"Nature knows no indecencies; man invents them" Mark Twain

I've had a looooooong day and I almost didn't post today, but I scrounged up some extra motivation! I went over to my old university, UMiami, to pick up some rec letters (although it took me 4x the usual amount of time to get there and I almost had to turn around because we thought my dog was lost...she just ended up being outside by the garbage can haha), but it made me really itch to be back in school. I never realized how amazing the campus was, and how great the little interactions between everyone are, and I REALLLLLY hope I can get in somewhere (and there would be awesome!). I, of course, spent more many that I should have (which should have been $0), but I ended up getting my sister's birthday present and 2 tshirts for myself for the Homecoming Game next month!

I made it home for like 20 minutes (where I had to cancel my trip to SLC, boooo, but I need that money for my grad school things), and then I had to head out again to pick up my nephews from school and hang out with them for a bit. Apparently, the trees have not gotten the message that it is now fall, so they need to start dying and STOP producing pollen, so I managed to get super sick in this time period, and I made it home feeling like bubonic plague. Filed for unemployment, made a list of application things I still need to work on, and contemplated the Florida teacher certification website. It's only 9 PM and I am already ready to fall asleep (though that may have something to do with all the medicine I took).

Tomorrow is thankfully a very relaxing day. I must go to FedEx/Kinkos at some point for copies and to mail out some things, then it's writing my Library Science personal statements, finishing up the other personal statement (if the freakin website would work!), and reading. Grandparents' birthday this weekend, so family barbeque on Sunday. On the agenda for next week is to start fixing up my writing samples, then editing my personal statements. Hopefully the week after that I can order the GRE scores and transcripts, and then all that would be left is to actually fill out the applications and pay the application fees. Oh and make 3249839482309483290 copies and mail them out.

And then wait.

And wait.

And be nervous/scared/excited/depressed/worried-about-money/contemplative/nostalgic and 100 other emotions until I start getting acceptance/rejection letters in March.

And you all will be along for the ride...exciting! (Or not, haha)



Ordinary People by Judith Guest

I will admit- I actually saw the movie before I read the novel. But the movie is FANTASTIC (really, check it out- it has Donald Sutherland, Timothy Hutton, Mary Tyler Moore, and many others, and it was the first movie Robert Redford directed. It also won the Oscar for Best Picture that year) and is pretty faithful to the book. In fact, I think the movie actually has a bit more development for some of the characters than the book did.

I like that this novel, although about an affluent family, is still able to portray them as "ordinary people". After all, we all react the same after traumatic events, regardless of status, race, and wealth. The oldest Jarrett son, Buck, had been killed in a freak boating accident about a year before the novel opens. 6 Months later, Conrad (Buck's brother that was with him on the boat that day) attempts suicide after battling extreme guilt and depression over his big brother's death. He spent nearly 8 months in a psych hospital and is still shaky at the beginning of the novel (and very understandably so).

The mom, Beth, is a nutbag. She barely talks about Buck and his death and is so Type A I had to put the book down at times because she was stressing ME out. I actually appreciated the dad, Calvin, because he pushed Conrad into seeing Dr. Berger (the bestest psychiatrist in all the world and I wish I could find someone like him!) and then started meeting with the doctor himself. Calvin is going through a crazy midlife crisis (he has a sad background too, growing up in an orphanage after his mother died) , and even though **SPOILER ALERT** Beth leaves him at the end, he and Conrad finally have a strong father-son bond.

And I love Conrad and my heart breaks for him so bad because I know what it feels like to feel so low, so I am happy that he seems like he is on a good path at the end. The story is so steeped in loss at the beginning, not only the physical loss of Buck, but the identity and innocence losses of Calvin and Conrad, respectively, that you are rooting for them from Page 1. It is so easy to feel their emotions because we all have had a traumatic incident that has changed us so completely, even without us wanting it to or even realizing it. The kind of event that makes you change your future and your goals and your beliefs. And sometimes it is for the worst, but sometimes, it is for the better. It allows you to step outside of yourself to really become who you want to be. The closest to a fresh start we are allowed in life.

And since tomorrow is the last day of Banned Books Week, I will end it with the most challenged book of this decade ;)