I just spent a week in southern Idaho for the Christmas holidays where I got to be supremely lazy--reading, watching movies, hanging out with my mom, youngest sister and her son.  Good times.  It was the perfect warmup for the next four weeks of supreme laziness that I get to have until my final semester (providing I pass my comps) begins, Jan. 25.  Naturally, there are all kinds of home projects that I could be working on during this period of ease and I am unmotivated to begin any of them.  As it it New Year's Eve (yawn), I feel that I should get to spend the day allowing brain rot to set in and have already watched the last three episodes of Battlestar Galactica season 4 (still have 4.5 to see), checked email, FB, exchanged my ticket for Il Trovatore to another night so that I can see Hey Marseilles at the Crocodile on Jan. 30, put on a $.50 album find--Adam Ant, Strip--and made a few "Happy New Year!" phonecalls.  All in all, I'd say it's been a very productive day thus far.  

Sometimes I have been known to write down some memorable moments of the exiting year.  It was kind of a rough one, so I'll skip that but will be happy to make note of several fantastic books that I had the pleasure of reading for my teen lit class.  Required reading that always felt like I was sluffing on my homework even though it was my homework; ain't life grand? 

In no particular order here are some recommended reading for the new year if anyone is reading this blog:

1. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Vol. I, The Pox Party, M.T. Anderson

2. Feed, also by Anderson

3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie

4. Tangerine, Edward Bloor

5. American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang

6. Sharp Teeth, Toby Barlow

Happy New Year!