Second Chance Book Club, March: Wuthering Heights-- Emily Bronte

I have been so excited to share one of my favorite books ever with you! I was pretty adamant with Kelly that I wanted to make this book one of our book club reads this year. I suppose I am technically cheating because I read this novel in high school (as a replacement for 1984, I believe, which I had read already when it was assigned to the class... #Nerd) but I have such fond memories of this month's novel. I read it spring of my senior year in high school and I remember completely laying out on my parents' couch and being entirely oblivious to anything else going on. I remember walking away from Bronte's story and smiling, just being grateful for having gotten lost in her words as I had. 

I hope you liked the story as well. It's a little bit of a monster which I honestly didn't remember because I flew through it the first time. But, again, I enjoyed losing myself in the characters and their lives. And I always love an English setting-- I really should get myself to England someday. It is one of my favorite places to ever get lost in through a book. I should just go get lost there in real life for awhile.

With all that said, I bring to you this month's read:

(via)

1. Did you like the book? Was it what you were expecting or hoping for? Why or why        

    not? I spilled the vast majority of my guts above, but I am always intrigued as to why I 

    love this book as much as I do when it really isn't anything like I expected. I think I am       pulled into the dark tone, the struggles of the characters, and their complex        

    relationships. I think Bronte does such a great job of creating a complexly layered   

    story to hold the reader in, but it is not so dense that the reader gives up. I don't know 

    what it is, but I enjoy this book so. very. much.

2. Love and revenge are the two main themes of the novel. Can love and revenge co-exist     or is one one influenced by the other? Ah, I don't think I am a very nice person for 

    asking this question, but I am choosing to do so any way. This a very English teacher-y 

    question, no? In short, I believe love and revenge can both co-exist as well as be 

    influenced by each other. Take a look at Catherine and Heathcliff-- I believe theirs  

    was a true love, even though neither really knew what to do with his or her feelings. 

    In turn, Heathcliff found himself seeking revenge because of his love for Catherine, 

    albeit a not entirely justified revenge. I can think of times in my own life when I have 

    truly loved somebody and desired only the best for them, but then I have also had 

    feelings of revenge, either towards that same person because of my overload of 

    emotion, or because another person has become a threat to my love. Human emotion 

    is such a powerful substance... I am marveled at God's creation of it all.

3. "...He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are          the same..." Arguably the most famous quote of the novel (and just beautifully                written to boot, I'm swooning a little bit inside and I know I'm not the only one. 

       What do you think made Wuthering Heights a classic? Was it the plot, the 

       characters, the language? What was it? Just see my responses above. And I am still 

       swooning at that line. If any guy ever uses it on me, I will probably melt right there 

       and just be his forever. Le sigh.

I Ask, You Answer: Book Club Style!

Yes, umm, sorry. I'm six of eight now. Consistency is key, right? That's what I'm telling myself.

But let's get this party started, albeit 96 hours late.

I've been looking forward to this month's read for awhile. 

(via)

So, let's get down to business, to defeat- the Huns. I mean, to be sophisticated literary scholars, of course.

1. Did you like the book? Was it what you were expecting or hoping for? Why or why not?

2. Love and revenge are the two main themes of the novel. Can love and revenge co-exist     or is one one influenced by the other?

3. "...He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are          the same..." Arguably the most famous quote of the novel (and just beautifully                written to boot, I'm swooning a little bit inside and I know I'm not the only one. What        do you think made Wuthering Heights a classic? Was it the plot, the characters, the          language? What was it?

And it's not like I have been on time for much of anything this year, so I am making the executive decision to post my answers on Monday, March 30. See you then!

The Chickens Most Definitely Have Large Talons

If you follow me on Instagram, I have started keeping track of the wildlife I seen throughout Thailand. It's a series I have aptly named "Things Not Seen on the Side of the Road in North Dakota." I've seen elephants, even though they were not wild, monkeys that were definitely wild, a potbelly pig, various geese and ducks, and more stray dogs than I can count. Some animals I have been able to photograph, but many I have missed. Regardless, Thailand definitely has some wildlife this North Dakota girl hadn't seen before.

Case in point? Here we go.

#1. Doing dishes is far from my favorite chore so I rarely have a completely empty sink. However, I wanted to treat myself one Friday night so I did all of the dishes before I went to bed. I woke up Saturday morning to find little gecko droppings (I used the most polite word there...) all over my clean dishes and this stinker was hanging out under my dish rack. I eventually chased him to the corner, cursed his existence, and then did my dishes all over again. #Mywordswerestern #Hehasn'tcomebacksince #Idon'tmisshim

#2. We had the day off from school last week for Makhabucha Day, so we visited a city park. We rented bikes and rode around for the morning and early afternoon. As we were heading back to return our bikes, I heard a loud hissing noise and looked over my shoulder to see this guy. He was the biggest and closest monitor lizard I have seen in real life. He stared us down for a couple of seconds and then decided to retreat back into the vegetation. I'm glad he left because had he attacked, I would have had to beat him senseless with my water bottle. #Itwasmybiggestweapononhand #Didn'tlearnlizarddefenseinND

#3. I have taken up running again. Well, jogging. Let's be real. I live on a side street that does not connect well to the surrounding neighborhood, so I have basically two routes to choose from and since I am slow and don't make it very far, my scenery is limited. Last week I was out for a run and a large rooster started chasing me. This rooster came up to my knee and had the largest back talons (yes, Napoleon) I had ever seen. Not that I have spent a lot of time studying chicken legs, but still. As I'm running along, the possessed poultry matches my pace and is picking up steam. His stride is starting to scare me and I make a kick at him. I didn't intend to strike him and I clearly missed, but that made him even more mad so he lunges at my calf. I did the only other thing that came to mind and I hissed at him. Apparently that was enough because he stopped and started going the other way. Dang chicken. #Dochickenshavecommunicablediseases? #Prollynotcurrentonmychickenvaccinations

l

This is not a picture of the actual chicken but of three chickens from a different house. The one in the upper righthand corner was trying to fly away. These Thai chickens are crazy. I was not going to risk going back to the site of my own attempted murder. I don't know the short term memory and/or recognition skills of a chicken but I'm not ready to risk it quite yet.

Bonus. And I didn't experience this one personally, but now I always double check before I sit on the toilet. I'm not sure if "Cobra Bite to the Buttocks" is a valid sick day excuse, but I don't want to be the one to have to find out. #ChannelingmyinnerForest

Near Miss

Counting Crows, well Joni Mitchell originally, said that you don't know what you've got till it's gone.  Luckily, what which I once thought I had lost I was able to find.  I found this little beauty on one of my friend's Facebook walls back in the days of undergrad.  The night I found it, I was procrastinating from my unit plan, so I had plenty of time to watch it and watch it I did... like six or seven times.  I went back a couple of days later to watch it on Facebook and it wasn't posted anywhere.  So sad.  Then I looked for the video on YouTube earlier because I wanted to share it, but it wasn't posted there yet.  But, fortunately, it was eventually posted and will continue to be available until Youtube ceases to exist.

Do yourself a favor and watch it now.  It is stinking hilarious.  And if you knew my crew of friends who fit the personas of these four guys, you would be able to appreciate it that much more.

Just have some fun for the day. May your day be blessed. :)

10|| 10 Things About Yours Truly

Still working to complete "The Blog-tember Challenge" even though I have missed the deadline by a long shot. Don't judge... It will be fun to finally finish! 

List 10 things that you love about yourself! Let's kick that negative self-talk outta here!

I really cannot list 10 things I love about myself without giving credit where it is due-- to my Heavenly father. I have only in the last couple of years decided to wage a war against my insecurity. Some days are certainly better than others and it's been a rough patch as of late, for sure. But I have been created in His image to do great things that He prepared me specifically to fulfill. The same is absolutely true of you. Just let that sink into your mind for a spell. God did not create either you or me and then random assign purpose to our lives. He created the world, saw a need to be filled, and then created each individual to fill each specific purpose.

I feel like my life carries an entirely different weight when I maintain that mindset, no?

I feel convicted on a whole new level to get rid of my self hate and to really learn to value myself for the excellent creation God made me to be. I would not be pleased to see a creation of my own being so dissatisfied with my handiwork, so why do I think it is okay to do the same thing to God?

Without further ado, here are 10 things I love (or am learning to love) about myself-- the woman God created me to be!

One. I am created specifically in the image of God and for the purpose of bringing glory to God! My life has so much purpose just knowing that I am living for something greater than myself. I could not imagining doing life on earth any other way.

Two. I have been given the privilege of being a teacher. I have long desired to know that I am doing exactly what God has called me to do and to change the world. I know I am definitely in the former and I may be doing just a little bit of the latter.

Three. I have been given the opportunity to live overseas and experience another culture and another way of life. I have much sitting in the archives about living in the Land of Smiles. I just need to buck it up and make it happen.

Four. I am finally learning how to be a good friend, daughter, sister, etc. It has taken me a long time to understand how to authentically relate to people. All too often, I have let myself be completely taken over by somebody needy, selfish, and unable to support me as a friend. That being said, I have also been a selfish, unfair friend. I am grateful for the people God has placed in my life to help me develop into a gracious and authentic woman of God. #Longjourney #Stillfiguringitout

Five. I intentionally value people and experiences over things. I have come to develop a great disdain for a lot of stuff and would much rather spend my resources on people and experiences. My family, friends, faith, students, and traveling are all high priorities in my life and daily decision making.

And because we can't be all serious around here all of the time...

Six. I will try anything once. I was not an adventurous child or teenager, but once I got to college, something shifted and I'm ready to go. Moving to Thailand has given me many more opportunities than I ever would have found for myself in the States and I am trying to make the most of it. Recent shenanigans include eating crickets, learning to ride a motorbike, and learning to speak Thai. #SpeakingThaiisalwaysanadventure

Seven. I can change a tire all by myself. I feel like I have had to change more than my share (six!) of tires in the last five years. I can also check my oil and replace a tail light. And I know that blinkers to not run on fluid. Granted, I still can't hard boil an egg, but that's neither here nor there.

Eight. I can say the English alphabet forwards and backwards. It would be my one party trick if I ever ended up at a party. As an INTJ, though, I would probably just hang out in the back corner of the room and check out the host's book collection.

Nine. Along with one terrible party trick, I have a random assortment of useless trivia. For example, know the capitals of Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Canada, and Finland. The majority of this information is much less impressive now that I live in southeast Asia, but nevertheless. I can also tell you the all fifty states and capitals while locating them on a map, provide the history of the term "bowdlerize," and explain why the North Dakota capitol does not have a dome.

Ten. I can make a mean pie. Apple, rhubarb-peach, and lemon meringue are my go-to pieces of choice! I made an ice cream pie yesterday for a friend's birthday, but that doesn't count. This fall, I made a pumpkin pie entirely from scratch and it was so good. If I ever get married, I will have pie at my reception, not cake. And that's a nonnegotiable... The groom can deal or go. #JK #Sorta

March Goals

I'm much less late with this month's goals than I was with last month's. Actually, being late to the party has been the theme of the year so far. See please Exhibit #1, Exhibit #2, Exhibit #3, Exhibit #4, and Exhibit #5. At least I started the year out on the right foot and managed to remember my birthday. Ahem. Five out of seven is not a good track record.

Anyhow, March. Hello. I can't believe you are here already. I still feel like we should be back in January somewhere. I think the consistent weather helps me to lose track of the days. Every day seems the same and, in turn, I have no way to track the seasons. We are down to basically twelve weeks of school. Cue the part praise, part panic. Or mostly panic, to be honest. So much to do in such a short period of time!

This month, I intentionally wrote down my goals and will hang them over my desk. These goals look very similar to February's goals. And January's, I know. I made progress, for sure, but not enough for completion. So on the list they stay until I have accomplished the goal completely and wholly.

I extended my thesis goal because I'm hitting crunch time hardcore there and I did complete my goal of (more or less) memorizing Philippians 2:14-16 and (completely) my Thai phone number. Each of these goals would take up so little of my day, I'm frustrated that I have let myself be so lax about taking care of them. 

It's a new month and a fresh start... Make it happen, Aubrey!

May your March be blessed.

Second Chance Book Club, February: The Glass Menagerie-- Tennessee Williams

I was going to try to get this post written early. And then I tried to just meet February 28 deadline, BKK time. And then on February 28 by CST. And now I'm just late. But I'm much less late than the last time, so that has to count for something, right? Please?

I bring to you February's read, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.

(via)

Which character did you connect most with? I read the play with this question in mind (ahem, part of the reason I am late in posting) and I found myself waffling between connecting with each character in a different way and feeling complete alienated from all of the characters in general. Then Jim came into the picture and I was pulling hard for him. Until the end. The meanie pants. However, overall, I still find myself connecting the most with Jim, mainly for two reasons. First, he speaks truth and encouragement into Laura's life which is something I take seriously in my own life. I loved Jim's words in the seventh scene when he is speaking to Laura:

          "And everybody has problems, not just you, but practically everybody                has got some problems.You think of yourself as having the only                        problems, as being the only one who is disappointed. But just look                    around you and you will see lots of people as disappointed as you are."

If that's not the real deal, no? We are all broken people with broken lives and we are all doing this thing called life together. I must remember to give grace to myself and extend grace to those around me. On a lesser note, I also enjoyed what Jim said in the next sentence. "For instance, I hoped when I was going to high school that I would be further along at this time, six years later, than I am now." My life is nothing what I imagined for myself in high school, but I am quickly learning that I wouldn't change it for all the tea in China. Or Thailand. Thailand would be much more practical. The second reason I connect with Jim is much like the first, but not exactly the same. Later in the same scene he challenges Laura:

          "Just look about you a little. What do you see? A world full of common                people! All of 'em born and all of 'em going to die! Which of them has                one-tenth of your good points! Or mine! Or anyone else's, as far as 

           that goes-- gosh! Everybody excels in some one thing... All you've got                to do is discover in what!"

Again, maybe it's the teacher in me, maybe it's the insecure woman, but these are words I find myself telling my students but failing to remember myself. I wholeheartedly believe God equips each of us with a talent specific to His creation for each of us and we need to embrace that talent and go. I firmly believe that talent is not always academic and I could not be more grateful for that. I have had more students not go to college than go, but I know they were each created for a specific purpose that I, as their teacher, worked to bring out in them. Likewise, I may not have been created to be a wife and/or mother and/or anything else I have imagined for myself, but I believe God has equipped me in other ways and I must seek to serve Him with those talents until I am led by His spirit to do otherwise.

What were your expectations for the play? Did the play meet or exceed your expectations? I went into this play with exactly zero expectations. I may be the only English major to earn an undergraduate degree without having ever taken a poetry, drama, or British literature class so I am not at all educated in the way of the dramatic arts. That being said, I think plays are very fun to read and I choose to believe I have read more scripts than the average, non-English major person. I enjoy reading the stage directions in a script and generating the images in my mind. As a storyline, I felt the play moved slowly and then brought the proverbial hammer down hard and fast on the reader, but that is just my opinion. I would enjoy an opportunity to see this play performed live so that I can see another interpretation of the story and compare it to what I made in my own mind.

Overall, what were your opinions of the play? How do you feel about plays in general? Overall, I do not regret reading the play, but I definitely was hoping for something more. I am a huge fan of A Streetcar Named Desire and I think I was expecting something more from this play seeing as it too was written by Tennessee Williams.

How many stars would you give The Glass Menagerie (1-5)? I would give The Glass Menagerie 2.5 or 3 stars out of 5. 2 stars seems low, I still feel bad about 2.5, but 3 stars seems a little high. Perhaps 2.75 stars would be the best score, but that just seems a little ridiculous. 2.5-3/5 stars it is. Clearly it's a good thing I did not go into math. Oi vey.