Old Friends and New Loves

Aaaahhh . . . I just adore rediscovering things which I had forgotten or let fall by the wayside. Recently I have rediscovered:

Nutella
Mmmm . . . The chocolate-hazelnut concoction tastes so scrumptious, it is sinful. I first discovered Nutella (http://www.nutellausa.com/) when I babysat for the son of one of my art history professors in college. She always kept Nutella in her house, and a swipe of Nutella on a graham cracker was frequently my professor's son's after-dinner treat. Curly Girl and I have rediscovered Nutella recently and keep a secret stash "just for the girls" in the house. We even frequently indulge in a spoonful of it for an afternoon sugar fix.

Reading
I love to read and always have, but reading for my own personal pleasure has fallen by the wayside in recent years. Between reading to my children at bedtime and working through and discussing the novels which Curly Girl reads for school, I have mainly been just thumbing through magazines during lunch or before I crash into bed for the night. After becoming obsessed with Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series (http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilightseries.html) in the spring and thoroughly enjoying Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl (http://www.philippagregory.com/work/tudor/the-other-boleyn-girl/) this summer, I realized how much I have missed the feeling of becoming entranced by and losing myself in a book. Here's to hopefully much more reading for pleasure in the months to come!

Long-time friends
I am so blessed to have had some of the same friends since elementary, middle, and high school. While I adore all of my friends, new and not-so-new, there is something incredibly comforting about speaking with friends who have been there forever. Honestly, after making it through puberty and the not-always-so-pleasant high school years together, I'm not a bit worried about running them off now. Some life situations have been a bit challenging recently, causing me to question something that I once held dear, and my fabulous friends have been so amazing, encouraging, and supportive with their kind words and supportive notes.

Alternative music
I admit to having eclectic musical taste. My Ipod contains an odd mix of show tunes, classic rock, newer adult alternative, Christian contemporary, and alternative music from my high school days. I have especially enjoyed hearing some long-forgotten alternative tunes on the First Wave Sirius station (http://www.sirius.com/1stwave). It's amazing how many of the words you can remember to songs you haven't heard in 15 years. I was a bit taken aback, though, when hearing an ad tonight for the Dark Wave show featuring The Cure, Depeche Mode, and Gene Loves Jezebel. I never before realized that my favorite bands fell into the "dark" category.

Which leads to my New Loves . . .

Sirius radio
Love it, love it, love it. Love not having to listen to commercials; love picking what genre of music to listen to; love being able to listen to something different than the same songs which are repeatedly played on traditional radio. The best moment, though, has been when Curly Girl went into shock as I sang along to The Vapors "Turning Japanese." Since her dad had played the song in his car (In Curly Girl's eyes, Dad is much cooler than Mom.), my daughter had wrongly assumed that "Turning Japanese" was a new song. Thus, she was shocked to learn that a song she liked was (horrors, of all horrors) an old song. My most frequented Sirius stations are First Wave, The Pulse (Curly's Girl usual choice), Broadway, and Coffee House for acoustic rock.

Paperback Swap
We have tons of books around our house, and a large list of books we would like to read. To even out this situation, I opened an account on PaperbackSwap.com (http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php). For no fee, you can list books you would like to trade for other books. When one of the site's members requests a book from you, you mail it to him/her. In return you can, request books you would like from other members and receive them at no cost. In the past 2-3 months, I have received five books and mailed three. Now I am just trying to decide which book I would like to request next.

Snowball
I have always had dogs and never, ever considered myself a cat person. That has been changing, however, as Snowball has come into our family's life. Since rescuing the feral kitten a month ago, Snowball has become a model family member. He snuggles; he plays with toys; and he tries to play with our dogs, who aren't so crazy about playing with him. Best of all, though, is the litter box. After housebreaking dogs, teaching a cat to use a litter box is a breeze.

Netflix
I love Netflix (http://www.netflix.com)! Our family originally began our subscription to obtain documentaries which would enhance our home school experience. We frequently order History Channel documentaries which correlate with topics we are studying. This summer we enjoyed the History Channel series "Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire" and have many medieval history DVDs in our queue for the upcoming school year. I really love being able to watch entire TV series, though. After reading Catherine Marshall's Christy with Curly Girl, we obtained all two seasons of the 1994 "Christy" television series through Netflix. Curly Girl, Car Guy, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the episodes and look forward to watching the subsequent made-for-tv "Christy" movies. On a less child-friendly note, I am looking forward to working my way through "The Tudors" series via Netflix DVDs.

That's it for me! What almost-forgotten things have you rediscovered or learned about recently for the first time?