This basically sums up my feelings towards all the hoopala around New Years and New Years Resolutions. It possible sums up my feelings toward morality, life and existance in general.

All that being said, school is finally done, for the time being at least. 2010 is the year when I do everything and anything.

I have set an approximate date for my first trip to mainland Europe. I have finally found a travel partner. Now all I have to do is wait the 9 months until March 2010 rolls around and I can hop onto a plane and sit with nervous excitement until I finally arrive in the place that has been the focus of most of my thoughts for the last several years. Europe. I cannot wait.

Of course, this means, spending at least several hours a day doing nothing but looking at pictures, finding awesome places to go, reading hostel reviews. Even if the vacation is a far-fetched dream, like the time I was convinced I was going to spend the summer in Yemen with a Yemeni guy I barely knew, I love love LOVE planning!

Irma, my travel partner, who took me to NYC last July, is a lot less militant than me when it comes to planning. This is why I love traveling with her. I make sure we have a way to get there and a place to stay, and she makes me calm down and just enjoy the experience. We’ve decided, since we are traveling in the off-season, to really play this trip by ear. We’re going to arrive in Paris and travel as we please. If we end up spending two months in France, then so be it. In reality, we both want to do France, Spain, Italy and Germany. Though I am usually nervous about this sort of thing, I am incredibly excited about this plan. Friends who have already travelled Europe have commented on how they arrived in cities only to want to leave right away but being stuck in a hostel reservation and unable to arrive any earlier in the next city on their itinerary. Irma and I shouldn’t have this problem. Deadlines and schedules should not be part of this adventure.

All that being said, there are a few things I am hopeful to cross off of my list while I am there. Here are a scant few!

72. Smoke pot in Amsterdam
211. Ride a gondola in Venice
246. Go clubbing in Spain
401. Spend a day at the Disneyland in Paris (I made Irma PROMISE to do this one)
428. Drink wine in Paris
523. Go to the Louvre
568. Eat French fries in France
607. Eat tapas in Spain

This week I decided to let my twitter followers decide what to put on my Relevant Reading. They sent me some phenomenal material. If you’re not already twittering, you can follow me at 1002things Twitter

Courtesy of GuyNGirlTravels we have this insane video of New Years Celebrations in Prague. I’m not going to lie, it looks like it would actually be quite fun to watch and participate in. Make sure to check out their travel blog at guyngirltravels.com

Top Ten Travel Destinations
via Travelaholic
A wonderful list of her top ten travel destinations taken from her blog

This weeks Relevant Reading gets back to the point of my blog: life lists. Here are some sites for inspiration or for motivating yourself. Happy reading.

My Life List
A great site for sharing stories and keeping track of your goals. I highly recommend this site.

50 Things to do before you Die
50 awesome ideas to inspire you from The Travelers Notebook

Things You Should Do
New site I just found and am really enjoying, check it out.

So I’ve made up my mind: life is bland whether you are working or not. I do very much enjoy not working. I have all this time to cook and sit around and start book clubs called “Liberal Rejectionist Revisionary Visionary Literary Socialites” (AKA The Finer Things Club for all you Office fans). Our first book, thanks to Sarah, is The Little Prince.

I’m not sure how I found time to read this mostly illustrated 109 page childrens’ book into my time, especially since I have been completely wrapped up in RuPaul’s Drag Race. God I love Drag Queens. I wish I could BE a Drag Queen, and according to my gay bestie, there’s nothing stopping me. Then again, he wishes he was a woman, so it’s only fitting he encourage his lady friends to try and impersonate men (who impersonate women). I have been trying to find a drag show to attend, since seeing a real live fully fabulous and over the top drag show is #489 on my list.

My inspiration

Otherwise, life is bland. I’ve been working on papers and getting through the last 3 or 4 weeks of this semester. I then get a full two weeks to mentally reset and prepare myself for the long haul of spring and summer courses. Other than my short trip to Red Deer to see Hey Ocean do a show, I have no travel plans until June. Even then, it’s just Kelowna. I shouldn’t disparage Kelowna so much, I’m rather excited! At least there is water there.

All the postcards I sent from NYC.

Yes some of them are hand drawn/painted.

New York skyline from Central Park

Time for the monthly installation of book reviews that I do as part of my 2008 Resolutions. These ones are coming a bit late (okay so much entirely late it’s not even funny), as I did not want to log down the site with a bunch of posts, since I crossed a few things off my list and am embarked on my trip to Ontario as well. Oh yeah, and then there was work and school and being sick and all of that. Anyways…The books I read this month were Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit written b Jeannette Winterson, and Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil: My Life and Times in a Racist, Imperialist Society by Inga Musico (for full disclosure, Inga=my personal hero).

Green Grass, Running Water is a book I read in my first year of University for a Humanities course that I was taking. This was one of the first books I had to read for that class that I actually enjoyed. It’s been three years since I enjoyed the novel, so I figured I would put it to good use and take it all in once again. I adore this book, but I must say it makes me feel awful when I read it. This book is based largely on Native American traditions and uses well known Christian “stories” as well. I’m not too well schooled on the bible, which is fine by me, but I’m even worse when it comes to things like traditional Native creation myths, which in my mind hold much more importance than silly Christian stories that are used to justify things like slavery or the dominance of males. I have read a book about traditional Native story telling and on several occasions had the privilege of hearing them told by practiced story tellers. This book still leaves me lost at certain points, which I suppose on one hand is probably an intentional act on King’s part, and in reality it’s my own fault for not being aware of these stories. Aside from this, the story is wonderfully written. It combines a traditional story telling method with your more Western “normal” form of novel-writing. The characters are well developed and likable (except the ones you hate). The plot comes in the form of a slow moving build up that combines the Native story telling aspects with the lives of the characters who manifest in a much more “novel” manner. I guess what it comes down to is an uncomfortable clash of “Western” and “Native” culture, which is simply a reflection of “North America” today. It’s an absolutely brilliant book and, as with most literature, reading it again allowed me to see new aspects of the book I hadn’t seen the first time, and I suppose with three more years of University and life in general, comes a deeper understanding overall. I highly suggest this book, but if you do decide to read it (which you should), keep an open mind and don’t automatically put it down because the story telling in parts is different than you are accustomed too. The point is to express story in two different forms. And coming from experience, it might be a good idea to go and get somewhat familiar with Native creation stories and traditional Native story-telling, as it will make the book much more enjoyable and will reinforce some of the points the book makes through it’s method.

Next I read Jeannette Winterson’s Oranges are not the Only Fruit. This book was recommended to me by a friend, and I’m glad they did. It deals with the author in a semi-autobiographical format, coming of age and expressing her sexuality in a highly Christian home and community. The characters are all so complex without the normal endless descriptions that arrive in books when authors try to create “complex” characters. The quick anecdotes that fill the stories introduce you to familiar, yet unique characters that seem to walk into the book out of reality. It is wonderfully written, but at times the British slang can be hard to follow. Overall it’s a brilliant book and I truly enjoyed reading it. It goes beyond the conventional coming of age story and the silly little love stories that so many books seem to be so fond of. I’m quite excited to read the rest of her books!

The third book I consumed was Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil: My Life and Times in a Racist, Imperialist Society. Oh. My. Goddess. I love this book. I adored her first book Cunt, but this just was guhhhhhhh (guhhhhh meaning me drooling in sick adoration of this book and Inga). I adore Inga. If you all could kindly remember, I met her a few months back after she lectured at my school (thank you Lethbridge Grad Students Association!). This book is a semi-autobiographical work about racism (and other bullshit) in America (and the world). It took me forever to read because after getting through a page I’d be too depressed or enraged to go on. Several times I was flipping out throughout my house wishing I had things that felt satisfying to throw. You must read this book. This book must become mandatory reading in junior highs. This book must become the new effin’ bible. I’m not even joking when I say this book changed my life (I hate cliches, but it’s so true here). Once again..guhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…

Alright, so there’s not much going on in way of the the list, but I do have some plans for the weekend. Adam and I are going back up to Calgary for Easter and whatnot, but instead of taking the boring Vulcan or Claresholm way, we are considering going the much more scenic Cowboy Trail, from which we assume we should be able to get a gorgeous view of the Rockies.

Friday night we’re doing Easter dinner at his family’s house and booking our U-Haul to move back to Calgary at the end of April. Adam got a rockin’ job for Smart Technology, and I am…*looking*. I did have a job interview today for a week long marketing project here in Lethbridge that should make me enough to cover my trip out to Ontario and Quebec, which would be pretty effin’ sweet!

Saturday is going to be exciting! Gwen, Sarah, Ashley, MY MOM! and I are going to the Old Spaghetti Factory (excited because I never get to go on account of it being in downtown Calgary next to the strippers) and then to see the Calgary production of the Vagina Monologues done by Pink Mafia Productions (Marsha Meidow). I was in it last year, so I am excited to get to sit and see it. Not that I didn’t see it Tuesday night for the University of Lethbridge production… I’m going to be all vagina’d out. We’re going to Aussie Rules after that, hopefully. I’m super excited because my mom is coming out and actually said, *deep breath*, she ACTUALLY SAID she was “up for anything”. My mom has gone crazy and I love it!

The rest of the weekend seems pretty tame, but I have no complaints about that. My last trip up to Calgary before I move back. Exciting, but a little sad, I like living on my own! Ah well.

5 days late, but I’m still doing it! February’s book reviews, in accordance with My 2008 New Years Resolutions. This month I am dubbing “Old Favourites” though I also could have called it “Books about larger than life men who roam around doing whatever they see fit”. I took in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind, and Candide by Voltaire, translated by David Wootton. These are all books I have read multiple times before and are right up on my favourite books of all time list. Needless to say it was an enjoyable month and there will be nothing less than three 5/5 reviews.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is an amazing book, but most people know it by the film version starring Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro. The film is stunning and amazing, and for a Hollywood film is strikingly true to the book, but the book has (of course) scenes the film is missing. Hunter S. Thompson is brilliant and this is (according to me) his masterpiece. The Rum Diaries are equally as compelling, but there’s a certain appeal to Fear and Loathing that gets me hooked every time. The general plot is a journalist and his attourney are assigned to cover a sporting event in Las Vegas and instead inbark on months of misadventure involving a satchel of drugs and fake names. I cannot put this book down once I start. It is so hard to imagine these two men roaming around Las Vegas like two strung out bats out of hell, but somehow once you get past the second chapter there is no doubt left in your mind that these atrocities took place in one form or another. The dialogue is superb, albeit slightly out there and some references leave you desperately googling phrases and events, trying to make sense of Thompson’s uncanny ability to throw in the most obscure references to 60’s and 70’s drug culture via Raoul Duke’s character. The eccentricities make the characters so endearing despite their obvious flaws. My favourite part in the entire book is when Dr. Gonzo, the lawyer, declares that he has a has a powerful lust for red salmon. I have no idea why, but the idea of lawyer so far gone on mescaline and acid screaming for his “lust” for fish is just my idea of a good story. While this book does involve the explicit description of drugs, weaponry and general tomfoolerly that could land a person in jail for life, it is an amazing read and there’s a much deeper side to it all. Thompson’s obvious disillusionment with the drug culture (and Nixon) underlines the entire story. I highly recommend any of Thompson’s work, especially this book.

Next up is Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind. This is probably my favourite book ever. Even in its translation from German into English, the poetic genius of the writing is not lost. Its simply beautiful to read. Being a history major, the historical detailing of the book is incredible, and at times you almost feel the stinking drudgery of life in 18th century Paris. Set among the rues and rats, the story is based around a man named Grenouille (French for “frog”) whom we follow from birth until death. While wholly a common man living amongst the millions of Paris, Grenouille does have one intricacy and that is his ability to smell. His “heightened olfactory” abilities lead us through this tale. At some point in his life he discovers two things: the most perfect scent in the world and the art of perfuming. I will not give away much more but the title “story of a murderer” should hint to some other aspect of this book. While every page of this book is a delight for me to read, I have to say the best part is when our main character ends up living in a cave in the side of a mountain for years, eating frozen bats. This is another book I highly recommend to everyone and anyone I discuss literature with.

The last book I read was Voltaire’s Candide, as translated by David Wootton. This is a book that I would adore to read in its native French, as I am sure a lot of the little things are lost in translation. This is not to take away from David Wootton who does a superb job at translating, ensuring in all his footnotes to address language barriers, history, and Voltaire’s personal life (which adds more to the story than one might think). The first thing I shall say about this story is that it is completely and utterly absurd. It is literally one misadventure after another. I can almost say it is an 18th century version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, with men roaming around the world in search of happiness and that dream of a better life. Candide is the main character, and is quite naive until the very end of the book. Under the guidance of a philosopher named Pangloss, he gets himself into one problem after another remaining ever optimistic that life is exactly as it should be. The elements of fate play well into each other in this book, with characters separating and coming back together with the greatest of ease. It is well to say the main point of this story is fatalism and optimism, but I have to say it is a rather depressing book about how shitty life is no matter what we do. Through the course of events involving rapes, loss of buttocks, running the gauntlet and an “auto-de-fe” in South America, Candide does grow to lose is optimism ever so slowly. In the end, it turns out the meaning of life is to just work your land (or farm?). While it is quite scholarly in a sense, and moves at an insane pace, it is brilliant and makes you laugh at the horrible state of the world. It also causes some reflection on how the world really hasn’t changed much since the time that Voltaire roamed around Europe being all bisexual and investing money in the red sheep of the Andes. Good read if you want something short but action packed. It’s like a Jason Statham movie!