Favorite Book Rec

Happy Birthday laurashapiro! You are such a thoughtful, caring and creative person and I'm so glad you make such wonderful vids and help the vidding community from DIY to panels at VVC.

Happy Birthday ringwrench! It was so good to meet you at Vividcon last year and to see in person what a fun, nice and awesome person and I always greatly enjoy your vids.

I have to try to get everyone to read my FAVORITE book in all the world, Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher. There may be more literary masterpieces out there but this novel is the one that has changed my life the most and resonated strongest for me. I first found it in middle school, around 7th grade I think in the library. After I returned it, I went right out to the bookstore and bought it and it became one of the first books I ever bought because I knew I had to read it again and again whenever I wished. Throughout the years, in difficult times I've read it and it's made me feel so much better no matter how depressed or sad I was feeling.

Reading Whale Talk, I've never connected more strongly with all the characters and the themes in it. Emotionally it is a roller coaster of highs and lows, structured beautifully and full of insight. Some of the quotes in it are my all time favorites and help inform my perspective on the world and guide my choices. The main character, T.J is my personal hero and who is a role model in so many ways for me. And yet all the character's are heroes AND real people in their own ways. A lot of it is about belonging and being an outsider which I really identify with but it's also about good and evil, injustice including racism, sexism and classicism, redemption and life and death. It is sports book about swimming but like Friday Night Lights, it's not about that at all. It's written in first person narrative that is extremely entertaining as T.J speaks with a unique tone and perspective (he's also multiracial). It's a young adult book but it's very mature and speaks to adult themes throughout.

I really can't recommend this book highly enough and I encourage everyone out there to read it at some point. For an even better description of it and why you should check it out, oyceter has a great review of it here. For me, there are no real words to describe Whale Talk but once you do it speaks volumes inside you.

The Office: My One Year Anniversary

So today marks my one year anniversary of watching The Office. Technically speaking, I watched the first two episodes the summer before last January but since I didn't get into it then it doesn't count. What happened is this: I heard The Office was smart and funny like Arrested Development so I decided to give it a try. I watched the Pilot and Diversity Day and enjoyed both. And yes, I liked Michael even then (I remember snoopypez talked about him). But it didn't blow me away so I stopped watching it since sadly no one told me it got SO MUCH better in S2, that the tone changes a lot and it stops imitating the original (which didn't work for me anyways). But on January 16, 2007 I decided to give it another try. My interest had been piqued by a few Flist entries I saw with the episode title of "Gay Witch Hunt" and me loving the gay like I do, I was curious to what it was about. I started from Health Care and from there it just got better and better. As I said then:

I am loving The Office with Michael just being hilarious with his horrible social skills and bad jokes. Best comedy I've seen since Arrested Development and I love the camera work.

That day was also the first time I saw The Dundies which is still my favorite Office episode. I got up to 203 on the 16th and the next day finished the entire S2 and 301 falling madly in love with it. Here I begin my obsession and mad love for the show. I fell for Michael Scott, thought Jim/Pam was super cute and was "strangely attracted" to Michael/Jan. I specifically remember really loving them in The Client against all odds. One of my distinct memories from that day was walking to lunch with my iPod watching Valentine's Day and cracking up so much on the way there especially with Michael's video. I also remember watching Gay Witch Hunt (finally!) and cracking up hilariously.

The thing I love about this show is it knows how to be LOL funny especially on the first run through but after that you can rewatch it and still crack up or think things are funny/smart from the character humor and brilliant lines. I love comedy that comes from the characters and this show with it's wonderfully quirky characters has it in spades. I also fell completely in love with all the characters, relating in different ways to all of them and caring about their lives. What I love is they have aspects of real life to them, even Michael and Dwight and yet they still have tints of larger than life characters. The show has one of the greatest TV romances of all time in Jim and Pam, S2 truly is a dream and they truly make me smile and charm me away ever so much. However it was my falling for Michael/Jan after Back From Vacation that got me shipping and obsessing over a couple like nothing else. After that episode, I went back and watched their old scenes together over and over again, joined a community, read all the fic I could and watched some vids. It's always nice having a couple to watch and they definitely heightened my want to see the next episode.

( More of my history with The Office. No real spoilers besides episode titles and emotional reactions )

So that's my Office story although I'm leaving out a lot. As I see it, we fell in love in January, broke up in April, had a long distance relationship in the summer and steadily dated throughout the fall. And now we finally have our first year anniversary. I have decided I will rewatch every episode while I take vid notes and give commentary in this LJ like I did for episodes after they first came out although with a more holistic bent. One thing is for sure, I'll never forget this show or ever not be in love with it in some way. Thank you, show for everything you've given me.

The Office: You complete me.