Brain Freeze

     I mentioned on facebook yesterday that being pregnant four times has shot my knees all to heck. Aside from that and the many other physical ways my body has been destroyed by having four kids, my mind has also become somewhat less than it used to.
     I'm talking, of course, about the brain freeze. And no, not the kind you get after taking a big sip of slurpee. More the kind where you're in the middle of talking and suddenly- BOOM- your mind goes completely and utterly blank.
     This happened to me yesterday while I was doing my visiting teaching. I was in the middle of giving the message about nurturing the rising generation- something that should have been easy for me to talk about because I do it every day (or at least I hope I do!). But right in the middle of me expressing my feelings about the topic, all thoughts instantly and suddenly disappeared from my head, leaving nothing but emptiness.
     How embarrassing.
     Even after blushing and stammering and saying 'yeah' alot and explaining what had just happened, it still took me like five minutes before coherent thoughts returned to my head.
    Really embarrassing.
    And that's not the first time this has happened. Before having kids I could speak in church or bear my testimony with no problems. My talks would be written in point form and then I would get up and talk easily, using only my notes as my guide. Now I have to write every single word down and I spend most of the talk staring at my paper so I don't lose my place and then start babbling and then suffer what's sure to come- the brain freeze.
     The last time I bore my testimony (which has been more than two years now- yikes!) the brain freeze descended. I was in the middle of it and suddenly- whoosh- there went my thoughts and I was left standing there, blushing and saying 'yeah' over and over until I could get some sort of intelligence back. It's no wonder I've been reluctant to bear my testimony since, not because I don't have one, but because "yeah... yeah... um, yeah" isn't much of a testimony.
     FYI- I'f I'm saying 'yeah' a lot, that's a sure sign the brain freeze has hit me.
     I can't help but wonder if the brain freeze is a physical complication of bearing children- like stretch marks and a flabby tummy- or if it's actually the result of spending the last six years at home with mainly small children as conversation companions.
     Either way, when the brain freeze hits, I'm screwed. And embarrassed. And red as a beet.
     So if you happen to be around when this happens, please cut me some slack. Because I will eventually get my brain power back. It just might be a few minutes and a lot of 'yeahs' later.
    

Get Up and Dance

     It's time to change the music up. Not that I'm getting sick of those songs because I LOVE 'em, but I'm ready for some more upbeat songs happening.

     This time I've put on my top five songs that I'm really into right now. Starting with Flo-Rida's Club Can't Handle Me. This song makes me want to get up and do my very un-cool hiphop moves (which I only do if no one's around). Then we've got Taylor Swift's new one Mine. I am a huge Taylor Swift fan and I love her new song. I can't help but love the line, "you made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter". Then there's Sky Ferreira's Obsession. I first heard this song on that Vampire Diaries clip I posted a few weeks ago and I've loved the song ever since. Although I'll admit I like the clip version better than the one I found on playlist, but what can you do?

     Secrets by One Republic is absolutely awesome. I love the violin (or is it a cello?) in the beginning- so gorgeous. And I have to admit that I became doubly a fan of that song after seeing the guy in The Sorcerer's Apprentice use his lightening-machine-thingy (didn't I say I wasn't a genius?!) to recreate that song. Amazing.

    
     Last but not least, a song I've been loving ever since I first heard it probably more than a year ago. Untouched  by the Veronicas makes me want to get up and dance too. But not in a cool way. More in like a jumping up and down and bobbing my head in a sort of 80s frantic way. Listen to it and you'll understand. And the song is kinda hot. There, I said it.    

Gallagher Girl

     I read this poll once that asked if you could go to any fictitious school, either from movies or books, which one would you go to? Of course the number one answer was Hogwarts. I mean, duh. And that would be my number one as well. My second choice would be the Gallagher Academy For Exceptional Young Women.
     Now let's put aside the fact that 1) I'm too old for school, and 2) both Hogwarts and the Gallagher Academy don't actually exist (sigh). I'm just going to ignore those two things because in my world, well they're just not true. AKA 1) I am an innocent and stretch-mark-free sixteen year old, and 2) those schools are out there somewhere training young witches, wizards and spies to be.

     Unfortunately if the above were true, I would have about as much chance getting into the Gallagher Academy as I would Hogwarts. Not only do I have no magical powers whatsoever (double sigh), but I am not, and have never been, an Exceptional Young Woman. I only know 1 3/4 languages (1/2 french, 1/4 spanish), I cannot invent knew truth serums or invisibility cloaking devices, and I am definitely no genius.

     For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about, I recommend reading I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter- the first in the Gallagher Girls Series. From there you can move onto Cross My Heart And Hope To Spy, Don't Judge A Girl By Her Cover, and then Only The Good Spy Young, the latter of which I just finished.

     Whenever I recommend these books to people, they kind of chuckle in a "yeah right" kind of way. But seriously- they're really good. If you're looking for explicit love scenes, the f-bomb on every page, and graphic and gory violence... well you won't get any of that with these books (so go ahead and chuckle away). But that's one of the reasons why I love them. They are innocent, sweet, funny and entertaining and I find that very refreshing. It's nice to read teen books that actually don't have sex, violence, and potty mouths galore.
     The best thing about these book though is the girls are strong, smart, and talented instead of the whiny, angst-ridden, and sometimes idiotic girls that are often portrayed in teen books. These girls are genuises. They know over a dozen languages. They take classes like Covert Operations, Culture and Assimilation, and Protection and Enforcement. They know how to kill someone with a barbie doll or a piece of uncooked spaghetti. Translation: these girl kick major patootie.

     Who wouldn't want to read a book about that? And more importantly, who wouldn't want to go to a school like that? So if I can't make it into Hogwarts, I'm holding out hope that I'll get in to the Gallagher Academy. Because who doesn't want to go to spy school?
  

Geek/Dork/Nerd

     A few weeks ago my brother-in-law happened to mention the new Harry Potter coming out soon. My reaction? "Harry Potter- whowhowhooooo!" And that was a totally non-sarcastic laugh of excitement. (Seriously- can't wait!)

    
     So I can't help but wonder if that makes me a geek. Or a dork. Or a nerd. And is there a difference between those three?
     I never thought of myself as a geek (or dork or nerd). I was never great in school, I loathe science and math, Star Trek only has appeal because of Chris Pine, and I only ever played Dungeons and Dragons once. And to defend myself on that last one- I was like fourteen and at the time it was totally cool to get to stay up until after midnight to play the game with my older sister and her friends.
     On the other hand, I love to read, I have a collection of expensive dragon statues (not big ones), and my favorite t-shirt says, "I never got my letter to Hogwarts so I'm moving to Forks to live with the Cullens."
     Do those things make me a geek? The fact that I own that t-shirt (as well as two more Harry Potter and Twilight t-shirts) shows that I'm a Twihard or have Pottermania, but does that denote geekiness? I would say no. But others might disagree.

    
     To them I would say, have you watched The Big Bang Theory? I am nothing like those dudes! In fact, I would consider myself closer to Penny with her "blonde" moments rather than the nerdy Sheldon who spouts things I've never even heard of and would never have the brain power to understand.
     As I was watching Bachelor Pad a few weeks ago, Tenley, one of the so-called "cool" crowd in the house, described herself as a dork, after which Kypton quickly agreed and also called himself one. It reminded me of the movie Sydney White, where everyone stands up at the end and proclaims themselves dorks for one reason or another.

    
     So is it cool to be a dork? When I was a teenager, one would never admit such a thing. But it seems like everyone is saying that about themselves these days. And again, is there a difference between a dork, a geek, and a nerd? And if there is, which one am I?
     Maybe that's a question I don't really want to know the answer to...
    

Christina Perri - Jar of Hearts Official Video

Ok, I know I already said how much I love this song, and I still have it sitting there on my playlist, but I just saw the video and I think it's so hauntingly beautiful with the dancing and that whole sucking the heart out of the jar... LOVE IT!
You're gonna catch a cold/From the ice inside your soul/So don't come back for me/Who do you think you are?

The Teen Book Curse

     So I've been reading A LOT of teen books lately. I've never been much of a teen book reader- even when I was a teen. I started reading Dragonlance novels in grade five and was hooked to fantasy from then on, leaving that genre only for required school reading or the classics. As I became an adult I branched out a little- Clive Cussler, Dan Brown, Sophie Kinsella, some historical church novels, and of course- more classics. But I stayed true to fantasy- rereading my faves Robert Jordan, David Eddings, Tolkien, CS Lewis, and Terry Goodkind.
     The only time I went into the teen category was of course Harry Potter, Eragon, and Twilight. You'd think that Twilight would have made me want to delve into the whole YA phenomenon, but it didn't even cross my mind.
     And then Jessica Jacobs was born. The first novel I have even written. And it happens to be, yep- a teen book. Once I had it written and edited (once) and out to its very first agent, I decided I should read some teen books so I could know my audience, see what else was out there, and get the feel of the whole YA genre (if it can be called a genre). Thus began a long... well not very long since that was last february... relationship with unforgettable characters, interesting plots and very very quick reads.
     So what is this so-called curse you ask me? Well, a month or so ago I had nothing to read. I had gotten Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" last christmas and I decided to finally take a crack at it. Thus began the curse. I found myself skimming not only some very X-rated moments (why didn't anyone warn me about those???) but extremely long descriptions and scenes that seemed so unnecessary to the plot. (Like hello- we already know Claire's a tough chick- we really didn't need to spend pages reading about her fight with a wolf to prove that.)
     I couldn't help but wonder (so SATC) if I would have skimmed that book so much if I'd read it before my whole teen reading jag. I've been known to skim before, but mostly the descriptive or boring parts of books that I've already read ten or more times. But after reading teen books where every word counts, every character is major, and the pacing is so quick I'm done the book in a day or two, it's almost impossible for me to read an adult book.
     I have considered the possibility that maybe it was just Outlander, and not all adult books. But again, last week I was without a book, too lazy to go to the library, and had an unread book on my bookshelf just waiting for me to crack open. So now I'm reading the much recommended "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett. And yes- it's a good book.
     And yes- the curse is upon me. Just last night I found myself skimming a scene where this kid sets fire to a church. It took eighteen pages to show the kid thinking about starting the fire, actually starting the fire, and then getting out of the church.
     EIGHTEEN PAGES!!!
     In a teen book, that would have taken about two. I'm just sayin'.
     Will the curse ever leave me? You'd think since I'm a maturing adult, I'd be moving into more difficult and thought-provoking reads, rather than regressing to immortals macking on mortals, girls in spy school, and boys becoming werewolves in the cold weather. But no. Give me vampires, magic, angels, and tough chicks who battle it out in an arena. And give them to me in a book that I'll read in a day. At least until the curse disappears and I can read like an adult again.

The Vampire Diaries - Obsession Music Video