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DJ Roomba

I think Parks and Rec might be my favorite comedy on the air right now. I know, I know, that is a pretty bold statement. I waiver sometimes between The Office, 30 Rock, Modern Family, and Parks and Rec...but DJ Roomba I think tipped the scales. I haven't laughed this hard in weeks.

Book 3: Committed

Every female on the planet fell in love with the book "Eat, Pray, Love" - some men too! Who wouldn't? The book itself was written with such passion and honesty that you can't help but find even a morsel of similarity to your own life or thoughts. I can remember the moment when I read the part about her experience meditating in an ashram in India and thinking to myself that she wrote it in such a way that I felt like I had just experienced it too. This women has a gift of writing with such perfect detail and beauty that I anxiously had been counting down the days until her next novel.

Her next novel, "Committed," is not "Eat, Pray, Love." If you go on book review websites it is getting mediocre reviews. But for me, this book took my breath away. I devoured it with such a studious intensity that I literally did not put it down for five straight hours, a huge accomplishment for me since I can barely sit still long enough to watch a half hour television show. The book is not a story, per say, but rather almost a mix between an academic paper and personal journal. Inevitably, that must have turned some people off, but it is a shame as I feel compelled to give a copy of this book to every women on the planet who wants to get married, never wants to get married, or is married.

Essentially, Gilbert writes about her personal exploration to make peace with marriage- a marriage that is forced upon her if she ever wants to step foot on American soil with her foreign boyfriend again. It is broken into subjective chapters: marriage and autonomy, marriage and women, marriage and history, etc. Some of her thoughts and stories are so personal I cannot believe that she had the audacity to even say them out loud, let alone write them down on a page for thousands of people to read. Yet that is what I admire about her writing, her honesty.  We've all heard the old saying that "the truth will set you free", and in Elizabeth Gilbert's case I feel as though she sets a lot of people who read her books free with her truth, allowing others to recognize their own. 

I should mention that my view of the world is very similar to Gilbert's, which is perhaps why I enjoy her writing so much.  That being said I don't know that I have ever read a book that forced the reader to engage in such critical thinking about what THEY want for THEIR life. That is what I liked about it.  It made me think, it made me examine.  It was a self exploration in 287 pages. I would recommend it to everybody.

Read more of my reviews on goodreads.com, username duolynoted.

Next book: The Help

Jeans FOUND

 

A few weeks ago I blogged about my quest for some new jeans- and you all had some great ideas and suggestions! I can conservatively estimate that I have tried on over 20 pair of jeans and today I finally decided on these, the GAP curvy jeans in a saturated dark wash. They will run you about $69.50, are super comfortable (read: stretchy), and very slimming.  Thanks for all of your suggestions!

Lets Play a Game....

This week I am in the grand ol' state of Idaho (no, youdahoe) for some interviews and fun time with the fam. On Monday night I had to get a hotel in Boise and I thought it would be fun to play a little game called Guess What I Had To Pay For My Hotel Room. Your prize for guessing the right answer is well, nothing, but major props for having psychic hotel cost guessing powers.

Are you ready?

Hint #1: It was a suite at the Marriot.

Hint #2: Here are some pictures:

{Bedroom}

{Bathroom}

{Living Room}

{Office}

Okay so fair enough this isn't a hotel room that blows your mind but it did have three separate rooms.

Hint #3: It was located in downtown Boise, next to the capital.

Are you ready to guess?

Ready?

It was a whooping total of $35! Can you believe it?

Now I am going to let you in on a little secret on how to get cheap hotel rooms. Priceline.com has a fabulous little feature that allows you to bid for hotel rooms in certain locations.  So, you give them your credit card, pick the general location of where you want to be, pick the quality of hotel you want (four star, three star, two star, etc.), enter your price, and see if any hotel accepts it.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  But when it does you get one hell of a deal.

Texas Half 5K

So remember back in October when I wrote my grandiose post on how I was going to run The Texas Half at the end of October? Yea. Didn't happen.

I did the training for a good 2-3 weeks, but once the holidays hit and I started working a lot and I just...stopped. Which I am really disappointed in myself for, because normally when I say I am going to do something I do it.

That being said I think the God's intervened on this one, because had I ran the Texas Half I would have been miserable. Not wanting to be a total failure I signed up for the Texas Half 5K and trained during the month of January. The race was this past Saturday...and those of you who currently live in Texas know that Saturday was a particularly miserable day. With the wind the temperatures were below freezing and the race was taking place on a LAKE so it was even colder with the wind skimming the top of the water and then slamming us in the face.

I thought my ipod had a camera on it...which it doesn't....so I took this short little video instead. See the girl running in her COAT?

Neither Dan nor I were willing to say that we didn't want to run it, but we later admitted to each other that we were hoping the other person would back out.  The turnout was about 400 people, which apparently is rather low for this race, but overall I am really glad we did it!  Despite how cold it was, you warmed up rather quickly during the run.  It was a pretty flat course with a hill at the end which is kind of mean, but overall a very fun, easy race. Although I am glad I wasn't running 13 miles in that weather.

Next month is the Cowtown in Ft. Worth.  We aren't sure whether we are doing the 5K or the 10K yet though.  Anybody else running in it? Any other good races we should consider this year?

JANUARY RUNNING TOTALS: 36.25 MILES

Weekend Links!

I started the Weekend Links portion of the blog because I really like highlighting and sharing things that I find interesting, funny, or important. Instead of emailing five hundred links to all my friends during the week I just cumulatively collect them and post them at the end of the week. If you think it looks interesting, you can click on it - or not.  But there is one link this week I want everybody to click on HERE.  The blog For the Love wrote a piece this week on her friend who has been missing for four years and they still do not know what happened to her.  Click on the link, read her story, and remember her face. If you know anything that can help aid in finding Jennifer Kesse call the number provided. I don't know what it is like to have a friend abducted, but I do know what its like to lose a friend suddenly without getting the chance to say goodbye so this post hit very close to my heart. Social networking like blogs and facebook and twitter has a lot of power to stop these type of things so I think it is important to always pass on the message.

Now on to some non-important things.

- I am thinking about getting these puppy tags for Kadira and Toby.  But instead of using their names I am going to inscribe them with their nicknames "Golden Child" and "Mistake (but we still love her)." (Pioneer Women).

- When I get around to doing my gallery wall I want it to look like THIS. (Melissa Jill Photography).

- Over on that other blog I do Maggie posted a great video of Johnny Weir dancing to Lady Ga Ga's Pokerface.  It is fabulous, you must go check it out. (Seven Dames a Week).

- I have you voted yet for the 2010 Bloggies? I have my ballot in! (2010 Webblog Awards).

Alright, so today's Video of the Week was something that I just found and it is so adorable I just couldn't resist posting it. We all know I am a little obsessed with Oprah Winfrey...but put Oprah and puppies together and I'm on cloud nine. Mom, want to go searching for your shelter puppy during my visit this week?