Maggie's Journal

When I was in AP English my senior year, my teacher gave the class a list of books that she felt all college-bound students should read. I vowed I would read every one of them before I died, and then I never looked at the list again. But I kept it. And I thought of it recently and pulled it out. I haven’t made much progress on the list, but I was able to say that I’d read a few of them. So I am renewing my vow—at least to read as many as I can. There are some I’ve never heard of and some I’ve tried to read and know that I don’t like, but there are just as many that I’m looking foward to reading just as soon as my reading is no longer a required thing. Though there are a few I will be knocking off this semester.

Since I know my family and a large majority of my friends love to read, I thought I’d post the list with the books I’ve read noted. Feel free to make suggestions for additons.

* = I have read
Wold Literature
The Bible
The Orestei Trilogy: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides-Aeschylus
Lysistrada-Aristophanes
Pere Goriot-Honore de Balzac
The Stranger, The Plague-Albert Camus
Don Quixoite-Miguel de Cervantes
The Cherry Orchard, The Sea Gull, Three Sisters-Anton Chekhov
Madame Curie-Eve Curie
The Inferno-Dante
Crime and Punishment,The Brothers Karamazov-Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo-Alexander Dumas
Medea *-Euripides
Madame Bovary-Gustave Flaubert
The Diary of a Young Girl *-Anne Frank
The Prophet, Tears and Laughter- Kahil Gilbran
Faust-Goethe
Kon-Tiki, The Ra Expedition, Aku-Aku-Thor Heyerdahl
The Illiad *, The Odyssey *-Homer
Les Miserables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame- Victor Hugo
Steppenwolf-Herman Hesse
An Enemy of the People, A Doll’s House-Henrik Ibsen
The Metamorphosis, The Trial- Franz Kafka
The Prince-Machiavelli
Death in Venice, Buddenbrooks-Thomas Mann
Short Stories-Guy de Maupassant
The Misanthrope, The Would-Be Gentleman-Moliere
All Quiet on the Western Front, Bobby Deerfield (Heaven Has No Favorites-original title)-Erich Maria Remarque
Giants in the Earth- O. E. Rolvaag
Cyrano de Bergerac-Edmond Rostand
The Little Prince, Wind, Sand & Stars – Antoine de St. Exuprey
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Cancer Ward- Alexander Solzhenitsyn
The Hobbit *, The Lord of the Rings, Silmarillion- J. R. R. Tolkien
Resurrection, War and Peace, Anna Karenina-Leo Tolstoy
Fathers and Sons-Ivan Turgenev
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea-Jules Vern
Candide-Voltaire
Oedipus Rex *, Antigone *-Sophocles
Mythology, The Greek Way, The Roman Way- Edith Hamilton

British Literature
Everyman-Anonymous
Pride and Prejudice-Jane Austen
Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights-Emily Bronte
Sonnets from the Portuguese-Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Poems *-Robert Browning
The Pilgrim’s Progress-John Bunyan
The Way of All Flesh-Samuel Butler
The Canterbury Tales *-Jeffery Chaucer
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner *-Samual Taylor Colridge
Lord Jim-Joseph Conrad
Robinson Crusoe-Daniel Defoe
Great Expectations *, A Tale of Two Cities *, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield-Charles Dickens
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Rebecca-Daphne DuMaurier
Silas Marner-George Eliot
The French Lieutenant’s Woman, The Magus-John Fowles
The Forsyte Saga-John Galsworthy
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire-Edward Gibbon
Lord of the Flies *-William Golding
She Stoops to Conquer, The Deserted Village-Oliver Goldsmith
The Mayor of Casterbridge, Far From the Madding Crowd *, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Return of the Native, Jude the Obscure-Thomas Hardy
Green Mansions-W. H. Hudson
Brave New World-Aldous Huxley
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses-James Joyce
Poems-John Keats
Captains Courageous, Kim-Rudyard Kipling
The Screwtape Letters-C.S. Lewis
Sons and Lovers, Lady Chatterly’s Lover- D. H Lawrence
Morte d’Arthur-Sir Thomas Malory
Of Human Bondage, The Razor’s Edge-Somerset Maugham
Faustus *-Christopher Marlowe
Paradise Lost *, Paradise Regained, Areopagitica-John Milton
Utopia-Thomas Moore
Animal Farm, 1984-George Orwell
Cry, The Beloved Country-Alan Paton
The Rape of the Lock-Alexander Pope
Ivanhoe-Sir Walter Scott
Julius Caesar *, Macbeth *, Hamlet *, Othello *, Romeo and Juliet *, A Midsummer Nights’s Dream *, The Taming of the Shrew *-William Shakespeare
Pygmalion, Androcles and the Lion *, Caesar and Cleopatra, Saint Joan-George Bernard Shaw
Frankenstein *-Mary Shelley
The Rivals, The School for Scandal-Richard B. Sheridan
Kidnapped, Treasure Island-Robert Louis Stevenson
Queen Victoria-Lytton Strachey
Gulliver’s Travels-Jonathan Swift
Poems-Alfred Lord Tennyson
Vanity Fair-William Thackeray
The Once and Future King, The Book of Merlin-T.H. White
Poems *-William Wordsworth

American Literature
Swiftwater-Paul Annixter
Nobody Knows My Name, Go, Tell it on the Moutain, The Fire Next Time-James Baldwin
Herzog, Henderson the Rain King, Humbolt’s Gift-Saul Bellow
Fahrenheit 451-Ray Bradbury
The Good Earth-Pearl S. Buck
Silent Soring, The Sea Around Us-Rachel Carson
My Antonia, Death Comes to the Archbishop-Willa Cather
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Innocents Abroad, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Roughing It- Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain)
The Last of the Mohicans, The Deerslayer-James Fenimore Cooper
The Red Badge of Courage-Stephen Crane
Life with Father-Clarence Day
Poems-Emily Dickinson
The Story of Philosophy-Will Durant
An American Tragedy-Theodore Dreiser
The Invisible Man-Ralph Ellison
Essays-Ralph Waldo Emerson
As I Lay Dying, The Sound and The Fury-William Faulkner
The Great Gatsby *- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Autobiography-Benjamin Franklin
Poems *-Robert Frost
The Scarlet Letter *, The House of the Seven Gables-Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Old Man and The Sea, For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms-Ernest Hemingway
Hiroshima, A Single Pebble-John Hersey
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow-Washington Irving
The Rise of Silas Lapham, A Modern Instance-William Dean Howells
The Turn of the Screw, Daisy Miller, The American, The Portrait of a Lady-Henry James
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest-Ken Kesey
The Story of My Life-Helen Keller
Andersonville-MacKinley Kantor
A Separate Peace *-John Knowles
The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, Inherit the Wind- Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Arrowsmith, Babbit, Main Street-Sinclair Lewis
To Kill a Mockingbird *-Harper Lee
The Ugly American-William Lederer
The Call of the Wild-Jack London
J. B. –Archibald MacLeish
Spoon River Anthology-Edgar Lee Masters
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, A Member of the Wedding-Carson McCullers
Moby Dick-Herman Melville
Death of a Salesman *, The Crucible *-Arthur Miller
Bridges at Toko-Ri, Hawaii, The Source-James Michner
The Octopus-Frank Norris
The Emperor Jones, A Long Day’s Journey into Night, Desire Under the Elms, A Moon for the Misbegotten-Eugene O’Neill
The Yearling-Marjorie K. Rawlings
Poems-Edwin Arlington Robinson
Catcher in the Rye *- J. D. Salinger
The People, Yes. Abraham Lincoln-Carl Sandburg
The Human Comedy-William Saroyan
The Jungle-Upton Sinclair
The Red Pony, The Grapes of Wrath, Travels with Charley, Of Mice and Men, The Pearl-John Steinbeck
The Agony and the Ecstasy-Irving Stone
Uncle Tom’s Cabin-Harriet B. Stowe
Walden, Civil Disobedience *-Henry D. Thoreau
Thurber, Carnival, My Life and Hard Times-James A. Thurber
Trinity, Exodus, QBVII-Leon Uris
Up From Slavery-Booker T. Washington
Leaves of Grass-Walt Whitman
All the King’s Men, A Place to Come To-Robert Penn Warren
Our Town *, The Skin of Our Teeth-Thorton Wilder
Summer and Smoke, The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof-Tennessee Williams
The Friendly Persuasion, Except for Me and Thee-Jessamyn West
Look Homeward, Angel-Thomas Wolfe
Black Boy-Richard Wright

Patrick and I started a New Year’s weight loss competition to help us get in shape. I am currently winning, but that is only because so far, Patrick isn’t competiting! We are both somewhat competitive, so I thought this would help keep us on track, but so far, not really.

So I found this picture to help inspire me and I’m gonna win! I don’t generally think I’m very photogenic, but I like this picture.

When I left school back in ’01, I had about 15 hours left to complete my journalism degree. When I went back last year, I figured that I had about 30 hours to complete a degree in English instead. Somehow, that number just kept growing until it seemed like maybe I’d never finish. Especially after a frustrating advising session at the end of last semester. But I sat down this past Thursday and finally got it all planned out on paper.

I’m taking 4 classes starting this Wed. I’ll have two American Literature classes, Spanish 3 and social psychology (to complete my psych minor). This summer I will take two classes leaving me 12 hours for the Fall. Then….graduation. Then I can finally start being whatever it is I’m going to be when I grow up! Too bad that when I told my advisor what I was interested in doing he told me repeatedly that I should just write childrens books because I could use my psychology and writing skills for that. And while I would love to do that, I can’t exactly just whip up a book and earn a living. And whatever happened to being supportive? Oh well, who needs him! I’ve got a great support system when it comes to giving encouragement on finishing up with school.

So maybe it has taken longer to finish up school than I ever thought it would take me, I’m doing it. And I do believe that often it is the things that are hard that are worth the most.

Brenden has his first tooth coming in. It started yesterday and is slowly pushing it’s way up. We can actually see it and feel it. Teething Brenden=Cranky Brenden, but he has been making up for it by giving me lots of kisses with sound effects and lots of his version of raspberries. It’s pretty cute. And just enough not to make me wanna run screaming from a house of crazy dogs and a teething baby:)

And as of last Saturday night, he is occassionally using the furniture to help him with walking! He grabs the couch and takes a few steps to the side or moves from the couch to the side table. He’s very busy, he’s got places to go!

Here is a cute video of Brenden playing peekaboo with his Grandfather (my Dad) on Christmas day. For some reason, he thought my Dad covering him up with the quilt was the most hilarious thing in the world.
peekaboowithgrandpa.mov

In case anyone wonders what I do with my day, here I try to keep up with Brenden as he uses his mad skillz to explore some of his new Christmas toys. It may be just a little long, sorry about that if it is.

brendenplayswithchristmastoys.mov

And finally, a retro look at Brenden on his first day home from the hospital with commentary by Patrick.

brendensfirstdayhome.mov

Patrick and I spent a quiet New Year’s Eve at home playing board games. May sound boring to some, but we had fun. For probably only the second time ever I beat him at Trivial Pursuit! And I beat him good! We just got the 80s editon for christmas and I was on a role! But then he paid me back by crushing me in the Monopoly here and now game that we played. He won free parking about 4 times and one of those times there was over $50 million in the middle. Neither of us like to lose, so I have a feeling a rematch will happen.

Speaking of not liking to lose, starting today, we are having a competition to see which of us can lose the biggest % of the weight we need to lose. We both need the motivation, so hopefully making it a showdown will help.

Patrick has to go back to work tomorrow, but I’m at home until the 17th.

Brenden had a great introduction to Christmas this year. We celebrated with Patrick’s Dad and Stepmom and family on the 23rd. Then on Christmas Eve we were off to Oklahoma and then Sherman to celebrate with Patrick’s best friend Andy and family. And finally, on Christmas day, we hosted my family at our house.  My brother, his wife and kids, my sister, my parents, my aunt and uncle, and three of my cousins filled up the house.  Brenden really  liked the shiny wrapping paper and bows. But I think he enjoyed the boxes most of all! He got a tickle me Elmo from his nanny and Pa Pa (Jim and Mary) and was more interested in the handle on the box! He did tear a little paper here and there though. Here are some cute pictures of from the three days.

At Jim and Mary’s. This is probably the time he was most interested in the gifts. But to be fair, it was also the time he was most awake.

At the Jacob’s house, Brenden studies his new baby genuis dvd.

My niece, Tevis, really enjoyed Brenden.

It is a strong possibility that we could have skipped all the toys and just given him shoes.

Bailey uses Brenden’s new leap frog musical caterpillar as a pillow.

I’m not one of those Mom’s that’s going to take embarrassing naked pictures, but he was enjoying his bath so much, that I snapped a few shots of his happy face.

Brenden enjoys his first bath after getting home from vacation.

And afterwards, gets comfy in his flannel pajamas.

Patrick swears he’s going to blog about our trip, so I leave most of the details for him to write about and just share my favorite pictures. I do want to say that Brenden was so well behaved on the trip that we were able to have a really great time. And yes, we did leave the airport and the hotel, but as Patrick and I don’t appear too photogenic in any of those pictures, I’m not sharing them!

Brenden before our flight to NY took off. He was great on the plan despite many delays both ways.

Brenden as we take off. And I was worried his ears would hurt him….

Brenden has fun on the big comfy bed!

Brenden makes a new best friend—himself! He went to this mirror every chance he got to talk to the baby.

He feel asleep on our way back up to the hotel, so we left him bundled up for his nap.

Fearless World travel waits for Mom and Dad to get ready to go exploring.

Brenden and Dad play on the big piano at FAO Schwarz.

Brenden and Dad are very sleepy waiting for the darn airplane to board.

One more stressful semester down, sadly two more to go! And as of tomorrow morning we are off to NY for a couple of days vacation! I’m suddenly becoming very nervous about travel to NY with a 7 month old at Christmas time. But I’m sure it will be fined as Patrick and I like to say.

I was told earlier that I hadn’t been posting often enough. You just can’t please some people! So I leave you with some pictures of Brenden.

Call him Kyra Sedgwick, but Patrick has become known as the closer in the household. He is almost always able to get Brenden to go to sleep.

Brenden now pulls up to standing every chance he gets. He is convinced he can walk if he just tries hard enough. Monday he got what has turned into his first black eye by banging his eye into the bedframe.

He’s sitting in our big recliner being a silly boy. His favorite past time, being silly that is!

Friday when Brenden woke up from his afternoon nap I heard him cry over the monitor and went in to check on him. Imagine my suprise when I saw this for the first time:

This is a reenactment, but you get the idea. Now he’s pulling up on everything he can and we are regularly greeted with him standing in his crib!

Also, I’ve finally attached the video of him crawling. Go back to my post on crawling to watch it!

Today I read a story about a killer whale at Sea World that took one of his trainers underwater and held him there twice and injuring him. And then I read a story that said that sea lions have been charging and attaching people on California beaches. Perhaps Douglas Adams had it close to right when he wrote in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy that dolphins where the seconds smartest species on the planet. Maybe we just need to expand that to all marine life.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061130/ap_on_re_us/seaworld_whale_attack_9

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061129/ap_on_sc/marauding_sea_lions

Brenden is 7 months old today! And on Tuesday he learned to crawl. Now he is into everything. He was already banging his head on things with all his rolling, but now I’m think maybe he needs a crash helmet. Now he’s moved on to trying to pull up on things to stand up, and he’s doing a pretty good job. I took some video on Tuesday and as soon as I figure out how to get it onto my computer and the here, I’ll post it. For now, I’ll leave you with pictures taken earlier today….

Video is posted now! And I figured it out all by myself! Click on link below pictures.

Brenden Crawls.mov

Patrick and I are both huge readers, so it is important to us that Brenden find a love for books too. And he has….he loves eating them! I can’t read him a bedtime story because he always grabs the book from me and eats it!

My parents grew up in the same town, thier houses within walking distance from one another. These houses were the same ones that provided a backdrop for my visits to Grandma and Grandpa’s. They were places that nothing ever changed and I loved going there. During the 18+ hour trip from Texas to Wisconsin I’d read as many books as I could with my little flashlight. We’d arrive at my Grandma and Grandpa Romanski’s. There would be a wide array of candy and baked goods on the buffet, a vegtable tray and soda in the fridge, ice cream in the freezer. Grandma would offer food the minute we walked in the door. It didn’t matter how many times you said you weren’t hungry, she’d try different things until you caved. In the mornings, waking up in the room above the kitchen, I’d lay and listen to the grownups discussing life. The coversation and the smell of breakfast wafting up through the vent.

There were other rituals too— like the toy closet at the Romanski’s where the kids went to play, my Grandpa Romanski’s (Papa) constant reminder to eat so you didn’t get sick, both grandfathers slipping me $20 and telling me not to tell anyone, looking through my Grandpa Murray’s metal detector finds to pick out whatever rings I wanted (probably where my love of jewelry sprang from) and hanging out in his basement making things out of wood scrapes, playing pool and eating candy.

These traditions began to change the year I graduated high school. That summer, my Grandpa Murray died, followed by my Grandma Murray the next summer almost to the day. Almost three years ago, My Grandma Romanski died after she and Papa moved down to Texas to live with my parents. And finally, today at 7:30 I got the call from my mother that Papa had died. He had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer and brain metts.

I don’t normally share this much about myself or my family, and I hope it won’t make my family too sad to read it, but I needed to write it so I’m taking this space to remember.

Papa loved to entertain with his stories. He loved to impart his wisdom…with such morsals as “look at the family tree of the person you are dating and if you see bad health, run for the hills”. He always called me his little diplomat. He was a character.

We have a homeowners association in our neighborhood, which Patrick and I don’t really care for. They seem to enjoy mailing out notices that are grass is a 1/2 centimeter too long. And then they turn around and raise the price of our homeowners dues because of their postage costs. I just read a story though that makes that seem like no big deal. The link is below.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061127/ap_on_re_us/anti_peace_sign

Today Brenden got up on his hands and knees, which isn’t new, but then he moved forward. He sort of pulled himself with his hands, but it wasn’t an army/belly crawl thing, because he was up on his knees with his tummy off the ground. We are one step closer to danger!

He had a really big weekend last weekend. We went to the Baja Fresh fundraiser for Hands down on Wed and were there for 5 hours. Then on Thursday he and I “volunteered” to help Kelli set up and check people in for her work event. Friday, Saturday and Sunday we seemed to be running despite our best efforts not to.

We went this past weekend (one of the things we ran around doing) to price carseats. Someone had mentioned that we should get a Britax because they last for pretty much the rest of the time he will need one. So we looked, and then we were sold on them, but not on the price. So we found one on ebay for a ton less and it came today! Patrick’s Dad and Stepmom also got us a cute one. Since we have 2 cars, it’s easier to have 2 seats.  It will be sad to see his cute little carrier go, but it will be ok. I think he is getting  uncomfortable in it anyway.

Brenden on the move.

Brenden about to be in big trouble with his Daddy. In case you can’t tell, that’s all the tv setup he’s about to reach for.

He’s getting better and better at sitting up.

Patrick has blogged 9 days in a row now! He is trying to get into a routine of coming home and writing something everyday, even if it is short. If you pay attention to his blog, you know that it is pretty common for him to go a month or two at a time between posts, so this is very impressive. He’s got some cute pictures of Brenden up too! I especially like the one of him in his sweatshirt with his name on it that his great aunt Patty made for him. He looks like he should be on the Mickey Mouse Club.

I just took a quiz to see what borderline personality disorder I have for fun. Guess what it says…I’m obssesive compulsive. Shocking isn’t it. Boy I really wish they’d make those things more accurate!

Brenden has started reaching out for things, like his parents and sitting sort of up on his own. He’s doing the leaning thing, but he can get there on his own! I went to look for the cushy padding to cover up our fireplace hearth this weekend, but couldn’t find it. It looks like I have to get it on line. I just hope he doesn’t figure out crawling before I do that!