Book, books, and more books

So as you may be able to tell from the last entry I've been spending a lot of time reading as of late. With over an hour commute on the metro/bus each morning and evening I have had some delightful chance to read. So I thought I'd tell you what I'm reading and what I think about it:


An Accomplished Woman by Jude Morgan: I have been ashamed to admit it in the past, but I'll confess I am a fan of Jane Austin novels. Unfortunately having read all of her works I find that I'm like a drug addict stranded on a desert island in need of a fix. Luckily there is the occasional book like An Accomplished Woman that drifts onto shore to help me cope. This book is delightfully light and for women like me, worth a read.



The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho: I fell in love with Coelho when I read his Book The Alchemist. My hopes for this novel became particularly high when a woman on the metro saw me reading this and gushed about how much she enjoyed the book and likes to reread it to connect with its ideas. I will say I like the concept of getting out of comfort zone to come to a new truth. I enjoyed how the ending brought a new depth and meaning to the entire book. But all in all, I didn't feel the same way I did when I finished The Alchemist--like I had been given a whole new perspective on living.


No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy: I find Cormac McCarthy's writing style absolutely captivating and his stories gruesome and disturbing, but maybe still worth the telling. While in India I was consumed by reading The Road, to the point where I stayed up one night under my sheet, flashlight in hand to finish it. His books have a depth that easily insights interesting conversation. I only wish I had people around me I could talk to about the book like I did when I read The Road.


Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray: As a snobby sociologist I scoffed at the implications this book has on the continuation of gendered norms. However, a boyfriend once read this book and claimed that it was truer than the Old Testament. When ranking truthfulness of scripture for him it was: The Book of Mormon, The New Testament, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, and The Old Testament. On his recommendation I purchased the book at a used bookstore and read through many of the chapters, but never finished it. This summer I dug that old copy out of my box of books and read all the way through. It has surely opened my eyes and given me a new lens to use when viewing romantic relationships. As the author admits these patterns aren't true of everyone all the time. But I feel like I've had a peak into the other team's playbook, but rather than beating them, it will help me play better with them.


Dune by Frank Herbert: A friend and I decided we would read Dune for a book club with just the two of us. As I've been carrying around this book with me I have gotten into so many conversations with random people about how great this book is. I had no idea. Apparently growing up my nerdy friends were either (a) not nerdy enough or (b) not good friends because NO ONE EVER TOLD ME ABOUT DUNE before now! The characters are layered, the world fascinating but not too confusing, the writing engaging, and the plot intense. My metro rides have never seemed so short! I felt like for a time there I was rambling in the Dune world. I have yet to pick up the next in the series because I have things in this world that do need to get done.


Bonds That Make Us Free by Terry Warner: I was introduced to this book my freshmen year of college in a Philosophy class. I was intrigued so I bought the book, started it, but never finished it. While reading it I look back on my actions in past relationships and see the problems we had in a whole new light. I wonder how different those relationships would have been had I known then what I know now. Not that I feel regret, just a desire to change now. I'm still confused on how to escape cycles of self deception in my own life, but I am looking forward to trying.

I heart my local library

I have been wanting to write up this blog entry for awhile now, but I have finally pulled together the pictures I took one day while at the library and my thoughts on the topic. So here it is, my nerdy confession: I LOVE my local library.

Soon after I moved to Maryland I found that I did not have many friends (see previous post if you’re feeling sad for me—I did find friends). But job hunting left me with a need to rejuvenate and not many people to go out with to do that. Well, never fear my friends. Your local librarian is always available to be your BFF!

I took my photo ID and a piece of mail, and delightedly drove to the Germantown Library down the road. I signed up and got a card to their “cool kids club” a.k.a. the Montgomery County Library System. In case you’ve never visited the Germantown Library let me enumerate the many wonderful features (which may also exist at your local library):

1—There are tons of books to choose from! While it has taken a little while after graduating, my thirst to read was soon revived. Thanks to this library I have been able to quench that thirst!

2—If the Germantown Library doesn’t have a copy of a book you want, but another Montgomery County library does you can request it! I have a few friends who have heard about my recent love affair with the library and have suggested a few books of their own. But those books weren’t in Germantown. No worries! I got online and requested them. A week or so later I got an email that the books were ready to be picked up and checked out.

3—This library has free wi-fi and quiet rooms to work in. This became critical when I needed a place to focus on job hunting and a place to get some of my consulting work done. Thank you for shh-ing the patrons for me old lady!

4—Last but not least, they have a large selection of DVDs and you can check them out for the small fee of free-ninety nine. Which means if you’re anything like me you have a handful of movies you’ve always wanted to give a try, but were too cheap to rent from Blockbuster. Never fear. Librarians LOVE cheap people, because they always return their stuff on time. And just when I didn’t think things could get any better I found out that when you return your books one day late they give you the benefit of the doubt and don’t charge you! Man they are nicer than my kindergarten teacher, well….wait I wouldn’t go that far. Mrs. Wright was sweeter than apple pie, but yeah they are SO nice.

So, while I don’t have anything too poignant to share I must say I have felt more at home since becoming a regular patron of the G-town Library. There is a sense of community I feel when I am there—something I miss dearly after moving out the geographical boundaries of the Food Co-op in Utah. So, yeah, thanks Ben for hooking us up with that.

I meant to post this with some pictures I took weeks ago, but it's been weeks. I'll get around to adding the photos later (I promise Skoticus!) because I hear they make it more interesting to read when there are photos!

The Unexpected Teacher

In my yoga teacher training we talked about teachers that come in and out of our lives. In that particular lecture we were talking about personalities who somehow manage to cut deep to our nerves and bring out the worst in us and how those personalities seem to recur again and again in our lives to give us opportunities to practice patience.

Well, this summer I met a teacher, but he wasn’t that type of teacher (thank goodness). He is easy going, quick to be pleased with life, and fun to be around. As an intern in the DC area his influence was brief, but meaningful. He, I, and two other friends spent the summer frolicking around the district enjoying the sights, sounds, and tastes of a summer in the nation’s capitol. In that group of friends I was reminded what an interesting, powerful, attractive woman I am. It feels that this summer I was able to shed my winter coat of self doubt and discouragement. And I learned something I had somehow forgotten along the way: to enjoy the present.



With the end of his internship our little group, while not completely disbanded, doesn't have quite the same dynamics that made it so fun. While a part of me is sad to see this summer come to a close, I feel overwhelmingly grateful.

With his parting I have been feeling a bit reflective. In this state of mind I have thought of other teachers who have come and gone in my life. That is the sad thing with good teachers in my past, they taught me what I needed and then our paths tended to part. I’ve been working to let go of the bitterness of the parting and simply reflect on the sweetness of the interaction.



As some of you may know I have finally grown tired of the hobo lifestyle. As a result, I have started looking for a room in an apartment with other LDS women. I’ve already been to see one place and as I knocked on the door I thought to myself, “I wonder what future teachers live in this house? Will they be a part of my life’s education? And if so, what do they have to teach me?”

Transitions

“I hate transitions.” I write with a red pen on my legal pad. I’m supposed to be using that pen to edit the latest version of this Strategic Document before emailing it to me supervisor for feedback, but instead I’m using it to silently vent on this piece of paper.

My bad writing habits haven’t gone away. I cringe as I think of Larry’s comment, “Need a transition here.” on draft after draft of my thesis. Sometimes he just resorted to writing the transition sentences for me. As I read the paper in front of me I see that it is starting to shape up, but I need to write a few sentences that connect the paragraphs to each other.

In college one of my favorite writing teachers had us rush write three separate pieces in class. (Rush write means you write whatever is on your mind as fast as you can, not worrying about grammar, punctuation, flow. The point is to just get ideas down on paper and fast.) Our assignment that night was to write a few sentences to connect those three rush writes. The connecting sentences were to be bolded while the rush writes were to remain unedited and in normal text. The next class period he made us read each others' transitions. Some were brilliant, mine were mediocre. He said that it is in the transitions our most creative writing happens.

Is it the same with life—is it in our transitions our most creative living happens? I feel like I’ve been living in transition for the last few months: waiting to finish the last of my thesis and graduate, attending one random month of yoga teacher training, and now living as a hobo in other people’s homes while I job search. I re-read that sentence, “I hate transitions.” I feel that so deeply. At first graduation felt a little scary, the unknown future exciting, my yoga training intriguing, and this move to DC adventurous. Now it all feels stressful. In the last few months I haven’t been able to put on the autopilot. Frankly, it’s been exhausting.

It’s like when you first start dating someone you really like. There is that in-between stage when he’s more than a friend, but not your boyfriend. My married friends talk about how fun that stage is. I think they have completely forgot what it’s like to actually date (or what it’s like to be going to bed alone for that matter). It’s terrible. Sure, holding hands for the first time can be exhilarating and that first kiss delightful. But the chances for you to transition into a dating relationship is about as good as your chances to become an unused phone number in his contacts list. If this is the best part of any given relationship, then I’d prefer to stay single. Maybe I’ll just run off and spend the rest of my life single in some yoga ashram in India.

I’m told I’m supposed to enjoy the journey, but there comes a time in any journey when—after all those hours on a plane—you just want to arrive. Right?

I do hate transitions. They’re uncomfortable and apparently I was never very good at them. I'd rather be here or there, not somewhere between here and there.

One Way to World Peace

So, I’ve started my consulting position at Management Sciences for Health (MSH). I’ve been hired to write up a Strategy Document for their Family Planning and Reproductive Health Unit. In order to write this document I’ve spent my first few days reading lots and lots of documents about the projects MSH has done regarding family planning and reproductive health. Yesterday I ran across this sentence from one of those documents, “Reproductive health therefore implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when, and how often to do so.”

Now don’t get me wrong the Family Planning and Reproductive Health Unit of MSH is providing many evidence-based programs that help reduce the mortality and morbidity rates of mothers and the mortality rate infants. (Can you tell I've been reading a lot about this subject?) And I find that that services they provide are an important part of health care.

With that said, I also want to say that I just love that I am working for an organization that supports satisfying sex lives for people across the globe. And I can't help but smile when I told a friend and she commented, “I also feel that happy sex is a vital step in ensuring world peace.”

Confessions of an Addict

OK, so I’ve never really been addicted to a television show before. Well, I take that back—there was X-Files while I was in high school, and that phase before I moved out of Provo when I watched a large portion of Sadie’s DVD collection of Star Gate.

But I have to say I am addicted to this season of 24. It all started when I was living in Jana’s house and each Monday Brooks, Jana, and I would sit down and watch the show. I moved down to DC and missed a few episodes until I realized that the Premonts were avid fans.


Brother and Sister Premont are in charge of the young single adults in our stake and each Monday they have the us all over for Family Home Evening. The lesson, activity, and treats are usually done by 8:00 or 8:30 and I am the only one who sticks around to watch 24 with the family at 9:00. Carolane (their daughter) set the rule, “NO TALKING during 24.” This is the one and only rule, and I think she and I are the biggest culprits when it comes to breaking it. But I think the rule actually reads “No talking about anything except this episode of 24.” During the show we’ll exclaim things like, “I can’t believe he just did that!” or “No! No! No! This is all wrong.” We’ll discuss our hunches in great detail or recap intense moments over the commercial breaks. The whole thing is just delightful. (I feel I’ve been using that adjective a lot, but that’s really how it is).


I didn’t realize how deep this addiction ran until last Monday when I missed our weekly tradition (see previous post for details). And right around 8:45, 9:00 I was checking my watch thinking “Oh we didn’t set the DVR to record 24!” Too shy to admit my addiction I let it go and watched the episode on Hulu later in the week, but it just wasn’t the same watching it alone on my computer. When I ran into the Premonts at church we had our “Can you believe what Jack is doing these days??” talk. And they expressed a similar sentiment that it just wasn’t as fun without the entire peanut gallery.

So, there it is. My name is Liann and I’m addicted to 24. There are four episodes left, so I don’t plan to quit anytime in the next month. I’m not sure what the Premonts and I will do when the season is over—stop hanging out after FHE I guess. Sad. But hey I’ve still got four more intense hours of Jack and the rest of the crew.

The Delightfully Awkward

Ted and Sheryl (the couple I’m living with) had another couple over for dinner during General Conference Weekend. In the course of the conversation the other couple mentioned that they knew a young, single, Mormon, male, Foreign Service Officer, who happens to be in the DC area currently studying Serbian before he leaves for his next assignment. The four of them decided it would be a great idea to introduce us. I recognized that there wasn’t really a way out of this, so I agreed to the set up, asking that they simply give him my number and have him call me.

No, no, no. They would have none of that. It was as if they didn’t trust the two of us with something as important as this. And by being there, somehow the relationship would have a better chance.

So, Sheryl insisted on having the three of them (the couple and the poor boy) over for dinner! As the day approached Sheryl made her finest fare, set out her best china, and even had water glasses and wine goblets (full of carbonated peach drink). I have to say I was secretly looking forward to the evening not because I wanted to meet this guy, but because I knew this would be delightfully awkward.

And I was not disappointed. I don’t quite know how to tell this story in such a way that captures the whole evening, but imagine four people over the age of 50 sharing stories from the good old days, making references to Liberace, lecturing the boy about the length of his hair, and conversing about the latest shortage of canned pumpkin. Then there was the two of us occasionally trying to strike up conversation, but finding almost every attempt interrupted by the four of them wanting to take part. After dinner we played a game a Yahtzee where Ted did this classic victory dance when he rolled his second yahtzee. (Sometimes I just wish I had a video of my life so I could occasionally replay it for other people.) The guests all left by midnight. Sheryl and Ted said nice things about the boy as we turned off the lights, headed up to bed, and left the massive pile of dishes in the kitchen for the morning.

I know I can’t post this without saying at least something about how the set up actually went. It was very sweet of the four of them to go through all the trouble to introduce us. Luckily the boy seems very nice, interesting, attractive, and has a great sense of humor. I can understand why he was dreading such an evening! We’ll be going out next week, but don’t expect any update. I’m not big on blogging about my dating life. This just happened to be too good of a story not to share!