Eat, Pray, Love

E-mail exchange with a friend:

Hi Jane, Thinking of you and wondering, have you read the book "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert?

Karmen

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Nope. Should I?

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I'm on my way to work in a few minutes and am going to leave the book, in a bag, hanging on your front door. Her style of writing reminds me of you... and I expect that when you write your bestseller(s) they'll be as entertaining and thoughtful as this book is.

It's a secular book, but she has her own unique spiritual experiences. Let's talk about it when you're done :)

Enjoy!

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Lately I've been reading books with a pencil in my hand, underlining the good parts so that when I discuss them here, on my blog, I can quote some of the profound thoughts or rewrite some of the particularly well-crafted sentences.

Of course I never do that. But I should. Because sometimes great paragraphs should be shared.

Anyways, not wanting to wreck her still pristine copy, I picked up my own copy from Costco yesterday and read 2/3 of the book this evening. (The first third and the last third. The middle third wasn't doing it for me, although if Karmen wants to talk about it, I'll go back and read it.)

How can I do that, you ask? Read only two thirds? Well, it was easy. The book was written in three parts. Elizabeth (or "Liz" as I like to call her) deliberately took a one year 'break' to persue pleasure, devotion and balance in her life. First she sought pleasure in Italy for 4 months, then she spent 4 months in India with a guru seeking spiritual devotion, and lastly she looked for hormonious balance in Bali, Indonesia for 4 months.

The Italy and Indonesia parts of her story were fascinating to me. The India part? Not so much. However, with James and Julia (who are spending the year traveling around the world) in India right now, and saying,

"Neither James nor I ever expected to love our experience here as much as we do. We knew it would be great, but the 4 days we’ve spent here so far, have 4 of the best not only of this trip, but of a very long time. To any and all readers out there: Put India on your list of places to visit. In fact, make it a top 3!"

... maybe I'll try reading that middle third again.

(Besides, Anne Lamot, writes, "A wonderful book, brilliant and personal, rich in spiritual insight.") And if Anne, my hero, likes it ...

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The other day, hungry for some Office news, I checked out Pam Beasley/Jenna Fischer's blog.

She mentions this:

"Angela, Creed and Oscar were on the picket lines today. Tonight I'm picking up Dr. Wesley Von Spears, my beloved mutt. He's going to spend the weekend with me and you might just see us out on the picket lines tomorrow. He's very passionate about the strike. Andy on the other hand plans to picket our front door. He is striking on behalf of his right to live in a house without a crazy muppet dog smelling his butt all day. While I appreciate Andy's passion, I think he's gonna lose this one."

I read this with a sense of dread. WHO is Andy?

Jenna and her husband split up this fall, and while that deeply saddens me, the happily-ever-after part of me would be able to accept this IF she and John Krasinksi were to get together. And, while this should go against everything I believe in (married-to-others co-workers falling in love on the job site) that Walk The Line movie threw my hurt feelings on its ass when I found myself routin for Johnny and June to get together.

They were perfect for each other. His first wife just didn't "get" him. And so it goes. Been there.

So, my way of reasoning, is that if Jenna and James had to break up, I would be OK with that if John was her Johnny Cash and she was his June.

But Andy? Who is this Andy? And, oh Jenna ... so soon? You and James just broke up in September. Isn't it a little Tori-Spellingish to be living with someone else after just 8 weeks?

So I googled "Jenna Fischer and Andy" to see if I could get more info on her new love.

(Be gentle with me. I've had a traumatic month. Remember? The exploding bowel? The disappearing brain cells? The no-sleep for days and days on end ...)

Go ahead, you google it. See what comes up. Go ahead. I'll wait.

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Three things I'm thankful for:

1. She's not all sleazy...
The first hit Google displayed for me said this:
In People Magazine's "100 Most Beautiful" Jenna Fischer's cat, Andy, was featured with her.

2. Going to be able to cross another item off my 101 Things to do in 1001 Days list tomorrow.

3. Bought one Christmas present and decorated the corner behind my kitchen sink today.

Shalom,