Month: September 2012

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Book Review

LaurenLeave a comment

I tried to finish this book two nights ago.

But someone was watching The Andy Griffith Show on his iPhone under the covers and the laughter coming out from underneath those covers was slightly distracting.  Oh, and that part where he threw the covers off and exclaimed, “I can’t breathe!” threw me off a little too. This is my real life.  I couldn’t make these things up.

Anyways.  I finally managed to finish Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See.  The book revolves around Lily, a lower class girl growing up in China and the relationship she has watch her laotong (which means the girls are matched up to be best friends for life) Snow Flower.

It’s a book about a lot of things.  Chinese culture in the nineteenth century, footbinding, dowries, expectations of the Chinese family and women specifically.  But at its core, this is really a book about best friends.  And that’s why, as hard as it is to understand some of the cultural aspects of the story, the book still feels relatable.

I’ve always been a best friend, as opposed to a group of girlfriends, kind of girl, so I found the book particularly relatable.  And incredibly endearing.  I may or may not have teared up just a little bit towards the end of the story, which is actually pretty heartbreaking.

Oh, and if you’re squeamish, I suggest not googling “foot binding.”  And if you’re really squeamish, you might want to skip this book and just watch The Andy Griffith Show on your iPhone under the covers.

Labor Day Weekend Things

Lauren1 Comment

Ooooh, where to begin.  This three-day Labor Day weekend was a whirlwind of baseball, beer and balloons.  Yeah, you know what?  Those three words pretty much sum up my weekend.

I normally have a lot to say, but I think I’ll shut up and just show you instead.  Don’t worry, I can’t actually completely shut up, so I’ll add some explanation every now and then.

How great is this picture of my mom?

Immediately after drinking this margarita she felt sick and wasn’t sure why.  I asked what she ate all day and she replied with a cupcake and coffee for breakfast, french fries for lunch and a hot dog for dinner.  Huh, I’m not sure why either.

Here I am in my kitchen on Saturday morning, just brewing some beer in a 22 quart stockpot.

I feel like we have some weird science experiment going on in our apartment.  And in a way, I guess it kind of is.  I’ll let you know how it tastes in a few weeks, but for now, we’re pretty damn excited that it’s working like it’s supposed to.  Still baffles me that you can drink something that you’ve let sit out for a month, though.

Joey’s face as he loses our giant game of Jenga is priceless.

We spent Saturday in Colorado Springs, which to Joey means a chance to watch the Rockies’ Triple A team play.  I was okay with it since my favorite Rockies player is playing for them right now while he rehabs an injury from earlier in the season.

We definitely made eye contact at one point.  And my life was made.

Beer sampling at Phantom Canyon Brewing Company, which happened to be right across the street from our hotel.  Perfect.  Plus more beer, some amazing corn chowder and a giant salad.  I  thought I might never eat again.

Just singing to his beer.  Totally normal.

The real reason we were in the Springs was to go to the Colorado Balloon Classic.  It’s basically a weekend-long hot air balloon festival.  There’s morning and evening events, including the Balloon Glo, where all the balloons inflate and light up with fire.  It was definitely cool to see.  Those balloons are so much bigger when you’re standing next to them on the ground than they look up in the sky!

Let’s not talk about the 30 minute walk from the festival back to our hotel in the dark and how Joey claimed he saw a bullet hole in the window of a building.  And let’s really not talk about how we watched the news when we got back and there had been a shooting the night before on that same street.  I hope my mom isn’t reading this.

Up early the next morning to watch the “Grand Ascension.”

This is my “can you stop taking pictures of me while I have a mouth full of this sketchy carnival burrito?!” face.  Which Joey clearly finds hilarious.  I’m going to pretend everyone was sitting in the wet grass while bouncing back and forth between eating a burrito and feeling like they were going to throw up.  This is my life.

Now we’re home, uh, watching baseball.  How much baseball is too much baseball?  Our beer is fermenting away, laundry is in progress and we’re heading over to my brother’s for a little family BBQ-ing.  There will probably be more beer.

Happy Labor Day!

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What did you do with your 3-day weekend?

If you could sum LDW up in three words what would they be?

Have you ever been to a hot air balloon festival or even gone up in one?