Reflections on the Anita Blake novels, books 1-6

The Anita Blake and Merry Gentry books are my two favorite series out there.  I love them both and the worlds Laurell K Hamilton created for them.  With that being said, I do tend to love the Merry series a bit more than the Anita series.  But I didn't understand WHY I loved one more than the other, so I decided to explore that a bit.  (It's an INFJ thing, I really can't help it.)


So I went back and read the first six books in the Anita Blake series and discovered some things:

• I don't like Richard all that much.  And when I explored that is was because Richard could never accept himself fully, but expected Anita to accept him fully.  

• You can always count on Jean-Claude to get the job done.  Whatever that job may be, if Anita asks it of Jean-Claude & it is within his power to do, it will get done.  

• Vampires tend to kill less messily than lycanthropes.  This does not apply if either the vampire or the lycanthrope is mentally unstable.  Vampires sip their food while lycanthropes tear their's to pieces.  

• Lycanthropes tend to be much more sexual than vampires.  They have a different kind of energy to them and lycanthropes tend to channel that more towards sex than vampires.

• I really like when Edward and Anita are working together to take bad things out.  I really dislike when Edward and Anita are at odds.  They make a good professional team.

• The second book was probably the hardest for me to read because of the murder scenes depicted.  But in terms of being pure evil, I'd say Dominga Salvador took the prize, not the killer zombie she raised.  Prize for most manipulative monster goes to Alejandro's master (whose name escapes me at the moment) who narrowly edges Raina out at being the most willing to use his underlings as fodder

• As I've gotten older and have had more life-experience, I've realized that while Anita remains a favorite kick-ass heroine, she has some problematic personal issues.  Mainly being unreasonable at times.  But...nobody handles a gun like Anita ;-)

I will be continuing my re-read of the Anita Blake novels over the next few months.  A re-read of the Merry Gentry books will also happen, but I have no idea when at this point.

Running Interference

Something that Donald and I try really hard to make sure we're not doing is guilt-tripping or manipulating our kiddos.  I think it's safe to say that as parents we don't do either of these things very often (& this is something we're both very proud of.)


Others in our family don't consider how some of their actions could be considered manipulative.      Over Easter weekend I inadvertently walked in on Donald's mother telling our 9 year old daughter how she should go to a certain college and she could live with Grandma while she went to said college.  This was all said while Bess was sitting in Grandma's lap and Grandma was petting Bess' hair.


Rather than pointing out to my MIL that trying to coerce her granddaughter into agreeing to go to a college close to her was inappropriate, I kept my silence and thought about it.  And after some time I found a way to turn this into a learning experience. 


Talking about college had been quite a ways off in my mind...you know since the child is only 9 and all.  But since the topic had already been broached, I casually mentioned to Bess that if she applied to a few different colleges when she got older she'd have a better chance to get a scholarship.  Which can be explained to a 9 year old as free money to go toward that school.  Bess immediately brought up that Grandma wants her to go to the school close to where Grandma lives so Bess can live with her.  (Funny how that worked....)  In response to this I was able to point out that at that time it would be up to Bess to decide where she wanted to go to school.  And that if she didn't want to go to that particular school she didn't have to because it was her education.  I also explained that Bess could apply to as many or as few schools as she wanted to, and that we could talk about it more as she got older.  This seemed to give her more options and make her feel less that she needed to go to a particular school.  And she learned just a bit about scholarships.  So when Donald and I talked about it later that night, he was happy with the way I addressed the situation with Bess and I was happy that my 9 year old daughter no longer felt urged to go to a particular college.


All around I consider it a pretty good ending to something that didn't start out well ;-)

I am Me

I read a wonderful blog entry from someone I consider a good friend & soul sister this morning.  Here's the link to that wonderful blog.  And as I read it I realized that it was okay I feel the apprehension and angst I feel every time my MIL comes to visit.  Because I really did try to be understanding and supportive of her feelings when I was at an earlier stage of my marriage.  And I received nothing positive from her in return.  I received more demands and no empathy from her, which is pretty standard for those with NPD.


Another thing I've realized is that I have emotional memories attached to the experiences I've had with my MIL that make it very difficult for me to relax when I'm in her presence.  The closest I've come to having anything like PTSD have been experiences associated with this woman.  And so, even though I go through all my breathing exercises, and coping methods when the MIL comes for a visit....I can never fully relax.  And it's okay that I don't like that.


And then I got to read another wonderful blog entry later today entitled You are not accidental that clued me in to this idea that maybe I NEED to understand that I can't really change my body's reaction to this particular person.  And I CAN accept that it may not change.  And I DON'T have to like it.  But even though I don't like this particular aspect of myself, I really and truly can say I love the complete package that I have become.  And since I'm still learning and growing, perhaps in time I'll be able to handle time with my MIL in a way I like.  But for now I just need to breathe and cope through it.

What's your flavor?

Pretty much from the time I could string two words together I knew I loved books.  The term I lovingly use is bookworm and I have many friends who feel the same.  My preferences with books have changed through the years.  In my early teens I preferred fantasy and romance.  (This explains so much about my late teen years in retrospect.)  Once I reached my early twenties I loved reading psychological thrillers (Not horror.  Never horror.)  and supernatural romance.  


Now that I'm in my mid-thirties I can't stand reading your run of the mill romance.  If there's nothing supernatural in it I want nothing to do with it.  And much to my surprise I find I've been reading my preferred genre for the last few years without even knowing it.  My favorite series include:  The Merry Gentry series, Anita Blake (Vampire Hunter), The Hollows, Downside Ghosts, & the Wicked Lovely series.  Each and every one of these series is considered Urban Fantasy....and I had no idea until recently.  How funny is that?


So my fellow bookworms out there....what's your flavor or genre?

Looking up

Wanted to write a quick entry on how thankful I am for the good things that have happened recently.  My mother has offered to come stay with us and watch the kidlets for me while Donald is off on his TDY's in April & May.  This really is a lifesaver as I was wracking my brain trying to decide how I was going to provide full time childcare (which we can't afford) while I was trying to complete my first Internship.  Mom's retired and so has much more ability to be able to come out whenever she likes or wants to help out.  I'm so lucky to have the relationship I have with my mother as an adult because as a teen I was not the nicest of daughters at times.

The kids are pretty much set on clothes for the rest of the spring/summer now.  I went to the Williamsburg outlet mall near us and pretty much did a shop til you drop day, but the kids are set now.  And I dropped that night LOL

Donald is locked into his current job until next January, so we won't have to worry about getting orders until next summer at the earliest.

Things are looking up :)

The currents of change...they keep on coming

So I finished my last official week of practicum and holy freaking wow....this whole finishing up school thing is going to be interesting.  There's two main reasons I haven't been working outside the home and they are:  the cost of childcare and the crazy military hours.  So...now that I'm working (for free) and paying for childcare (not free!) and still dealing with the crazy military hours it's a damn mess.  And I'm not Superhuman so I sit and wonder just how long this is going to keep working.  With a military exercise looming for Langley mid-April and Donald going to 13 hour shifts I'm almost guaranteed to get no hours in that week.  I MIGHT be able to work from 1300-1700 that week (which would give Donald just enough sleep to function on) but I don't really know right now.  It's disheartening to know that I may or may not be able to get enough hours to finish my master's.  But....it may happen.  And I'll deal with it one way or another as it happens.

Good news!  (Cuz geez have I been venting enough lately, or what?)  After the whole crappy experience of everything that could possibly go wrong going wrong in the house we own in NM, we are getting enough money back to fully pay for the repairs!  I'm excited by this since we won't have to foreclose on the damn house now.  So woohoo :)

I find that working with people right now wears me out.  Don't get me wrong...I do enjoy it.  But I'm exhausted every night I come home from work.  So if I finish this wondrous degree I think I'll be taking a break afterwards.  If we don't end up getting orders (please no) then I can work part time with people here cuz my supervisor ROCKS!!

And my kiddos are just amazing little wonders.  They constantly learn and grow and make me so grateful every day.  The youngest turned 3 today and I think part of me is in shock at that.  He was just a baby...but not so much now.

Lots of changes going on in my little world.  I'm doing my best to go with that current of change, but sometimes I just need shallow place to rest in.

Storm Moon

This has been one heck of a week.  There's been more damage found in the New Mexico house. Bess' progress report came back with a C in Math.  Lightning is arguing with me over everything it seems (typical 4 yr old I'm guessing.)  The boys are constantly fighting.  Bess got another stomach bug.  One of the interns I work with was having a really bad day (which I could totally understand) and then somehow became pissed off at me over something I still don't understand.  I'm ready for the Storm to be over now.  (The March Moon is the Storm Moon.)


The transition from Winter into Spring is always difficult on the kids and I.  When the temperature fluctuates as it has for the last two months we get sick.  And when the kids get sick it makes this whole working thing very difficult.  I can already tell the rest of this year is going to be just as chaotic as the last few months have been, with the small exception that the kids and I generally don't get sick in the spring and summer.  So I'm more looking at the rest of this year as something that just has to get done.  


On a completely different note....I came across a blog a week or so ago that for me was incredibly provocative.  You can find that blog here and if you know any military families you may want to pass the blog entry onto them.  The core of that article addressed an issue that is a particular fear of mine because of the relationship I have with my MIL the Borg Queen.  (I've written previous blog entries about our relationship and they all have the NPD label in them.)  Basically, if my husband were to die while on duty I would have to notify his mother of his death.  And my fear is that she would then try to gain custody of our children.  The blog entry actually talked about some cases of this happening with other military families.  So it opened up an avenue for me to talk to Donald about what would happen if he suddenly passed.  And he agreed with me that his mother trying for custody was a possibility.  So now he gets to at some point talk to his mother about what might happen should he suddenly die.  (What a morbid topic, right?  But these are the realities of being a military family.)  I've already spoken to my parents on the matter of my sudden death (because even though Donald has a higher risk job, it could still happen) and happily they indicated they would support Donald in keeping the kids.  So yay!  But I think both he and I are dreading the conversation he'll have to have with his mother.  So here's hoping it turns out to be a good thing for us rather than something that bites us in the butt later.