Book Review: The Mermaid Chair

Several years ago I was introduced to a book entitled "The Secret Life of Bees," and I adored it. I was intrigued by the author Sue Monk Kidd, and decided to look into other works of hers. When I ran across The Mermaid Chair at the Holland Hall Book Fair here in Tulsa, half of the reviews were less than positive and it sort of encouraged me to not read this book. Other readers reviews had suggested that Sue Monk Kidd had dropped the ball and' didn't follow through with creating another masterpiece like "The Secret Life of Bees."



About a month ago I decided that it was time to stop listening to other people and to give this book a shot, and I am so glad that I did that. Of course this book is nothing like "The Secret Life of Bees!" It has nothing to do with that time frame, that type of lifestyle, and that type of being! The story follows the life of a woman named Jessie Sullivan who is dealing with the mental breakdown of her mother who has chosen to deal with her pain from the loss of her husband thirty years prior, by removing a finger on her hand with a butchers knife. Unhappily married Jessie goes to stay with her mother on the island she grew up on and winds up falling in love with a monk, having an affair and trying to decide what is best for her, Jessie, the person who is actually important! We go through the ups and downs of a woman who is sad, and depressed, and has lost her way in her own life and what she loves. She has been married for twenty years and loves her husband, but doesn't love the fact that she feels as though she had to give up who she was to maintain the lifestyle the have lived for so long.

If you're a woman and you have ever been in a relationship where you feel as though you have been asked to give more than you receive, then you will appreciate this book! Sue Monk Kidd did a wonderful job capturing Jessie's life and making the reader start to wonder why certain things in their own life make them unhappy. For a book that is just under 400 pages, it's an easy read, but it does start off a little slow in the beginning.

My only little complaint, and this is just my own personal preferences with novels, I get tired of everything having a predictable, happy ending. I would have been interested to see the ending go in a different direction, but I gave the book 4 out of 5 stars on goodreads.com and most definitely suggest that people should give this book a shot.

Stop Doing That You Little Punk!

I am a med student studying the veterinary medical field, and therefore I have animals. It's a given, if you are in that industry, that you have animals, and love animals, and want to squish their cute little heads in your hands and give them a million, billion kisses! They're my kids, since I don't have kids yet, and even when I DO have children, they'll still be my kids.

So, let me gush for a little bit about my kids and how awesome they are... totally better than yours. ;) Ha, kidding of course... sort of.

Meet Molly, my wonderful one year old Corgi/Heeler mix. She is full of spunk, pazazz, mystery, and energy. A lot of energy. She doesn't ever get tired... ever! She was found on the side of the highway when she was three months old, and a my friend's wife hung on to her until I was able to cope with having another dog. About six months (or so) prior I put my 9 year old Golden Retriever (Duke - he didn't know the Bush's baked beans recipe, I asked) to sleep due to cancer.



Yes. That's a little kids, pink sweater vest. She used to get cold in the snow, so I covered up the top half of her body that didn't involve the messy section.

Enter Stewie, my Snowshoe cat that is almost eight years old. She was two months old when I got him, sitting in the tiny little hands of a little girl outside of WalMart. Her mother was trying to get rid of the kittens that her cat had just had and well, I'm a damned sucker. He's evil, mean, plotting my death (just like Stewie on Family Guy), and amazing, wonderful, and I love him to death. Jerk. He is getting awesome in his old years though.



I know MamaKat's prompt asked what my pets least likable character trait was, but I love them a lot and what annoys me today, doesn't annoy me tomorrow. So I will show you their other side - the side that makes me want to scream sometimes, but only after laughing until tears roll down my face.

When Molly gets going she runs... a lot... up and down our long hallway, through the living room, around the kitchen and through our roommates bedroom that is attached to the kitchen. Down the hallway, over the bed, down the hallway... and repeat... 27,000,000 times. She chases her tail, leaves puppy slobber on Stewie's head after instigating devil kitty to come out. Meet Molly when she enters crazy town!



Molly acting like that turns my Stewie cat into devil kitty. His ears go back and his eyes dilate, his tail starts to flick back and forth and you can see as the "kill Molly" thoughts start to formulate in his brain. To pep himself up, he goes to hide in his blue trash can and transform into BATTLE MODE! Molly VS. Stewie, Battle 1,596... commence!



Something amazing happens after transformation. Stewie closes his eyes, reaches his inner chi, and begins to levitate! It is at this point that Molly has realized she no longer has a place to hid and that she will be getting a 12 pound cat straight to the face. I was able to capture an extremely amusing (and fuzzy) levitation, battle mode moment for your viewing enjoyment. Note the look of "oh shit" on Molly's face, and the no legs on the ground, I'm flying through the air moment of Stewie.



So again, after I'm done peeing my pants from laughing so hard, I get frustrated with the F5 path of destruction that was left behind. Then I laugh again.

Remember to stop by MamaKat's and show her love sometime!

Routines

Aren't routines strange? We never think about them. We never pay attention to the fact we're doing them. We just get into habits and routines and carry on in life. I was driving to work this morning, following my regular routine, heading towards the gas station to grab a diet Dr. Pepper fountain drink. As I'm winding through construction, around orange barrels that I swear are placed in such a way to mimic the game frogger, and towards my employment "destination," I realized this routine was engraved into me. I do this five times a week, twice a day (the driving part at least), and have gotten to the point where I can have an entire fantasy life flow through my head on my drive to work without even concentrating on what's happening in my real life!

That sounds super dangerous.

I bet it is. Oi.

Well once I started thinking about it, I started having a bit of fun with it. The gas station I stop at every morning is Kum & Go (yeah... I know... haha). Why do I stop there? Well it surely isn't because of the ridiculous namesake it carries. No, it's because of it's placement on my routine path. It is on the right side of the road, right before I turn left to head to my store. It doesn't compete with my routine, it is just there. So where is the fun part, you ask? Well, I love QuikTrip and their new Kitchens. For all of you unfortunate souls out there that have never experienced Tulsa's own QuikTrip, I deeply apologize. This is a super gas station, completely equipped with a crapper AND a mini kitchen/restaurant for your enjoyment. Phoenix, Arizona just about peed their pants when they received one!

Back to my story...

So I'm a QuikTrip loyalist, but since the construction on Hwy 44 had halted my previous routine to work, I had to switch to Kum & Go to maintain my diet cancer creating, fake sugar soda needs every morning! Since I work for a company that prides themselves on kissing the butt cheeks of their customers (appropriately so sometimes... some of our customers are wonderful!), I started imagining QuikTrip calling me to ask why I hadn't shopped with them in awhile? How would I answer this question, since clearly I'm their most valued customer with my .50 purchases?

I started feeling special inside. I was making myself feel necessary and needed... highly valued on the red carpet of gas buyers. It's an important carpet people! The lights were shining on me, the cameras and microphones were in my face awaiting my response on how they can change to get me to come back and spend .50! I smiled at all of them, in my head of course, since this was all a daydream. In reality I was winding through frogger orange construction cones at this point. "Well," I started. "Turn my old QuikTrip into a kitchens and I will make a new routine," was my response. Everyone applauded my extremely humdrum response and immediately started construction on my new QuikTrip.

CRAP.

Red light! *braaaaaaake*

Oh yeah... time to turn right and pull into Kum & Go and get my diet Dr. Pepper, before turning left and heading to work...

I need a change in my life, wouldn't you say? Red carpets for gas buyers? Ha. Until next time, folks.