Booknerd SuperBowl

I have looked forward to the Tour de Nerdfighting with no shortage of anticipation since the day John Green announced the title of his 4th solo novel, The Fault in Our Stars a few months ago. I knew that John would most likely go on a tour to promote the book and that when he made his way to Los Angeles (or San Diego, Fresno, Las Vegas or anywhere else that was within a few hours drive of where I live) I would definitely be right there.

First, I must mention that this book you guys, THIS BOOK. It is amazing. Brilliant. Heartbreaking. Staggering. Hopeful. Life changingly beautiful. It is so fantastic it has secured a place in my life and in my heart as one of my favorite books of all time. My expectations were naturally very high given that JG is my favorite author in the known universe and I pretty much fangirl the freak out whenever his name is mentioned (true story)...and this book you guys, THIS BOOK met every one of those expectations and bitch slapped them with it's pimp hand.

Appropriately Photoshopped image is appropriate.
Source

I don't want to give a full on review of TFiOS because I will end up telling you all of my favorite parts and spoiling it for you, such is my level of emotion as far as THIS BOOK is concerned. One of my friends who's not a card carrying member of Nerdfighteria asked me what the book was about and I thought about it and told her the same thing I'm about to tell you. This book is about two teenagers with cancer, but not in a Nicholas Sparks way. Do with that what you will.*

Also read my friend Jennie's review of TFiOS here, as it pretty much sums up a lot of my feelings.

In preparation of my SuperBowl, I of course pre-ordered a copy of TFiOS via Amazon, and then found out that for the event I would need to purchase an additional copy which would serve as my entrance into the show. I naturally had no problem with this but was not ok with having to wait until 16 days after the book was released to read it so I kept my original Amazon order and the book (already signed) arrived on my doorstep as ordered on January 10th. I read it in around 4 hours.

After reading it I started telling everyone in my social networking circle about it and how much they needed to read it...like immediately. I noticed more and more people picking it up and falling in love with it and a lot of those people ended up going to the Tour de Nerdfighting event in their town so I was even more psyched for when my turn came after seeing everyone else's pictures and videos.

My friends Kelsey and Smash were able to attend an amazing ALA event where they got the chance to hear John speak about education to a smallish crowd of 200 or so. Please hop on over to Kelsey's blog to read all about it and see her amazing photos! You'll wish you were there...I know I certainly did!

My friends Crystal and Becca both went to the actual Tour de Nerdfighting events in Alabama and Arizona, respectively and were able to experience the Nerdfighting goodness as well.

On the day of the show I was not 100% myself thanks to the Epic Illness of 2012 that I experienced the previous week but I was determined to go. I braved traffic on the 405 and the 10 and arrived at a middle school in Santa Monica with plenty of time to spare before the show. The line was of course already around the entire front of the school in preparation of the show starting.

I met up with Jessica and our friend Claire at a nearby pub where we hung out until just before the show was scheduled to start and then got in the still epically long line to wait our turn to enter. Our fellow line goers were all eleventeen and made me feel incredibly ancient but no matter...we were where we needed to be, and I got a (super dark and grainy) picture of the Tour de Nerdfighting van.

Envy my excellent photography skills much?

The show was naturally a lot of fun. My favorite part happened in the beginning when John came out in a gray suit and fancy grown up shoes to read from TFiOS. He actually read one of my favorite parts of the book...in the interest of of not spoiling I'll just say that it was the part when those two non Nicholas Sparksian teenagers I mentioned before first meet. After the reading, John spoke a bit about why he wrote the book and what inspired him to write it. None of this I remember accurately other than John Green was saying things and I was in a dreamlike state of awe.

John Green reading to me!! (and maybe a few other people)

Next, John introduced Hank who played a few of his songs. Then John came out in a t-shirt, jeans, and blue tennis shoes to answer questions. Then Hank played another song while wearing a pink leotard/tutu/blonde wig combination, then they both answered questions, all while playing this continuous game where they answer questions for 10 minutes and when the timer runs out, the person still talking gets shocked...this time it was Hank, then he sang a couple more songs, they closed the show, then encored by singing (I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles by The Proclaimers.**

Look at him...just talking and wearing a t-shirt and being awesome.

We got Hankrolled.

Just before Hank got shocked. John took such delight in this happening it was hard to feel sorry for Hank.

After the show was over there was a signing. We were in the back half of the theater and the line went by rows so we ended up waiting over two hours for our turns to speak with John and Hank. Given the lateness of the hour, and the advanced age of Jessica and myself, this was a bit of a rough patch as we mature ladies were out way past our bedtime. Luckily we were surrounded by our fellow Nerdfighters and were able to strike up a few conversations which made the time sort of fly by.

Special note here to a sweet girl named Ava who Jessica met in the ladies' room. She mentioned to her that she reads both of our blogs and later on as she was leaving she came over and said hello to me and thanked Jessica and I for "all we do for the YA community." Um...tears. I almost hugged her but felt like that might have been weird. It absolutely made my night that a) she thinks I contribute to the YA community and b) that more than 12 people read my blog.

I also bought a t-shirt. In fact it's the exact same t-shirt that John is sporting in this recent video. Coincidence? I think not.

As we finally took our turn in line, I started to get nervous. Not just regular old nervous either, more like cotton mouth, rapid heartbeat nervous and I wondered if I would actually be able to speak to John Green or just shout random epithets out at him. Jessica went first and I could barely hear what she was saying to him over the nervous chatter that was in my brain. I decided to take a deep breath, chill the eff out, and try my best to not to be completely spastic, weird, and ridiculous.

Signing my books, trying to remember where he's experienced the magic that is me before.

Adjusting his glasses so he could see me better...see the look of recognition on his face?

Once again...he's captivated by me.

Reader, I did it! I managed to talk to him like a person in complete command of the English language!

I had 30ish seconds with John Green and I told him he was my favorite author and that his book for me (for a lot of incredibly personal reasons) was amazing and exactly the right book for me at exactly the right time. He thanked me, smiled at me, and completely made me forget about the long line, the long drive I had ahead of me, and basically all other mere mortal males. It was heavenly. I'm still on a high from it and don't see myself coming down for a very long time.

My favorite Vlogbrothers videos are often the ones where John and Hank are together. Watching this show reminded me of why. They have such a great chemistry and energy together and are obviously very close and have a mutual love and respect for one another. That's why their YouTube channel is so gosh darned effective and why they filled an entire auditorium in the heart of Los Angeles on a random Thursday night. The community they have managed to create is nothing short of amazing and I consider myself extremely lucky to be a part of it.

So in short, read The Fault in Our Stars which as I may have mentioned earlier is amazing and Don't Forget to Be Awesome but if you're reading this, I'm sure that means you probably already are.***



*And by that I mean read this book immediately.
**There is no getting this song out of my head. It's there...forever.
***I say probably because if you're the person who landed here after searching for "cocoa pink breasts" we probably have very different agendas. 

Bookish Vlog

My friend Julie came up with this vlog tag which is all about books. Hope you enjoy and feel free to respond with your own answers and leave me a link in the comments!! 

Forgive this horrible thumbnail pic of me, it is sadly the best of the 3 they gave me. Seriously YouTube? Seriously?

Questions:
1) Show us or tell us about the most valuable book in your collection - either for monetary or sentimental value.
2) What are your literary pet peeves?
3) What is your favorite non-book literary possession?
4) Show us/tell us about where you usually read.
5) Give up a literary confession - something you do that would drive other readers nuts.
6) What book/genre is your guilty pleasure?
7) Describe your biggest fangirl moment relating to books.
8) What book have you reread the most times?
9) How many books do you own?
10) Show us/tell us about how your books are organized. 

Personal Princess Palace

One of my biggest regrets as a parent is that I didn't have a beautifully decorated nursery for the princess when she was born. We had the basics and we had each other which is really all we needed, but I still would have loved for my little princess to have her own personal tower.

While she was with her dad this holiday break, I decided to give myself the project of finally getting her room together. I bought some new to her furniture thanks to my best friend's parents and hired some guys to move it for me, then I went to the decorating mecca that is Target and went to work.

I didn't really have a picture in my head of what I wanted the room to look like. I just knew I wanted something very tween oriented to coincide with the princess getting older and being interested in so many new things. Like the genius mom I am, I asked her what kind of bedroom she wanted and she begged for a "superstar room". 

Given her hilarious and super excited reaction, I think I delivered.

Desk and bookshelf hutch

Nightstand with family pics and her snow globe collection. Oh and that awesome lamp.

A few stuffed animal friends...she is still a little girl after all.

.

New bed with Rocky and CeCe bedding...they're on "Shake it Up!" in case you didn't know.

Grinning from ear to ear in her new room.

She wanted you to get the full effect of how she would enjoy her room. Seriously.

I'm so happy it came out so well and that she loves it. Sometimes Mom gets it right. :)

Wanderlust

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain

I've noticed a trend recently of all of my friends either going on or  coming back from, or in the middle of planning fabulous vacations. While I'm super happy for them and always love to hear of their plans, I'm also a little envious because I haven't really traveled too much in my life. 


In my family growing up, we didn't do the whole vacation thing. Summers were spent at mostly at home with a few beach and amusement park trips scattered throughout. One year, my mom sent my brother and I to spend the summer in Hawaii with my aunt. That was fun but a lot like summer at home...just in Hawaii.

Luckily last year I got to travel a bit to Las Vegas, Georgia, and Alabama. In fact despite my horrific return journey home from the south, it gave me a bit of a travel bug and I'd been thinking about all the places I'd love to travel ever since then. Here are just a few.

1. New York City

I can't remember what first prompted me to dream of NYC, but it was probably the Eloise books or Home Alone 2. What child wouldn't dream of living Eloise's life or getting a chance to roam around the city without adult supervision? Now that I'm all grown up, I'd love to get the whole experience of NYC and go to a Broadway show, eat a cupcake at Magnolia, pose for a picture with the lion in front of the library, and get lost in the Strand bookstore. I would also like to have a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity, but I hear the lines can be up to 3 hours long! The city so nice they named it twice! What's not to lust after? Broadway, Central Park, Times Square, Statue of Liberty, I want to see it all!

2. London, England
 I have been dreaming of London for what feels like my entire life. I want to go and do all the super touristy stuff like the London Eye, Big Ben, Changing of the Guard, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and maybe take a few side  trips to Stratford-upon-Avon, or Jane Austen's house. Did you know there's a Harry Potter tour in London? Oh my heck, I need to go like yesterday! Oh and fair warning, the odds of me returning home with a British accent are inevitable.

Chatsworth House in Derbyshire or Pemberley in the Kiera Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice

3. Paris, France

Little known fact about me: I took 3 years of French in high school. I can understand French if it's spoken very (very) slowly or if I have subtitles to help. I love so much about French culture, the food, the fashion, the architecture, how women seem to know how to tie a scarf from the womb. I have always had a bit of an obsession with the Eiffel Tower, but I think reading Anna and the French Kiss increased my desire to see Paris. There's just something so fabulous about a place that celebrates the consumption of bread. And cheese. And pastry. And cheese again.

The Maldives
I have never been on a tropical vacation. I would love to go somewhere fairly untouched by the Tourist Industrial Complex where I can relax and do nothing but eat incredible food and lie on a beach and read all day. Looking at pictures of The Maldives leads me to believe it's exactly the place where this sort of thing can be accomplished.

So where would you take a dream vacation?



All pictures found on Google Images

Soulful Sunday

RIP Etta.

Friday Five (2)

Happy Friday! Well yes it is indeed Saturday but I meant to post this yesterday and forgot. You'll see why.

1. This week has been rough. I've had a gnarly case of the flu that's kept me down since last Saturday night. First it was nausea, a splitting headache, and general weakness. I felt so sick I missed out on brunch with a few of my favorite ladies which made me sad. Then Monday morning it turned into chills, fever, aching, bleary eyes...basically all the stuff they mention in the Nyquil commercials. I thought Tuesday I was on the road to recovery, then somewhere around midnight my fever spiked to 103 and I seriously contemplated sending for the priest. Thankfully, my fever has since broken and I've been getting LOTS of rest and drinking fluids so I feel better and am slowly making my way back into the land of the living.

2. So the Golden Globes were last weekend and sadly, I was too sick to prepare the post I initially wanted to about all of the fashion. Instead, I'll share my own personal agony and ecstasy from the event.

The Agony:

Jessica Biel's tablecloth chic. This is not a gown befitting a woman who wants to bear the name Timberlake.

The Ecstasy:

Charlize Theron in Dior Haute Couture. She's in my favorite color, looks like a Grecian goddess, and is wearing a Cartier headband. Is it any wonder she's my girl crush? PS- My kingdom for those legs.

3. Last weekend I had the honor of guest posting on one of my favorite blogs, Busy Bee Lauren. Currently, Lauren is doing a countdown to the Hunger Games movie in March and I posted about my favorite character in the series, Cinna. Feel free to read all about it here.

4. I know I carried on quite a bit this month about The Fault in Our Stars by John Green being released. I have read it, but I am not in the mental place to review it quite yet. Just know that I highly recommend it, and suggest you go out and buy it at Target or a grocery store as you'll have a better chance of getting a signed copy.

5. Before I got too sick, I went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie. I don't claim to be a Sherlock aficionado, in fact I've only seen the films with Robert Downey Jr. and a BBC film about young Sherlock about a decade ago. I just know that looking at RDJ and Jude Law for a few hours was worth $12 to me, so I went and was entertained.

Oh and incidentally, the most exciting thing about going to the movie was seeing the trailer to one of the movies I am SO excited about this year, The Dark Knight Rises. See if you notice the wee shot of JGL in all of this madness:

Taking a Single Step

My very first experience writing a book was when I was 15. I wrote a story loosely based on my high school crush, (who was just my friend at the time) and how we would fall madly in love and be those people at the 10 year reunion no one can stand. Since then, I hadn’t really written anything other than journal entries and blog posts. Luckily in the fall of 2009 I was fortunate enough to hear about NaNoWriMo. Before NaNo, I never would have thought I could write a book at age 30ish, (especially not in 30 days) in fact I had given up the hope that I would ever be anything other than a worker bee raising my daughter.

When I decided to participate in NaNo, I had no idea what I would write about. I have ideas in my head for stories all the time, but I never wrote them down or attempted to flesh them out. I decided that since I didn’t have an original idea, I’d stick with what I knew. My 2009 NaNo was an autobiographical account of my 20s which was a level of catharsis I never even expected. I wrote about the agony and the ecstasy of getting married, becoming a mother, and getting divorced all by age 25 and how it resulted in the biggest quarter life crisis you could imagine.  I ended up with 75,000 angst filled words that no one should ever be forced to read. 

But I did it.

In the year leading up to 2010 NaNo, I thought a lot about writing and what kind of books I’d want to write, I joined a writing group full of incredibly talented women, and I read so many great books that simultaneously inspired me beyond belief and made me feel like a huge poser. Then around summer I got a story idea, it niggled in the back of mind until I finally started jotting ideas down. It became apparent that I was on to something and as November drew closer, I decided to go for it.

By the end of  November 2010, I had written a 60k word draft based on my original story idea. I spoke about the process during NaNo here on the blog and I was so excited about it. I felt like I was standing in the light of Judy Blume, Toni Morrison, and S.E. Hinton and it felt absolutely AMAZING.

Then came December. I read over my draft and decided I hated it. I became super emo and depressed and wanted to chuck the whole thing. My self-doubt convinced me that whatever I had written would be garbage and I should just stick to reading books instead of writing them. So I stopped...I put my WIP in the proverbial freezer and I quit.

You know that saying, we make plans and God laughs? I had plans to mope around and give up on writing forever. Then last April I just so happened to meet Dave Eggers at the Festival of Books and in our brief time together, he talked to me about my writing and gave me so much encouragement I tear up even thinking about it.

I would go to book signings simply to fangirl out over the authors of my favorite books and end up receiving little nuggets of wisdom that were always the exact thing I needed to hear at that exact moment. Whether it was Lauren Oliver's commitment to writing something every single day, Ally Condie talking about the balance of writing and motherhood, Laini Taylor's refusal to submit to another idea until her current project was complete, or Rachel Hawkins only writing a small amount of words per day, Laurie Halse Anderson telling me to stop farting around on the Internet and just write already, or Beth Revis writing book after book that never went anywhere until one finally did years later. It's amazing to think that these successful authors who write books that my friends and I love could have the same hangups or idiosyncrasies as I do.

Writing is a process and a struggle for anyone who does it. I’m sure I don’t hold the monopoly on feeling all Van Gogh-ish and suffering for my art. I find myself getting so caught up in the emotion of what I’m writing and so personally attached to my characters. While that's all well and good, I need to focus on the business of writing as well and treat it like a job...basically I need to start writing like it's payday and the rent is due.*

Currently I work a 9 to 5 where I'm responsible for a lot of different things. If I drop the ball on any one of these responsibilities, bad things can happen to people who don't deserve it. Needless to say, I rock at my job. I work extremely hard because I care about the work I do, and also because my job is what keeps the princess fed.

This year I need to become better at the job that feeds my soul. 2012 is all about the writing. I have no expectations other than how great it makes me feel to use my positive, creative energy towards something I love to do. No matter what ends up happening on my personal journey of 1000 miles, my ultimate goal of becoming a better writer is definitely step in the right direction.






*That isn't mine, it's Miss Jay's..diva runway coach extraordinaire from America's Next Top Model

Don't Bother Me...*

I'm reading.

Probably right this very minute. 

PS- Congratulations John Green aka My Favoritest Author in the History of Life!!!!

*Seriously...don't bother me.

ETA: Squee!!!

 Obviously my love for John Green is worth the judgment of the princess who seemed mildly disgusted that I had no answer to her question, "Mom, why are you taking pics of yourself holding a book in the bathroom?"

Ok seriously, stop bothering me. I'm reading.

Happy New Year, Happiest Place on Earth

Since our normal Christmas plans were thwarted, I decided that the princess and I would celebrate the holiday by depleting her college fund spending some quality time together at Disneyland.

We ended up going on New Year's Day which I admit in hindsight was not the brightest idea. Everyone and their freaking mother was there that day. It's the most crowded I have seen Disneyland in all my years of going. People everywhere, bumping into me, complaining about long lines, saving seats, not controlling their wayward children. It's enough to make a girl consider agoraphobia!

Despite the crowds, the princess, my mom, and I managed to have a blast together. I had to turn right back around at the end of the day and drop the princess off at her dad's for the last week of her winter break, so this one day reprieve of three weeks without her was truly what my lonely mother's heart needed. There is truly nothing like seeing Disneyland through your child's eyes. 

Holy Big Tree!

Happy New Year!!

Of course the princess had to get her pose on.

A barbershop quartet on Main Street! One of the many reasons why I love Disneyland.

First stop...It's a Small World.

The teacups...the princess begged to ride these. My weak stomach was not thrilled to take part.

If you look carefully, you can just see where I started to feel the chunks rise in my throat. Luckily I survived unscathed...or unbarfed as it were.

"Hey Mom, take my picture by this waterfall. It's scenic, like we're in the mountains or something." #princessisms

On the Matterhorn! I'm psyched we did it since it's closed down until summer now.

During the holiday parade I may have had a fangirl moment when I saw Eeyore. Here he is in his full depressing Eeyore-ness. So awesome.

Look it's the Evil Stepmother from Cinderella! You hardly ever see her! Fangirl moment #2

My mom and the princess relaxing in New Orleans Square. Side note: My mom is not wearing  a shirt with a picture of herself, it's R&B legend Gladys Knight (as in and the Pips). All day people kept asking if my mom was wearing herself on her shirt

Obligatory face paint. Too bad you can't see the sparkles!

Ok so I fangirled over Belle too. Can you blame me? She loves to read!