the eleventh plague.

so, i am happy to say that i am totally on a roll with reading this year!

last year, i set a goodreads goal of 50 books (i set it halfway through the year, but it was still a goal!), and didn't even make it close.

but this is the year! this year of 2012 is MY YEAR!

not only am i going to the gym on a regular basis and eating healthier, but i am GOING to reach my goal of 50 BOOKS this year.

the most recent one i finished (and #4 book of the year) is a dystopian/science-fiction novel:

The Eleventh Plague
by Jeff Hirscsh

you can read more about the book at the official website HERE.

it's a pretty good read. it's in the same vein as some other young adult books i've been reading lately (e.g. The Hunger Games trilogy and Divergent), and i thought it was pretty decent. what made it such a great book is that it's scarily realistic. unlike some other science fiction books i've read, this one takes what we are right now, and follows it down the path we're creating for ourselves. it's not a pretty picture.

but this is one of the reasons i love science fiction, which is a pretty recent love, i have to admit. i avoided it for so long because i always felt there was some sort of stigma attached to it.

but you know what? i'm a nerd. and i embrace it wholeheartedly.

"Tonight I can write the saddest lines" by Pablo Neruda

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example,'The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me sometimes, and I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.
Her void. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

"If You Forget Me" by Pablo Neruda

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine

why we broke up.

H at work gave me the following book:

Why We Broke Up
by Daniel Handler
art by Maira Kalman

i finished reading it this afternoon during my lunch break. and let me just say...THIS IS THE BOOK I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO WRITE, BUT DIDN'T KNOW HOW. it's incredible how close to home it hits. it's about this high school girl's first love...and it's clear from the beginning that the relationship is doomed. but you feel for the girl, or at least i did, because you know how it is.

i told H this afternoon, after i'd finished reading it, that this book is like the last 6 years of my life, rolled into 345 pages and a shorter time frame (less than 2 months).

this blog is a project devoted to the book, where readers can write their own "why we broke up" stories:

whywebrokeupproject.

here is mine.

we broke up because
i realized we weren't forever,
and no amount of wishing or trying
would make it so.

just for fun.

adorable. <3

The Book Thief

just finished it yesterday.

i'd bought it quite a while back--maybe a year and a half or so? i knew i wanted to read it, but never got around to it. then, during a professional development day, our facilitator had us read the prologue for an activity.

i decided to use the same activity with my kids because i loved it (and that excerpt from the book) so much.

then, i started reading.

i was in the middle of another novel, but that really didn't matter. because The Book Thief totally ROCKED.

i can't recommend it enough. i've only read one other book by Markus Zusak, and it was wonderful as well. but this book was just...really beautiful. and it's so appropriate for young adults. after we did the activity with the prologue in class, i had about six kids show up with the book in tow over the rest of the course of the week. and they really seem to be enjoying it so far. that makes me incredibly excited to be an english teacher. :)

THE BOOK THIEF
by Markus Zusak

it's been a while.

sorry. it's been much too long.

the thing is, i jump back and forth between blogs because i don't really know what there is for me to write about.

lately, i have a lot.

school's in full swing, and we're currently closing in on Thanksgiving break, which i am particular thankful for.

it's actually been a pretty fun year so far. i really enjoy the kids for the most part (although some of their parents are a different story). we actually had a Skate Night a couple of weeks ago. it was a shindig at the local skate rink put on by the PTO. they considered it a rare opportunity for parent, teachers, and students to get together in a casual setting and interact.

i hadn't roller skated in quite some time, and hadn't been in an actual skating rink in even longer. it took me a couple dozen laps to get my sea legs back.

anyway, the rink people dimmed the lights and announced that everyone should come on over to the center of the rink to do the hokey-pokey!

i knew it was a bad idea. i knew i shouldn't go.

but Jackman and Lofty INSISTED that i join them in the circle.

so i did.

it started out okay. i put in my left and right leg with minimal wobbling. i thought i'd gotten past the worst of it.

i threw my left elbow into the middle of the circle, wiggled it around, and then proceeded to hokey-pokey in an circle. it was then that i felt my feet fly out from under me. i would later describe it as one of those trust activities--you know, the one where you just let yourself free fall backward? except in this case, there was no one to catch me.

i fell backward in almost-slow-motion, and not knowing what else to do, i stuck out my left arm (because apparently i was still in hokey-pokey mode) to break my fall. i didn't bend my arm or anything--just let it hit the ground and brace my entire body weight. (which is more than i'd like to admit, lately.)

i didn't think much about the arm at the time. i just peeled myself up off the ground (with a little help from Jackman) and tried to gather up as much dignity as i could carry away with me.

the next day at school, the kids who weren't even at the Skate Night told me they'd heard about my fateful accident during the hokey-pokey. Jackman said that her kids were talking about it too. except, they didn't know my name. so they just referred to me as "that one teacher who fell during the hokey-pokey."

"oh, geez," i told her. "i really don't want to be THAT teacher."

"what teacher?"

"the teacher that fell during the hokey-pokey."

thankfully, the moniker wore off after a few days.

but the pain in my left arm only grew stronger.

this past sunday, it was almost unbearable. i got on the internet and started trying to find a doctor who might be able to help. but honestly, i had no idea what kind of doctor i was looking for.

i looked over at LB, who was also sitting in the living room at the time.

"what kind of doctor do you go to when you think your arm is about to break?"

"callie."

i had no idea what he was talking about. "callie? who the heck is callie?"

"you know. from Grey's Anatomy."

that boy seriously needs to start watching some manlier shows.

field trip tomorrow! :)