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Two Books

Long before running or the advent of my adult life, I used to read a lot more. I can go on for a while about my favorite books, including Angela's Ashes, The Stranger, Life of Pi, and Falling Leaves. Nowadays, my reading is limited to textbooks, business books, newspapers, blogs, and Internet articles.

I wish I had more time to read, but with my dumb dissertation on the line, I am mostly stuck with research articles and journals. More recently, I randomly saw the movie "The Lightning Thief" and wanted to read that entire Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Yes, my little sister reads those, so they are not exactly adult lit. Still, that movie brought a piece of my youth back, the young person in me who writes poetry and reads books.

At the same time, I acquired two books from work that I was told I eventually should read. This one below is called Managing the Millennials. I've met two of the three authors and feel that this book will be useful for training we're working on at work and is useful info in general.



This second one is the one I was reading yesterday at Starbucks as I was waiting for "The Ukrainian" to join me for a mini-dinner before I went to class, Man's Search for Meaning. I feel like I should have read it in high school, but better late than never, I suppose.

It's about a Halocaust survivor who was sent to Auschwitz (i.e., THE famously large and terrible concentration camp). I've read many of these types of books, but I think that it strikes me differently now because my life's philosophy has changed. I'll leave it at that; you don't really want me to spend another entry talking about that, do you? Anyway, I was stricken by this part when the guy talks about seeing visions of his wife at his worst moments. Obviously, you'd have to read it to understand, as the sheer desperation builds upon itself to that moment.

My basic takeaways from the book so far: 1) love is as strong as death, and 2) we spend too much time covering the lack of human connections and meaning with materialism. Nothing wrong with that, but it's something to be aware of. I'm sure I'll have more to say after I'm done reading.



Before I go, I also wanted to make note that I am going to see Chico's Angels this week with "The Ukrainian" and a friend of ours. I'm not much of a show person, but since I started dating him, I have been "dragged?" to several things like Neil Diamond/ABBA tribute bands, Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals sing-a-long, and a production of Oklahoma. I get revenge by bringing him to things like my little sister's middle-school band concert and her upcoming Guys and Dolls appearance. It sure beats dissertating, though!

Onneeeee more thing: my classmates are trying to get me to ditch class next week. I have not ditched class... ever... no matter how bad the class. Maybe once or twice in college for a holiday, and maybe even once for surgery as a kid. But otherwise, never. I could use that time to work on my paper or final class project, which is definitely how I'd spend it. I'm at a point where those things are simply more important than perfect attendance. The girls said that I've worked too hard and deserve a break... or maybe they are just trying to ensure they aren't the only ones ditching (I don't really mean that, girls!). But... why is it taking every fiber of my being to resist going to class? The young person in me lives on.

Speaking of classmates, some of them need help with their thesis data collection. Please consider taking a few short minutes for the following if you...

- have worked at your organization for at least 6 months,
- currently have a supervisor,
- and are at least 18 years old.

http://alliant.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_2mzE70JHbVh1RE8&SVID=Prod
http://alliant.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_bDSRSal1UEQOhtW&SVID=Prod

And with that, back to work and running. My bum leg is feeling better by the day, so I will continue to ice, eat a bunch, and try to take it easy. Yay, taper!

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