Yesterday, I had the chance to attend the evening portion of the A Book for Every Child charity event.  Before the event, my friends, Debbie and Emily, and I went to dinner at the Olive Garden.  It was so much fun to spend a little bit of time before hand with my friends.  I have to say that I haven’t had a craving for sweets since I started boot camp.  But, once those breadsticks came out, I really wanted one.  I knew if I ate one, I’d start and not stop.  I abstained and I’m very proud of myself for doing it.

At the charity event, we got to mingle with authors and see some more of our friends from other events we’ve been to.  I made a fool of myself in front of Brandon Mull and I even got to speak a little Spanish with Shannon Hale.  (My friend Brodi will post about how I made a fool of myself because I’m sure she’ll tell it best.  Look for it on her blog tomorrow or in the next week.) The evening was full of comedy both by the authors and Divine Comedy.  There also was an author panel in which the audience got to ask the authors questions about their favorite books, authors, the writing and publishing process, etc.

The auction was a great success.  There were so many things donated by the different authors and local businesses.  Many of them went over their retailed value.  Bree Despain donated her book The Dark Divine as well as an ARC of her new book The Lost Saint.  It went for $101.  Ally Condie donated an ARC of her new book Matched, and it went for $80.  I wanted to bid for both of those, but they were already too rich for my blood.  Someone even paid $500 to be killed fictionally. I think that would be cool.

After the event, Debbie, Emily, and I went to Spoon Me to get some frozen yogurt.  (I actually just ate my banana so I didn’t begin eating sugar again.)  We were joined by Tess Hilmo, Bree Despain, and Valynne Maetani.  We had a lot of fun making spooning jokes.  (We were helped out by the different advertising methods in the store–napkins, cups, etc.)

National selling children’s authors in Utah are putting this fabulous event together to help low-income children get books of their own! Read more about it on their website where you can also register and/or donate.  (Show your support on Facebook .)

There will be a day event featuring authors teaching classes and an author panel, and an evening event with comedians, bands, and an auction.  Some of my friends and I will be there helping with the auction so come say hi if you’re there.

Workshop Authors: Anne Bowen, Laura Card, Kristen Chandler, Kristyn Crow, James Dashner, Bree Despain, Ann Dee Ellis, Jessica Day George, Sharlee Glenn, Christine Graham, Mette Ivie Harrison, Matthew J. Kirby, Mike Knudson, Kristen Landon, Sheila A. Nielson, Sydney Salter, J. Scott Savage, Emily Wing Smith, Wendy Toliver, Rick Walton, Dan Wells

Author Panel: Ally Condie, James Dashner, Bree Despain, Jessica Day George, Shannon Hale, Brandon Mull, Brandon Sanderson, Sara Zarr

Date/Place: Saturday August 21, 2010 at Waterford School

My niece Aymee invited Corey and me to see Eclipse with her.  One of her friend’s cousins rented out a theater for the occasion.  But … they rented it at 5:30 pm on Tuesday, June 29, six and a half hours before the official release of the movie.  I’d never been to an advance showing of a movie before so I jumped at the chance to go!

Aymee’s husband Dave was supposed to come with us, but he had to go to San Francisco for work so one of Aymee’s friends, Karen, joined us.  Corey kind of felt out of place at the movie, but I think he still enjoyed himself … for the most part.  He said he wanted more blood.

I enjoyed Eclipse a lot and not just because I didn’t have stay up until the crack of dawn to see it.  It was a lot of fun to sit next to Aymee.  We’d whisper things to each other, particularly making fun of a certain vampire’s hair.  I got a few elbows in the ribs from Corey, but we were surprisingly a lot quieter than a lot of the people around us or in the theater.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie.  I thought it was a good adaptation of the book and the best of the three so far.  There were some changes that I didn’t like, and I thought Jackson Rathbone’s (aka Jasper) wig was hideous!  His wig was much better in New Moon and I wish the movie makers would’ve kept that one.  I also didn’t like the way Nikki Reed looked in the flashback about how Rosalie became a vampire.  I didn’t think it suited Nikki; she just didn’t look right to me.  Also, the wedding ring in the movie is the ugliest ring I have ever seen in my life!  The ring approved by Stephenie Meyer for Infinite Jewelry is much prettier!  I loved all the additions of the scenes alluded to in the book but that Bella doesn’t witness (e.g. the Cullens and wolves chasing Victoria while Bella and Edward were in Jacksonville, the goings on of the newborns in Seattle, and the view into the fight with the Cullens instead of just the one with Edward and Victoria).  I loved Xavier Samuel, who played Riley.  After the movie, I told Aymee that he would’ve been a better Edward. I also loved Charlie.  Billy Burke is fantastic as Charlie!  Watching the Great Dog Snog was just as painful on the screen as it was/is when I read it in the book.  Not only because I hate the idea of Bella with Jacob, but because I know what’s coming in the fourth book.

I was extremely happy that my favorite scenes made it in the movie and remained pretty much untouched as well.  It kind of makes up for the abomination of the meadow scene in the Twilight movie.  My favorite scenes include the kiss, not the Great Dog Snog, but the kiss.  I’m sure you know the one I mean. I loved the tent scene.  It was perfect!  The talk between Charlie and Bella about sex was more hilarious on the screen than it was in my imagination when I read the book.  I loved it!  My favorite scene by far is when Bella punches Jacob in the face and breaks (sprains in the movie) her hand.  It was so funny, and it was portrayed well.

I’m looking forward to seeing the movie again and picking up the little things I missed the first time around.  I also want to re-read the books again, and I’m considering putting off all the books on my to read list just to bump up the Twilight Saga to the number one spot.

On Friday night, my friends and I had a party.  We haven’t had one since the end of February so we were all having withdrawals.  I felt like I hadn’t seem everyone for an especially long time because I wasn’t able to go to the party in February due to midterms so it was nice to spend some quality time with my friends.

As usual, we just enjoyed each other’s company with lots of fun conversation.  We talked about books we recommend and we even made plans for almost the entire year, taking a lot of the guess work out of our get-togethers. We have some fun things planned in the next few months so stay tuned for the recaps. I’m very excited!

Saturday felt like a big day of nothing, honestly.  I didn’t get up until late because I didn’t get home from the party until around 1:30 am.  And, Corey and I just hung around home for most of the day.  We cleaned, I did some homework (very little), and we went to Office Max to buy some Post-its to help me with annotating for my summer term class.  Wait … what?  Summer term class? You probably thought summer term didn’t start until June 21st, huh? You’re right. It doesn’t, but I already have homework for that class.

I received an e-mail from my summer term class teacher last Wednesday.  Here’s a little tidbit of that e-mail:

Welcome to English 295 for the summer term! This may seem a little premature, but I wanted to give you a heads-up as to what we’re doing. This course is on “writing literary criticism,” … and so I’ll be asking you to examine texts from the inside out, moving from basic summaries of the text you choose to work with to a critical examination in light of a theory or issue which you find particularly prevalent in the text.

… [I]n the event that you aren’t aware yet, the set of texts we’ll be working with for summer term is (drum roll, please) The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. … I’m telling you this now because within the first week of classes, I’ll have asked you to finish reading all four books and make a decision about which of the [four] you want to focus on during the term….  I think it’s fair to give you all a chance to start reading now so that you won’t feel overwhelmed by reading in the first week.

There you have it. I not only have to keep up with my full-time job, church calling, and homework for my current class (which isn’t light I might add), but I also have to read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in the next five weeks and remember enough to be able to critique them using different literary criticism theories. It was nice of my teacher to give us some time to accomplish this, huh?

Don’t get me wrong.  I’ve always wanted to read these books.  I even tried reading The Hobbit seven or so years ago.  (I couldn’t get past page 42, but I wasn’t an avid reader back then.)  I’m just stressed to the max with trying to make sure I get them done in time.  Luckily, I don’t have to go to Girls’ Camp anymore so I’m going to take the time off work that I would’ve taken to go to camp and use it to read!

On Sunday, Corey and I went up to Aymee and Dave’s, my niece and nephew-in-law, so Corey could watch the LOST series finale with them.  All three of them are huge fans, Aymee and Dave since day 1 and Corey since this January.  (Corey watched the first five seasons on Hulu in January to gear up for the final season.  I would’ve joined him if I didn’t have as much homework as I did/do.  I did see a few episodes here and there so I knew enough to get by, but not enough to have a firm grasp on the show or all the characters.)

I really enjoyed the series finale.  I thought it was well done and I cried several times.  Corey sent me this link earlier today.  It’s a guide to the series finale and helps you understand what happened and how it affected the entire series.  I think it’s quite insightful.

The Provo Library hosted the Children’s Book Festival yesterday.  I went to it last year and I had a really good time.  A ton of local authors come, hold workshops, sign their books, and there’s a lot of fun things for kids to do, too, like face painting and puppet shows.  This year, they even had surprise appearances from Curious George, Clifford, and one of the monsters from Where the Wild Things Are.

I wasn’t planning to go, but I decided to at the last minute because I really wanted to get Elantris signed by Brandon Sanderson.  Corey and I drove to Borders to get a copy and while we were there, I ended up buying the Mistborn trilogy (also written by Brandon Sanderson), too.

When Corey and I arrived at the library, we ran into our friend Ali and her cousins.  I thought it was quite appropriate to run into her since Ali’s the one who got me to read Elantris in the first place.  (It had been on my to read list for a couple of years, but I didn’t actually read it until she lent me her book.)  Ali’s kids, Jack and Sheridan, love books and they love Curious George.  Corey decided to get a picture with him and Clifford so he could show it to them.  I thought it was cute of him to do that.

When it was my turn to talk to Brandon Sanderson, I think I was a little star struck because I just started to babble.  You’d think that after all the authors I’ve met, I wouldn’t get star struck, but I still do.  Luckily, my babbling was somewhat coherent.  I told him I had only read Elantris, but I loved it and I’m looking forward to reading the Mistborn trilogy.  I also told him I loved his acknowledgments page because I had a class taught by Professor Thayer last semester.  He thought that was cool and we reminisced about Professor Thayer’s dislike of fantasy. He was very personable and funny, and it was a lot of fun to meet him.

I also saw my friend Kayla.  She normally works at the library as one of the children’s storytellers, but she was working there as a face painter for the event.  (By the way, she’s an awesome face painter, and she’s available for birthday parties.)  She was also dressed as Olivia the pig.  I didn’t know who Olivia was, but the kids did and that’s what counts. (I did look Olivia up afterward and I realized that I do know who she is and Kayla’s costume was awesome!)

I’m really glad I decided to go.  It was a lot of fun.

On Monday evening, I went to dinner with my birthday twins–Debbie, Sue, Christie, and Kayla.  Okay, we’re not really birthday twins because all our birthdays are on different days, but we all have April birthdays.  This yearly celebration has become something of a tradition for us, and it’s one that I look forward to all year long.

We went to Iggy’s Sports Grill last year and we went to The Mayan the year before that.  This year, we went to the Cheesecake Factory.  Yes, I ordered the 1600-calorie slice of carrot cake for dessert.  But! I didn’t eat the entire thing all at once. To be honest, if I hadn’t been so full from my meal, I would’ve eaten the entire thing right then and there.  It’s so delicious and worth the calories!  (It’s out of my system now for another six months so I can go back to eating healthy again. )

It was a little harder this year to find a time when all of us could get together.  We actually had to reschedule three different times because of things that kept coming up.  But, it was worth the wait and all the schedule juggling that took place because I always have such a great time with these ladies, and I love spending time with them.

Yesterday, our friends the Meyers surprised us by coming over to say hi. We hadn’t seen them in a couple of months because of my school schedule so it was a nice surprise. After about an hour, it became apparent that Ryan, their baby, was tired and needed to go to bed.  We decided to go to their house and watch a movie together.

While we were at their place, Meagan and James introduced us to their chickens.  They have five–Chloe, Zoey, Milly, Lily, and Phoebe.  (In a couple of months, they’ll have fresh eggs coming out of their ears.) Chickens are really interesting creatures.  They don’t stand still for more than a couple of seconds, unless their roosting, which these chickens like to do in or on top of their coop.  When they were just standing there, it seemed that some part of them had to be moving, usually their head.  (I followed Zoey around for at least ten minutes trying to get a decent picture of her for Project 365.)

I got to feed them some of their bird seed.  It was a lot of fun, even though they pinched me a few times with their beaks.  James picked up MLily (they can’t tell Milly and Lily apart anymore) so I could pet her.  She didn’t like that so much; it was the only time I heard one of them cluck.

While I was feeding the chickens, Corey was making jokes about coming over for dinner in a few years. I told him he wasn’t allowed to eat these chickens because they were pets.  And, pets are our friends not food!  I had a great time feeding the chickens. I may want some of my own some time.  But … I think our cats would consider them food not friends.