Tuesday

I've been doing a lot of thinking, knitting, and reading lately (thank you, end of finals).  This weekend will be one of my first ones off in a while so I'm hoping to be able to get a little crafty and creative, and hit up the Grad party of one of the amazing ladies I work with at the middle school.  Until the time comes for organized creativity, I leave you with this post.

Thinking:
I was offered an amazing job/promotion at one of the (many) places where I work.  It would mean working full-time, a roughly $2 an hour raise, being in charge of co-workers in addition to clients, paid time off options, great insurance...etc.  So why am I hesitating?  For the summer, it'd be perfect, but I'm planning to return, hopefully on-campus, to school in the fall.  I think I can make it both the job and school work, but I'm nervous that it might delay my earning a bachelor's degree or take priority over me actually completing school.  I think it's just something I need to give some serious thought.  My house manager is going to get annoyed quickly because I plan on asking tons and tons of questions to make sure that I have everything sorted out in my head.

Knitting:

I have not knit in...it feels like it's been at least a year.  Cleaning out my closet and car, I've stumbled across so many partially completed scarves and blankets (I'm not super talented, ha ha).  Picking up my knitting needles every time I'm just watching Netflix or a movie is something I've been working on.

Reading: 

• Shades of Grey trilogy by E.L. James

• Cheesy, ridiculous, over-the-top, addicting.  Finished the three books in less than three days.  Judge away.  Don't even care.  It was a super easy read and it was nice to see what all the fuss is about.  I really, really, really want someone to discuss the series with...so I might have to work on that.

• Outside the Lines by Amy Hatvany

• Just finished this one for book club next Monday.  It's about a girl/woman and the relationships she has with her father, who is an artist struggling with some pretty serious demons.  The story is told in present and past time from the point of view of Eden and her father, David.
• It was an easy read, but nothing too special.  I'm interested to see what all the other ladies in the book club thing because I'm the youngest one by...roughly...25 years?

• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

• Re-reading this one for a different book club.  I've always loved this book and it was nice to have an excuse to pick it up since several years have passed from my initial reading.  I am more than excited to discuss it with people and to make my first, actual appearance at this particular book club after joining last summer.

So this is/will be my life other than work for the next week or so.  Hoping to finish the blanket by next week and The Bell Jar by this weekend.  Any suggestions for new books?  I just bought Why We Broke up by Daniel Handler, with illustrations by Maira Kalman, on impulse when I was at Target the other day.

The cover just grabbed me and I really liked the illustrations.  I know next to nothing about this book though, so I'll try to keep updated on my thoughts as I read and/or finish it.

Also, has anyone heard anything about Toni Morrison's newest book, Home?  The synopsis, which I am now stealing in entirety from Amazon, says:

America’s most celebrated novelist, Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison extends her profound take on our history with this twentieth-century tale of redemption: a taut and tortured story about one man’s desperate search for himself in a world disfigured by war.

Frank Money is an angry, self-loathing veteran of the Korean War who, after traumatic experiences on the front lines, finds himself back in racist America with more than just physical scars. His home may seem alien to him, but he is shocked out of his crippling apathy by the need to rescue his medically abused younger sister and take her back to the small Georgia town they come from and that he’s hated all his life. As Frank revisits his memories from childhood and the war that have left him questioning his sense of self, he discovers a profound courage he had thought he could never possess again. 
A deeply moving novel about an apparently defeated man finding his manhood—and his home.

I'm sure that I'll enjoy "Home," as I haven't read a Toni Morrison book that I've finished and thought, "that was pointless."  Someone should read it in the next week and give me their thoughts and opinion.