7 posts tagged “the host”

A bit happened this weekend, it was a bit longer than usual so that was bound to happen :)

Friday was our book signing, and everything went really really well. I drove down with one other girl in our four girl gaggle and we snagged us some spots that were too far from the front. However, we found out that one of our four had a cousin in the audience who is a big fan of the author and was in the FRONT ROW and saved us all seats! Very awesome, even if they were all the way to the right. She came in and answered some questions and then began signing books. Knowing we were number 700something out of 1000 we decided to pop out into the hotel cafe and waste some time. Once we got back we began talking with the cousin and that crowd and found that they were actually pretty close with the author - before she became really really famous. We found out a bunch about her, the Twilight series (I've been sworn to secrecy) and about the fandom. It was all really interesting and eye opening. Because we were talking with them - and we knew they were waiting until the end - we decided to wait to. So eleven o'clock hit and most everyone had cleared out and we were ushered up to get our books signed. The author was really cool - but it was a bit of a let down. Her publisher was a complete bitch - wouldn't allow the author to give us any kind of eye to eye contact it seemed and as soon as her pen left that last book she was pulled to her feet and rushed out. I understand (she'd been signing books non-stop for the last three hours, 900+) - it was just a bit of a let down. Plus her signature wasn't really her name - just a bunch of squiggles. Haha, I'm sure that mine would look even worse after three straight hours! I didn't get home until three and I passed out directly afterwards.

Saturday we slept late and then went and saw Indiana Jones. I didn't hate it, but I felt that the hype was just too much. There were a few scenes where I felt it was unbelievable that Indiana Jones could physically perform that way - but luckily there weren't too many of those. I also saw a lot of elements from other movies - which was a bit annoying. I know that there are no truly original films anymore - but I felt it was just too similar. I've put a few of my thoughts in the spoiler box below...

Sunday we didn't do a lot - other than clean up after Ripley. She seemed to digress so much this weekend, which was a disappointment. We've had to step back a lot - I just hope it wont take weeks to get back to where we were because she was doing so good! We did general cleaning too - finally bought a new vacuum as our other one was completely shot. Vacuuming really brought to attention all the stains we have so I'm going to look into having the carpets cleaned soon as its becoming embarrassing.

Monday we spent the day with my sister - going to lunch and then watching a movie at their place. We headed home early and just relaxed - though I didn't get to bed until close to 1am. I'm going to be paying for that later today with a bitter cup of coffee :(

The Host: A Novel

Stephenie Meyer

Book Count: Ten
Title: The Host
Author: Stephanie Meyers
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 620

Synopsis: Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves-Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.Featuring what may be the first love triangle involving only two bodies, THE HOST is a riveting and unforgettable novel that will bring a vast new readership to one of the most compelling writers of our time.

Thoughts so far: I started this book the day after it came out and finished it in twelve days. I wanted to read it more, but I just couldn't seem to find the time. This book was really great, something where you put it down and you wanted to just pick it back up and continue the story even though the book had ended. I'm a fan of the Twilight Series, but I have to say I liked this one more, and I can't say why. It was seeped in enough sci-fi to be different but it was still very much down to earth and understandable & believable. The product tag line is, "Sci-Fi for people who don't like Sci-Fi".

My next read? I'm lost again. I'm only on book ten and I should be on book 18. I'm sad to realize I likely wont complete my challenge before the year is out - but I'm still really going to try. I love reading. I just wish I forced myself to find the time to do it! I was reading the first in the Earthsea series while in Scotland, but haven't finished it. I began reading Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom by Julie Kenner but that wasn't very good and so I gave up on it. Maybe I'll try again...

This weekend I spent relaxing - a lot. Saturday morning we woke early and dressed for the Renaissance Faire! I was excited to go - I used to have so much fun but lost my interest when my friends there lost interest in me. So, it was nice to be going back - especially because Jane gave us her complimentary tickets so we really only had to pay for parking. We got there about ten and left earlier than I wanted - at about 1:30 or so. It was just TOO hot. I was so disappointed because everyone was telling me how cool the season had been, for once.

Anyhow - once we'd gotten home (stripped, showered, & sprawled open limbed on the floor in order to cool down) the day improved a lot. We finally watched "Children of Men" - a movie I'd been warned was not happy - but good, which I agree with. After that I basically just read the entire day which was exactly what I wanted. I'd been trying to make time to read The Host - such a good book so far - and finally I'd found it. By the end of the day I was a little more than half way through the book.

Sunday we woke leisurely and excitedly - we'd be getting our new bed! They called almost instantly to give us an hour warning and so I rushed around to strip the bed and clean the room as much as possible to give everyone room. Some wasted effort though because when they came they simply dropped the mattress in the living room and left. I had been hiding in the other room (forgot to mention - got a wicked sunburn while at faire on my neck and shoulders so I was bra-less and in a tub top - ergo the hiding) and so when Paul said they hadn't taken the old mattress I was confused. We called the customer service line pretty quick and the woman called the truck driver. It was a frustrating conversation because she was talking to the truck driver/delivery team - who barely spoke English by the way - and arguing with us. She said that the delivery team asked us if we needed our old mattress removed - but Paul says they didn't. She wouldn't take our word against theirs though - so on top of arguing with us we were also told we were wrong. Frustrating to say the least because in my opinion, no matter WHAT we said in confusion, we were the customer and we were told we'd have our old mattress removed and our new one placed for us. Neither of those things happened. I'm over it though - the mattress is nice :)

We went shopping in the afternoon and picked up some odd ends at Target and then went to the supermarket. I spent most of the day after that just reading and by the end of the night I got about a hundred pages away from finishing. I put the book down though because I was tired and I really don't like finishing books before bed. I'm regretting it now though because I left my book on the kitchen table! I got out of my car this morning at work and when I noticed I'd left it I had a moment straight from Planet of the Apes - fists held to the sky and screaming "NNNNNNNOOOOOOOO!!!!" to the empty parking lot. I'm tempted to go home and get it on my lunch - but by the time I get it and come back most of my lunch will be over and I'll have no time to read it anyhow :( TONIGHT THOUGH! I'm finishing it tonight!

What makes the weekend even better is that despite relaxing a lot - I was still able to get chores done. We went grocery shopping, I washed clothes (including a load of Faire clothes), got the dishes done, Paul cleaned the guest room and did laundry as well. So productivity with relaxing is the best thing in my book. Best thing :)

As I posted, this weekend Paul finally bought his Wii. He's been having fun playing Super Smash Bros Brawl and I've been playing a bit of Super Mario Paper. However, this weekend was busy because of Mother's Day (we saw his parents on Saturday & mine on Sunday) and so we didn't get to play or relax that much.

However! I made it a point to make it to that produce store again so I've got some good veggies & fruits to snack on again today :) I just wish that all my hard work to make good food decisions would begin to pay off - but that's likely not to happen unless I pair it with some much needed exercise :(

Tonight Paul & I are going to go shopping for a mattress, and then Tuesday (hopefully) I'm going to get my hair cut. I'm tempted to color it as well, but I'm very undecided. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I've colored it pretty successfully in the past, but correcting the color once I wanted to become blonde again was not an easy or pretty task.

Over the weekend I got the last of my orders for Linnet and I tried out her new curly white wig with her new pale lavender eyes. I was shocked to see that yet again, the eyes (14mm blue ones seen here) were melted by the eye putty that I was using. When this happened the last time I thought it was just the eyes I'd chosen, so I bought new ones - but I was wrong. I jumped onto the DoA* boards and find that this is pretty common (which made me feel better) and the reason was because the putty had a plasticizer in it in order to keep it soft and so it begins to soften the acrylic. It was suggested that I try pillow-soft ear plugs, and so we went out late last night to find them. They worked differently - but worked just as well so I hope that I've found a good alternative. What was frustrating though was the fact that this putty was given to me by the doll manufacturer - so I would assume it would be safe. The eyes that Souldoll gave me appear to be acrylic as well - but they aren't being effected by the putty they gave me so I guess that's the difference.

I read a bit of The Host over the weekend, but not nearly enough :( My sister is already done! If only I could find enough free time... Oh well - I have until the 23rd to finish it so that none of it is ruined by the book signing (not really worried about the author - more about the crowd).

*DoA stands for Den of Angels, a forum for ABJD collectors

27 pages into The Host and I can't get the idea of Cylon versa Human out of my head :)

I'm so tired. I went to bed at 11pm last night in the hopes that I would sleep until my alarm and get back into the groove of things. Well, I slept until my alarm but I'm so tired right now! My Tigger mug, usually full of good-for-you tea is now full of over sugared & creamed coffee as I hate coffee and so need to disguise the taste of it.

Eww.

I think I'm going to try and take a nap this afternoon before my sister comes over to watch the second to the last episode of America's Next Top Model. But, I'm conflicted because I really want to try and read more of The Host, or try and get something together for my lunch tomorrow as I really want to try to make a Bento box, or clean a bit as the house has seemed cluttered ever since we've gotten back, or work on getting the new training systems we bought for Ripley set up (though I'll likely just wait until this weekend for that). So many choices...

I'm tired and it's only 12:30!

I don't think I've mentioned much on here about this, but I'm a fan of the Twilight series of books. The author of the Twilight series, Stephanie Meyers, has just released her first book written and geared towards adults while the Twilight series was geared more towards young-adults even though it ended up being enjoyed by a much wider audience. The book, entitled The Host, was released yesterday - and as part of a promotion the author is doing a book tour. My sister got me and a bunch of us others tickets to the book signing and yesterday she picked up our books and tickets to the May 23rd event.

Last night my sister had a "release party" and made gift bags to hand out with the books - it was so much fun! We made bookmarks for using when reading The Host and we're going to get together again soon to make t-shirts to wear to the book signing later this month. I'm so excited! I love doing fan stuff, makes me feel less like a minority in my interests :)

I went home last night early because I'm still getting use to the time change again - though I've nearly tackled it - and I wasn't able to even crack the book open :( I'm hoping that I'll have some time today while at work, but likely not. What sucks is that while I used to take my lunch during the majority of the staff's lunch hour and so therefore have a bit of peace, quiet and privacy while at my desk - I've been forced to change my lunch hour to 11am-12pm in order to cover the lunch hour. My only hope now to get an uninterrupted lunch is to go out to my car!

Has any other neighbors, other than Tracy who's been keeping me in the loop so far as the Twilight movie goes, read the Twilight series or is interested in Stephanie Meyers new book The Host?