Famous last words!!!! So most everyone has had THAT friend, you know the one. The one that cons you in to doing things that you know you shouldn't be doing. They say phrases like "It's no big deal" or "We won't get caught, come on it will be fun". THAT friend is part of the reason you were grounded more than the average child was. THAT friend, till this day, is still your bestest ever, that without, your childhood would have been as dull as hell :)! Well that friend for me was Theresa!
Theresa and I became friends when we were 8 years old. For the life of either of us, we can't remember how we met. I think it was at another friends pool party. Anyways, Theresa provided me with some of the most memorable adventures I've ever had!
We did everything together. We had the best adventures! We loved to play spy, we were amazing at it. In fact we used to jump off her roof so we could learn how to "tuck and roll" in case we were being chased by bad guys. We were also identical twins named Melissa (me) and Alyssa!
Her parents had a motor home and Theresa found the keys, so we would play in the motor home. We would turn on the radio and the CB. We would pretend to be the female versions of Smokey and The Bandit. Well the truckers on the other end were NOT impressed buy our constant "Breaker breaker, 10-4 big buddy.." every funny thing we could remember from that particular movie. One time when I went over to her house I noticed that the Motor home was parked against the rain gutter on the roof. Now this didnt' look right to me. She had a sleep over the night before and they got the keys and kind of "drove" the motor home there. Her mom hadn't noticed yet, as she left for work very early in the morning. Anyways, Theresa told me that we needed to move the motor home back to it's original position so she wouldnt' get grounded, again. The girl was always grounded! So, she twisted my arm a bit and I conceded. So our brilliant plan was to back the motor home up. Well we did that, we backed the motor home up, but backed it up too far...oh did I mention we were 11 years old? So when we realized that we backed it up too far, we took the keys out, put it in neutral and pushed it forward. Ok, we did this in broad daylight. It wasn't like she lived out in the boonies either. She lived on a cul de sac. Anyways when her neighbor asked what we were doing, we said we were getting our exercise. Well, this was so much fun we kept backing the motor home up and pushing it forward. While one would back the motor home up, the other would be standing on the bumper holding on to the ladder. Well one time I decided it would be fun to put the motor home into "drive". Well I hit the brakes before I ran it back into the rain gutter. But being only 11, I had NO idea that when you took your foot off the brake that the motor home would just keep on going! See where I'm going with this? Well Theresa was holding on to the ladder in the back. Needless to say that when I hit the rain gutter, her face was totally smashed against the back window. Had I not been completely devastated, I would have laughed, as it was like a cartoon. So, I get out of the vehicle and I'm completely scared and bawling my eyes out, knowing how much trouble we were going to get in. Theresa, on the other hand, was laughing her ass off. This is where the phrase "Come on Chris, this is minor, really, we won't get caught". Well I was so devastated by crashing the motor home into the rain gutter that we kept on doing it for about another half hour. Well we did get caught, and we were grounded from each other once again.
We had so much fun. We would ride our bikes all summer long. I would get to her house early in the morning, help her with her chores (which meant that I got grounded from not doing my chores), then we would hop on our bikes and take the bike trail to anywhere we felt like going. We would spend the day at the movies. Walk around the shopping center. Stalk cute boys. We got lost in the woods, we would see who could jump the furthest over the creek and not get wet. We would sneak out of her house at night. Which was entertaining because she lived in a tri-level. So getting out of her room required going down 2 roofs, a 7ft fence, skirting the perimeter of her yard to climb the fence into her neighbors yard, avoid neighbors dogs. Climb yet another fence and then we would be home free. Only to do that in reverse order to get back to her room. We never did get caught for that. We only did that at her house, couldn't have gotten away with it at mine. We would take big moving boxes, get in them and use them as a sled down her stairs. Granted that almost always ended in a fat lip, but was most fun! She had an old water bed mattress. We would fill it up about 1/3 of air from the vacuum cleaner, then would place the mattress on the grass below the deck. One of us would sit on the end of the mattress so that the other end was a giant "bubble" behinds us. The other one would stand on the deck railing and jump on to the bubble and would launch the person on the end. That was soo much fun. Her older brother and his friend would launch us both at the same time. It was amazing we never broke any bones.
Our adventures came to a sudden end when we were 13. My family had move several states away. I would go visit her from time to time, and we would pick up right where we left off. Only by then we could both drive legally. We are now both 41. We both are married with kids now. I get to see her about once every 2-3 years. Those short days together are still just as magical for us now as it was over 30 years ago. A day doesn't go by that I don't miss that woman terribly. We talk for hours on the phone to the point where we are both hoarse from talking and laughing. She is my blood sister, my main confidant. She is my favorite part of childhood.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Ugh
I was at RomCon this past weekend. It's a convention where romance authors and readers get to gather for a hell of a good time! And TRUST me, it was a hell of a good time! One of my favorite authors was there, Jaquelyn Frank. I've been reading her for a while now, so was really exciting to meet her. At the awards brunch (thanks Sophie and Chloe for the tickets) Jackie got up and addressed the audience. She asked what was wrong with us women. Why, when we get a compliment do we have to shoot it down? Why are we constantly comparing ourselves to others and finding outrageous faults of our own? It's crazy. Even though my self esteem is not too shabby, I find that anorexic mind set beating at the back of my mind. I was at the convention with two wonderful friends of mine, they are amazing women and I'm so blessed that they call me friend. Now one night we all got dressed up, all decked out. We looked HOT. Now while I'm saying we ALL looked hot, all I could hear was that evil little voice in the back of my head saying...too bad your body isn't as good as theirs..WTF?? Really voice, are we going to go through this shit AGAIN. I figured being 41 meant that I was passed that. Guess not lol. I KNOW that for being 41 years old, i'm pretty damned attractive. I'm not being concieted, just what it is. But knowing you are attractive and feeling it are two completely different things. Now I do excersise. I've been working out since October, minus 8 weeks when I had to get my pelvic guts ripped out of me. Well, not really, but TRUST me it felt like it. Anyways, eventhough I have not lost any weight. I am stronger and healthier than I've ever been. I feel great about feeling great, but feel like shit about NOT looking great. Well turns out that I've slipped back into the anorexic mind set again, THOU SHALL EAT ONLY ENOUGH TO STAY UPRIGHT. I have a history of fainting.
I have always been thin. It's a genetic thang! I was also very active as a child. So that helped. Unfortuneately I started developing at very young, age 10. Well trust me that the boys noticed. There is nothing quite like being told you have nice tits at the age of 11 by some teenage punk. Yea, was wonderful! I also had horny teenage boys in the neighborhood. I had a crush on one of them, hell we ALL did lol. At about age 12 is when abuse started from them. One kid kept pulling my bathing suit down in their pool. He did it so often that I had claw marks on my chest and boobs. He even did it infront of his MOM. All she said was "Oh Don, stop that" REALLY?? I would have bitched slapped my son into next week if he treated any girl that way. One night that kid and another kid (the one I had the crush on) held me down infront of my brother and felt me up, down, all around. NOW, i'm not wanting comments about this because I know a good portion of you women out there have had something like this happen, if not worse. This is just important to my personal anorexic mindset. The past is just that, the past. Anyways when I was 13, I think, my older sis told me that I had to be carefull because I was getting saddle bags in my thighs and pointed to them. Now I dont' think she meant to be mean, in all honesty I just looked at her like she was stoned lol. I didn't care. Fast forward a few months and we move to a completely new state. Being the new girl at 13 is a hell I don't wish upon my worst enemy, well maybe her as she was the cause of most my grief at that school. Anyways I was looking at pics that I had developed (pre-digi baby) and I saw the saddle bags my sis had warned me about....there went the eating. I was miserable in school, I felt like I had NO controll, but dammit I could controll my eating. I had acne, pretty bad infact. I felt my face to be more hideous than Medusa's, but damn I could have a good figure. After all my boobs got me a lot of attention the years before. I remember I weighed myself and I was 114lbs, I was about 5'6" by the time I was 14, but thought that was fat. So I ate just enough so I wouldnt get sick. Low blood sugar is NOT fun people!!! I also found out that taking NoDoze supresses the appetite. Well I got down to about 110. I was able to stay that way pretty much through all of high school. I would go down to 105, mom would yell at me and I would get back up to 110. I got called a bean poll on a regular basis. My friends were the pretty, popular ones. I was the tag along with the bad skin but killer body. I was lonely, couldn't figure out why the boys didn't like me, typical high school stuff really. We've all been there done that, would rather stick hot pokers into our eye balls than do it again. Looking back, I realize that when things were going good for me, my eating became more consistant and regular. My mom is a nurse, so its not like I couldn't ever eat. That women missed NOTHING lol. When things were bad, I didn't eat. Again, anorexia is mostly about control than weight. Granted weight is important to an anorexic, but the control factor is addictive. My lowest weight was when I was 19, I weighed about 100lbs. Yea, found out that weight when I was with my mom. Oooh that didn't go over so well. Got a 2 hour lecture from her, then another two hour lecture from my room mate. So I ate enough to prove that I was eating.
I got married when I was 21. The day after my 22nd b-day I quit smoking. I was about 105, 110 when I quit. I gained about 15-20lbs. I weighed myself once and was 125lbs. Was an odd weight for me. But I figured it was because I was married, husband is one hell of a cook, so I was eating lol. Of course I started smoking again. Then I got pregnant, quit smoking and gained about 50lbs lol. I lost all the weight within a few months. From that point till I was 34 I pretty much maintained a weight of 125-135. If I got above 135lbs I would smoke like a chimney and take diet pills. I started working out, I got down to about 125lbs again. I thought I looked good, but everyone else said I looked too thin, damned if you do, damned if you don't. Granted I was working out alot, but I was eating. BUT, I was also taking diet pills. Anyways I finally got sick of my mind frame. I only thought I was worth anything if I was thin. I used how awsome my body was as a way to attract attention. It was almost like I needed that validation, but damn one day I just realized how cheap I felt. SOOO I stoped working out. Figured I needed to learn to like myself NO matter what I looked like. Well several years and surgeries late I got my wish lol. I gained quite a bit of weight. I've been teetering on being overweight, but have managed, barely, to stay below the dotted line! Well I finally got tired of that shit. Although I do have to admit that I did learn to like myself a little bit. My husband had a lot to do with that. He's my rock and I swear I do NOT deserve that man, but I'm NOT about to let him go either. So back to the begging of this rant. I've been working out like pretty steady. Very rarely do I miss a week, unless I'm gone. My arms look pretty good I can see my quads, didn't know I had any AND I feel very good. But my goal of loosing 10lbs and one pants size is still way out my reach. I've been trying to figure out why.....It dawned on me that i'm back to my old anorexic ways, but instead of making me skinny, it's doing just the opposite. My body is in starvation mode. My body will NOT realse the fat above my muscles, it's storing it, NOT GOOD. So now my goal is to eat 3 meals a day with snacks inbetween. And of course I'm going to junk out on occasion. I'm a cake whore, can't help it, I would die without it! I also still smoke, although I'm on welbutrin to quit. I just pray I stick with it this time.
Anorexia is a disease, there is NO cure. Only remission. It's a mindset that must be dealt with every damn day. It's about not watching Americas Top Model or reading Vogue or any of those magazines. Because quite frankly, tha'ts NOT reality. Being healthy emotionally and physically takes work. We aren't just born with the tools to accomplish it. It has to be a consious decision, one that we have to make every day! One trick i've learned is that no matter how shitty about myself I might feel, I will NOT let those around me know it. I will walk with my head heald high and proud. I have a lot to be proud about. I'm not one to whine, it annoys the hell out of me. Even this isn't a whine, just a strange rant. I found out last time I did that about my son, I felt a hell of a lot better. So trying it again. Trying to clear my noggin a bit and focus on important stuff like cleaning and oraganizing my house, getting ready for my Ireland/London trip. I have soo much more better things to do than to obsess over superficial shit. And really, who wants to be around someone like that. I sure don't.
We all have our insecurities, we all have self doubt. But I tell ya, physical and emotional happiness go hand in hand. You really can't have one without the other. So instead of thinking about how unfair YOUR life is, sit back and think about what you can do to make your life better. Nobody will do it for you. Figure out what it it that's really bothering you. If it's your weight, make a decision to fix it. But please, please, dont' pick yourself apart in the process.
I have always been thin. It's a genetic thang! I was also very active as a child. So that helped. Unfortuneately I started developing at very young, age 10. Well trust me that the boys noticed. There is nothing quite like being told you have nice tits at the age of 11 by some teenage punk. Yea, was wonderful! I also had horny teenage boys in the neighborhood. I had a crush on one of them, hell we ALL did lol. At about age 12 is when abuse started from them. One kid kept pulling my bathing suit down in their pool. He did it so often that I had claw marks on my chest and boobs. He even did it infront of his MOM. All she said was "Oh Don, stop that" REALLY?? I would have bitched slapped my son into next week if he treated any girl that way. One night that kid and another kid (the one I had the crush on) held me down infront of my brother and felt me up, down, all around. NOW, i'm not wanting comments about this because I know a good portion of you women out there have had something like this happen, if not worse. This is just important to my personal anorexic mindset. The past is just that, the past. Anyways when I was 13, I think, my older sis told me that I had to be carefull because I was getting saddle bags in my thighs and pointed to them. Now I dont' think she meant to be mean, in all honesty I just looked at her like she was stoned lol. I didn't care. Fast forward a few months and we move to a completely new state. Being the new girl at 13 is a hell I don't wish upon my worst enemy, well maybe her as she was the cause of most my grief at that school. Anyways I was looking at pics that I had developed (pre-digi baby) and I saw the saddle bags my sis had warned me about....there went the eating. I was miserable in school, I felt like I had NO controll, but dammit I could controll my eating. I had acne, pretty bad infact. I felt my face to be more hideous than Medusa's, but damn I could have a good figure. After all my boobs got me a lot of attention the years before. I remember I weighed myself and I was 114lbs, I was about 5'6" by the time I was 14, but thought that was fat. So I ate just enough so I wouldnt get sick. Low blood sugar is NOT fun people!!! I also found out that taking NoDoze supresses the appetite. Well I got down to about 110. I was able to stay that way pretty much through all of high school. I would go down to 105, mom would yell at me and I would get back up to 110. I got called a bean poll on a regular basis. My friends were the pretty, popular ones. I was the tag along with the bad skin but killer body. I was lonely, couldn't figure out why the boys didn't like me, typical high school stuff really. We've all been there done that, would rather stick hot pokers into our eye balls than do it again. Looking back, I realize that when things were going good for me, my eating became more consistant and regular. My mom is a nurse, so its not like I couldn't ever eat. That women missed NOTHING lol. When things were bad, I didn't eat. Again, anorexia is mostly about control than weight. Granted weight is important to an anorexic, but the control factor is addictive. My lowest weight was when I was 19, I weighed about 100lbs. Yea, found out that weight when I was with my mom. Oooh that didn't go over so well. Got a 2 hour lecture from her, then another two hour lecture from my room mate. So I ate enough to prove that I was eating.
I got married when I was 21. The day after my 22nd b-day I quit smoking. I was about 105, 110 when I quit. I gained about 15-20lbs. I weighed myself once and was 125lbs. Was an odd weight for me. But I figured it was because I was married, husband is one hell of a cook, so I was eating lol. Of course I started smoking again. Then I got pregnant, quit smoking and gained about 50lbs lol. I lost all the weight within a few months. From that point till I was 34 I pretty much maintained a weight of 125-135. If I got above 135lbs I would smoke like a chimney and take diet pills. I started working out, I got down to about 125lbs again. I thought I looked good, but everyone else said I looked too thin, damned if you do, damned if you don't. Granted I was working out alot, but I was eating. BUT, I was also taking diet pills. Anyways I finally got sick of my mind frame. I only thought I was worth anything if I was thin. I used how awsome my body was as a way to attract attention. It was almost like I needed that validation, but damn one day I just realized how cheap I felt. SOOO I stoped working out. Figured I needed to learn to like myself NO matter what I looked like. Well several years and surgeries late I got my wish lol. I gained quite a bit of weight. I've been teetering on being overweight, but have managed, barely, to stay below the dotted line! Well I finally got tired of that shit. Although I do have to admit that I did learn to like myself a little bit. My husband had a lot to do with that. He's my rock and I swear I do NOT deserve that man, but I'm NOT about to let him go either. So back to the begging of this rant. I've been working out like pretty steady. Very rarely do I miss a week, unless I'm gone. My arms look pretty good I can see my quads, didn't know I had any AND I feel very good. But my goal of loosing 10lbs and one pants size is still way out my reach. I've been trying to figure out why.....It dawned on me that i'm back to my old anorexic ways, but instead of making me skinny, it's doing just the opposite. My body is in starvation mode. My body will NOT realse the fat above my muscles, it's storing it, NOT GOOD. So now my goal is to eat 3 meals a day with snacks inbetween. And of course I'm going to junk out on occasion. I'm a cake whore, can't help it, I would die without it! I also still smoke, although I'm on welbutrin to quit. I just pray I stick with it this time.
Anorexia is a disease, there is NO cure. Only remission. It's a mindset that must be dealt with every damn day. It's about not watching Americas Top Model or reading Vogue or any of those magazines. Because quite frankly, tha'ts NOT reality. Being healthy emotionally and physically takes work. We aren't just born with the tools to accomplish it. It has to be a consious decision, one that we have to make every day! One trick i've learned is that no matter how shitty about myself I might feel, I will NOT let those around me know it. I will walk with my head heald high and proud. I have a lot to be proud about. I'm not one to whine, it annoys the hell out of me. Even this isn't a whine, just a strange rant. I found out last time I did that about my son, I felt a hell of a lot better. So trying it again. Trying to clear my noggin a bit and focus on important stuff like cleaning and oraganizing my house, getting ready for my Ireland/London trip. I have soo much more better things to do than to obsess over superficial shit. And really, who wants to be around someone like that. I sure don't.
We all have our insecurities, we all have self doubt. But I tell ya, physical and emotional happiness go hand in hand. You really can't have one without the other. So instead of thinking about how unfair YOUR life is, sit back and think about what you can do to make your life better. Nobody will do it for you. Figure out what it it that's really bothering you. If it's your weight, make a decision to fix it. But please, please, dont' pick yourself apart in the process.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Confessions of a book whore!
I wasn't always a reader. I read mostly when I had to for school. I never really understood the whole reading "trend" . In elementry I had friends that read the "little house" series and "Nancy Drew" series, as well as the Hardy Boys. I watched Little House on the Prairie and The Hardy Boys, so didn't feel the need to read the books. Infact, it was sheer torture when during a shopping trip with mom she would drag me into a book store, it was as bad as being draged into a fabric store. :)
By the time I hit Jr. High, not a whole lot changed. I read when it was required for an assignment, but that's about it. Some of those books were classics like "To Kill a Mockingbird" , "The Good Earth" .They were amazing books, but not books I would just pick up and read unless I had to. When I was 9th grade all anyone could talk about was the Baby Sitters Club and V.C. Andrews's "Flowers in the Attic". The Baby Sitters club really didn't intrest me, but Flowers in the Attic sure did! So I read that. I was kind of surprised by it's sexual content, but being 14 I felt "cool" for reading such a grown-up book. Till this day I have NO idea if mom knew what I was reading lol. My mom did get me some books that same year. They were geared for teens, at least that's how they were marketed One of them was called "I love you stupid" and it was basiclly about a teenage boy's quest for loosing his virginity! The second book was titled, I think, Sooner or Later. It was about a 13 year old girl who pretends to be 16 because she's in love with her 17 year old guitar instructor. The whole book centers around her secret and their relationship, again with this series, the girl looses her virginity and THEN worries about being pregnant. Needless to say I never told Mom what those books were about as I was 14 and VERY boy crazy. Also, I looked 17, so I was always being hit on by older guys.
High School came around and there were quite a few books that I was required to read. Some of them were very good. Most of them infact, but again these are the sort of books that I read beacause I had to in order to keep my parents from sending me to Catholic school! I had to do a book report on a fiction book of my choosing. Sounds simple right? Well to a non-hobby reader, it wasn't easy. I didn't figure VC Andrews was tame enough for a school book report lol. I found Danielle Steele's book "Palomino" . The only reason I picked it up was because I loved palomino horses. Anyways I liked the book and got an A on that book report, which furthered guarenteed that I wouldn't get sent to Catholic school. I believe that was the only book that I chose to read all through high school. I was too busy with homework (when threatend), work and hanging with friends, to read.
At 19 I shared an apartment with a friend. She used to read all the time. She got me started on Piers Anthony. I believe the first book I read of his was a Xanth novel. Loved that series. I learned, then, that fantasy was the genre I liked the most. Next book from Piers was "On a Pale Horse", it was the first in the Incarnation of Immortality series. I read them all. Then a friend let me borrow all the CS Lewis Narnia books. I still wasn't an avid reader, but I was starting to see the joy of books.
When I was 22 I found out about an author named Anne Rice! She had her vampire series, and I said to myself "Self, we've loved vampires since we were a little girl". So I read "Interview with a Vampire". I think I finished that book in 1 day. I went on to read most in that series, but not all.
I didn't read for a long time after that because I became a mommy and between that and taking care of a very sick child, I didn't have the energy for it. When I was visiting my mom, she gave me a book. It was Karen Robards "Walking after Midnight" . I wasn't really sure about it, but mom said it would be a good way for me to escape what was going on with my son, and at that point I was willing to try anything to escape. So that night I started reading W.A.M. WOW, I couldn't put it down. Karen's story had most of my favorite components. Mystery, dry-humor, sex, and funny animals! If anyone hasn't read it, I recomend it. Well I read more of her books and then mom handed me more books by different authors, Iris Johanson, Carly Phillips, Susan Elisabeth Phillips, Sandra Hill and that's a few of them. One day she handed me a book that she thought I would like. She knew my love of all things vampires and werewolves, so she handed me a book by a little known author at the time, Sherrilyn Kenyon! That's when I fell in LOVE with Paranormal Romance novels. Once I started reading her, I never looked back. I would browse books stores for hours looking for paranormal romance authors. I have my favorites. Sherrilyn, of course, Darynda Jones, Dakota Cassidy, Jeanine Frost, Susan Sizemore, JR Rain, HT Night, Jaquelyn Frank, just to name a few. Trust me when I say that the list is VERY long but VERY distinguished.
About a year or so ago, I started venturing into unknown territory, well for me anyways. I always did love the sex aspect of romance, but I accidently stumbled upon Erotic Romance. WOW, talk about a jolt for the hormones! Sex for just sex sake is boring in books, like in real life. There needs to be emotion involved no matter how descriptive the sex acts are, or how many partners are in said act. Without the emotion it's just empty. That's the difference betwen Erotica and Erotic Romance. Erotic Romance may have a leading lady and 3 leading men, but there is always emotions involved in the love-making, that's important for most women. Now some would say that reading erotic romance is "empty" and it might be for some, but for me, it's a nice little outlet. I'm curious by nature, so I can explore anything I want without any guilt or negative repercussions. It's almost as if i'm exploring my own sexuality without having to actually worry about pleasing more than one partner, cause lets face it, that's enough lol. But I can read and explore and be voyueristic in completely safe enviorment. Same with paranormal. I can be a vampire without having to actually drink blood (yuck), or change into a werewolf or teleport to an exotic island...etc...I can do this all from the comfort of my big, fluffy reading chair!
That is what reading is for me, escape. I can go anyhwere in the world, or out of this world, by simply picking up a book, or my kindle. I can live a complete and full fantasy life knowing it has NO negative impact on my most excellent real life! I believe everybody needs to escape, be it phyiscally and/or emotionally.
By the time I hit Jr. High, not a whole lot changed. I read when it was required for an assignment, but that's about it. Some of those books were classics like "To Kill a Mockingbird" , "The Good Earth" .They were amazing books, but not books I would just pick up and read unless I had to. When I was 9th grade all anyone could talk about was the Baby Sitters Club and V.C. Andrews's "Flowers in the Attic". The Baby Sitters club really didn't intrest me, but Flowers in the Attic sure did! So I read that. I was kind of surprised by it's sexual content, but being 14 I felt "cool" for reading such a grown-up book. Till this day I have NO idea if mom knew what I was reading lol. My mom did get me some books that same year. They were geared for teens, at least that's how they were marketed One of them was called "I love you stupid" and it was basiclly about a teenage boy's quest for loosing his virginity! The second book was titled, I think, Sooner or Later. It was about a 13 year old girl who pretends to be 16 because she's in love with her 17 year old guitar instructor. The whole book centers around her secret and their relationship, again with this series, the girl looses her virginity and THEN worries about being pregnant. Needless to say I never told Mom what those books were about as I was 14 and VERY boy crazy. Also, I looked 17, so I was always being hit on by older guys.
High School came around and there were quite a few books that I was required to read. Some of them were very good. Most of them infact, but again these are the sort of books that I read beacause I had to in order to keep my parents from sending me to Catholic school! I had to do a book report on a fiction book of my choosing. Sounds simple right? Well to a non-hobby reader, it wasn't easy. I didn't figure VC Andrews was tame enough for a school book report lol. I found Danielle Steele's book "Palomino" . The only reason I picked it up was because I loved palomino horses. Anyways I liked the book and got an A on that book report, which furthered guarenteed that I wouldn't get sent to Catholic school. I believe that was the only book that I chose to read all through high school. I was too busy with homework (when threatend), work and hanging with friends, to read.
At 19 I shared an apartment with a friend. She used to read all the time. She got me started on Piers Anthony. I believe the first book I read of his was a Xanth novel. Loved that series. I learned, then, that fantasy was the genre I liked the most. Next book from Piers was "On a Pale Horse", it was the first in the Incarnation of Immortality series. I read them all. Then a friend let me borrow all the CS Lewis Narnia books. I still wasn't an avid reader, but I was starting to see the joy of books.
When I was 22 I found out about an author named Anne Rice! She had her vampire series, and I said to myself "Self, we've loved vampires since we were a little girl". So I read "Interview with a Vampire". I think I finished that book in 1 day. I went on to read most in that series, but not all.
I didn't read for a long time after that because I became a mommy and between that and taking care of a very sick child, I didn't have the energy for it. When I was visiting my mom, she gave me a book. It was Karen Robards "Walking after Midnight" . I wasn't really sure about it, but mom said it would be a good way for me to escape what was going on with my son, and at that point I was willing to try anything to escape. So that night I started reading W.A.M. WOW, I couldn't put it down. Karen's story had most of my favorite components. Mystery, dry-humor, sex, and funny animals! If anyone hasn't read it, I recomend it. Well I read more of her books and then mom handed me more books by different authors, Iris Johanson, Carly Phillips, Susan Elisabeth Phillips, Sandra Hill and that's a few of them. One day she handed me a book that she thought I would like. She knew my love of all things vampires and werewolves, so she handed me a book by a little known author at the time, Sherrilyn Kenyon! That's when I fell in LOVE with Paranormal Romance novels. Once I started reading her, I never looked back. I would browse books stores for hours looking for paranormal romance authors. I have my favorites. Sherrilyn, of course, Darynda Jones, Dakota Cassidy, Jeanine Frost, Susan Sizemore, JR Rain, HT Night, Jaquelyn Frank, just to name a few. Trust me when I say that the list is VERY long but VERY distinguished.
About a year or so ago, I started venturing into unknown territory, well for me anyways. I always did love the sex aspect of romance, but I accidently stumbled upon Erotic Romance. WOW, talk about a jolt for the hormones! Sex for just sex sake is boring in books, like in real life. There needs to be emotion involved no matter how descriptive the sex acts are, or how many partners are in said act. Without the emotion it's just empty. That's the difference betwen Erotica and Erotic Romance. Erotic Romance may have a leading lady and 3 leading men, but there is always emotions involved in the love-making, that's important for most women. Now some would say that reading erotic romance is "empty" and it might be for some, but for me, it's a nice little outlet. I'm curious by nature, so I can explore anything I want without any guilt or negative repercussions. It's almost as if i'm exploring my own sexuality without having to actually worry about pleasing more than one partner, cause lets face it, that's enough lol. But I can read and explore and be voyueristic in completely safe enviorment. Same with paranormal. I can be a vampire without having to actually drink blood (yuck), or change into a werewolf or teleport to an exotic island...etc...I can do this all from the comfort of my big, fluffy reading chair!
That is what reading is for me, escape. I can go anyhwere in the world, or out of this world, by simply picking up a book, or my kindle. I can live a complete and full fantasy life knowing it has NO negative impact on my most excellent real life! I believe everybody needs to escape, be it phyiscally and/or emotionally.
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