top ten tuesday: character swap

Because even if I don't update with something personal, I like to give you something to read. And because this topic is the bomb!  This week we pick the top ten literary characters you would like to switch places with for 24 hours.  Here goes!  Thanks to Broke & Bookish for the topic!

1. Anne Edwards from The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Because Anne rocks.  She's down-to-earth, she isn't overly sentimental, but she cares, a lot.  And she gets to go on a space voyage. And she loves her husband.  Did I mention she rocks?

2. Ransom from Lewis' Space Trilogy.  He gets to go to Mars AND Venus.  Plus he gets to meet Merlin.  I mean, who doesn't want that?

3. Thursday Next from Jasper Fford's Thursday Next series.  Despite all her troubles, I would trade places with her in an instant.  And SHE gets to trade places with a fictional character, so I'm sure she wouldn't mind at all.  Getting to book hop would be a dream!

4. Meg Murry from A Wrinkle in Time by L'Engle.  People think I'm calm and collected and self-assured.  I'm not.  I'm so much of Meg.  I think trading places with her would be comforting. To know that her life (fictional as it may be) turned out okay, and mine just might as well.

5. Yelena from The Study Series by Maria V Snyder.  Not only is she pretty awesome, but she gets the awesome guy.  And I would love to be loved by Valek. 

6. Ivy (The Archive) from The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.  Ivy is a living encyclopedia.  To know everything that has ever been written down, ever.  And she's just a little girl.  But she has a special link to Dresden (the only one who ever gave her a name), and I would love to have Dresden fighting to protect me.

7. Pippin or Merry from The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien.  No, I don't want to be Frodo, are you crazy?  And Sam, well, he has such a hard road, and he breaks my heart.  But Merry and Pippin, they are just adorable.  They grow, they become great, noble hobbits.  Who wouldn't want to join the fellowship?

8. Anne Elliot from Persuasion by Jane Austen.  Anne is my favorite.  I am most like Lizzy Bennett, but Anne, she is the one that I feel like I could live her story.  To know that a man couldn't stop loving me after eight years no matter how he tried, well, that's a love I'd like to experience.  Oh yes.  And she does get that amazing letter. And the scene at the concert...be still my heart!

9. Beryl from On Fortune's Wheel/Gwen from Jackaroo by Cynthia Voigt.  Both are from the Kingdom series, and I have a hard time picking.  I love them both because they are feisty, headstrong, apt to run off and do something crazy.  Both have to pay a high cost for their actions.  And yet, both end up content with life.  I'd like that. 

10. Bob from The Dresden Files by Butcher.  I know, I already picked a character from here, but Bob is Bob, and he's so wonderfully written, considering he is a disembodied spirit.  He's got spunk, he's got sass, and he's got a lot of scary know-how.  To hang out as him, helping Dresden, figuring out what he actually knows, that would be a riot.

And there you have it.  Ten characters I wouldn't mind being for 24 hours.  It's not the end-all list, but it's a fun start.  What about you?  Who do you want to switch places with?  Leave a comment and tell me!

top ten...

In honor of Broke & Bookish, who I totally borrowed some book quotes from, I'm going to post a top ten list of some of MY favorite quotes taken from the written story.  These are in no particular order. (though I will tell you the one by Lewis is perhaps my most favorite ever!)

1. But then there are those whose minds are merely a bouquet of stalks that bud as they learn new information—a new bud for each new fact—but yet they never open, never flourish.  They are the people of capital letters and full stops but never of question marks and ellipses…(The Book of Tomorrow by Ceclia Ahern)

2. Fate never promises to tell you everything up front.  You aren’t always shown the path in life you’re supposed to take.  But if there was one thing she’d learned in the past few weeks, it was that sometimes, when you’re really lucky, you meet someone with a map. (The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen)

3. There were many kinds of loneliness, she discovered. There was the loneliness that came from understanding but not being understood. There was the loneliness of having no one to banter or argue with, no one to be challenged by. Loneliness at night was different from the daylight loneliness that sometimes overwhelmed her in the midst of a crowd. She became a connoisseur of loneliness, and the worst kind of all, she discovered, came after a night when she dreamed of Isaac laughing.(Children of God by Mary Doria Russell)

4.  It has seemed to him that unhappiness had its own distinct scent, and suddenly that sour, stale smell crept into his nostrils. Or maybe it was just acid fumes from the wine and dust from old record sleeves. (False Mermaid by Erin Hart)

5.  He had also discovered the outermost limit of faith and, in doing so, had located the exact boundary of despair. It was at that moment he learned, truly, to fear God. (The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell)

6. On the other hand, all those doubts which I had felt before I entered the cottage as to whether these creatures were friend or foe, and whether Ransom were a pioneer or a dupe, had for the moment vanished.  My fear was now of another kind.  I felt sure that the creature was what we call “good,” but I wasn’t sure whether I liked “goodness” so much as I had supposed.  This is a very terrible experience.  As long as what you are afraid of is something evil, you may still hope that the good may come to your rescue.  But suppose you struggle through to the good and find that it also is dreadful?  How if food itself turns out to be the very thing you can’t eat, and home the very place you can’t live, and your very comforter the person who makes you uncomfortable?  Then, indeed, there is no rescue possible: the last card has been played.  For a second or two I was nearly in that condition.  Here at last was a bit of that world from beyond the world, which I had always supposed that I loved and desired, breaking through and appearing to my senses: and I didn’t like it, I wanted it to go away.  I wanted every possible distance, gulf, curtain, blanket, and barrier to be placed between it and me.  But I did not fall quite into the gulf.  Oddly enough my very sense of helplessness saved me and steadied me.  For now I was quiet obviously “drawn in.”  The struggle was over.  The next decision did not lie with me. (Perelandra by C.S. Lewis)

7.   The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance, but live right in it, under its roof." (Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver)

8.  If God is anything like a middle-class white chick from the suburbs, which I admit is a long shot, it’s what you do about what you feel that matters. (The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell)

9. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.(The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams)

10. There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing. (Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury)

take it back...

It has recently come to my attention that I’m a certain type of consumer…and that my best friend, Dara, is not the same kind of consumer.

Shocking, I know.  We aren’t identical, despite commonly held beliefs!

You see, I’m the sort of consumer who buys what she thinks she needs or wants, and, if I discover otherwise, I return the item.

Dara, on the other hand, ends up keeping the item. 

I’m in the process of training Dara not to hold on to these things.  For me, it’s a matter of getting my money back, and not having an item I don’t need (or want) taking up space.

For Dara, it’s a matter of, “I bought it, I’m stuck with it.” At least until she throws it out.

And I’m wondering, is the way we shop the way we look at life?

Do I take what life gives me, see if it fits, and if not, take it back for a refund?

Does Dara tend to just accept what life gives her, even if she never makes use of it?

And why don’t either of us make lemonade from our lemons?

I really don’t know, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about.

And don’t worry, I still fully intend to return stuff I don’t need, at least if it came from a store.

you know it's bad...

When you haven't blogged in so long that the entire interface looks different :P

Hi.  I'm Sara.  It's been a while since I've been here--a few months.  Not my longest stretch, but one that I am rather disappointed in.  I've had so many things I wanted to blog about, but then I get busy (gosh darn this working for a "living" sure cuts out a lot of the living you actually get to do!) and I realize I don't have the time or energy to say what I want.

I'm going to do better, at least, I'm going to try.  I just have to get over my "every post has to be epic" mentality.

Since March, I'm happy to report that my health got much better.  Between the various drugs, things eventually calmed down and are at least pretending to behave themselves.  I'm still working, and though it's not my favorite thing, I'll hang in there for a while.

I did start a new journey in June--I began to use the NurtiSystem program to help me start dropping pounds.  My sister had been using it for a few weeks and was seeing steady results, and when I examined how much I was already spending on food each month (considering how often I ate out because I didn't want to cook), it made a lot of sense.  I haven't told a lot of people for various reason.  A main reason is that while friends and family always tell you how supportive they are, you still feel like the world is right there, trying to get you to mess up.  And when it feels like people are expecting you to fail, it's a lot easier to just throw up your hands and give up.

Well, I've been on the plan for five weeks now, and I've lost 10 pounds.

Yep.  TEN!

I'm feeling pretty good.

The few people I have told have been very supportive, and even have helped me make good choices.  I appreciate them very much.  I especially appreciate how they have asked me about my progress and cheered me on with every pound that has been evicted.

And now I'm telling the whole world (well, the ones who read my blog at least).

Other than that, I've been busy planning our upcoming Moot for CleanPlace.  We are going back to Bear Trap Ranch this year (can I get an AMEN?), and our group will be, as always, amazing.  I am really looking forward to it, more than usual, I think because I'm working and need a break!

And I've been tripping down memory lane this week since I have to present my life story at work tomorrow.  I have some photographic proof that I was an adorable baby, and that I lived in the 80's (since I'm such a flower child and lover of folk music, some people wonder...).

Here's one of those pictures to entertain you until I come blog again: