Books / Music

Greetings from the living room couch!

This is just the beginning of the stack of books I'm reading or are on my "to read" list.



Bright Lights, Big Ass is a book that Jessica Jackson got me for my birthday. Yep, back in November. I started it a couple of weeks after I got it. At one point I cleaned my house pretty well and cleared all of the clutter off of our coffee table including that book. After putting it on my book shelf, it was kind of an "out of sight, out of mind" situation and I forgot all about the book! I've never been much of a reader so it's not constantly on my mind to pick back up a book that I've started. Anyway, I finally picked it up again. I've been reading it while I do my foot detox bath. I usually just read one chapter at a time. Now I only have 3 chapters left. Yay! It's a very entertaining book. One that isn't deep, but more like reading an amusing journal or something. The book is basically little stories about the author's life. She used to have a kind of high-profile job but decided to pursue writing instead and was forced to keep up temp jobs in the mean time. She says her shopping "holy trinity" is Ikea, Target and Trader Joe's. My kind of girl! Anyway, she's pretty much hilarious but she kind of likes the F word. :-/ Like I said, it's been a go-to entertainment book, like watching TV, and not something that is going to GROW me. :)

The Lyme Disease Survival Guide is a book that I realllyyyy wanted for Christmas, and Nae got it for me. :) Connie, the author, has a lyme blog here on blogger as well as a video blog on Youtube. She seems smart and has Lyme herself, so she's done a lot of research and tried a lot of different treatments. She talks a lot about detox as treatment for Lyme. She's also a Christian and I think she has similar experience with me (and probably other Lymies) where sometimes she just has to give up and not think about Lyme at all. Leave her treatment in the hands of God instead of the hands of antibiotics. :) I just think she's going to have good advice and another perspective. I'm sad to say that I haven't even started the book yet. I skimmed through it on Christmas day on the way from Magalia to Chico after we picked up Ryan's grandpa. I think part of the reason that I didn't start it yet is because I kind of got sick of thinking about Lyme 18/24 hours a day! (The rest was spent sleeping, ya know). The antibiotics made me feel all yucky and messed up my stomach BIG TIME so after I went off of them I just wanted a break from thinking about meds. I still feel that way a little bit but I'm starting to get on track again; mostly because I want to be DONE with Lyme. I have a doc appointment in a couple of weeks so we'll see what they wanna do with me. *sigh* Anyway, I am looking forward to reading it.


On a similar note, I've read most of What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Fibromyalgia (also a Christmas gift from a previous year, haha), but I never finished it. Oh wait, I have a picture of my "excited" face to get a sicky-book from my husband for Christmas. LOL.



Back to the book - So, it has a treatment regimen that includes taking guaifenesin (found in lots of cold medicines), while eliminating all sources of salicylic acid. I'd explain the science behind it but 1, I don't really remember everything and 2, I'm not smart enough to explain it in my own words. It's a treatment I might have to resort to just to TRY if nothing else works. It wouldn't be too bad but it would require a lot of prep. Salicylic acid is in EVERYTHINGGG and I'd also have to eliminate anything with natural oils/extract/etc which would mean my beloved chapstick, minty toothpaste, certain shampoos, conditioners, hair products, etc. I might end up with really fluffy hair and orangey-scented teeth, but if it means I'm better then I don't care. :)

Dear John and The Last Song are both Nicholas Sparks books. Yes, he wrote A Walk to Remember and THE NOTEBOOK. Dear John and The Last Song have also just been made into movies too! Dear John just came out but I haven't seen it yet. I'll probably end up reading that book AFTER I see the movie. The Last Song comes out sometime in the next few months, so I can probably read that book before I see the movie. Even though it's going to star Miley Cyrus (BLEH!), I still think I want to see it. I won a lot of 5 Nicholas sparks books for pretty cheap on Ebay, so I will have a lot of his books on hand to read in the future if I ever get bored of our endless TV show addictions. The other books I have from him are The Rescue, The Wedding (sequel to The Notebook), and The Lucky One. They'll probably all be made into movies since so far the following movies are all based on his books: Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, Nights in Rodanthe, Dear John, and The Last Song. DANNNG!

One other book I'm interested in re-reading is The Catcher in the Rye. I only thought of it 'cuz ol' J.D. Salinger kicked the bucket a few weeks ago. :( I'm guessing he was pretty old. Yep, looked it up... 91. That book is funny.

We've been downloading stuff from iTunes lately because I got a GC for Christmas and Ryan got one today. We're different about how we choose our songs. Ryan usually tries to pick all 15 songs or whatever all at once and searches through all kinds of artists until he finds all the songs he wants. I just pick a song here and there and download it when I want to and then leave the extra 8 credits or whatever until I think of another song I want to get. I think that way I don't "settle" for one. haha! I heard "Chicken Fried" by the Zac Brown Band on the Grammys and for some reason I really liked it even though it's the most honky-tonk country song EVER! I downloaded it. Even though it's not really my type of music I just think that they're really talented and the guy's voice is EXCELLENT. Recently I think Ryan developed a crush on Taylor Swift, and she also has 3 songs on our newest guitar hero game so I started to like her music, too. :) We just bought her CD today. I'm listening through it right now and it's pretty good so far. I like that she writes all of her music, especially for a young pop-ish girl because usually they need some serious help when it comes to writing. But she's good. I like that the songs come from her own mind and experiences. I just never though I'd be purchasing country CDs and songs, and especially that RYAN would like some of them, too. Although, I don't believe he's into the Chicken Fried song. haha! I've never liked country music much unless you count when I was little and I tried to convince myself that I liked it because my bestie liked it. Nope, doesn't count. Or when Lynae and I would turn it to the country station when we were in the car and try to guess the lyrics and sing along even though we didn't know the songs. For some reason we thought it was super duper hilarious. :) 'Member that, Nae?

A few other songs I downloaded recently: Rock & Roll - Eric Hutchinson, Angel - Jack Johnson (sooo cute. fav lyric is: "She can make angels. I've seen it with my own eyes. You gotta be careful when you've got good love, cuz the angels will just keep multiplying" He's talking about babies. awww!), umm, let's see... I'd Rather Be With You - Joshua Radin, Live Like We're Dying - Kris Allen, Always Be My Baby - Mariah Carey (heck yes!!!), Breakeven - The Script. Good stuff. I read an interview yesterday from John Mayer and it made me feel all Barfy at what a weirdo/sicko he's become (or maybe he always was..?). Whatever. I still love his music! I used to - I know this sounds really funny - but I used to pray for him every once in a while. Just because I don't know him doesn't mean I can't pray for him! I think I should start again. He sounds confused like he doesn't know who he should be or how he should act. It kinda sucks. I'm happy when people are successful but I hate when fame ruins someone.

I guess I should go now. Now that you're thoroughly bored if you made it to the end of this. :)

http://www.lala.com/#song/360569470939005376/Zac_Brown_Band/Chicken_Fried

http://www.lala.com/#song/432627056443841271/Jack_Johnson/Angel

http://www.lala.com/#song/504684642129748704/Joshua_Radin/I%27d_Rather_Be_With_You

http://www.lala.com/#song/504684673844808514/John_Mayer/Edge_Of_Desire