Yellow Wallpaper

Friday night I didn't want to come home from work because the kids were here. I just wanted to come home to an empty house and not have to fix anyone dinner or anything. It didn't help that I was out of groceries and out of good meal ideas. Finally I decided to make creamed tuna and serve it with leftover rice that was sitting in the fridge; it was a major hit with the kids, surprisingly. Everyone had two helpings. Last night turned out to be a better night than I thought it would after all. I realized the other day that part of why I feel like I have blogging writer's block lately is because I spend so much of my time at work, but I can't write about work. My job is not great for many reasons, but I don't dare blog about it. I'm also still trying to figure out my emotional balance in order to not let my job dominate my life. It's hard sometimes. For a while I was only listening to NPR in the car. Then last year I switched to listening to pop music on th

I feel like I'm still trying to figure out what my priorities are and how to best use my time. I know this is a universal problem and that no one has the time or other resources needed to accomplish all that they would like. It's just that I used to feel like I had a better handle on things and now the last two years of my life feel like a constantly shifting landscape I'm still trying to navigate. Last night I worked late and didn't get home until 9:30. My original plan had been to go right to bed by 10:30 and catch up on sleep. Instead, I started chatting with a friend on Facebook and we played a round of Words with Friends. I stayed up later than I had planned to. On the one hand, I needed the sleep. On the other hand, I also needed to talk to someone. For a while now I've been debating the value of my time, because I spend a lot of time chatting online with this particular friend. I value our friendship. I need connections in my life and I don't feel like

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Steadman I love a good historical novel that I can really escape into; this one one really fit the bill as far as the plot went, especially for the first part of the book. I really liked the characters and the action in the beginning, until it became clear that there really wasn't a good way to resolve the story. I still have mixed feelings about how the book ended. Generally, I liked it quite a lot but it was not an easy read. Blame by Michelle Huneven This book surprised me. I was expecting a different tone and style of writing based on the fact that I found it through Amazon when it was suggested as a similar book to another one I read last year. Despite the fact that the plot seems like the sort of melodramatic problem novel that I sometimes enjoy as a guilty pleasure, the quality of writing was much higher than that and the story more complex. Once I got used to the fact that I was not reading the book I had expected, I really enjoyed i