What I Did this Summer, Part 1

Cotton Panties has yet again been neglected for weeks, but happily this has been due to being occupied with lots of fun stuff and leisure. I'll have to post in list format to avoid writing an epic entry (and even then, I'm not making any promises).

Reading--I'm starting to realize that getting through 100 books this year is probably not going to happen, but this has not slowed my reading schedule. I've read a few great books since my last post.
1) Shit my Dad Says , the book version of the popular Twitter account by the same name. I expected this to be a fluffy nothing, but it was really entertaining and surprisingly sweet story about a son and a dad. Even MY dad got through it, and he absolutely does NOT read, especially when the book is not about farm life, home butchering, or guns.
2) Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. My mom highly recommended this novel, and it was very worthy of her praise. I especially liked the narrator, who had a very Scout Finch sort of vibe (made even cooler by the fact that this summer is the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird). This book was simply excellent overall, the plot was very unique and I loved the element of the supernatural stemming from the father character's passionate Christianity.
3) Roses by Leila Meacham. This book was INCREDIBLE, I couldn't leave it alone for more than a few hours. I read it in a matter of days, and it's a whopping six hundred-plus pages long. The story was a gut-wrenching forbidden love/family drama combo. I was so upset over the book that I started talking about it to my mom as if the characters were real people. Roses is a must if you are a fan of Gone with the Wind or the TV show Dallas.
4) A Member of the Family by Cesar Milan. I know, I'm a loser for reading a book about being a good dog owner when I don't own my own dog, but I really love the Dog Whisperer TV show, and I was filling in at the bookstore so I had to check this book out. Even after all of my years of being around animals on my family's farm, including our dogs, I thought this book was very useful and had interesting information. And...I cried at the end when Cesar talked about putting his dogs down. I couldn't help it.
5) The Madonnas of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse. I saw this book on the O Magazine summer reading list, and was intrigued enough to request it from the Spirit Lake Public Library, whose staff then had to get it for me from the library all the way in St. Louis (I was very impressed by this). Sadly, I'm not sure that this book was worth quite that much effort. The plot was supposed to be a series of stories interrelated through their mutual knowledge of, witnessing of, or participation in a certain drive-by shooting in Echo Park. The cool part was that the mutual link was worked cleverly into all of the stories, and the ending especially was creative. However, I was not a big fan of the format overall, since I never became invested in any particular character or storyline, and the plot didn't seem to reach a satisfying point of drama or suspense until the bitter end.

Five books down, only...eighty-nine more to go. Yeah, that is not gonna happen.

New things "done"
1) Went to Chicago for the first time! Adrian and I drove to Chi-Town where we met up with his parents and Rosy for a long weekend in the city. Rosy had a podiatry conference, so we lounged and went sight-seeing while she cut up cadaver feet.
2) Ate Chicago style pizza at Giordano's in downtown Chicago. It pretty much changed my life.
3) Sang in public WHILE self-accompanying with an instrument. More on my new instrument skillz later.
4) I was cast as the lead in a play! I'm playing Little Sweet Pea Kornwell in the Esther's Players production of "Cornfield of Dreams" next weekend. The play will be short and silly, but it's been a fun diversion from fretting over law school.
5) Took Adrian on a vacation with my entire extended family, in Lanesboro, Minnesota. It was eye-opening, but we dealt with most of the stressors in a positive way.
6) Helped a kid (Ell Bell, of course) get their 4H projects ready. The Dickinson County Fair is this week, and we spent all last weekend getting Ell Bell's lambs washed and sheared and wrapping up her static exhibits as well.
7) Issued a warrant for someone's arrest at my new job as the collections assistant in the Dickinson County Attorney's office. It felt cool, but no one has been arrested on my warrants yet and I'm only in the position until August 12th, so I have my fingers crossed.
8) Commissioned a piece of art. I've hired a friend and awesome artist/tattoo artist Jacy Skelton to do a piece for me. I will definitely be posting photos when I get it in the mail.
9) Became an online merchant. I've already made over $100 selling my old textbooks on half.com! It's awesome.
10)Attended a bachelorette party--very fun, hopefully this won't be my last! As a bridesmaid in my friend Sarah's wedding party, I felt it was my duty to buy her some tequila shots and get up on stage at Murphy's for a celebratory dance. Our intent was to keep things "tame" (we were in agreement that penis/condom paraphernalia is trashy, and strippers were a no-go with the bride's grandmother and several mothers in attendance), but we all received some uninvited (but not unwelcome;) grinding from our designated driver...Adrian. He bought us a round of jager bombs and proceeded to do a few dance numbers.
11) Got my own place!!!!!!! I'll be sharing a house in Iowa City with my new roommate, Leah, who is a nurse at the University of Iowa Hospital. I'm so excited to move next week! When it comes to being a grownup kid living at home for the summer, enough is enough after ten weeks or so.
12) I signed on for $40,000 in debt, for this school year alone! WOOT WOOT! Graduating from undergrad in three years doesn't sound so stupid now.
13) I had a sleepover with my great grandma, Norma Boyer. It was pretty legit, I learned some good stuff!
14) I participated in a job interview as the interviewER and not the interviewEE. It's harder than it looks, and pretty nervewracking! I helped interview my replacement for the collections assistant position in the County Attorney's Office. My sorority recruitment skills came in handy. I'm very excited for my replacement, Diane, to start on Friday. I really like my job a lot, but I'm happy to get some new input on how to organize my processes.
15) I made my own pickles! They look beautiful, let's hope they taste just as good!

Part II coming at cha soon...no, seriously this time.

****Notice: I've decided that it's never gonna happen for me to get through 100 books this year, I have amended it down to fifty. More on this later.****

Left to DO: 63