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Wow, okay, I’ve been slacking on the whole blogging thing the past month a half. Thanks Mandy for a gentle reminder that I need to get on it. As I mentioned before, Q4 was surprisingly busy for me, and unfortunately the end of FY felt a bit anticlimactic… I think this was mostly due to the fact that we all finished our finals at different times. Unlike core classes, electives don’t have a scheduled day for finals. Some of my more determined classmates were done as early as Wednesday whereas some of the less motivated (possibly me…) took until the last minute on Friday. In addition, the FY disorientation took place the Friday before finals, kind of in the middle of Darden Days ‘08. That in itself seemed liked poor scheduling, with various DD activities cutting into exam studying time. Okay, okay, it’s highly unlikely that I was going to use that time to study anyway, but still.

After I turned in my last final, I promptly planted myself on the couch and spent the following week watching movies and reading for fun. First book was one I’ve been meaning to read for a while - Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Maybe I was still tired from taking finals but I was never able to fully get into the book. Up until the very end I felt like I had to force myself to continue reading. I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars. I didn’t realize that this book was made into a movie recently. My friend saw it and claims that it is one of the worst movies she has seen. Oh well, just added it to my Netflix queue. My next book was Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood who also wrote one of my favorite books - Handmaid’s Tale. I really enjoyed this book and read without being able to stop. In fact, I was a bit sad when I was done and wanted it to keep going. I should also add that dystopian novels tend to be at the top of my favorite lists. In any case, I give this one a 5 out of 5. Another book I didn’t absolutely love despite the generally excellent reviews is The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Once again, I give this 3.5 out of 5. There were definitely parts that I enjoyed but the attempts at philosophical discussion seemed a bit forced and pretentious to me. Judging by all the wonderful reviews of this book, I stand alone in my opinion.

I’m also in the middle of reading two other books. What is the What by Dave Eggers and The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. I’m having a really hard time getting past the first couple of chapters of What is the What, which I suppose doesn’t surprise me that much since I simply hated A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. The Philippa Gregory book is okay. I more or less know what happens so it’s hard to find the motivation to finish that second half. On my list to read soon: The God Delusion, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Blind Assassin. There are many more of course, but I think I will tackle these first.

What else is on my plate in the next couple of weeks? The Incubator officially starts on the 27th, although I’ve been going in for about a week now. I’ve even hired my first employee - a web developer! Later next week I’m in a wedding in Virginia Beach. What an expensive ordeal that turned out to be… The following week my brother turns 25 (wow, we’re old) and I’m off to Miami for the weekend with my boyfriend. Can’t wait to hang out on the beach tanning and reading books. Yay for summer!

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