Our 2nd Anniversary & the Power of the Universe

I had this dream the other night about Bad Love. Up until that point, I couldn't even tell you the last time I had thought about him let alone had a dream about him. It was very strange. We met at what I think was a cafe and he sat in front of me and told me how he wanted to make it work out. All I kept saying was, "what about Phil?" He eventually starts getting frustrated with this answer and stops talking. It's one of those heavy, awkward silences that's almost painful. I get his attention again and I go, "You know what? I don't need you anymore."

And just like that, he got up and left. Then, I woke up.

"Been around the world so many times,I'm of the air, I'm of the sky. I wonder what my feet need the ground for, no one sing lullabies no more."

Fast forward to last night when my friend Catie and I were working on editing my latest manuscript because I promised myself that this was the year I was going to publish as much as I could. It's another manuscript that I had written and worked on and off on for several years...I would just always get nervous having people read my stuff. Which is really stupid when I think about how much of my stuff is out there for people to read. Anyway, this leads to discussion of Bad Love and the dream I had.

And then...it happened. When Bad Love and I were dating, he drew a picture of the Eiffel Tower for me. I so loved it. It was beautiful and it was my favorite place-- PARIS! It was the one thing I kept from that relationship over the years. It lived in a book case and it matched two more drawings I had acquired from a thrift store of the Arc de Triomphe and Sacre Coeur. Phil came into the room holding the broken frame and apologizing that it was the strangest thing, it just toppled out of and off the bookcase, breaking into four different pieces. Every other picture that's in there is still there, including the one that was in front of the drawing. Phil also had no idea what I was talking about to Catie at that moment because we were facebook messaging.

How creepy is that? The universe is very clearly wrapping up a brief chapter of my life that I turned into an extremely long chapter by using Bad Love as an excuse to date tool bag wannabe band boys.

Today also marks the two year anniversary of when Phil and I sat in an Applebee's drinking and eating hamburgers and playing never have I ever with a napkin. We were "official" by the end of that date and I think that was really only our 3rd or 4th date overall. We pretty much met and that was it, the rest were just formalities. Two years later, having backpacked across Europe together, gone to Disney World, adopted a dog and bought a house-- I can say that we have definitely been busy :0).

We spent the day today shoveling out from the monster blizzard we had and recuperating. I actually took a nap today that how run down and tired I feel with all that's going on. I'm thankful to have a snow day tomorrow and I'm also thankful that I got to be snowed in on my anniversary with the man I love, our dopey dog and our silly cats. It was definitely one of those super awesome weekends where you didn't have much of anything to do and you just got to be with your person.

Getting to watch Molly almost somersault backwards because she got stuck in a snow drift on our deck was also pretty priceless.  

Coming January 22, 2016

In these last ten years in Boston, Lorelei Winston has achieved everything she ever wanted, and has finally left the past behind. With a fabulous apartment, a well-known fiancé, and a successful art career, the last thing on her mind is a return to her hometown. Then comes the phone call that changes everything. Lorelei's childhood friend, Cole, has killed himself, and his family asks her to return for his funeral. As Lorelei makes her way to New Jersey, Cole begins to appear to her, describing the last decade of his life. Is it all in her mind? Or is it something supernatural-- and perhaps even sinister?

 

The reason why I haven't been posting and why I still owe Disney World an entire post, is this. It comes out in two weeks. I can't tell you how I have wrote, re-wrote, questioned...all of it...so much. The end result may be a little dramatic and my main lady really does go through a lot, but I think it will be appreciated for the chick litty, dark romance that it is. 

 

That said, any book blogs want a review copy? E-mail me if you'd like a copy to review: katherine [at] katherinekb [dot] com  .

Book Review: Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Phil took me to see this in theaters over my Christmas break. I love every minute of it, largely because my girl, Reese was the leading role. I also liked it because it showed a woman's insane journey back to herself following traumatic experiences within her own life. I identified with Cheryl greatly because I too have had periods in my life where I was totally lost and heartbroken.

The book in comparison was much more detailed than what they were able to fit in the two-hour movie. What I appreciated most about the book was Cheryl's honesty even in the grittiest of parts. It made her real and greatly humanized her for me.

Overall, I going in just greatly admired her balls for walking the PCT by herself and then as I read, I admired her even more for writing such a candid memoir about her experience. This is a must read, for sure.

This review refers to the Vintage Books first edition from March 2013 of WILD  by Cheryl Strayed with ISBN 0307476073.

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Grief, Not Guilt by Jeanann Verlee

I wish you a tongue scalded by tea.
A hangover. Burnt toast. Stubbed toes. A lost job.
I wish you weeping in the shower. Salt in the sugar bowl.
A wishlist of sorrows. Grief, not guilt.
"Hole in your favorite coat. Stain on the good suit.
Arthritis for your joints. A broken guitar string at every show.
I wish each breath a little harder. Each workday
an hour longer. I wish your heart a thousand breaks.
All your sports teams, bottom rank. I wish your friends
go quiet. The leaves brown above your head.
A thunderstorm every morning. Nothing but pearls
when you shop for her diamond. I wish you bad knees,
a sore back. Empty sheets. A ghost to haunt your house.
A tub brimming with mud. Closet stuffed with too-small shoes.
Flat beer. Sour milk. Weak coffee. I wish you
flat tires, soggy pasta, a tax audit to fail.
Bent forks, dull knives. A hangnail for every finger.
I wish you a room wallpapered with my photographs.
A chamber filled with empty bassinets."

Pretty much, pretty much. 

The Search for Mr. Fabulous: Olivia Pope Says It Best

"I am not a toy that you can play with when you're bored or lonely or horny. I am not the girl the guy gets at the end of the movie. I am not a fantasy. If you want me, earn me! Until then, we are done."

- Olivia Pope, Scandal

Book Review: I Don't Care About Your Band by Julie Klausner

I read Klausner's book following my breakup from yet another guy claiming musician. I read it solely based on two facts: 1.) my book club had picked it for our April meeting and 2.) because of the slightly long-winded subtitle, "What I Learned From Indie Rockers, Trust Funders, Pornographers, Felons, Faux-Sensitive Hipsters, And Other Guys I've Dated."

I absolutely loved her opening chapter where she compares us to Miss Piggy and these men to Kermit. I found myself laughing to myself as I read. There's is a lot of truth to it. Miss Piggy was awesome and spent a lot of time chasing Kermit, a guy that would never really work to make anything work with her because he was content being with his friends (sans attachment) and working on making his show and it worked as long as Miss Piggy didn't ask for more. But that's the thing when you love someone or even really like someone, eventually you do want more than that. I have spent a large expanse of my dating life going after these guys that have no real sense of obligation, adulthood or anything other then the need they feel to be sitting by the swamp mindlessly strumming their banjo a la Kermit the Frog. 

Klausner really nailed what it is like to be a 20-something trying to navigate the pool of toads in search of the prince. She does it sarcastically and with a great sense of humor as she candidly describes her failed attempts at romance with all sorts of guys that just, well, seemed absolutely clueless. 

What made me want to stop reading her book was when I got to the parts where Klausner seems to have lost her sense of self and overall, her standards for herself. It's one thing to get so wrapped up in someone that you don't really realize how crappy he's treating you until you finally have that moment of clarity, but with a lot of what Klausner writes about, she openly says how there were guys she was with that she didn't even like and often slept with just to prove something. The worst being the guy that used to abuse her that she sleeps with again years later or that one night stand she gets into where she goes home the next morning completely infested with bed bugs. Standards, we need to hold on to those!

Overall, I enjoyed the book despite those sections where I just wanted to grab her and shake her. It was also refreshing to get to the end of the book and not have her end it with a fairy-tale romance of her thirties because that's not how it's always going to happen. Your 30's are not going to be the magical time where it all comes together just like your 20's haven't been either. 

Score: 3 out of 5

Book Information: I Don't Care About Your Band by Julie Klausner is available for purchase on amazon with ISBN 1592405614 from Gotham Publishing. It was reprinted in February 2010.