Review: How To Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford

My BFF was desperate to read this book so I had it shipped to her house from Amazon so she could go ahead and get it delivered instead of just talking about it. She read it quickly and then passed it on to me. With a review on the back cover singing its praises by Libba Bray, how could I pass it up? BFF just kept telling me to read it, but left it very vague. I was curious…


This book was beautifully heartbreaking. In it, Jonah and Beatrice meet each other at school, but exist together in a world of their own making. Their world is made up of late night talk radio, prom trips to the beach and parties that neither of them really belong at. It was weird because I really wanted to love both of them. Maybe it’s my age showing and I just can’t handle that much incessant neediness, but it seemed like Jonah completely takes Bea for granted. She has a chance to make friends, have a normal life, but she’s held captive by Jonah for whatever reason. And I guess at one point in my life I was much like Bea – completely infatuated with some selfish boy. But I so badly wanted her to succeed and be happy in her life. And as much as she gives gives gives, Jonah kind of lets her down. Don’t get me wrong, Standiford completely writes Jonah so you feel sorry for him. And Bea even has her moment when she tells him off, explaining how he’s selfish and how she’s been the great friend. Without giving away the end, I was a little disappointed. I wanted more of a reason to love both of them.

Maybe that’s the point. Not everyone gets a perfect ending. Some characters aren’t written to be flawed in an endearing, broken way. Some are just flawed because they are just human. And like humans, these characters can disappoint us. Jonah just reminded me of someone I used to know and I guess that made me a little like Bea. I am still a little on the fence about this one, but it definitely made me feel something.

The Theatahhh

I will totally admit I'm a huge geek. I love books, board games, being silly most of the time. And most of the time I prefer to be home with friends instead of out at a bar. It's just more comfortable for me. And as someone who wholly appreciates a good pair of flats, clearly I care about my comfort.

But I completely geek out about theater. The first time I went to NYC, I saw three shows in a day and a half. [Phantom of the Opera, Rent, and Mamma Mia.] And of course I thought Roger from Rent was going to see me in the second row and realize he lived me and ask me to stay and we'd love each other and spend our New York days passing strangers on the sidewalk and our nights discussing the strangeness and comfort found in New York strangers. But we didn't fall in love. I fell in love with the theater even more than before. I love Les Mis on stage. I took acting lessons as a child which I'm certain just led to my over dramatic flourish in life. But there's something amazing and beautiful in a stage play that movies can't capture. The raw emotion of no outtakes just takes over me. I've seen Wicked in the West End and traveling to Dallas. I saw my Degrassi crush in Spring Awakening. I saw Spamalot. The lion King on Broadway. Gypsy. Next to Normal. I want to take them all in, all the time.

But for now I'll settle for my own dramatics and Les Mis with my lovely parents for Christmas Eve eve. I'm such a lucky girl.

Random Acts of Thanksgiving

Ever since moving to Austin (and even a bit before that), I started feeling very compelled to do volunteer work. I don’t know what it is because I’m usually lazy and generally a bit skittish of strangers. Whatever, I’ve been feeling bolder and, while I don’t have a lot of extra money lying around, I feel like I should do something because I do have so much. I’ve looked at about a billion ways to help out, from small to monumental. Honestly, sometimes I asked myself why I would even consider some of them, but maybe the point is to do something that really pushes me (i.e. volunteer at the animal shelter – I’m not known as an animal lover…or liker). I went online like any normal person would these days to find some things that interested me or that I would be able to even do. I could call out bingo to old people on the phone! But what if they got confused with the B and the G and I just starting yelling at them? I could travel across town carrying bags of blood. Um, maybe not? I could go to disabled people’s homes and do repair work. Am I really handy? I could volunteer to work feeding and cleaning up after miniature horses. Miniature horses!? How cute! Oh, but they poop.



Once I got to Austin, I got involved with two organizations I’m pretty passionate about. One takes me back to high school when I participated in it myself. It’s called Youth and Government and it’s through the YMCA. They do mock government where people can run for governor, write bills, participate in trials or even work on the newspaper. It was such an amazing experience for me in high school and I made great friends from it (including my friend in Austin who I’m volunteering with). They have a district competition and then state competition at the Texas Capitol. What an awesome way for me to get back in to something that made me so happy way back when. The other is a program called GENAustin (Girl Empowerment Network). They go out to schools and other girl groups to do workshops and club meetings to talk about topics that relate directly to girls: body image, communication, and healthy relationships. The training has been fun (who doesn’t love to pretend to be a sixth grader again!?) and I have met some great gals from it. I just hope I can work it into my schedule since most of it is during the school day.


So…Since November is the month for giving thanks and it seems like everyone on my Facebook is giving a daily update with the things they are thankful for, I decided to celebrate my thanks by doing ten (or more) random acts of kindness this month. I made a list of some things to try out, from simple to more difficult. It will require dedication, but not much time or money. I think sometimes just a sweet note can really brighten up someone’s day/week/month/year. I know it has in my experience. So check back in and I’ll post my random acts (hopefully with pictures!) and the results I get from them.


I am doing all these acts because I’m thankful for: an amazing family led by some awesome parents, my friends who I love so dearly because they make me laugh and cry and enrich my life, my apartment that provides me quiet comfort, the car I drive that’s almost paid off, a job that allows me to live my life in the fashion I do, the freedoms we experience in this country, the grace I’ve been extended, and books that keep me warm at night.

drink love.

i saved this picture ages ago from some blog i read (i guess that's where i got it...) but i just love it. they're just mixing up some martinis. or cosmos. or whatever.

it makes me think of all the random drinks i had in college (good and bad) and the best summer of my life where the roommate and i went to hang out with boys and drink every night after i got home from work. and then we'd go drink and dance on the weekends. that's the summer we started drinking sprite and hyptoniq.

these cosmos look pretty tasty though. i had some pom martinis once that were pretty tasty. thanks, oprah, for sharing that recipe with the world.

so what's your drink of choice?

i wanted a desk.

so i had huge plans to go thrifting and find a badass desk/table that i could mostly use as a desk unless i had people over and we wanted to play a game or something and needed a table. then we could pull it away from the wall, get out my fancy camp chairs and gather round.

then i went to ikea.

i found this white table that would work for my purposes. but it was just okay. but i wrote the aisle and bin number down and after picking out a bunch of crap and then a 5x3 foot picture of the tower bridge - all black and white except the red double decker bus zooming across the bridge, i made it to said aisle.

i looked around at the choices. THEN, like out of discount swedish crap heaven dropped into a lovely wood fill smelled warehouse, i found an unfinished tabletop. "oh! i can paint this WHATEVER COLOR I WANT!"

and then...i found the legs i'd been coveting on other ikea products.

as my wonderful and beautiful gbff told me, the leg is in a good trimester. not too big, not too small. (yes, we compared it to a pregnant woman.)

so i picked up the top and four legs. after a valiant, but terrible effort by francisco in the paint department at walmart, i did not get lime green paint. i asked for kelly green, but francisco tried three times and only came up with francisco green. so the next day, i went to home depot and had them mix me a lovely kelly green (or green acres, as behr likes to call it).

so back home in the rain, i laid down a drop cloth in the middle of my apartment, and painted three coats. when it was finally dry, i took it outside and spray laquered it. a few times. it's a little too shiny, but the area it's in isn't super bright so i think it turned out pretty damn awesome.

things i love. food and stuff edition.

if, given the choice, i'd probably spend the better part of my life sitting in coffee shops and cafes having a drink. even if it's water. it makes me unbelievably happy.

has anyone heard of yogurtville? the walls are covered with frozen yogurt machines where you fill up your cup with whatever flavor(s) you want and then put whatever toppings from the topping bar you want. so yum! [i chose chocolate with m&ms, reeses peanut butter cups and sprinkles.]

how do you feel about cakes with pictures on them? sometimes you end up with the side of someone's head on top of your piece. creepy.

and finally, let's all have a round of applause for teamwork. :)

gbff.

i hate hearing when my friends are going through tough shit. i want to scoop them up and buy them some coffee and hug them and hold them and make them laugh until everything bad fades away.





even if it means having a twenty minute conversation with them where we speak with jersey yiddish accents about how we are going to write our own version of the king arthur legend. we're calling "king arthursteinowitz and the knights of the mazzo ball table".

lovehim!