so many good things

2013 has just started, and yet there are so many things I am excited about.  I'm talking about real, actual things that you can touch and hold or listen to or watch. They are little things, trivial things, but I feel like talking about them and sharing them, so I will!

* Kraft Milk Bites - This is a weird product that is basically a milk and granola bar. My brother and his fiancee offered me one of these the morning after I spent the night at their home over my Christmas visit. I had the strawberry kind, and wow...so good! I've since bought a box of the strawberry and the chocolate for my home, and will buy the peanut butter when I can find them. These are hard to find in general, but so interesting and I love them. Yum. 

* Pitch Perfect - I watched this movie On Demand on NYE. I'd been wanting to see it since it came out in the theater, but this is the kind of movie I usually don't see until I can watch it at home. I loved it. It was a happy, feel good movie. It was fun, it had interesting mashups of music, and I just really enjoyed it. Plus, I adore Rebel Wilson and find her hilarious. :-)

* Tights - I have been so into tights lately. Most recently I bought a pair of bright blue ones that I am looking forward to wearing. I have plain black, striped black, patterned black, brown, gray, sparkly black and gray, and now blue. I also have a new blue dress to wear to work, and my main battle before I can wear it is to decide which pair of tights to pair it with, and which heels. These are the fun kind of choices one can make in a day. :-)

* I'm reading an excellent book right now called "Defending Jacob" by William Landay.  I love it.  It's one of those books I look forward to picking up in the morning and evening for my commute, and that I am disappointed to put down.  It's about a prosecutor whose teenaged son is accused of the murder of a classmate, and it's compelling.  Highly recommend!

* Girls:  I love this show on HBO.  The second season is getting ready to start on 1/13/12 and I can't wait. I've found that those who watch either hate it with a passion or love it like I do.  There's not much of an in between.  The characters may be self-indulgent and flawed, but I love them, and I love the dysfunctional lead, Hannah.  The series is also releasing a soundtrack, and I will be ordering that on Amazon when it comes out on the 8th!  The episodes had some great music.

* Will Grayson, Will Grayson - This is a book I haven't read yet.  It's a collaborative effort between John Green, who is a brilliant, beautiful writer, and David Levithan.  I'd heard good things about it in the past, but I recently read a quote from it, as well as a very loving review written about it, and it convinced me.  I have a B&N giftcard, and part of it is going to this. 

The quote that convinced me: "You like someone who can't like you back because unrequited love can be survived in a way that once-requited love cannot."

* Like Crazy - I love this movie.  I own the DVD.  I own the soundtrack because the instrumental music in it is gorgeous.  There is a part of the movie that sticks with me, a thing written by one of the main characters in the story:

"I thought I understood it, that I could grasp it, but I didn't, not really. Only the smudgeness of it; the pink-slippered, all-containered, semi-precious eagerness of it. I didn't realize it would sometimes be more than whole, that the wholeness was a rather luxurious idea. Because it's the halves that halve you in half. I didn't know, don't know, about the in-between bits; the gory bits of you, and the gory bits of me."

I have this on my list of things to watch again soon.

* Warm Bodies - I had seen this book in passing many times in the bookstore, but never paid any attention.  Then I saw a movie preview for it, and it appealed to me in a strange way.  Save for The Walking Dead, I've never really been a zombie enthusiast, but this looked different.  A zombie love story, maybe?  The cover of the book drew me in, and I had to have it in real life book form, so I bought it.  It's one of those books I anticipate reading, but keep putting off.  I hope it is as good as I want it to be!

* Why We Broke Up - This is a book by Daniel Handler.  I bought it several months ago because the feel of the book appealed to me.  Hardback, smooth, cold pages.  A love story with pictures, but in the most unusual way.  I started it, but never finished it.  It's somewhere in the depths of my bedroom I think, and I am going to go home and dig it out.  I read something about it today, some tangential connection from my reading on "Will Grayson, Will Grayson", and now I'm reenergized about reading it.  It's nice to already own it!

* Ready Player One - I read this book by Ernest Cline last fall.  I was so surprised to love it as much as I did.  I recommended it to many people, but the person I thought it was best suited for never read it.  This year, in the midst of doing my Christmas shopping, I impulsively ordered a copy of it for Artboy.  Yes, I still talk to Artboy.  Yes, I still see Artboy. 

I gave it to him on Tuesday night, and he was funny about it, making jokes, teasing me about the main character's name.  I don't think he expected anything from me, and I didn't make a big deal out of it, just handed him the book. 

We talked on IM last night and he made a comment about a part of the book.  He'd already started reading it.  He's a tough nut to crack, a man with particular tastes and unpredictable interests.  I don't know if he'll like the book as much as I did, or as much as I thought he would, but he's reading it, and that makes me happy.  A good book is being read by another person.  Mission accomplished.

* Steven Millhauser - This is an author I've never heard of.  Artboy, prior to reading my book, was reading The Night Circus, which is another book I love.  The writing is beautiful, and I loved the story.  He was talking about how it reminded him of Steven Millhauser, but also mentioned how her writing was different.  He recommended some of this author's writing, in particular a short story, so this is also on my B&N giftcard list. 

So these are all the things I can think of for now.  Things I just wanted to talk about, no matter how silly they were.  I hope you will consider checking out at least one of these things, and that perhaps you are already familiar with one or more.  EVERYONE SHOULD LOVE WHAT I LOVE.  ;-)