Important info

I realize that I'm supposed to be writing about vampires right now, but I fell the need to report on a more serious issue. I have had quite an insane week or two. Both of my parents have been in the hospital for a full week. My mom went in to the ER on a Monday night two weeks ago because her hand was swollen and painful. They decided it was gout and sent her home. On Friday, her kidney doctor told her that it was not gout and to go back to the ER. She did, and they admitted her. It was cellulitous and needed IV antibiotics, so they started with that. Eventually her veins collapsed and they put in a pik line. The evening she was admitted, dad started feeling bad. He was weak, his speech was slurred, and he would break into a sweat every time he got up even though he was icy cold to the touch. On Saturday afternoon, he asked me to drive him to the ER. They ran every test known to mankind, and the final diagnosis was that he had a virus and was dehydrated. He was admitted to the hospital and put on an IV to rehydrate him. While he was there, they discovered that he had a magnesium deficiency and an ulcer. They did a colonoscopy, found three ulcers and cauterized them. He had been bleeding internally, which had contributed to his problems. He was just released yesterday (Friday). Mom's hand infection got into the bone, which is really bad apparently, and yesterday they transferred her to long term care for the next 4-6 weeks to try to treat the infection with continued IV antibiotics. If it doesn't work they'll end up doing surgery, which they really want to avoid. They want her under constant surveillance because if the infection gets into the blood, fast action will be needed or she might die. Fortunately, the place she's staying is really close to Lawrence's house, so that's convenient. On top of all this, Ethan and I started school this week. *sigh* I need a vacation already! :)

Books I've read lately

So I've read a few books lately that I've been wanting to share and now I will. You'll see a decided theme to the books, which might be one of the reasons I can't help but compare and contrast them.

First I read a book called "Bloody Good" by Georgia Evans. I was really excited about this book because it's about vampire Nazis infiltrating a small British village during WWII. What a great concept! Nazi vampires, it totally makes sense, am I right? They both pale, they both are super stylish, and they both have no conscience and kill indiscriminately! Sadly, I was very disappointed. The book was written in the omniscient format, and all the characters seemed to have the exact same thought patterns and speech mannerisms. I looked on Amazon, and most readers gave this book 4 stars, and quite frankly, I'm baffled. Also, in the middle of all the Britishness and stiff-upper-lippyness, there were a couple of extremely graphic sex scenes. It was very jarring. Not to mention the constant glaring grammar and spelling problems that made me want to get out a red pen, mark the corrections and send it back to the editor with a big 'F' written on the front.

Next I read a book called "Dust to Dust" by Heather Graham. This book was on the New York Time's best seller list, so I was astonished to see that on Amazon it has only received 3 stars with most of the reviews talking about how it falls flat. I loved it! The thing that captured my eye at the store was the subtitle; "This is the way the world ends." It is about the apocalypse, and about the first 3 people that have been chosen to prevent it. The book is free standing; although there will be more books in the series, and some of the characters in the book come from others of her books. She thoughtfully provides a list of books and which characters are in them at the beginning. My only complaint is that the story took a long while to get going. By the time the "twist" that some of the characters are vampires is revealed, I was long since like, "Yeah, no duh!" But that's OK, cause the book definitely left me ready for the next one, which doesn't come out till next summer.

After that, I really wanted to read a book called "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" by Malcolm Gladwell. I read another of his books a while back called "Outliers: The Story of Success" and I was just enthralled by it. It was all about the strange little things that lead to one person being successful while others aren't. So I was excited to get started on another one of his books, so I went to get before work one morning and...I couldn't find it anywhere. I STILL haven't found it. I have no idea where it's gotten to. But I had to have something to read, so I grabbed a book that Josh gave that I really had no interest in reading. I'd been putting it off as long as possible, but it looked like it's time had come. Some people might have heard of it, it's a book called "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer. I had been avoiding it because the movie was kinda lame and teenage angsty, and because practically every house I clean has all the books piled next to the wife's side of the bed and everyone I know even casually has gushed to me that every single person they know just LOVES it!!!! Any book that's that popular usually is not that great, in my humble opinion. (Except for the Harry Potter books, but that's just due to JK Rowling's pact with the devil.) So that said, I've actually been enjoying it somewhat. Possibly because it's better than the movie. The teenage angst and brooding isn't nearly so annoying when you know what's going on in their heads. I am a little annoyed by Bella and Edward going on two dates and then falling in irreversible eternal love. It just really doesn't work that way, and I was appalled by the "you're my life" sentiment of it all. I'm surprised people talk about Jacob so much from this book, because he's barely in the book. Maybe they're projecting future knowledge. I would also like to know why Bella's so freaking clumsy. Some people criticise Bella's lack of self esteem as being even farther down that a real teenager, but I really disagree. I think my self esteem was about that level as a teen. *shrug* I'm just at the climax now, so we'll see if I change my mind dramatically before the end.

Next time: Vampires and teenage girls; what's up with that?

Ah August

I really am going to do a picture post about my vacation, I swear it with the computer gods as my witness. I finally got around to trying to download the pictures and it turns out my SD card reader can't handle an 8 mg card. Every time I tried it, the computer crashed hard. There was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. It wasn't pretty. So, now I have to try to find what Mom did with the cord to plug the camera into the computer, and we'll see how that goes. Anyone who's looked into my house lately will see that I will need special equipment; ropes, harnesses, those little hats with the lights on the front, some Sherpas, and a fair supply of rations. Ugh.

Arkansas was just how I remember, which is to say boring and lame. My cousin was an all-right guy, but I don't really see us spending Christmas together or anything like that. He remembers teasing me when I was very little because I said flyer instead of flower. I have since rectified that problem and have no recollection of my past errors.

I saw the new Harry Potter movie last night, and I thought it was pretty good. I'm kinda over the whole Harry Potter thing, I guess JK Rowling's contract with Satan must have run out or something. But I saw it anyway and enjoyed it. I especially though it was really pretty. I haven't read the book in so long that I can't remember it well enough to get angry over all the stuff they left out, so I probably enjoyed it a lot more than a number of people out there.

I'm sick and tired of my home and visiting teachers and companion all trying to contact me in the last few days of the month to schedule visits. I think I'll make a rule that I don't accept calls past the 23rd or something like that. I like this plan. I think it'll work.