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feelings

star crossed self

abby mumford

the earth’s alignment has shifted. the new tilt has left wide spread changes in its wake.

what? you didn’t hear about it? you didn’t feel it? you didn’t smell the winds of change?

the new angle of the earth has affected the zodiac signs which means i went from being an independent and loyal (and awesome) capricorn to a globally thinking, fieryly enthusiastic sagittarius. i couldn’t even spell that word without looking it up and now it’s supposed to define me?

it sure seems as though everything describing a capricorn directly relates back to me, while the sagittarius depictions only relate to me in vague and foggy ways. but wait. when did i ever let the stars define me? i thought i was forged from the hardships and joys and triumphs and setbacks and giggles and tears and puddles and rainbows of every day life. and besides, how can a tilt of the earth change one’s personality?

i was born under the capricorn sign, so a capricorn i shall stay. although, being an archer sounds a lot more badass than a seagoat. maybe there is a silver lining in this shift of the stars.

i mean, if you believe in that sort of thing.

book club

BOOK HUNGRY: never let me go

abby mumford

who says you have to be crowded into the living room, kitchen, and/or dining room to hold a book club? we are ladies of the 21st century. we don’t need no stinkin’ couches. so pull up a blog and join in the conversation.

the members of the BOOK HUNGRY are (alphabetically): patty blount, kelly breakey, karla nellenbach, vanessa noble, alyson peterson, cynthia reese, elizabeth ryann, and myself. here’s the deal. we pick a book to read. we discuss via email. we post a review on our individual blogs on the same day (3rd thursday of the month). we link to each other. done. i know, genius. click on each one of their names (above) and it’ll take you to their review. browse. enjoy.

this month’s BOOK HUNGRY selection is:

NEVER LET ME GO by kazuo ishiguro

i have a confession.

i didn’t finish the book.

i can’t say that about many books, but this one? heck, i didn’t even make through the first 100 pages. i only reached page 69 (tee hee) and i can’t even remember the main character’s name. (ok, it’s kathy. i peeked.) i found the prose to be dull and lifeless and vague and confusing and i see from an amazon.com review that “misdirection” is an intended side effect, but ishiguro misdirected me right out of the book. i couldn’t get into it nor did i want to. the only reason i made it as far as i did was because of the external pressure i felt knowing others in my group were reading it, but there are far too many other books out there for me to waste my time on a book that i find unrelatable and uninteresting.

i know, i know, i’ve said that reading all kinds of books (even bad ones) is important because from them you learn what to do and what not to do in your own writing.

but, yet, this book is a different beast. i mean, ishiguro is a successful author. this is his sixth novel. it was turned into a movie! still, i couldn’t finish reading. i could barely even start reading and i’ll have you know that it wasn’t just me. out of the group, only patty finished it. isn’t that odd that only one person out of nine could complete it? we’re all readers and yet this story didn’t grab any of us? i know publishing is subjective and all, but i think the masses have spoken. book = bad. hey, maybe this is the exception to the “book is always better than the movie” rule. see for yourself:

it looks mildly entertaining, slightly creepy, but ultimately watchable, right? so what am i missing? why aren’t the words beckoning like usual? am i right to have given up so soon? should i have incurred the library fine and kept reading? what do you do when you find yourself reluctant to read? do you plod ahead? do other chores? put down the book for good? watch the movie instead?

in other reading news, these are the books i read instead of the book club selection: WHITE CAT by holly black, REVOLUTION by jennifer donnelley, and NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL by justina chen headley. all of which had action and drama and real life moments that punch you in the gut. yes, i want to be slugged while reading. emotionally socked. aww, you know what i mean.

and i know that next month’s book (13 REASONS WHY by jay asher) will provide the punch. why? because i’ve already read it.

*pulls out boxing gloves*

i’m ready for ya.

//

travel

mission (quasi) accomplished

abby mumford

as i previously mentioned, all of my siblings and i have january birthdays. brother G’s was yesterday. O HAPPY DAY! and yes, the mission i so vaguely mentioned last post was directly related to that event.

it actually started over a year ago when my SIL (M) asked me how i felt about being a present of the surprise variety for brother G. you see, they live on the west coast and so our time together is more often relegated to emails and texts and phone calls and skype than to time spent in the same time zone. M and i figured out the perfect plan and coordinated our schedules so that i could fly out and be all SURPRISE, i’m here!

brother G’s work sent him to london. i stayed on the east coast that year.

M and i resumed our talks a few months ago and this time, all signals were clear for take-off. even though mother nature played hard ball and dumped 15 inches of snow on boston the day before my flight was scheduled to leave. fortunately, the runways were clear the next night and i boarded and shut off my phone after receiving instruction to call G when i landed because he would be the one to pick me up. my flight took off. i landed 6 hours later and dialed. G picked up and his voice didn’t sound surprised.

GAH. what? why not?

now G and i are similar in that we don’t often show our emotions (i’m working on it!), but this was more than that. he knew. he KNEW. but, but, but, WHEN? HOW?

rewind. M hadn’t told her kids anything because, well, they’re kids and don’t yet understand the concept of a secret. or how to keep one. MMM (8yo niece) is getting there, but we didn’t want to test her limits, so M waited until a week before my arrival to tell her. MMM zipped her lips. the morning of my arrival, MMM was whispering with her mom and didn’t realize brother A was around the corner within hearing distance. later, as G drove them to school, A says, “Dad, you’re going to pick up your sister at the airport today.”

G says he was very surprised then. it was just 10 hours before my arrival…

but you know what? it doesn’t matter because even though it was a quick visit, it was jam packed. i got to see MMM and A play basketball (6yos who haven’t had a practice because of inclement weather playing their first game? HILARIOUS), i got L (2.5yo) to talk to me even if it was only for a minute or two, we played xbox connect (AMAZING), we ate lunch at the top of the space needle with uncle rob, we watched movies, we giggled, i saw L throw a football better than some high school kids i know, but best of all, i got to spend time with each of the seattle mumfords one on one – chatting, listening, learning, observing, getting to know them as they are now and at 3pm and at 3am and at 7am. i experienced their life as it is on a daily basis, 3 hours behind mine on the east coast. all the noise and the silence and the chaos and the laughter and the bickering and the tickling and the sharing and the snacking and the sleeping.

i may have started out as the present, but what a goody bag i received.

feelings

something old. something new.

abby mumford

the smell of a candle after it’s been blown out is one of my most favorite smells, probably because i associate it with candles from a birthday cake and once the candles are out that means the eating of the cake is close behind.

it also smells like a fresh start.

it’s a good thing i like the smell so much because january is a big birthday month in the mumford household. yes, all of my siblings and i were born in january. i start off the party on the 8th. sister J is the 10th. brother G is the 17th. and sister E is the 28th. (technically, only J was due in january, so you can stop with the jokes about my parents’ amorous nature in april.)

and so the SOMETHING OLD of the blog post title is sister J. HA HA HA. just kidding. you’re not old. you’re wise. and really good at nertz and motherhood and sisterhood and listening and loving and calling and chatting and giggling and playing and living and learning and standing in my corner and sending letters and doing all the things big sisters are supposed to do and then some. i hope your happy day yesterday is just the start of an even more amazing year to follow. here’s to even numbered ages!

so speaking of fresh starts and SOMETHING NEW, i tried acupuncture for the first (and second and soon to be third) time. it was interesting and weird and ultimately, helpful. there’s nothing like a 7 month old stiff neck that has radiated down into your arm so that it hangs lifeless at your side to make you want to try something radically different. i had gone with a friend to one of her appointments, so i know what it looked like, but this was the first time i was on the receiving end of it.

side one: the first pin pricked my foot, but that was the worst of it. all of the others (in my feet, legs, hands, arms, ears, face) went in rather harmlessly. as i lay there in the dimly lit room, the sensation of the needles in my skin disappeared and took with it the pain from my neck (well, momentarily). it was fascinating and at the same time, discouraging, because if this is the only time i felt relief that means i’m going to have to walk around with pins in me all the time and unfortunately, that’s not socially acceptable.

side two: i had to lay my stomach. painful! my neck felt like it had to hold up too much weight (my brain is huge!) and that hurt. while on this side, she had to “manipulate” the needles (in my neck, head, shoulder, back), i.e. wiggle them around until they could release the stressed, angry, naughty, pent up qi from my body. ouch. and by the time the relaxation period was halfway over, my bladder had reached its capacity, which, as you could guess, is not so conducive to a calm psyche.

after the procedure was over, i admit it, i didn’t feel much relief. i hopped over to cambridge naturals and bought one of the microwaveable heating pads, stopped at CVS to pick up some bengay sticky “relief patches”, and walked home. i’m sure the walk in the wind and cold didn’t do much to relieve tension in my neck muscles, but it sure made the contrast between that and the heating pad drastic. i heart that heating pad. and then i managed coerce roommate into working my neck muscles for a little bit, so after that, things were starting to look up. and so could i. woohoo!

the day after, though, that’s the ticket! that’s when the relief started to kick in. even though it is a slow healing process, i am a fan of this thing called acupuncture.

and that’s my something old and something new. now i just have to figured out my something borrowed and something blue. wait, this is a blog post, not a wedding ceremony.

phew.