Coming Back Out of My Shell

Yes, I'm still here.

No, I haven't blogged in ages.

What is different this time? I will not be apologising for my absence. I have desperately missed blogging over the last couple of years and have often longed to. What kept me from doing so you ask? It certainly wasn't lack of inspiration. So much has changed in my life over the past couple of years that there has been ample material to mine for comedy, drama and all the other good stuff that goes with laying your heart bare on the Internet on a regular basis.

The difference has been a new found desire to protect my anonymity and keep my feelings and writing honest without hurting those closest to me. When I first started blogging, everyone who read it was anonymous. In time, friends and family found the blog and I found myself working too hard to censor my writing. It became too difficult to stay true to myself and write things that truly expressed my feelings. Everything I wrote felt trite. I eventually gave up trying, but I never forgot. I'm back to give it another shot.

I met a boy, fell in love, got married and am making my way through life. Still in the City, still Monef. I'm back y'all.

He's A Boy Now

No longer a baby, he is now a boy. It is hard to believe that two years have passed by. Two years since his eagerly anticipated arrival brought us all to tears. Two years since we looked upon his countenance and were stunned to see so much of ourselves in this one beautiful boy. Two years since my mother called me as my sister delivered the first of our family's new generation to tell me that I was an Aunt. I wish him many more years of joy and happiness even though life doesn't allow me to always be there and experience everything with him. Happy Birthday Kiki, I love you to bits. Please try not to grow up too fast, I don't want to miss everything.

Book # 36 - The Postmistress - Sarah Blake

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Oh this book, I found it quite unbearable to be honest. I have to say it was possibly one of the most boring and tedious things I have ever read. I know that calling something boring may often come across as a lazy critique, but I really don't think there is a more apt description to be had. The story is told from three different POVs, and although at first I found one of those perspectives more interesting than the others, eventually they all just meded into one big, fat ball of meh.



The characters were all frustrating and flat. Even when I was supposed to be feeling something for them, I simply couldn't bring myself to care enough. It is such a shame that given the time when this novel was set and the subject matter, the authour's 'voice' constantly got in the way of the story taking me out of it every step of the way. Doors are never just opened, they always shudder open. We never simply hear someone's footsteps, said footsteps always echo. It became incredibly tedious in a novel where the stores were flat and the plot was mediocre at best. All in all, it felt like much ado about nothing.



View all my reviews

I said yes

He asked me to close my eyes and jump with him, into a world unknown to us.

He asked me to trust in him, now and forever more.

I didn't hesitate, I didn't think twice. Through streams of tears, with trembling hands, I knelt to meet him on the ground.

I put my hand on his as he remained stationary on bended knee. The word was a whisper upon my lips.

One word that changed our lives for ever.

One word with which I promised to cleave to him for all eternity...I said yes.

50 Books in 2010

I wrote in my last post about needing to read more this year. Well, in true Monef fashion, I felt the best way to achieve this was to turn it into a project. I really hate it when I don't achieve my goals, so I figured this would serve as a massive motivating factor. Colour me surprised, I have been able to set a goal and follow through.

Thanks to the wonderful folks at www.goodreads.com, I elected to take on a challenge to read 50 books...by the end of the year. Last year I read 7, this year I would like to read 50. Seems ridiculous right? I have a full time job that requires copious amounts of travel as well as all the mania that comes with living in the city. However, I have been amazed at what a difference a concious decision like that can make. So far I have read 22 books this year. I seem to still just about be on track to achieve my goals, but I will seriously have to up the ante when I take some holiday time in the summer.

So far I have read a good mix of stuff, some fluff, some serious, some just plain old fantastic literary fiction. I have also managed to fit in one classic so far which makes me pretty happy. I would love to post book reviews as I proceed, but you know how I can be with the blogging these days...erratic to say the least. That said, I will keep you posted on my exploits. I may very well go back and review all I have read so far, who knows? This is the list as it stands for your enjoyment!


1. The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson & the Olympians#4)- Rick Riordan
2. The Girl Who Played With Fire (Millenium #2) - Stieg Larsson
3. The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson & the Olypians #5) - Rick Riordan
4. The Girl who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (Millenium #3) - Stieg Larsson
5. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
6. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
7. The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
8. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
9. Naked - David Sedaris
10. Twilight - Stephanie Meyer
11. The House on Mango Street - Sandra Cisneros
12. New Moon - Stephenie Meyer
13. Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer
14. Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer
15. The Thing Around Your Neck - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
16. The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
17. Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
18. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society - Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows
19. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
20. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See
21. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffennegger
22. I am the Messenger - Markus Zusak

Navigating my Today...Finding my Tomorrow

Yes, yes, I know; I don't blog anymore and it is a terrible thing.

I have no idea when the words dried up or why I stopped writing. The muse went away. Funny enough, I never missed it until it simply wasn't there. My dearly departed compulsion to constantly scribble was something I always took for granted. I thought it was as much a part of me as the birthmark on my left hand. That mark has been there for as long as I can remember, and it was how I learned to differentiate between left and right.

Even today, as a grown woman of 30, I look to my birthmark when faced with the question, "left or right?". It serves as my compass, Old Faithful I like to say. So also have literary pursuits been my guiding light. Throughout the cacophony of being a middle child in a family of three, the pandemonium of being 'different' in an adolescence of sheep desperately trying to be as alike as possible, and the mildly controlled panic that marked my journey of making my way through adulthood two cultures removed from my home base, the books and the pen have been my solace.

But something all that managed to change. Somehow I allowed life to get in the way. It started with the writing and then permeated the reading, until slowly but surely, my life was entirely devoid of literary pursuits. At the beginning of 2009, I declared that it would be my anuus mirabilis, and indeed it was. My beautiful nephew was born, I turned a big corner in my career and I fell utterly and irrevocably in love. Because 2009 felt so right, so perfect, it wasn't until the round up in December that I realised that I had only read 7 books the entire year. Seven. And I had written nothing. This from the person who used to pass entire weekends alternating between the library and Barnes & Noble.

I felt bereft, like my identity had sneakily left me when I wasn't paying attention and I immediately decided that 2010 would be different. I made a pact to read more. I figure there is no point in worrying about the writing at the moment when I don't even read enough. If I get back to devouring books, the writing will come naturally like it used to. The reading is my today...the writing is my tomorrow, wish me luck finding my compass.

With the party people night and day
Living crazy, that's the only way
So tonight
gonna leave that 9 to 5 up on the shelf
And just enjoy yourself
Groove
Let the madness in the music get to you
Life ain't so bad at all
When you're living off the wall

May's Miracle: As You Are

He says to me "I like you just as you are"
"Just as I am?" I ask not quite sure how to respond.

There is no script for this, I have never heard these words spoken so sincerely so early on the path.

I feel the warmth wash over me like sunshine on a breezy summer's day.

He looks deeply into my eyes and says it shun with firmness and conviction "I like all the parts of you, the little quirks that make such a beautiful whole. I like you just as you are, don't ever change anything."

I smile both inwardly and outwardly, May's miracle; he likes me, just as I am.