Loving the Public Library

When I was little, my mom and I would spend hours each week picking out dozens of children's books each week.  In Elementary school, I was a top accelerated reader and always got my free pizza at Book It.  I used to volunteer in my school library and when go through the stacks of novels and make a long list of books I wanted to discover and read.  However, when I went to middle school, because I was reading so much earlier, I couldn't keep up with my accelerated reading goals and started to get punished for not getting enough points.  Needless to say, once your punishment is to read more, you stop seeing it as something you really want to do everyday.  I started back reading a little bit over the summers in college, but once law school started, the casebooks took the place of those novels and pleasure reading. 

Well I have rediscovered my love of reading.  I guess it started when I was told that on my long 6 hour drives back and forth between SC and FL that audiobooks make the time go faster.  Well after listening to these wonderful stories in my car, I realized that I could be reading outside of my car as well.  I went downtown to go get my library card.  There were soooo many books there, and I had forgotten how overwhelming it would be.  So I just went to a standby authors name and got two books from her.  However, the internet has made things much easier since the last time I was a public library customer.  Not only can I search for good books on the catalog and find out whether they are available, I can renew books I have out, I can place books on hold and let them email me when they are available, and I can also download audiobooks to my ipod for my car trips.  It is so great to finish a book and then get an email saying that your next book is ready to be picked up.  I didn't even have to go searching in the stacks for it.  They had it ready for me at checkout.  Also, thanks to the good reads website, I can get book ideas from my friends based on their recommendations of the books that they have read.

I have just started Phillipa Gregory's queen books, and I think I am going to go read a chapter before I go to class, and maybe another chapter while I wait at the bus stop.

A New Book Obsession

I have never perused the self help aisle of a bookstore, but recently I made an exception.  I purchased Bethenny Frankel's book Naturally Thin.  Let me just say that I have really liked this book.  It is not a diet book, but a way to put yourself into a new mindset.  It is supposed to be a mindset of how naturally thin people think when it comes to food.  Basically saying, naturally thin people don't really think all that much about what food they can have or can't have.  If you binge for a day, don't beat yourself up about it and stop eating healthy because you are ruined.  Just be better the next day.  Don't not eat foods that you really want to eat because you think you are not supposed to have them, just eat them, taste them and then you are satisfied.  And...don't worry, you will always have a chance to eat fries so don't think you need to eat every last one. 

So I took my new knowledge out to a restaurant for the first time.  I did my best to follow her naturally thin rules.  The restaurant was a brewery where they brew 8 different kinds of beers.  There were four that I wanted to taste, so instead of ordering four pints, I opted for ordering 4 oz of each kind.  Also, I really wanted the calamari appetizer.  So I ordered it, had two or three pieces and then passed the rest around the table.  The menu was large so there were many options for my entree.  There were sandwiches, salads, pasta dishes, and what they are famous for which is their pizzas.  I could have gone the diet route and ordered a salad, but salads are not always that healthy, and it really wasn't what I wanted to eat.  So I weighed my options and I was down to a grilled chicken sandwich, shrimp tacos, and pizza.  The sandwich and tacos came with fries, and I honestly didn't really want fries, but if they were there I was sure that I would eat them anyway.  Also I think the pizza would taste much better than the other two options, so I went with the pizza.  I got the mini mediterranean that was loaded with good vegetables.  Because of the beer and the calamari, I got full really quickly.  So rather than stuffing my face with the mini pizza (which did happen to be mini), I ate until I was full.  I canceled my membership in the clean plate club, and didn't feel bad about not getting a box to take it home.  Prior to this book, I would have taken it home because I knew I was going out and would want late night food.  Instead, I offered it to a friend.  It didn't go to waste and more importantly it didn't go on my waistline. 

So even though I ate pizza and beer and calamari at a restaurant, I didn't feel bad about it.  I really like this new way of thinking.  I can eat whatever I want and that is kind of liberating.   I will admit that over exams and the holidays I did a lot of excessive eating, but since I have been back to Gainesville, I have gotten down to a comfortable weight and well on my way to getting back to where I was last summer.

Resolutions By the Way Side

I say by the way side because I feel like that is a saying, but if it is not, my bad.  I simply mean that I have discarded mine.  It is 16 days into the new year and my resolution is gone already.  Good or bad?  My resolution was to make better use of my time.  As you have read before, I don't have a lot of obligations on my time these days.  I attend class only 11 hours out of the week.  I don't have a job or kids to take care of (other than my oh so needy Westie), so it seems like I should be taking advantage of all this time and do amazing things.  Well to implement this resolution, I decided that I was going to stop taking naps, read my book alot more, exercise at least once everyday, and only watch two hours of television everyday. 

Well I changed my mind.  I don't know if it was because I wasn't following my resolution very well, or to the fact that maybe I have been thinking about this extra time all wrong.  Rather than forcing myself to do things that other people think I should be doing, I think maybe I should take advantage of this time to be able to do things that I actually want to do.  If I am tired, I have the ability to go lay on my bad and take a wonderful long nap (assuming Tillie is willing to let me do so).  If there is a good movie on the tv in the afternoon, I should be able to watch it.  If I don't feel like exercising everyday, I shouldn't have to.  Now don't get me wrong.  I don't actually plan on spending everyday napping and watching tv, but on certain days, maybe that is all I want to do.  And, after this first week back at school, I have already started to plan a few new experiences for myself.  I have signed up for a ballroom dancing class.  Ten of us from my program will be learning to waltz, fox trot, cha cha, rumba, tango, and swing dance.  I am super excited about this because I am head over heels obsessed with dancing with the stars and am still trying to come up with a way I can be famous so that I can be on that show.  I also have decided to join the coed softball team with the stipulation that my team members are not allowed to yell at me.  I played softball in the summers on the law firm leagues, but our team was pitching to us, and honestly, they were more about socializing than actually playing the game.  But, my pink glove and I will be out on the field giving it our best effort. 

So I guess, if I am going to say that I have a resolution, I plan to do what I want to do while I still can.