Currently

Loving:  My new iPhone!  I'm trying to declutter my life, and focus less on "things" and more on life.  But this THING is something I've waited a long time for (upgrade!).  Merry Christmas to mee!!

Reading: I went to Barnes and Noble to get my mom a giftcard for her Nook, and left with Best American Non-Required Reading 2011.  It's one of my FAVORITE parts of the year, and I was very delayed this time around. (Borders' closing was a real blow to my not-used book-buying.)  Excited to spend part of my January holed up and reading.  (If you don't know about BANRR, it's a collection os all kinds of publications from the previous year, edited in part by Dave Eggers (of McSweeney's, etc.), and in part by a board of high school kids in LA who are all part of 826 Valencia, a non-profit tutoring and writing center for children in a number of cities across the country. It's a great organization, it's also a really great collection of every kind of publication you can imagine.  These kids read fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, chapbooks, blogs, etc., and pick out the most intriguing, interesting, ground-breaking, best.  READ IT.  Then order this year's edition, like I'm going to soon.)

Watching: I watched Giant this week, starring Liz Taylor, James Dean, and Rock Hudson.  I adore a good old movie with pretty dresses.  

Listening to: Lana Del Rey's Born To Die (The Paradise Edition).  I have a habit of being obsessed with one album at a time, and right now, this is it.  Over and over, until I know the words.  It's not as hard with this one, since she uses the same phrases a lot:  "party dress," "take [my/your] body downtown," and some version of "drive fast" appear in most of the songs.  Some of the words are too trendy for me to really like ("Be young, be dope, be proud..." Really?), and some of them are too clearly just to get a reaction (the flavor of your lady parts... not a necessary detail, Lana), and some don't actually make sense (I can not understand what the song National Anthem is trying to say.  Is she a song?  Is she money?  Is she success?  What?).  But you know what?  I'm still obsessed.  I still like this album way, way too much.  There's just something about it, the feel, the words (when she does it right), the stutter she incorporates into (at least) 3 songs, but adds to it somehow.  It crosses a line between singer/songwriter and pop singer, but still stays this side of interesting.  She mixes just enough glamour into the grit to make the album a little shiny, a little broken, a little desperate, and very catchy.  

Thinking about: Exhaustion.  I always feel guilty feeling completely run down when I haven't earned it.  I'm always thinking that I just don't know how to keep my eyes open and my head up, and then I think, wow, you didn't just go on a death march.  Quit whining.  And then I think, I'm sick!  I deserve to feel tired!  And then I just feel guilty again, because I'm not all that sick.  And you know what?  There will come a time, probably soon, when I can't sleep again, when I'm up all night.  So I need to remind myself to be thankful for being exhausted, to be grateful for what I have, no matter how small.

Looking forward to: The new additions to my (extended) family that will be here in the summer.  I got some more baby news this week, and there is very little else I love more than a baby.  I am so excited to have tiny people to shop for, and to see the TWO new mamas in action in just a few months.  I know both of them are going to be great, in their own little ways.  Please, one of you, have a girl?  Thanks.

Making me happy: This card from my friend Sarah.  I really, really, don't want to put it away with the rest of the decorations.  I think it's a Winter Decoration.  It's going to stay out for a few more months!

Inspired by Dani at Sometimes Sweet.  :)