Happenings

~ I'm about halfway through Stroud's God's Heart for the Poor.  It's almost like a how-to for those starting up their own project, so I mostly skim through those sections.  Still no image of the cover to be found, so it's not on my sidebar, and I'm having issues with the blogger elements not cooperating with my template, so I haven't worked it out to just list the details of the book yet.

~ I was craving something a bit more . . . literary, maybe? . . . so I also started reading Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I bought it at Half Priced books a few months ago and figured I might as well read it since the movie will soon be coming out.  Only a couple of chapters in, but I like it already.  I added it to my sidebar, as you can see.

~ Last weekend I finally saw the movie Julie and Julia.  I was excited to read the book last summer because the movie trailers piqued my interest.  However, I found the book a bit hard to follow with the author's stream of consciousness.  Plus the main character, Julie, annoyed me with her selfishness and self-absorption.  And I was left wishing there was more of the Julia Child scenes in the book.  All that to say, after reading the book I wasn't bothered about not watching the movie.  But I actually really enjoyed the movie!  Julie is more palatable in it and we definitely get a lot more of Julia.  I'd like to read Julia Child's memoir, My Life in France now (which I linked, in case any of you would like to buy it for me!  :o) ).

~ I just read my friend Aleen's blog and she mentioned a book she just finished: Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick.  South Korea and China was the first ever mission trip to went on, and the organization we partnered with aimed to spread the gospel to N Koreans.  I had such amazing and life-changing experiences on that trip and stories from that country still stir my heart.  So the book sounds really good and I'd love to read it!  Of course I'll prob have to wait til it's in paperback and a tad bit cheaper . . .

~ I'll have a lot more time to read since my 2nd job just finished.  It's also a bit stressful 'cause it was my main source of income since it paid twice as much as my 1st job.  BUT I am basically all set up to substitute for the rest of the year, so I hope to do that at least two or three times a week . . . but there's only 3 wks left of school . . . *sigh*

~ I went to a job fair for an area district on Friday.  There were HUNDREDS, if not THOUSANDS, of people there looking for jobs.  It's not a good time to be an unemployed teacher, let me tell you!  I handed out all twenty copies of my resume, tho.  So hopefully I'll get some phone calls for interviews soon. 

~ I got crazy with our new vacuum yesterday -- I vacuumed my bed, my drapes, my mini-blinds, the window sills, all the shelves upstairs (using the attachments, of course), the floorboards, the walls and ceilings, the upholstered chairs, the bathroom floor, my bed again since all the dust from the other items got kicked up and resettled on it, the lamps, and the carpet.  And I slept soundly, with no mental images of thousands of microscopic dust mites crawling all over me during the night.  I suppose I could offer my vacuuming expertise for a small fee if no job prospects come up . . .

~ I'm in the last days of my 20's.  Haven't looked at the calendar to say for sure, but I'm guessing there's only about 6 wks left of 'em.  Scary!

~ I'm cooking carne guisada for dinner tonight.  Haven't made it in ages, so I'm looking forward to it!