The Tender Bar

When someone recommends a book to you it always starts with trepidation.  They love the book and expect you to as well.  Will you? That is the big question.

Someone very special gave me the book to read, I was worried this memoir would be sad.  The Tender Bar is written J.R. Moehringer who is trying to find himself while also trying to find a father figure.  Most of it takes place in a bar first called the Dickens and later the Publicans.  The bar was the only constant in his life, other than his mother.

This book follows J.R. from an eight year old in Manhasset, N.Y. to the now famous Pulitzer prize winning author.  You would think with all the trials and tribulations of his life he would be a down-trodden character.  However, he paints his life and those in it, in a light and amusing way.  You can picture each character and situation with his descriptive prose.  They all seem larger than life, but you know that with the care that he gives each one they are as real and as flawed as he shows them.

The book is hard to put down and all along the way you are rooting for him to make it.  You know he will but the ride is what is important.  We are all who we are because of what has happened in our lives and J.R. is no different.

You can hear him describe his own book in the NPR interview & review.  The book was published in 2005 and I can't believe how long it took me to put it on the reading list.  It is a quick read and you will want to pass it on to others when you are done, just as this gem was passed to me.

Support a great cause - AIDS Walk 2011 San Francisco

Months ago I decided with my best friend to participate in a great cause, the AIDS walk in San Francisco.  It is a 10K walk in Golden Gate park, whose fundraising is purely from donations.

 This year is 25th anniversary of the walk in San Francisco.  It benefits the San Francisco AIDS foundation, which is trying to stop the HIV epidemic in the city it began.

 I have set an ambitious fundraising goal of $1,000 and I need your help in order to reach it!  It would be amazing if I could go above and beyond.

Since 1987, AIDS Walk San Francisco has raised nearly $74 million for San Francisco AIDS Foundation and other HIV/AIDS organizations in the six Bay Area counties.  Established in 1982, the Foundation refuses to accept that HIV transmission is inevitable.  With the unrestricted funds raised by AIDS Walk San Francisco, the Foundation is able to provide direct services to promote health among those living with HIV and implement ground-breaking prevention programs to create sustainable progress against HIV.

Even though there has been success with drug treatments that are prolonging some people's lives, they don't work for everyone.  These treatments can also take their toll physically, and for many cause awful side-effects.  I am also concerned that so many young people in San Francisco are getting infected.  And above all, there is still no cure in sight.

I would really appreciate your help.  Please sponsor me for AIDS Walk San Francisco.  You can support me and my team Sparkle Pony here.  It’s fast, easy, and safe to make a donation online with a credit card, debit card, or PayPal!  After making your donation, you may be able to double your donation with a matching gift!  Please consult your human resources department or use the matching gift search engine on the AIDS Walk San Francisco website to find out if your company has a matching gift program: www.aidswalk.net/sanfran/raisemoney/matchinggift.html

Thank you in advance for supporting AIDS Walk San Francisco and my fundraising efforts!

Team Sparkle Pony, myself and the walk thank you!

I will even give you a personal shout-out here on my blog along with a personal thank you.

Charms City Company

A friend from college started this jewelry line using reclaimed items.  The items include skeleton keys, key holes, bottle openers (Natty Boh), and scrabble tiles.  The items have a hint of whimsy and a bit of roughness because they are used in their original state.

You can find the jewelry in stores on the East coast but you can also find them on their own site or at their Etsy site.  The items below are the ones I have purchased.

Whenever I wear this key I get tons of compliments.

I purchased this for my mother, it hangs off center when you wear it.

Freaks and Geeks & Undeclared

For all of you Judd Apatow fans out there get on Netflix and add both Freaks and Geeks & Undeclared.  Both of these short lived series, one season each, are laugh out loud funny.

Freaks and Geeks was produced by Apatow in 1999.  The story line is about teens in 1980 at a high school outside of Detroit.  It follows the older sister Lindsey Weir who leaves the ranks of Geeks to join the Freaks.  The Freaks may seem amazingly familiar, James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, and Busy Phillips.  It also tracks the life of Lindsey's younger brother Sam (John Francis Daley) who is clearly a Geek along with Sam Levine and Martin Starr.  All of the characters are flawed which makes you feel for each of them.  No one's high school experience is without drama and neither are the stories in this show.

I will admit Jason Segel was my favorite character in Freaks and Geeks.  So when I moved on the Undeclared I was ecstatic to see him again.  His timing and willingness to make a fool out of himself make for hilarious characters.

Undeclared aired in 2001.  It follows a group of freshman at college.  Many of the same actors from Freaks and Geeks can be seen in this series.  Seth Rogen is back as well as Jason Segel.  Other than the size of the dorm rooms I believe this is the most accurate portrayal of college life.  I particularly love the episode with the keg, which needs to be finished before its return.  So they fill every possible container with beer and attempt to finish it.

This reminds me of a trip to Killington where we "needed" to finish the keg before its return.  Red solo cups in hand we attempted the impossible.  Our end was very similar to the end of the episode.

I personally like Undeclared more but I believe watching them in order gives you a better understanding of the growth of Apatow, Segel and Rogen.

Robyn

When reading one of my favorite blogs Dooce a couple of months again she reviewed the artist Robyn.  Let' s put it this way I looked for every link I could.  She is a swedish artist that sounds like a combination of 80's alternative, techno and pop.

She is my new work out music.  I will need to admit that sometime I want to start dancing and singing out loud on the elliptical.  Her music does keep the workout going.  

Check Robyn out.