Dunzo!

I'm finally finished the first book I've read for fun in like, 5 years! That's probably one of the lamest things I've ever said, but sadly, it's the truth. I've had this issue in university where I feel useless if I'm not constantly doing something productive. So, the only books I've attempted to read talk about good city-building and why our planet is going down the tubes. Surprisingly, these aren't the most entertaining topics. Whenever I let myself have any "me" time alone, I'm so tired of doing all this work that I always decide to watch reruns of Intervention or wine taste or do any sort of activity that gradually turns my brain into silly putty.

Since I started studying for my GRE, I kinda realized: how am I ever going to do well in grad school, or even enjoy it, when I hate reading? I decided I needed to started reading for fun again! It couldn't be that bad? Then, while at the U of A a few weeks ago, I was drawn to this Lionel Shriver novel on their clearance rack called We Need to Talk About Kevin. Without reading the book jacket, I impulsively decided to buy it.

It's probably the best decision I've made in a long time! The book is about this mother writing letters to her estranged husband about their son, who killed 10 people at his high school. It's pretty grim, but really says a lot about parenthood and how we treat our young people. In the last couple of days, I've put off my summer school assignment just so I could finish reading the final 100 pages, which were AMAZING!!! After celebrating this great accomplishment (yeah, I pretty much read at a grade 6 level...) I couldn't stop thinking about the book and Wiki'ed it during a lull at work. If things didn't get any better, they're turning it into a movie now! Finally, I get to be the one who relishes in telling people that "the book was just so much better than the movie." I can't wait!!

Like, ohmygosh?! I totally pictured Tilda Swinton as Eva Katchadourian....

Shit in Gear, Part 2

Now that my trip is done and my job is growing monotonous, my summer is slowly starting to settle down. I genuinely miss running around all the time and being super busy, so I've decided I need a creative outlet to keep me entertained for the rest of the summer. My original plan was to become an advocate for more affordable transit, but my Mom thinks that would be a "bad career move."

Seeing as I'm not a novelist, that pretty much limits me to Scrapbooking. Yes, I've decided to make a scrapbook. But, I'm not just making your average everyday scrapbook for a trip to Calgary or my first baby (*shudders*), I've decided to make a scrapbook for the first 20 years of my life! I'm obsessed with self-reflection and self-improvement, or any other motivational word with the prefix "self," and I figured that this would be a fun way to put my self-love into action!

On top of that, I sorta made a mini-to do list for the rest of the summer:
1) Finish my GRE for Dummies.
2) Save $10,000 (this one's gonna be a bitch...I may have to start blow-counting again)
3) Lose 2 pounds.
4) Go to Vegas!!!!!!!!11
5) Plan a trip to NYC for September! This one is my favourite! I originally wanted to slip off for a week to wash oil off of shorebirds on the Mississippi Delta, but figured it wouldn't be as glamourous as I had imagined, so I've decided that I'm going to treat myself to a mini-vacation in the Big Apple before school starts. Originally, I had to stay home because of other commitments and miss Frosh Week, but now I have the whole week to myself! So I figured, why not spend some of that $10,000 I saved? =)
And finally, 6) Find lodging in Brisbane (that's what Australian people call housing ;) )