Category: The Voices in My Head

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

On By MezzoSherriIn Books Books Books, Life-Long Learning, The Voices in My Head, Topics of Study1 Comment

I mentioned last night that I have some hefty books coming up in my March and April challenge schedule. However, my first March book is a wee one, so I’m trying to knock out a couple more non-Around the Year titles in this liminal time when February turns to March. This novel by Rainbow Rowell is one of those quick reads I’ve squeezed into here.

As a fan and frequent-enough reader of YA, I’d heard Rowell’s name along the way, some years ago. I’d even heard of her debut novel, Eleanor & Park, and how incredibly well-loved (and critically well-received) it is. But I never got around to reading any of Rowell’s work until last year,* when an ampersand challenge category led me to pick up the famed debut.

Alas, I ended up being a bit of a contrarian with Eleanor & Park. I really enjoyed Rowell’s authorial voice and her references to 1980’s pop culture. But there was a lot in the core characterizations and plot motions that rang a bit too false for me. Still, I enjoyed Rowell’s authorial voice enough that I was perfectly happy to select her second novel to fill one of 2019’s categories.

Turns out I like the slightly less popular book more than the super-popular one.

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Veronica’s Still on Vacay

On By MezzoSherriIn Fat is Just an Adjective, Health at Every Size, Memoir, The Voices in My Head2 Comments

So, how’d that MRI go, when all was said and done?

Basically, everything went fine. The reading was all clear: no new areas of abnormality, so I’ve a clean bill of breast health till it’s time for my next mammogram.

The experience itself was, well, an experience.

Between last summer’s procedures and this latest scan, I’ve realized that I’m going to be spending time on the regular lying face down on medical tables with the girls hanging down through some sort of opening. Intellectually, I understand the use-value of this: gravity helps pull the breast tissue away form the rest of the chest wall, thereby making it easier to get a clear scan of the parts we’re wanting to scan.

Still, I feel as if some small part of my bodily dignity has died in this whole process, never to be resurrected again.

It is damn hard to feel like an empowered grown-up in this kind of set-up.

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Heard it In a Pop Song

On By MezzoSherriIn Memoir, Pop Goes the Culture, The Voices in My HeadLeave a comment

I had two alternate post titles tonight:

Tom Jones makes everything sound dead sexy

or

Tom Jones is a lying liar

More on that reasoning later. For the nonce, let me me unveil yet another way in which I am hopelessly art-and-media obsessed.

I’ve talked many times about how important music is to me and my life, and I think I’ve mentioned now and again how I’m the kind of old school dinosaur who still buys a fair proportion of music on physical CDs. But have I ever mentioned exactly how prodigious my CD collection is?

I don’t have a precise count right now*, but my best guess is around 1,800 or so. Across lots of different artists and genres–classical, Broadway, jazz, hip-hop. And lots and lots of stuff in the pop/rock/r&b vein. Lots.

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Two Strikes

On By MezzoSherriIn Memoir, Meta-Blogging, The Voices in My Head1 Comment

Well, as I feared and/or predicted, my dive into super-busyness did interrupt the blogging streak.

I’ll admit, I was kind of impressed with myself for getting Friday’s post up from the hotel room after a 4.5 hour drive from Boston to NYC. (Plus the last-minute housing crisis we had to negotiate, but that’s a story for another day.) But then, after a busy Saturday out-and-about, we decided to do something a little different and go out on the town!

Admittedly, it was to a game bar, so our #nerdcore rep remains intact. Still, after several hours of bar food, games and G&Ts, I just sort of forgot about blogging until we went lights out at around 11:30.*

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Over the Hill and In the Next Valley

On By MezzoSherriIn Memoir, Self-Acceptance, The Voices in My Head4 Comments

I had my annual eye check-up yesterday. The annual eye check-up that I hadn’t gotten round to doing for 24 months or so. (I’m not sure whether the best 2-word explanation for that would be: Momma lazy or Momma workaholic.)

Anyhow, this appointment marked a bit of a sea change from previous ones. I walked into my two prior appointments saying much the same thing: “You’re gonna tell me I need bifocals, but I don’t want ’em on account of vanity.”*

This year, my attitude was different: “It’s finally time for me to get those progressives.”

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Taking this Show on the Road

On By MezzoSherriIn Memoir, Meta-Blogging, The Voices in My Head1 Comment

The next ten days or so are going to be a true acid test for this new “write every day” pledge. We’ve got a quick weekend trip to see the Harry Potter Exhibit in NYC, and then the exact next day after getting home from that, I’m off for a six-day business trip.*

Ages ago, when I had a long vacation planned, I wrote a short series of things to auto-post while I was abroad. (Admittedly, the execution of that idea was a touch shaky, but hey: points for trying?) I’m sure the almost-daily ritual of me whining about not having a surplus of blogging ideas will give you a solid read on the current situation.

No, Virginia, I do not have any extra posts in the bank.

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Rambling (Wo)man

On By MezzoSherriIn Memoir, Self-Acceptance, Stuff about Stuff, The Voices in My Head2 Comments

I assume it’s snowing out there by now. I can’t confirm with my own reportage, because I’ve spent most of the day in bed. Yes, that Creeping Crud came roaring in on all cylinders overnight, so my day has mostly been about sleeping, hydration, a bit of iPad gaming, trying to read and not having the clear-headedness for that, medication, more hydration, and yes, more sleeping.

Not exactly the kind of day brimming with writing material. But I don’t want to drag my achy, germ-ridden body across the house to get the “box o’ writing prompts,” either.

So what’s a gal to do?

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I Never Thought I’d Live Past 20 (Well, 30)

On By MezzoSherriIn Flagrantly Feminist, Pop Goes the Culture, Self-Acceptance, The Voices in My Head3 Comments

A friend of mine and fellow blogger* has, upon occasion referred to herself as an “unfunny feminist“–riffing on and mocking the dismissive “Can’t you take a joke?” bullshit that so often erupts when we dare to read some bit of cultural quote-unquote fun through an anti-kyriarchal lens, only to observe (quelle surprise!) that said fun isn’t really fun or funny, and instead just reinscribes some horrific piece of the miasma of misogyny in which we all soak daily.

Now, I’m not gonna steal my friend’s slogan from her, but I gotta say that I am definitely feeling the “unfunny feminist” vibe today. (Maybe I’ll call my own expression of this kind of sentiment the “Humourless Hag” chronicles.)

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While Rome Burns

On By MezzoSherriIn Flagrantly Feminist, Practicing in the Heart, The Voices in My HeadLeave a comment

Quick hit tonight: a gloomy YAWP inspired by current events.

Two nights ago, friend put up a Facebook post alerting folks to the alternative programming option of watching The Breakfast Club at 9 PM on AMC. I commented that I was already in bed with a book. Yes, the big biography I’d been posting about earlier that evening.

Then I added a hashtag: #Escapism

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No, I’m Not Keeping ALL My Books

On By MezzoSherriIn Books Books Books, Stuff about Stuff, The Voices in My Head4 Comments

Wow, that Marie Kondo book thing hit a bit of a nerve. In addition to the article I posted two days ago, I’ve seen numerous more hot takes since then, from both sides of the “give away your books” debate (yes, purge ’em and no, keep ’em), to snarky twitter-meme roundups (one and two). They been propagated (and re-propagated) by enough of my book-loving friends on social media, that I can understand why a different friend of mine threatened to cut a bitch if she (to paraphrase)

saw that “Marie Kondo is wrong keep all your old books including the Y2K guide to AOL” article one more time.

Okay, she just promised to yell a lot, not to “cut a bitch.” Maybe that’s what I’ll do if I have to see these articles too many more times.

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