My Thoughts, My Ramblings, My Life

I just remembered I stumbled across free hosting and free domain name and then when the year is up, I pay $2/month. Sweet!!

I plan to sign up my business but need to check to see how this would work for my blog, which I have finally decided on a name and the .com is available!

Very good day today!!

I am not done with this book, but I really need to get this off my chest. This has been by FAR the hardest true crime story I have read yet. 

The amount of abuse this girl went through while she stayed with this evil woman and her 7 children. Not to mention the kids that were coming over to visit, they ALL tortured this poor girl. (She had a younger sister that was living in this house as well, but she had only been hurt a handful of times and nothing as close as to what her sister experience.)

She lived there for only 15 weeks (one week shy of 4 months) and she was dead, from the brutal abuse that she went through, from being tripped down the stairs, to being body slammed to the point her kidney’s had failed and she could not control her bladder, to which she was punished for that, she was forced to take scalding hot baths to the point in which her skin was falling off, they burned her with cigarettes and this is only SOME of her abuse. 

Shortly before she died, they had branded on her stomach with a safety pin and carved into her skin, “I’m a prostitute and I’m proud of it!” Also, they had burned a 3 into her chest, which was suppose to be S, but they messed up the links. When she was found, ALL her fingernails were broken from her scratching the ground/floor from pain. 

I have been meaning to read this book for quite some time. I originally watched the movie , “The Girl Next Door” which made me wonder if this was based on a true story and I had started to find out exactly what happened. I know there is another movie called “An American Crime” which looks vaguely familiar, but the movie I know I did see, doesn’t even cover the abuse Sylvia suffered.

While reading this, I wanted to cry, no one should EVER be tormented the way she was. At times I wanted to scream “STOP!” But it would not accomplish a thing. I have read other True Crime stories in the past and this one just is REALLY hard to read. 

I may update this review once I am finished, but I don’t think there will be much else to say since I am reading the court proceedings now. 

This story alone is why I would not want to be a detective. Something that I have been fascinated with since I was a teenager. My husband says I should, but really, I don’t want to be on call and when you work a case, you’re on it till it’s solved. I think I’d rather be CSI or Forensics, you may still be on call, but you don’t have to have the schedule like a detective. 

I cruised through this book just as fast as I did the first one and it was amazing. I am torn between the two as to which is my favorite. But definitely a good read and was hard to put down.

It was hard being as some characters die in this book and was a little harder to push forward being as one was my absolute favorite! But the death was not in vain, but I knew it was coming.

The ending I had a feeling it would end the way it did, being as the alternative, would have been interesting to see how it would play out.

I also finished the 3rd book,which that one I found much harder to read, hard to follow some parts and the ending was mediocre. To have such a huge build up from the other two and then the third to be such a let down. I don’t want to reveal too much to people who didn’t read these or still reading. Even my two oldest are starting to read it, but asking them to hurry up being as I want to talk to them about it.

I was worried I may have been to harsh on the last book.in the series, but reading reviews on Amazon, shows me I am I good company with being unhappy with the book. A majority of us feel the ending was rushed and that maybe the author got over confident with the popularity of the first two, that this story falls flat.

Now I am debating continuing reading Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy or possibly moving onto a different genre.

Wow, I did not think I would finish this in a day, but everyone that had told me about it, told me it would be a page turner! I seriously thought after seeing the movie, it would have been difficult to read, which I think I may have spaced out enough time from seeing the movie to reading the book to not be sitting there thinking about what happened in the movie versus the book.

I am glad I read it, for one, it gave me A LOT more information as to why they even have “The Hunger Games” and movies can not get you into the psyche of the character’s thoughts and why they do certain things. 

I could not put this down and will be creeping into the 2nd book in a few minutes.

It was funny, as I was cooking dinner, I had my tablet with me and my oldest two saw what chapter I was on and they were telling me that I am a fast reader, but I explained to them, this book is so good, it’s making me want to read fast. Hell, I didn’t even read Fifty Shades this fast! Truly, I don’t think I am that fast of a reader. My friend Liz and Angela are way faster than I. But then they really read a lot of books. 

I never before in a book experienced such a strong character as Katniss. She really is inspiring and it really makes you put yourself and your life in perspective. If you think you have it bad, her character makes you truly realize how easy you have it, regardless of what you may be going through.

I am truly glad I have found out how to use my tablet as an eReader, being as I was having friends offer to loan me books, but was unsure how to do this, but now that has been figured out, let the books roll on in. Even more so I can borrow from the library as well.

I still think I would very much like an independent eReader separate from my tablet, but I am still on the fence on that one. But I am intrigued by the idea of having one that has a longer battery life and much smaller to transport aside from my tablet. But we shall see, it’s still a huge “IF” at the moment and I do love having my tablet to take a break from the book I am reading to check email, putz on Facebook or play some games….

I have been sitting here thinking about my step brother Ricky and just how much I miss him. 

For some reason, we never got to reconnect over the years and I think that was my fault. 

When I went to visit my Dad for the summer, they said they were going to have a surprise for me. Well, I certainly wasn’t thinking it was going to be my step brother Ricky and I basically acted blazay and I remember when he left, he asked me to call him sometime. I never did once. 

I don’t know what the hell was wrong with me. Truly I don’t. And then when I got home, I felt horrible for the way I acted and tried to get his # from my Dad and was always on a goose chase.

Well, I finally got his # after a few years of my Dad dancing around giving it to me and I left countless messages for him, and not once did he return my calls. He could have been busy.

I guess you could say I deserved it, but now it makes it even harder to bare, being as he died Feb 2010. His body was found in the lake, and he drowned. I truly was hoping maybe we would reconnect, after he would stop being so damn stubborn. 

But it will never happen now.

I guess I should be angry for him snubbing me, but I thought maybe if I left an apology on his machine, just to let him know I was being a stupid teenager having a teenager moment, involved in her own little world. 

And plus also, even though we had awesome time together, I think I was rather upset with him, being as he got to live with my Dad, he got to grow up under his own roof, but when I asked my Dad if I could live with him, he shut me down with a big “no” Which hurt, I understood he didn’t want to have kids living with him, but then it hurt me to no end that Ricky, his new wife’s son, lived with them. 

I know that is not Ricky’s fault and he should not be the one held accountable for that. 

I just wished my Dad would have taken that opportunity, being as I really wanted to get to know him. I can’t say I would have lived with him forever and I may have moved back to Wisconsin after graduating. 

And this is why I wish my Mom never moved me here in the first place. I am so far from my own father and the rest of my family. But then my Dad was stupid for allowing her to let her move me here. What my Mom offered him, well just to allow her to sell the house? She would not claim child support on him ever. Yeah. That lasted only 2 years. My Mom was silly for asking for that agreement, but then my Dad was stupid for falling for it. No matter how much you plan for a solid future, surprises and curve balls get thrown at you. 

Anyway, I am going way into this than is needed. But I just really miss Ricky and am mad that there is this huge closure I will never have with him, because he is gone. 

I just wish he would have at least talked to me and just let me have it. That would have been closure and I wouldn’t feel guilty for treating him the way I did.

I have heard about this book for over a month now and my local DJ was the one who originally had my interest piqued on reading this. I downloaded the preview version, which anyone who does, be forewarned, where the story leaves you off at (approx Chapter 3), WILL not leave you wanting to read more. I actually was angry and seriously considered not even finishing it, so I emailed the local DJ and a friend that recommended this book and they explained to me it does get better, much better.

So, I ordered the eBook version and I got hooked. There were some issues I had with the book, but I didn’t dwell on them and continued to read the book. I am sure I would have enjoyed the books a lot more if Ana wasn’t a virgin. I wouldn’t have minded if she was a virgin to BDSM.

If there wasn’t such repetitiveness of use of certain words, for instance, inner goddess, my sex (which to explain her nether regions), I was thankful that medulla oblongata was stopped being used after the 10th or 12th chapter. And biting her lip, was a bit too much. When she first did it, I didn’t find it bothersome, but it was then reused a lot through the story. A lot of the stuff she reused throughout the story made me think of when my kids think they have done something funny. First time is great, but after that, it gets old.

And the sex scenes, they were definitely steamy, but even I was getting exhausted at how much they kept going at it and while her being a virgin, how quickly she was able to achieve orgasm each time.

I do not know who E.L. James editor was/is, but did they proof read her novel before publishing? I have a feeling that this was a self published book. And with that being said, I wonder if E.L James is wishing she fine tuned the story and polished it a bit. Although, she is not a horrible writer afterall. She did use a handful of words that I had never heard of before. (Thank goodness for the dictionary feature on Aldiko reader. LOL) But there were some words she used that are not used here in the States, but again, she most likely wrote this thinking it would not have had the success it would have. She did after all write fanfics, and this story was the fan fic that she published online, but when the demand of readers asked her to publish, she changed the characters names from Edward and Bella and changed some other information. The original title of this book was “Master of the Universe” Which I did find copies of that as well, and may read once I am caught up with everything else. :) 

A lot of people have compared her story to Twilight. I do feel the story line does borrow from Twilight, but I don’t feel her characters reflect Edward and Bella. Well in the sense that Christian, he is adopted. And Ana, has divorced parents and seems like a flat character with no real dimension. (Just like Bella) I am more drawn to Christian. I also don’t find whips and BDSM all that erotic. Being tied up, yes, but being spanked or hit with anything, simply is a huge turn off for me, even in an imaginary sense.

I did enjoy the playfulness between them. And their emails between each other. In that sense, I connected to Ana, being as I am the same way when it comes to being playful and I loved how Christian was the same. 

I did find some parts in the story where I had a hard time putting down the book, but then there were parts I had no qualms putting it down and walking away from it. But I wasn’t glued from beginning to end nose in the book.

This is not my normal genre of reading. The only thing I have read that could be anywhere close to this was V.C. Andrews when I was in my teens. Otherwise give me a true crime story (Ann Rule) or a novel by Dean R. Koontz.

I am hooked in some strange reason and I do plan to read the next book, being as I would like to see where this story goes. BUT after I read “The Hunger Games” since my daughters are begging me to read it.

I have finally finished the book tonight. I am hooked! I must say some of the sex scenes were a little over the top for me. This writer, I don’t know who her editor was, but a lot of words were repetive. I will review more on this tomorrow. I can’t be on my tablet with all I have to say….lol

I plan to read the next book, but am going to read The Hunger Games first, since I had a hard time getting it from my kids to read it. And then go back and forth with each book. Since 4 different people are begging me to read Hunger Games and Fifty Shades. :)

And I have finally decided on a book reader. I want to get just a plain one, no color, just a white screen with black text since those have anti glare screens. But am plankton checking out Best Buy since I can look at all of them and get a feel for the differences they have.

Wow, what amazing performances from kids that were selected to perform in this! It was rather frustrating since we couldn’t find Emily and where she was sitting exactly. But I recorded the songs she did

Boy it was absolute chaos just trying to drop Emily off. There were buses, cars, people. I was really worried I would not get her there in time, but she made it! I didn’t even bother trying to look for parking since I am sure pretty much all spots would have been taken anyway, so cruised down to the Bradley Center parking.

When Gwen and I got our seats. And I noticed we didn’t get the programs. So I run back to nab up 2 and as we are sitting, she points out that her other music teacher is there, he is directing Honors Band, then I am looking and notice a friend of mine from when I used to work Blockbuster, she is directing the Elementary Choir, then also noticed someone I went to High School with, he was directing Honors Orchestra. Wow, small world!

But when I saw my friend from Blockbuster, her husband was my boss. I start scanning the audience for her husband to see if he is there, and right behind me a few rows up is my friend Bridget’s husband. I start looking for her and don’t see her, then I start looking for just one of her daughters and don’t see them either, then Gwen tells me I look like a creeper/stalker, so I stop looking…lol  But of course, after the show, I see them as we are leaving, but didn’t stop to say Hi, being as it was absolute madness trying to get out of that place, but if I had known before the program started, I would have went to say Hello. *ugh*

Then as we are waiting in the vestibule for Emily, I see an old friend from middle school, Joe Bree. Which I thought he was living in California. Didn’t know he is living back in Milwaukee, but maybe he was only visiting. ???

Then I saw Patrick that I went to high school with. This is the guy that is going to help me with my basement and what tips he can offer to build a solid room. :) I didn’t stop to say Hi to him either, we have a reunion coming up and we will all be able to catch up then. Otherwise, it was wall to wall people and I guess the arrangements for kids leaving was not at all rehearsed, and it was one big ole mess. 

The program itself was amazing. I am just thrilled to say I now have two children who have participated in this festival. 

Adam Murphy’s piece that he directed was rather a snoozer. It was still amazing though. I love instrumental music, but prefer upbeat tempos. (They did “The Dark Knight Suite”) God knows, I have wayyyyy too many soundtracks, that I really need to downsize on my iPod or create their own folder, something. :P (My all time favorite is “A Kaleidoscope of Mathematics”. As a kid, it was “The Entertainer” and “Music Box Dancer”, which both are used for ice cream trucks in these parts…LOL)