The End of the Crazy...I Hope.

I apologize for being gone for the last week and a half. I thought it might be a longer break, but the crazy has subsided and I think I can go back to a functioning level in the blog world.

So, as for an explanation....things just got a little overwhelming. Most of my followers know the reasons why I started this blog in the first place. I have been done with school since 2008. I graduated with two bachelor's and a teaching certificate, but I have been searching for a job ever since. This whole thing started last summer when I had enough of not "being" anything. Rather than continue to sit around and wait for something good to happen, I created this whole project, and I have been in love with what I am doing ever since.

That doesn't mean that I am hunky dory and happy with how things are going. Truth be told, I am in almost the same position this September as I was last September....and that is really frustrating. I was pretty down last week, and I have been kicking myself a lot. There are a lot of questions in my head. Mainly, why am I not hire-able?

It has only been through some intense conversations with my mom and Matt (husband) that I am coming to realize that perhaps I am not meant to be teaching. Even though I think I want to teach and work with kids in that role, that might not be what I need to do. This has been a big realization for me, and I am slowly working towards accepting that.

I am slowly getting out of my depressed little hole and accepting that there are many other things positive in my life that need my focus. I like my blogging, and it has become a huge part of my life in the last year. I love reading. I love writing. I am accepting these things and taking steps towards making it all okay.

I feel I should also point out that all of this was also taking place while I was preparing for an interview. Last Monday I interviewed at a school and I feel in love with what the school was trying to accomplish. But I haven't heard anything yet. I am not sure what will happen.

When I do hear, I think I will be okay with it, whatever the answer.

I am coming to accept that sometimes things are out of my control. I cannot always focus on what is not going my way, and what I wish would happen. I can only accept what I can do, and what I can accomplish.


Think of this as my reaffirmation of what I am doing here. Never before have a I felt such a compulsion to keep chugging away, picking up classics off the shelf and sharing how I feel about them with you all. I started this with the intentions of learning from the greats, and letting these great authors be my teachers. I think I lost sight of that for awhile and what a truly life changing experience this has become.



I know that I gained a few new followers this week, thanks to a beautiful post from Amanda over at The Zen Leaf. I checked my e-mail on a whim on Monday, right after my interview, and it brought tears to my eyes. It was the kind of thing we need more of in this world, and I am so grateful to her for writing such wonderful things. I feel like I have a lot to live up to! ;)

For those of you who are new, I feel I should give you a little more info about myself. This will certainly help me as well, as I reembark on my odyssey (since I have read hardly anything the last two weeks).

My purpose in creating this blog was to read through a list of 250 classics. My original goal was to finish in 3 years, but I think at this point it is going to take me longer than that. We shall see.

I feel it is really important to point out that I post multiple posts for each book I read. For me, reading is more about the experience than the conclusion, so I write posts when the mood strikes me during my reading, and save them in Word. When it is time to post about the book, I set them up and schedule them to post during the week. This can cause confusion since I am always behind, but it is a format that works for me. You will always see a "Book Stats" post to kick off the new title, as well as a "Finished" post. In most cases, there is at least one other post about the book, but more often more. It is how I roll.

Originally I wasn't going to read anything BUT classics until the list was done, but I have made a few exceptions. In July I took a vacation and read some fun fantasy novels that have been on my shelf for a bit. In August I read Mockingjay, since I KNEW I would read spoilers somewhere before I could get to it. This last week I read Beauty by Robin McKinley as a comfort read, as well as many, many poems from Whitman's Leaves of Grass.

Moving forward, I am continuing on with my heavy classics reading. I have a few things on the nightstand that I am still progressing with. The first is to finish Villette by Charlotte Bronte, which is a glorious book, but I have been taking my time with it. I also need to catch up with Bleak House for Amanda's read-along. I really do hate Dickens, so this is a book that has been coming everywhere with me....but stays unopened.

I also signed up for the Banned Books Challenge, which may or may not be completed (it isn't a priority). I have some posts backlogged, which you will see this week and next.

Anyway, I'm back and ready to do some more reading. If you are new, please introduce yourself and leave a link to your blog so I can come visit!

Happy Reading!