me!/Merricat, said Connie, would you like to go to sleep?/Down in the boneyard ten feet deep!"

Naturally, this conflict between the villagers and Merricat comes to a head within the novel, allowing Jackson to showcase even more dramatic mob scenes, different types of insanity, and life within a secluded household.

I realize this summary isn't exactly the best (it's summer cut me some slack), but I really hope you pick it up and give it a chance. In writing this review I wanted to increase the book's readership (because really, for a book this brilliant I was surprised by how unknown it is), although this blog might not be the best platform considering that the only actual reader is me. Whoops.

Spiraling out of control

Not really.
(Or at all actually, just enjoying how dramatic it sounds)

Anyways, just a quick note: I intended for this blog to primarily (for this summer at least) record my successes and failures as I attempt to cook for my family, but I mostly cook dinners so the pictures have terrible lighting/I'm too lazy to constantly upload/edit pictures, so I guess this has kind of deviated into my online diary (when I had an actual diary, I updated it this rarely as well). Which may or may not be a good thing (probably not).

But just to take stock quickly:

Recent recipes have included:

• These (fish, peach-corn) taco recipes
• Notes: the fish was very bland; peach was a hugely important ingredient; tortillas toasted best in toaster; very easy to put together leftovers

• "Vegan" Strawberry Cake (not 100% vegan because I used actual cream cheese for the frosting)
• Cake was good with 1/4 cup sugar + 1/2 cup agave nectar; frosting was popular with all but sister (who is extremely particular about food); made one rather flat 9 inch cake- 1 8oz packet of cream cheese was more than enough; next time: less jam, more frosting in between layers

• Chocolate Monkey Smoothie:
• Sort of weird tasting- because of extra spinach? Better with added milk + agave
• Homemade Calzones:
• Very successful, but next time triple/quadruple recipe to feed 6 (and then add veggie side)- pockets are very small

Sorry for the lack of pictures- might add some later, but they didn't look too hot on the camera screen so probably not.
(Update: pictures weren't too terrible, so have been added- hurray at last!)

Until next time!

On "goodbye"s and "see you later"s

I originally meant to post this on a kind of "joke" blog that my friend and I made, but seeing as pretty much everyone reading that blog knows us personally, I figured this post might be better on a more private blog. There's nothing offensive or rude, but ahhh I'm paranoid and this is kind of a personal post and I feel uncomfortable knowing that people I mention offhand could be reading this.

Anyway.


As my friends and I are preparing to trot off to college, we're starting to realize that many of our high school classmates, who we've become accustomed to seeing every day during the school year and usually semi-frequently during breaks, are going to be far far away, busy with their own colleges, friends, and activities.

My school happens to be on the quarter system, so I don't leave until the end of September; however most of my friends leave in the next two weeks, and one of them has already left for soccer preseason.

Due to my Dad's job, I have become semi-accustomed to moving every few years; over the past seven years, I have lived in four very different cities. As a result, I am somewhat used to leaving friends behind and keeping in touch with them mostly through the tenuous, invisible connections of e-mail, texts, and facebook.

I've never moved away knowing that I will come back in a short amount of time, and perhaps as a result of this and my acclimation to moving, I don't feel too sad about my friends moving away for college. Maybe I'm optimistic, or simply naive since my departure is in the somewhat distant future and hasn't quite hit me yet, but I'm convinced that I will be able to see all, or at least most, of my friends when I return for break.

What I've been thinking about more, however, is who exactly I care enough about to keep in touch with properly while I'm away, and who I'll be content with simply seeing sporadically at group events during breaks. As one of my friends put it, I've been thinking about who I'll invite to my wedding party.

I know this sounds cold and harsh, but I don't mean it that way; my experience with moving has taught me that despite trying to balance old friends and new, it is difficult to truly keep up with more than a couple of old friends. Additionally, I believe that while everyone in your life teaches you something, some of them are only meant to pass through, and that's okay. I don't mean per se that I want to stop being friends with certain people, but that I'm content with letting them become casual friends to catch up with every now and then.

Obviously it's too soon to tell since most of my friends are still here, but the fact that high school is over has made me more aware that I'm choosing to spend time with people because I truly enjoy it, not because I feel like I should since they're in my "friend group."

I don't mean this post to be depressing; honestly in some ways I find this transition from high school to college liberating because I've become more aware of who I enjoy hanging out with, and as a result, I've had a lot more fun. Anyways, I'm not sure if there's really a "point" to this whole post, but as I'm a pre-frosh college student, this is the requisite "leaving for college" post.

If you took the time to read this, you are a very patient person, and thank you!