"Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place."
-- Unknown
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Monday, May 11, 2009

A play, a book, some sunshine and a movie: My weekend in review

Wow. You guys were a busy bunch of bloggers this weekend. I went down my blog list, clicking on each new post and somewhere around 32 my Internet Explorer decided to call it quits. You froze my computer! It couldn’t process the overwhelming number of posts that I have to catch up on. I’ll have to try again later.

I trust that you all had a fabulous weekend and a well deserved Mother’s Day (if that applies to you.) Mine was everything I could have hoped for.

Friday night, my friend Kelley and I grabbed some dinner at a local place called CJs. Its one of those cute little neighborhood grilles, right off the town square. Great atmosphere and even better food. Then we headed over to the theater to see the play “Lying in State.” And you know what? I didn’t find it all that risqué. Not that I’m that surprised. Sure, there were some choice four-letter words, references to exotic dancers and one character who was constantly strung out on some form of prescription pills (pain, anti-depressant, anti-anxiety… a combination of them all) But you know what? It was pretty dang funny. Oh, and after the play, I may or may not have consumed a huge, chocolate-dipped waffle cone from Dairy Queen before calling it a night.

Then there was Saturday. Glorious, divine, wonderful Saturday. I slept in until I absolutely could not stand to lie there any longer. Then I grabbed a pitcher of ice water and parked my lazy butt here:


With this:
My hand looks freakishly large there... weird. And it doesn't even look like it's attached to me.

Its no hammock, but it definitely proved to be a comfortable enough retreat. And it would have been perfect, had I not forgotten one important detail. Unlike books, Kindles need to charge. Especially when you read them for prolonged periods of time. Obviously, mine had not been plugged up for quite some time and about five minutes into my relaxing Saturday, my screen went blank. Great.
Lucky for me, I have a stash of books on my bookshelves that I’ve yet to read – so when I went inside to plug up Mr. Kindle, I grabbed this off the shelf:



And I am so glad I did. Like every other Palahniuk book I’ve read, Lullaby is crazy good. I still have a few chapters left to read, but I’m sure there will be some insane twist at the end that will leave me speechless. It’s a story about a culling song that appears in a common book of poems. When read aloud, the song kills anyone who hears it. A journalist who is investigating strange deaths among children comes across it and (through trial and error) discovers that it doesn’t even have to be spoken aloud. With strong enough intent, someone can kill just by thinking the song. I’m not going to tell you anymore. Trust me when I say it’s well worth the read.

Here is where I throw in the disclaimer that I always use when talking about Palahniuk: He’s not for everyone. His style is brash, often vulgar and very twisted. Dark comedy at it’s best. If you prefer a lighter, happier read – look elsewhere.

After a few hours outside, I decided that 92 degrees was a little too warm to lounge comfortably much longer. So, I retreated inside, to the cool bliss of the air conditioner and an afternoon filled with House DVDs. I told you I was going to be a bum this weekend.

Sunday was pretty great, too. Church, followed by an afternoon with my boy. We lounged around awhile, then grabbed some Mexican (and maybe some more Dairy Queen) before going to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I’m not sure that it was as good as the others, but it definitely gave a little more insight into the mind of one of my favorite characters. I’d say it was worth the ticket price. (Not that I even know how much that is…Kevin never lets me pay for anything. I think he thinks I’m poor.)

So there you have it. An incredibly long breakdown of my fantastically lazy weekend. Maybe next weekend will be more exciting... or maybe it will be a carbon copy of this one.

23 comments:

RileyScott said...

Sounds like a great weekend. I see you have the Kindle. Do you like it? I've been thinking about picking one up, but I've held back due to lack of titles I enjoy. I'm sure that will change though, so please let me know.

I did a review of my impressions of the wolverine movie on my blog, let me know if you agree, disagree...or don't whatever.

glad you had a great weeekend.

Unknown said...

I LOVE Chuck Palahniuk. I first read Invisible Monsters in high school and was hooked :)

~j said...

lazy weekends are the best.

Kim said...

MMMMMMMMM dairy queen. What a great weekend that sounds like. I'm envious of the kindle. I would like one but since going back to work have little time to read.

Sally's World said...

wow, what a great weekend, sunshine makes all the difference!

Children of the 90s said...

I love that book! I'm curious about the Kindle, too, I've been sort of coveting my friend's.

rachaelgking said...

Fantastically lazy weekends are the BEST kind... hands down. Even if they end with kitty farts.

septembermom said...

Sounds like a wonderful weekend! 92 degrees would be nice. It's chilly here right now. Your lounge chair would be one of my favorite places to chill and relax. The Wolverine movie looks good, but I have to say I have a big crush on Hugh Jackman!

H.K. said...

You had a much better weekend than me! The only high light for me was Mother's Day.

I'm always looking for good books, so I'll be checking out that book you recommended.

Lacey said...

It sounds like a wonderful and well-deserved weekend!

I'm definitely going to add Lullaby to my list... Unfortunately I can never find any Palahniuk books at my local library, so think my next book run will have to be downtown to find this one!

Anonymous said...

I love the hand comment!
M

Unknown said...

That sounds like a terrific weekend! I too love Palahniuk and have a friend that actually met him and still corresponds. He is a freakishly intelligent man! I enjoyed "Lullaby" but my favorite Chuck book will always be "Choke"!

hebba said...

I will definitely have to put that on my reading list. (WIth the legnth of that to-read list, I will never be able to die)

scarlethue said...

Sounds like a fun weekend to me! I love how you heard that play was "risque" and all there was were a few cuss words and some drug references. That's the deep south for you (and I can say that because I'm your neighbor :) ).

I'll have to check Palahniuk out, I like dark humor.

It was SO warm this weekend, what the heck happened today!? It was barely 60 here, I took a sweater to work, it was miserable!! I'm looking forward to another sunny weekend with nothing to do.

Little Ms Blogger said...

Glad to hear you had a great weekend. You sounded like you needed it.

Not sold on the Kindle. I love flipping pages of books and magazines and I would totally forget to charge it. My cell is always dying because I'm horrible at remembering to charge it.

Sherri Murphy said...

I love lazy weekends. And good books. And movies, and good times with friends.

Glad you enjoyed yourself.
Makes the work week more bearable, doesn't it?

Diane said...

OK, I'm not commenting on anyone else's blogs at the moment (no time), so shhhhhhhhh... don't tell anyone I was here, k?

I just wanted to tell you that I could use some Heather time, too, darlin'!

Glad you had a great weekend! And yes, 5 bottles was way too much fun. WAY. TOO. MUCH.

Take care... speak soon... XOXO

Dan Felstead said...

Heather...sounds like my kind of weekend!
2 years ago, my 21 (at the time) year old son and I took off a week and went to Canada fishing. On the way up, we listened to Lullaby on Audible...it didn't disappoint and so typical of his writing. His characters always seem to start out somewhat (and I say that lightly) normal and then go way off the wall as the novel develops! I can't remember the name of it but one of his novels is about a house that has walled up rooms in it or something like that...it is supposed to be good as well.

Dan

Missy said...

I love lazy weekends! Sounds like yours was great! I'm glad for you! You needed! Hope you are refreshed and ready to face the world! :)

Jessica said...

Sounds like a perfect weekend!! I am in desperate need of one with nothing that i absolutely have to do to occupy it.
Do you love your kindle? I'm very skeptical of that thing. Great in theory but I'm afraid i'd miss the actual book.
Thanks for the tip you left me! I'll be obsessively using that for awhile i'm sure!

scarlethue said...

Oh, Heather, yuck. I just went and checked the front of my car and luckily all that's there are some splattered bugs and dirt. I would have sobbed the whole time I was cleaning otherwise. No, I would have made my husband do it. :)

ARUNA said...

sounds like a great weekend with awesome weather and that book sounds interesting!!!!

Sherri Murphy said...

*I have a little something for you back at my place. Check it out.