Water for Elephants

I just finished Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Yes, the book. Not the movie. I read the book. Sheesh. I thought the book sounded interesting so I read a few reviews and didn't like them so I opted out of reading it. Then when I saw the movie was coming out I figured I needed to hurry up and read it so that I could watch the movie. So I did.

I mostly like what the NewYorkTimes review says, although I did not read this particular review before reading the book. I read Amazon's reviews and that's where I got my skepticism from. As of this writing there are 133 one-star reviews and 2,079 five-star reviews. Yes, two-thousand is a big number but 133 is also a pretty big number and it's big enough to make me think twice about reading a book. Elizabeth Judd of the NYTimes says this: "Gruen's prose is merely serviceable, and she hurtles through cataclysmic events, overstuffing her whiplash narrative with drama (there's an animal stampede, two murders and countless fights). She also asserts a grand passion between Jacob and Marlena that's never convincingly demonstrated." And I think that pretty much sums it up.

I am happy that I read the book. I ended up enjoying it and I really loved the ending. But it is nowhere near the best book I've ever read. I was disturbed that I didn't really feel the romantic feelings between Jacob and Marlena. I enjoyed more the relationship between Jacob and Walter the clown. I could feel the emotions in that relationship more than the supposed romantic one.

I would not rate it a 1 and I would not rate it a 5. I'd say it's about a 3 or a 3.5 mostly because I enjoyed the story overall. At the end of the book there is an interview with Gruen. I always enjoy reading the interviews with authors after reading a book. She apparently did a lot of research and fell in love with the circus world. I have to admit it's kindof a romantic idea. She also mentions two female elephants that she believes deserve to be remembered. She fashioned Rosie, the elephant in the book, on these two real elephants. So of course I had to do my own bit of research on them. . . .

TOPSY THE ELEPHANT - Topsy killed her handler after he fed her a lit cigarette. It was her third strike and was therefor slated for execution. They were going to hang her publicly but the public thought that was cruel and unusual. So Topsy's owners contacted Thomas Edison and he executed her with electric current to help prove a point he'd been trying to get across. You can also Google Topsy the elephant if you'd like to know more.

OLD MOM the ELEPHANT - Old Mom understood German but did not respond to English. She was purchased from circus legend & father of the modern zoo Carl Hagenbeck who claimed her to be the smartest elephant that ever lived. However the purchasers did not realize she only understood German; they couldn't get her to do anything but shuffle around. They finally retrained her to respond to English and she went on the a dazzling career.

___________________________________________________________

Here's a preview of the movie, which I have not seen yet but I heard it was pretty good.

ps... I love the cover of the book. very cool. You gotta pick a good cover.

If you decide to read it I doubt you will be disappointed if you do not expect absolutely amazing things.

something beautiful

Time to share some more music. What is it about music that speaks to us so much? Or at least to me. I feel like it expresses so much what I cannot say. I love the chords and the feeling I get from it.

All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it. - Jean Cocteau

_________________________________________________________
Here is a newly discovered favorite of mine. I love the old style of this video and the way their voices blend. They make such beautiful harmonies. I just can't get enough of them... The Civil Wars. I also love their song Poison and Wine; you have to check it out, it's powerful.

Dance Me to the End of Love

"dance me very tenderly dance me very long "

______________________________________________________________

I heard Vicci Martinez on The Voice, which was an okay show but I ended up really loving Vicci. She seems to sing with so much heart, and I think her voice is great and she's short and spunky. What's not to love?! Here is one of her originals below; Peace of Mind... I thought her version of The Dog Days Are Over was amazing as well.

"& I do appreciate what you've shown me, cuz I'm better after all. 

& I know that you and I are gonna find some peace of mind."

_____________________________________________________________

Tony Lucca! Here's a fun one. When I was living in Maryland I stumbled across him and went to see him in a little coffee shop and he was totally fabulous. He seems to be doing really well and I'm so happy that he is because I think he is very talented and I do love his music. Isn't it fun when you discover something on your own and it's not shoved down your throat on the radio every day... Here's my favorite of his below, Pretty Things. Check out Darlin' I as well.

"been reading all the letters that you wrote me, all the fairy tales that you sold me"

below: I Can I Will I Do - my favorite of his.

"passion aint no kind of passion at all when it's your heart that it steals"

______________________________________________________________

I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water. -Ray Charles

There's nothing like music to relieve the soul and uplift it. 
-Mickey Hart

garbledeegoop

That's a word that my mother used to use and probably still does on occasion :) I couldn't think of a specific topic to write about today so I'm just gonna free-write and just go with it and see what comes out. I have a lot of things on my brain; a lot of garbledeegoop!

I guess I'll start with an update on what's going on with me lately. Grandpa is in the living room, "watching" the news. For those of you who don't know, that means napping. He's got a busy summer. He went to the lake already, came home and did yard work, then he's going for a week long backpacking trip (yes he's 80).. after that he is going to rest a week (ie: do more yardwork) and then bike to Bozeman to help seniors in high school learn about the wild wilderness.. He's a busy man. Notice how I said let me tell you what's going on in my life and I tell you about my grandpa. Of course. But he's an inspiration to a lot of people and to me. Therefor it must be mentioned.

I'm posting some pictures below of my latest hiking adventure. It was exhilarating to be out in nature like that all by myself. I'm trying to pick my next hike. I would love to go bike the Hiawatha Bike Trail soon. I've been trying to go for a long time but it hasn't worked out yet. It's kindof a far drive & I think it would be more fun to go with someone for that particular adventure. I've had a bit of a hard time finding adventure partners and that's been a little bit frustrating. But I'm a big girl and I can do things on my own. It's good to be alone but I'm also pretty social and being female I feel successful and happy when I have good relationships. When my relationships aren't very strong I feel 'down'. So that's something I've been dealing with also; it seems that everyone is too busy with their schedules and doing things with their significant others. I pray about it and God has truly been helping me with that.

My job situation has improved. I'm still working weekend afternoons at a mental health group home and I am really liking it. I've also recently been hired at a Youth Home for kids in transition. I'm only relief staff right now but there are a few openings and I'm hoping to get one of them. I'm very excited because I really like working there so far. They have a wonderful philosophy and I've been trying to get work in the youth field for a long time now. I have a big heart for kids in trouble. Youth are amazing and people don't see it sometimes. I believe all the problems of the world can be fixed with proper parenting, but it has to start at the beginning. It's so sad that our kids get treated worse than our pets.

I'm starting to think that maybe this really is the field I want to be in and that's really exciting because lately I've been wondering if I'm even going in the right direction.

peekaboo!!!

I did my first hike of the season; my first hike in a long long time, all by myself!!!
Glenn Lake behind me, still covered in snow and ice! well not ALL of it.

See the whole lake wasn't frozen. I met a nice older couple up there.
They were setting up camp. 

checking in

Just checkin' in with y'all. I have several topics that I'm getting ready to blog about but I first need to sit down and write them and get all my thoughts in perspective. But I thought I'd post a little teaser...

First of all, I don't want to delve into great detail here but my very good friend's mother was murdered. Here is the link to the article in the Missoulian. It's such an awfully sad story. She's been dealing with a lot so I don't think it would be right to make a huge article about it, but I want people to know. And I couldn't just ignore it either. There are some things I want to mention in regards to this later on as well.
She was a such a vibrant friendly woman in every way. She was always up for fun and/or mischief. Such a joy to be around. She always made me feel welcome. I will miss her.

I attended campmeeting in Bozeman this last week and I'm excited to tell y'all about my experience there.

I've had some pretty serious work issues lately and I've got some interesting ideas on that.

Those are the main things I'm pondering and hope to delve into later on. For right now I've got things to do!

Peace&Love

sharing some funnies

At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.  

~Jean Houston~

I would like to share some funny websites that I love. According to this website, laughter is good for you. It releases the same endorphins that are released during exercise and sex. These endorphins can temporarily relieve pain and give you an overall sense of well-being. I can vouch for the exercise part of that. And how many times have you laughed and then though how much life sucked afterwards?

someEcards - this website is a free e-card site where you can create your own e-cards or use cards previously created by other users. It's a lot of fun to make your own because you can customize them to people if you want. If you think you make a particularly great one you can submit it for other people to vote on. Here's one that I recently made after all the scandals with the high-power men cheating with their maids. Their created cards particularly play to my dry and sometimes wordy sense of humor. <3 Check it out.

deargirlsaboveme.com - this one was forwarded to me by a friend and I loved it instantaneously! These two dumb girls moved in above this guy's apartment and he can hear everything they say so he started "writing letters to them" with quotes from the things they say. It is absolutely hilarious. You can't make this stuff up.

CatalogLiving - I can't tell you how much I love this site. A+++ . It's created by this woman Molly Erdman who posts pictures from catalogs and creates captions based upon her fictional characters Gary and Elaine. You know how sometimes pictures in catalogs are completely ridiculous? This pokes fun at the decorating that goes into these often silly poses. It's quite funny. I don't know, maybe it's my twisted sense of humor but looking through these I often find myself laughing out loud. I hope you do too.

CuteOverload - This site isn't so much funny as it is adorable. If you're every feeling down go to this website and look at some cute puppies, kitties and hamsters and you'll instantly feel a little better about life.

Bo Burnham - Warning!!! Explicit Content! (not the website, but his music is quite explicit & offensive). It's often very uncomfortable to listen to, which I personally love, but it's not for everyone. He's this skinny, white nerdy boy who raps. He's very clever which is what I love most about it. If you'd like to check out some of his less explicit stuff here's a good one; 3.14 apple pie. And a few more that aren't QUITE as explicit (HighSchool Party, Rehab for Fictional Characters, The Perfect Woman, Love Is... ) If you don't like 3.14 apple pie you won't like any of his stuff. Just warning ya!

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.  

~e.e. cummings~

And if you want to keep looking and see some more funnies here's a list of the top 15 funniest websites according to some people.

Outdoors in Montana

I know it's Monday but I forgot to post last night. Well, I was at work so I had an excuse. These are some beautiful flowers in my backyard! I'm so excited that it's finally spring! I love Montana flowers. Sundays in My City is from another blog that I found (can't remember how I stumbled across it). You post pictures from Sundays in your city and link back to her blog. It's kinda neat. And I like taking pictures so why not! I've been meaning to do this for awhile.

a row of daffodils.

People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.  

~Iris Murdoch, A Fairly Honourable Defeat

does anyone know what these flowers are called?

Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out values all the utilities of the world.  

~Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.  

~Walt Whitman

Healthnut - getting there

So I'm kindof a health nut. I haven't always followed it properly like I know I should. But I know what I should be doing and when I try I do a pretty good job. Lately I've noticed a lot of non-healthy behaviors. Specifically at my job. People are fed hamburger helper and when they are fed something healthy they turn up their nose at it in favor of a PB&J on white bread. ugh. I'm confused. Has it always been like this?

I seem to remember the "hot lunches" at school being pretty grotesque. I always brought a lunch from home. Sure, sometimes I wanted to eat the mac&cheese or the gooey pizza but it was more of a pride thing with me. "Look at me, I don't wear Nikes or eat Hot Lunch"! Now though, I do think it's something to be proud of. I see people downing multiple Mountain Dews in one afternoon on a daily basis and it's rather sad when you really think about it. We're so overworked that we think we need this stuff. When in reality all it takes is a bit of healthy eating and exercise on a regular basis to get your body back to a baseline where you can function properly without all that crap in your system. But it's hard work to start it, it really is. That's why it's good to have people around you who support your choices and make good choices themselves.

If you want to start, start small. Cut out the sodas every day. Maybe have one every other day until you're down to once a week or so. Soda's aren't the devil, but they can be if you drink them every day.

* Drink WATER! Your body needs it and will thank you for it. Start in the morning

* Eat wheat bread instead of white. Check the ingredients. If it says "enriched whole wheat flour" DON'T buy it. Not if it says enriched. Only get "whole wheat flour" or a variation of that. Enriched basically means dyed white flour.

* Eat breakfast. Even if it's just a banana.

* Try replacing the sugar in your coffee with honey. Try it, you might like it.

* Go for a walk, then increase it bit by bit. Start jogging or biking, take a class.... Anything to get your body moving. It will increase endorphins which will make you happier and in turn make you more productive. It gets oxygen to your brain and clears your head; always a good thing, especially these days.

* Eat less meat. I'm not saying cut it out completely, but just try to make a few meals each week that don't include meat. And eat more fish if you're gonna eat a meat.

Those are my basic starters. Just work on those things for a month and see how you feel about yourself.
After that keep going with bigger changes. Try going a whole week without meat, start expandinng your vegetable vocabulary, try some new grains (I love buckwheat and oats cooked together for breakfast & japanese soba noodles). Start exercising more and try doing something different, set a goal. Try black tea for breakfast with honey and cream instead of coffee for 2 days out of the week... Just keep going. Pretty soon you won't miss those things that you thought you needed every day.

Believe me, it is doable. Baby steps. And don't beat yourself up.

If there was one thing I would say to do first is exercise. Just going for a walk clears your head and gets you thinking. So grab a friend and take a stroll. You'll be surprised how much better you feel just after doing that.

Good luck!