"Still Missing" & "A Stolen Life"

(Original post on Thursday) I finished Still Missing last night around 11:30 pm. Woah, was that a ride. A coworker of mine had told me she had read it just after I decided to buy it at Target on my lunch break. Great decision!

Just a little bit of the plot: Annie O'Sullivan is a realtor on Vancouver Island who is dating a lovely man and only slightly likes her mother and stepfather. One day, she is hosting a slow open house when a gentlemen decides he wants to see the house. Before she knows it, the gentlemen with the charming smile has a gun to her back and is telling her to get into his van. She is held captive for a year up in the woods and has to bear horrific routines, chores, rules and abuse. She escapes, however, and the book is broken up in sessions with her therapist. She speaks the whole time, retelling the stories of what happened on the mountain and what is going on now that she is home. With so many twists and turns, this novel is way more than what I have already described.

(New post, Sunday afternoon 7/17)
In conclusion, this book might not be literary genius but it is an eye grabber and you become hooked. And it is not hard to get wrapped up in the story and find yourself grinding your teeth, making fists or find yourself with your jaw touching the floor!


AND - Special extra! I just finished A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard, an instant favorite of mine. Here is a good review of the book, you can find it here.

I think this critic does an amazing job describing the best qualities of the book, so if you want to go ahead and read that to get insight into the instant bestseller! I read this in 3 or 4 days. I feel very proud of my reading lately!

So I have read two books back to back about women who are held captive. One (Still Missing) a fictional story of a 30-something who is kept for a year. The other, (A Stolen Life) a real life horror about a pre-teen girl taken and held captive for 18 years before she is reunited with her family and friends. Both are very powerful and captivating. They are eerily similar but different at the same time. Both are wonderful! Happy reading everyone!

NEXT UP: A SOFT PLACE TO LAND BY SUSAN REBECCA WHITE

Still Missing

I have decided to blog about a book. I'm thinking this will be my way of making myself stick to a book and finish it in a timely manner. The title is still missing my Chevy Stevens. I have heard good things and hope to enjoy this journey throughout the novel. I will post every so often about it in hopes to spark my interest in reading. Hope anyone who follows or stumbles upon will find joy in this blog for the time being. Over and out.

Confessions

What to talk about today? That is the plaguing question. I think I am going to talk about a certain aspect of life.

I enjoy life. Most days I am filled with laughter and busting at the seems with smiles to greet everyone. But the other days I have my cranky pants on and don't feel comfortable in my own skin. I struggle with anger and depression, I won't lie. My anger stems from my strong convictions about life. I have a few beliefs that seem to creep into every aspect of my life. Anger can be healthy and it can also be dangerous.

I guess what makes me angry the most is Fatherhood. Fatherhood has become something that is not appreciated but dreaded. There are few men that I have had the pleasure of knowing who have taken their life-long commitment as a father seriously. I think all the good that is supposed to come out of commitment has been replaced with the free life. Men want to be free from women. I'm sorry, were we suffocating you with your responsibilities? I wonder when this general decline in Fatherhood began to happen? The 60's when everyone started to lose control and fall into the wonderful world of sex, drugs and rock and roll? Maybe this was the beginning of something great but also could be the beginning of an era of Fatherless Homes - which I have written an article about in the past. There needs to be a book a man reads before he is ever able to have an erection. Maybe that might be a little young to all you conservatives out there, but that would sure help this problem. It seems like some men these days are raised to only think of themselves and to avoid commitment.

Now, all you angry men out there just calm down. You know most of this is generally true of your species. More to come. That's all for today. Over and out.

New Obsessions

H&M, Twitter, Blogging, Boyfriend.

First, let me give some background. As I sit here and watch an old re-run of House with Sara Beara, I have an odd fascination with strolling through twitter and trying to decide how I should go about blogging on this thing. I watched Julie & Julia and she actually had a reason to blog, thus ended up having an interesting following. I don't want a book deal or a movie but I do want to have someone read my posts and get something from it. If there's nothing to get from it, then that's my fault and I'm sorry for that. Sometimes I feel like I have no hobbies and no actual interests besides my recently purchased, all-seven seasons of The Golden Girls. However, I am very opinionated and have had my share of experiences in life up until now, at 20 (I'll keep you posted on more experiences).

So, let me explain my new obsessions. I am a little late on reporting this, but I am obsessed with H & M. First discovered in Hampton, Virginia while on vacation, I fell in love at first glace. Then I feel even deeper in love when I saw the prices of the clothes. Hi-yo! My sister was right when she said it was everyone's style. They have a little bit of everything there. So needless to say, my closet is already littered with their clothes. I have also introduced Sara to this as well. Whoops. Glad the nearest one is 2.5 hours away!

Next obsession: Twitter. Celebrity updates are sickeningly good! Some celeb's I stay away from but the normal Twitter-lovers are usually fun to hear from. Tom Hanks, Kim Kardashian, Blake Shelton and others have been lighting up my feed! Addicted? Yes. Maybe more than just addicted? I'll keep you posted.

Blogging. I kind of explained this before. I just want my post's to mean something! Not many friends my age like to blog. So I'll have to branch outside my comfort zone, reach out to others. I'll try to keep myself from long posts and rambles. Maybe that will help...

Boyfriend. New boyfriend? No. Same old, same old. I just want to write the words down here that I want to say but can't. I have been with Dan since October 2009. He has given me some of the best memories of my life along with giving me the love and attention I deserve. We're not always perfect, that's for sure. I wouldn't want to be perfect. Him and I have recently decided to put the spice back in our life. To work on things and make sure the spark stays alive. I love him more than life and I hope he knows that. Ok, so I'm not OBSESSED with my boyfriend. But I want everyone to know how crazy I am about him. He makes me a better person, a better girlfriend, a better woman. I don't know who I would be without him in my life. This sounds like a cliche romance novel for sure, but its honesty at its finest.

Sometimes we don't have to speak the words we are feeling, but it is nice to write them down.

Mountains, motor homes and Montana's.

I sure do love clever titles. They just might be my favorite thing about this silly blog.

So, the last time I updated we had gone to Ben and Jerry's, Cabot Creamery and Dartmouth. Well, since then we have been all over the damn place! On Tuesday we went down to Quechee Gorge, which is pretty awesome. Sara of course was scared and walked very slow while on the bridge that runs over the gorge. They have a visitors trail that you can walk down to actually get to the bottom of the gorge, which is a pretty steep .4 miles long. So, Sara and I went on another "hiking" adventure, down the Quechee Gorge. It was so beautiful at the bottom. Rocks with flowing water, where we took pictures, of course.

We climbed back up and we headed to Woodstock, Vermont. This is a quaint, tourist town that we drove through to get to our destination and decided we MUST go back. Little shops, restaurants and art galleries lined the streets along with old houses and buildings dated from the 1800's. And a covered bridge, which was very rustic and beautiful.

Wednesday, we traveled our little hiney's to Boston, Massachusetts with Sue. First stop was actually in Cambridge, where Harvard is :). We had the hardest time actually finding Harvard because it is literally hidden behind it's own buildings. My GPS said, you have arrived and I had no idea what it was talking about. Once you walk in between some buildings, you realize you are in Harvard Yard, where most of the academic buildings are. While at Harvard, we ate at Bartley's Burgers and visited the Coop, which is Harvard's store of signature Harvard apparel. Then, we went to the North End of Boston, which is *hush hush* Little Italy. Everything was Italian, except the 1-800-Flowers we parked next to. We went to Mike's Pastry, which is a North End staple and had the best Canoli's ever! We got some souvenirs in some gift shops, walked around and absolutely loved the Italian and Boston accents. Such a weird experience!

We left Vermont on Thursday. :( Packed up our stuff and got back on the road. We made it to Batavia, New York to stop for the night. We shopped at a Walmart where I found a ton of TV seasons for only 15$. Needless to say I spent a little too much, but got a great deal.

On Friday, we arrived in Niagara Falls, NY! We bought tickets for the day for the trolley, Cave of the Winds, Maid of the Mist (YAY) and the aquarium. I absolutely LOVED Maid of the Mist. Although there were at least a hundred other people on board with us, I felt like I was on a private tour of the falls and that I was special. (Hah). I loved the water on my face and on my sunglasses! After that we walked around for a while, seeing and observing the falls from all different angles. It was just TOO gorgeous. Then we visited the aquarium, which was small but had lot's of fishies! We walked back over to the main area and took the trolley over to the other side of the falls where the Cave of the Winds was. We got to go practically into the falls bu walking up steps. We lived through the Hurricane Deck, where I got soaked! Good thing I had a poncho. However, my pants got incredibly wet! All in all, Niagara was definitely worth it! I don't know if I have ever seen anything more beautiful.

Then we made our way through Canada a little ways, while I got sick and threw up a couple times. Once in the motorhome while driving - that was fun! - and once was at a Montana's restaurant, hence the part of the title. Thankfully, I made it outside the restaurant. After that, I felt much better, to say the least.

Once we made it back into the U.S. on Saturday I was full of joy. Not being able to use my phone or the internet drives me nuts. And knowing we would get back to Hastings that day was also a nice feeling :) I hadn't showered since Thursday morning. Ugh. So we're back in Michigan and going to be heading back to Mount Pleasant today. Feels like forever since I have been there, and I cannot WAIT to do my laundry. It's gonna feel so good! Of course, we're gonna make a pit stop in Grand Rapids for a little bit. Mama bought us a new microwave and I want to see them! But for now, our trip is over and it was a darn good one, too! Over and out!