adellis

Reader of the Week #10 Baby!!!

I have been cutting my hair over and over in an attempt to feel better.

Me:
Sister: What's wrong?
Me: Nothing.

Me:
Husband: What's wrong?
Me: Nothing.

Me:
Toddler: No Mommy.
Me:
Toddler: Get up, Mommy. Walk, Mommy.
Me:

I needed one more haircut.
So I got one.
My niece did it. She's in hair school at Paul Mitchell and she's good. Very fancy and good. if you want to look fancy and good, ask for her. Her name is Mandy.

After the hair was all gone, I stared at myself in the mirror. Did I feel better? Did the weight of hair off my head make me a new person? A renewed person? I looked different. I sucked my cheeks in different. I put stuff in my hair different. Did I feel different?

Maybe.

When my brother saw it he said, "Hey, Ann Dee Benatar," and laughed. I laughed too.
When my eight year old nephew saw it he said, "You look like [enter name that I don't know] from American Idol." I said, "Oh, is he good?" and he said, "yeah. He's good. He might win. But I don't want him to. I don't like that guy." I said, "oh."

My friend Brooke shaved her head the other day. I saw her blog and thought, "See? that feels better. Looking at her feels light and easy." I wish I could do that.

Do I?

Does the outside change the inside? Can physical transformation whether big or small, incite inner transformation?

Do you wish I wore high heels with jeans? Do you wish you wore high heels with jeans? Do high heels and jeans have anything to do with short hair and American Idol?

Win a book, okay?

I owe some people some Skittles. Yes, it's the audiobook.
Yay!
It's so weird to actually have the book I wrote on CD. It's also weird to hear the actor's interpretation of Mazzy. Sometimes i forget that the characters in my head might come off different for other people.. Makes me curious.
I have an extra copy or two that I'm thinking about giving away. Do you want it? Might just have some kind of contest or something because I love winning things. I like to tell people I never win anything but it's not true.
One time I won this:


Power 99 gave me the best tape I've ever owned.

Another time I won this:

I didn't actually win the gym, I won a two week pass to the gym which I later found out everyone wins and then those guys with the necks try to sell you stuff. But still.

And especially this other time I won AN ADULT TRICYCLE.

Winning is fun.
Music. Exercise. Bikes. And now an audio book. Maybe?

Speaking of stuff like winning, as some of you may know, I'm trying do a triathlon one day. I've done one before but I came in last place. This time I'd like to come in second to last place. I'm setting fitness goals to help me reach my dream. Besides running, biking and swimming every now and then, my first major fitness goal is to cross one of these.


I can't even go one rung. I'm not kidding. Sad.
Husband on the other hand, can cross in two seconds blindfolded with his arms tied behind his head. Don't ask.
Are you up for the challenge? Do it with me.

Okay. The End.

Hi guys.The new Reader of the Week is posted. You'll like it. I know you will. Also, this is the last day to win a fabulous book from </a></b></a>lindsey_leavitt. Maybe it's your lucky day. I hope it's mine . . . Love.

You guys, don't worry about it but Everything is Fine just got a starred review from Voya! Yay!

They said:

“What makes it so extraordinary is the narrative device that Ellis employs to searing effect.  Mazzy’s voice is laserlike in its efficiency—no frills, no bull, no guile.”
 
“A story so painful you want to read it with your eyes closed.  It is a stunning novel from the author of the critically-acclaimed THIS IS WHAT I DID.”

AND

Barnes and Noble are featuring the book on their review blog!

I am happy. So happy. Especially since my kitchen floor is sticky with something I can't identify and my two year old has officially confiscated my drivers license.

Hi.
My second book is officially out.
This makes me feel anxiety.
It also makes me feel happy.
Anxiously happy to finally have a piece of me out there that I can't take back and that I'm trying to learn to not to want to take back.
Is that a great sentence? I know. You totally want to read my book now.

Next.
On Saturday I was like, Oh yeah. I am supposed to be getting in shape. I then stretched on a sports bra and tight pants and ran around my neighborhood.
It didn't feel good and it didn't feel like it used to feel.
I made it a mile and a half and decided that I needed to let my two year old come with me for the next half mile lap.
he had been standing in the window watching me the three times I'd come around.
So lap four, I held his hand and we ran together.
The whole time he was yelling, "I run fast!!!"
Until he'd see a rock. Then he'd stop and look at the rock.
Then I'd say, "Should we go home now?"
And he'd stand up, grab my hand and start running again, resuming his "I run fast" yell. It took us about forty five minutes to go around the block. Fast.

I was thinking, what if we yelled what we were doing the whole time we were doing it? Like "I'm eating doughnuts" or "I'm watching reality TV."
Maybe we would stop doing things like eating doughnuts and watching reality TV. Should I try it?

See this video that holly showed me.

Now.
My back fat says hi.

I have a reader of the week all hoppin' to go for tomorrow minus the pictures. I can't do a ROTW without pictures.
And I don't want to bother her tonight because it's the state basketball tournament time and this young lady is a star player. Don't wanna distract her. ROTW can be very distracting.

So here's a few things:
I read this book by Carol Lynch Williams.
It's amazing.
Seriously.
I'd read an earlier version that I loved. This version I love even more. You should read it.

You should also read this book by Emily Wing Smith.
I'm just part of the way in and I am entranced.
I want to be reading it all the time (unfortunately I don't have that luxury so much).
I can't wait to finish it and tell you more.

Finally, I went to farm country.
It's a very cool country.
Lots of chickens and pigs.

Another Reader of the Week and some other things.
Like how I went to the zoo today.
Have you ever seen a giraffe? Like a real giraffe? Eating? Close enough to put his face on your head? I kept thinking, I am way too close to these guys, what if one of them puts their face on my head. I'm not sure what I thought that would do. I wasn't scared they would bite me or anything. It was just the threat of giraffe face on my head.
Another thing I did was put someone (I'm not naming names) in timeout. Over and over again. I have no idea what I'm doing. But I'm trying.
And then one more thing: I have no phone. Kaput.

Books I need to read for varying reasons :
Refuge
The Poisionwood Bible
Don't Look Behind You (see ROTW)
The Chosen One (I am reading this right now and I love it. Carol Lynch Williams is amazing. Seriously. It's so compelling).
The God of Small Things

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

My Valentine Reader of the Week.

Meet the fabulous reader here.

Hi.


Remember me?
Two years ago we met and I taught my mom about eating books.

Just kidding.
It wasn't me. It was my brother.
I'm new.
So is this book.

My brother (formerly known as Mr. Baby) tried to talk me into eating it. Eating it? Crazy.

I may be young but I am not gullible.
Books are for reading, not eating. Sheesh.

Though it did make me drool a little.

So here's a celebratory repost from May of 2007 when the hardback came out:

This morning Mr. Baby had a feeling something special was going to happen. I could tell because he gave me this look . . .


"Are you sure?" I asked.
"Yes, I'm sure," he said. And then he insisted I dress him in his favorite onesie, a gift from his good friends Ms. Editor and Mr. Designer

It's very fancy.
WELL, Mr. Baby and I were hanging out when all the sudden the doorbell rang and guess what it was?
Nope, guess again.
No. Think about it. What would I be excited about.
No, I don't even get the home shopping network.
Okay, it was a 100% allthewaydonereadytohittheshelves copy of This is What I Did:

Uh, yeah. Even Mr. Baby didn't expect today to be THAT special. We both screamed.
And rolled around on the floor.
And made faces.
After we settled down a bit, Mr. Baby insisted he read the first few pages out loud to me . . . just so I could hear the sound of my very first alltheywaypublished novel.

I was overwhelmed.
He was overwhelmed.
"What should we do?" I asked.
"It's a tough question," he said. "But I have just the thing" and he immediately began eating the book.

It was brilliant. I hadn't even thought of the nutritional value of the actual paper and cardboard. I was thinking more, you know, figuratively. I watched him devour copy #1 and then, after a bit of hesitation (I must admit), I dug into copy #2. I saved the back cover for Cam's dinner. He liked it.
This is all to say that very very very soon, you will be able to get your own copies of This Is What I Did: and eat them up.

Mr. Baby was right. Today was a special day.

*And I'll have an equally special post and announcement for tomorrow!

Some of you may know that when I was single I'd sometimes "go on retreat." This meant I didn't answer my phone, I didn't answer email, I didn't answer the door, and I'd hide in the dark so no one would know I was home. Basically, I'd lay around and feel sad and wear the same clothes and not shower and eat lots and lots of anything I could find and watch Lifetime for Women.
Sometimes this would last for a day.
Sometimes a weekend.
If I was really bad? A week.

I found something out recently, shhhhh, you can't go on retreat with kids.

It's true. I've tried. Some days I wake up and I feel so retreatish it's not even funny. I want to stay in bed and hide. But then someone is pulling the covers off my head and saying, "pease, momma? Pease? Oatmilk?" and another is kicking in his bassinet and smiling and I have to get out of bed and act like a mom. Usually I can sort of rally. Maybe I don't get dressed really, maybe I don't shower, maybe I eat my way through the pantry, but I'm still up. I'm still sort of playing Legos.

Well, recently I've had a few of these days. I decided in my head that I had to make up a new kind of retreat since laying in bed isn't really an option.

So here's my first step: I am going to have myself a triathlon.
I'm going to run around my neighborhood six times. That equals three miles about.
Then I'm going to get on my big heavy old mountain bike and ride to the rec center.
Then I'm going to pay three dollars and run into the locker room and change my clothes.
Maybe I won't even use a dressing room like those old ladies who used to walk around naked at my hometown rec center locker room with their boobs swinging and their fat hanging off and they didn't even care. I was terrified for them but also secretly jealous. That they could laugh and change into their big flowered swimming suits and talk about the weather and not care about their cottage cheese. They were beautiful.
Maybe I'll do that. Or maybe I'll still change in the dressing room. But either way, I'm going to get in my swimming suit and then I'm going to swim 800 meters in the pool.
It may take me four hundred hours but I'm going to do it.

I'll tell you step number two when I figure it out. It has to do with writing I hope.

Today an email came from my husband's email address. It said:

We need another LJ post,
Your biggest fan.

That was it. I don't know who sent it. He/she didn't leave a name, an address, a clue. Nothing. I asked my husband if he knew anything about it and he was dumbfounded. So . . . whoever you are, biggest fan, I love you. I really do. Come over sometime.

Speaking of sometime, I sometimes never watch movies anymore. Have seen this? The only ones I have seen, and this says A LOT, are "The Dark Knight" and "Ironman." I have only seen snippets of "Wall-E" even though it supposedly is my son's favorite movie. And a scene or two of "Kung-Fu Panda." I am distraught. I like to be up on movies.

But here's one movie I am up on. I got to see it at the Sundance Film Festival on Monday night with my sister. I actually really liked it. I didn't know who Sam Rockwell was before the movie and now I want to go and watch all his stuff. Is it weird I didn't know who he was? Is that like when I thought that one song went "Girlfriend in a corner, I know, I know, it's serious" but then my husband (see above) told me it was "Girlfriend in a coma" and I was like, "no it's not" and he was like "are you serious? are you SERIOUS?" and I was like, "yeah, the girlfriend is in a corner and she feels sad so it was serious." And he says, "you have got to be kidding me" and I wasn't because I really thought the girlfriend was in a corner. So then we had to call my niece who could win this show, we called her to see if she could help me plead my case. She couldn't stop laughing. And laughing.  And laughing.
So
Is it like that? That I don't know Sam Rockwell?

By the way, I got a book in the mail. My second book with a bow around it. It was a little weird because i was nursing my baby when it showed up on the bed next to me. A little elf delivered it. I didn't want to open it right then but I did anyway, with one hand and I had to be extremely careful no baby throw up got on it. TMI? Ugh. I know. What is wrong with me. I did open it. And I love the cover now. I wasn't so sure at first. But now I love it. Especially the back. You'll see what I mean when you see it. If you see it.

I also got my first book in paperback in the mail on Monday. I was secretly watching this show on the internet when it arrived. Don't tell anyone because I would never actually watch something like that and I don't know who Jason is or that Deanna might show up and try to get him back near the end. I have lots to do like write books and take care of kids and put on make up and do vigorous exercise like pilates and yoga and kickboxing. So it was very exciting to get my book in paperback. Now it's cheaper so I hope more people get to read it.

I think this is a long post. i hope my biggest fan likes it. Maybe he/she will send me another email soon so that I can post more. No pressure or anything. But really, I love you. 

The End.

After the Seasons Greetings! Here's a picture for you:



It's sort of our family greeting card if I did family greeting cards plus it doesn't have two other members of the family in it, but still! 
I hope you all had a happy holiday and a terrific new year.
Speaking of terrific new years, I like popcorn a lot!
What did you get for Christmas? 
I got some awesome books.
One that is particularly awesome is The Best American Short Stories 2008 edited by Salman Rushdie.
Awesome.
I'm halfway through it and I wish everyone was reading it with me so that I could talk about it in specifics.
Right now I just talk to Mr. Toddler and Mr. New Baby about it.
I'm like: What do you think about cloning?
They're like: More Milk!
I'm like: I know, huh.

I also got a wheat grinder. Not yet actually but I got the promise of a wheat grinder. Did you know some wheat grinders can grind peanuts and popcorn? Peanut butter on cornbread coming up.

I also got another book called American Lightning by Howard Blum. Actually I didn't get it, my husband did. I'm sort of reading it. I'm also sort of reading The Last Child in the Woods, Saving Our Kids from the Nature Deficit Disorder. I've actually been reading this book for about two years.
Don't worry about it.

And while we're at it, I have about twenty books stacked around me, including on my bed which is where I write (is that weird? I can't write at a desk. I mean I can but I don't like to).
My husband doesn't enjoy sleeping with books all over the place.
I don't get why.
The other day he woke up with Corduroy stuck on his face. If you haven't read Corduroy you are missing out big time. I sleep with Corduroy and Healthy Sleep Habits for Happy Babies every night. Plus a few others.

Anyway, happy seasons greetings from beyond.
Love, Me.