Too close to home

Nothing like pulling up CNN first thing in the morning and choking on your coffee. Like coffee everywhere… including my lungs.

Gah.

I (naively) never expected to see the headline 1 dead, 4 hurt in high school shooting and have it affect me so… violently.

I know I’m not the most pro-family, huggy, kissy, love-my-relatives type person, but my brother-in-law teaches in a suburb of Cleveland.

Thankfully, he’s on the other side of Cleveland and safe and sound.

But I definitely didn’t need the reminder that this could happen anywhere, anytime, and sadly, sometimes, too close to home.

Just another night around these parts

In the past twenty minutes, we’ve talked about:

• porn stashes
• robot sex
• whether or not dead werewolves can turn into ghosts
• If those dead werewolves change during full moons
• how do vampires deal with women’s periods

Yeah. After fourteen years, we’re still having fun together.

Can’t ask for anything more!

Tear the world apart, my friend.

I’d say we’re friends with all of our fans.- Orion Kribs, Black Mountain Symphony

From the argument last night about how I’m not their number one fan (which I lost, btw), to the 2AM hugfest with Orion, I’d have to say that yes, that statement is very true.

Last night’s show at the Putnam Den was exactly what I needed, when I needed it most.

I don’t know what it is about them, but between the music and the people, I am one lucky girl.

Team Mockingjay, bitches!

Hunger Games spoilers ahead

The insanity is already starting - I swear to Dog if I hear someone ask “Team Peeta” or “Team Gale”, I’m going to punch them in the nuts.

This isn’t a love story like that fucked up one about the disco balls, puppies, and the girl who is weak as fuck.

This is a story about a girl who chooses to volunteer for certain death at the hands of her government. While there is a bit of a love story, it’s ultimately about her and the choices she makes to stay alive and survive the Hunger Games. The story continues in the next two books with what her survival means to her community, to the country as a whole, really.

Yes, boys make appearances, and yes, there are feelings for those boys. But, honestly, I didn’t get the feeling that the girl was really in love with either of them. If she was, the writing was weak, because I didn’t feel like I was consistently hit over the head with it. Yes, she winds up with one of them. The realization of her feelings toward him is sweet, simple, and kind of blah, truth be told: “You love me. Real or not real?” “Real,” I tell him.

But if that’s what you’re looking for when you’re reading the books, you’re missing the fucking point.

Because this is the story of a girl who starts a rebellion and winds up with a hot boy as a kind of an afterthought.

Once again, tumblr helps me with my newest obsession…

Right before our trip to Nashville, I noticed a lot of Hunger Games gifs popping up on Tumblr.

Since I’m older than 99% of the people I follow, I wasn’t sure if I should try the books or not, but some of the quotes grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go.

I ended up using my Amazon Prime membership to borrow the first book on my Kindle.

I loved it so much, I downloaded the entire trilogy within seconds of finishing “The Hunger Games”.

I plowed through “Catching Fire” and “Mockingjay” so fast that I need to read them again. That normally never happens - I do read fast, but I usually read slow enough to really memorize certain scenes. This time I was blasting through them just to see how they ended. Just when I think I had it all figured out… nope.

Now that I know, I’m going back through them, a lot slower, and wow.

Mind. Blown.

Again.