Attachments

This review is about a month in the making.

Not that I have been thinking about it for that long, I’m just really behind on blogging as it would appear. As it turns out, planning a mass wedding in affiliation with WorldPride Toronto at work takes up a lot of your time…but I digress.

I’ve recently become a pretty big fan of Rainbow Rowell’s books, and after Eleanor & Park and Fangirl I knew I had to read Attachments. Though not nearly as good as the former two, I did enjoy it.

Set just before Y2K, a man is hired to scan his company’s email…and very quickly ends up falling for one of the women in the office, without actually having met her! While this guy’s intentions are totally innocent, I couldn’t help but see the stalker in all of this. There is something to be said for falling first for the mind, and then the physical, but it still felt very weird.

It was a cute read, don’t get me wrong. I totally routed for the characters…I just didn’t route for them to be together. I didn’t feel like they would really have any chemistry…it felt very forced. I guess I was just looking for something more.

That being said, it was a very well-written book and it definitely had its moments that left me laughing hysterically or smiling stupidly. Mostly it was just the couple that I couldn’t get on board with. Forgive me Rainbow Rowell, I still adore you!

Saying “No”

Normally, I’m a peace keeper.

I don’t get involved in other people’s shit, because really what’s the point? But last night, I’d had enough. Sometimes you simply can’t bite your tongue anymore.

Last night, I went out with my best friend to celebrate my 21st birthday. We decided to go to our usual watering hole and do our usual thing. Have a couple drinks, dance, and just have a good time. Unfortunately our watering hole now comes with a little baggage.

Allow me to explain. Back in December, my friend met this guy, let’s call him “A” for the purpose of this story. He seemed nice enough, she was into him, so they swapped numbers. The problem is my friend lives four hours away for school so they couldn’t really hang out unless she was in town for the weekend. This didn’t matter though, they still texted fairly frequently and got along.

So when my friend was back in town, she would usually ask me if it was OK to invite A out and we could all hang out, and it was fine…for awhile. Then a couple weeks ago, things were about to go the next level when my friend decided she was uncomfortable and no longer wanted to do it, so she left. He wasn’t mad though, and kept right on texting her.

The thing is, my friend no longer wanted him to text her, and made it very clear, but he kept doing it anyway. She could have hit him with a brick that said “I’m not interested,” and he’d still think she was into it.

So last night, this guy shows up at the bar and makes a beeline for my friend. I told her not to worry, if he tried anything, I’d talk to him because she was clearly panicky and uncomfortable that he was there. So when he tried to go after my friend, I stopped him and told him straight up to leave her alone. I told him she’s not interested, back off. Of course he looked at me like I was a cock-block and nothing more. And then a female friend of his jumps in (to something she literally knows NOTHING about) and starts yelling at me, saying he’s a good guy, he’s not a creep, stop freaking out. At that point I walked away, I was not about to get punched out by someone who was clearly looking for a fight.

Here’s what pisses me off about guys like that. They’re the ones who make women feel like we aren’t allowed to say no. They’re the ones who make us feel like we need to have some believable excuse prepared so that they’ll just walk away. It’s absolute crap, and frankly I’m over it. And the chick coming to his defence!?!?! Yeah, you’re not helping the situation at all, because now he has female back-up encouraging him that his actions don’t make him a bad guy. Great, thanks for that.

As her best friend, I’ve watched this go on for months and she has every right to be left alone if she so chooses. Fortunately things got sorted out. At the end of the night, they had a talk and the female friend actually apologized to me which actually surprised me a lot! She still defended him, but I can’t expect everything.

I know he’s not the biggest creep in the world or anything, it’s just one of those things where no should be taken for an answer…why is that so hard to understand?

$h!t My Brother Says

So it hasn’t been the best couple of weeks.

Hence my absence…but I am back and feeling a lot better! In fact, I’ve been feeling quite…inspired.

As I am a poor student, I’m still living with my parents. This also means I’m still living with my 17-year-old brother as well. My brother is a lot of things, but subtle, appropriate and boring are NOT words I would use to describe him. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tweeted about things he’s said.

This weekend, I reached a point where I decided to dedicate an entire Twitter account to his musings, instead of using my personal account. With that, I present to you Shit My Brother Says. Yeah I know, original title…but it gets to the point.

I encourage you all to follow @WordsFromHunter if you’re into reading the most random and hilarious tweets ever. Please keep in mind it’s fairly new so there aren’t a ton of tweets yet, but not to worry, I’ll never run out of content.

I appreciate any follows!

https://twitter.com/WordsFromHunter

I Won’t Give Up

This has not been a good weekend.

It should have been though. My boss let me off work two hours early on Friday and I managed to see my brothers off to prom. That night I went to the movies and saw The Fault in Our Stars (which was PERFECT for any fans of the book) and basically came home with a lazy weekend ahead of me.

I did not anticipate the crash that would happen Saturday morning.

A little background here…back in September my brother’s best friend was struggling at home, it had been going on for a while actually. He was kicked out for no reason, constantly getting yelled at, and because of it he was suffering in school. He always came to our house to spend the night if he was kicked out but in September enough was enough.

For whatever reason, he didn’t come to us when he got kicked out this time, and was essentially homeless for three days. No change of clothes, no food, nothing. When my parents learned of this they decided that Cam would come live with us. It was great, he fit right in, he really improved in school, things got a lot better…for a while.

In the new year some of his old habits came back, and eventually he started on a spiral downward. He was never a bad kid, he’s just been dealt a bad hand and therefore has made some bad choices.

Now, he’s nearly back to where he was when we took him in, and it’s breaking my heart. My parents don’t know how much longer they can keep him in the house, and that’s what I learned on Saturday. I don’t want him to leave, I don’t think it’s the right thing for him to leave, but my parents don’t know what else to do. They aren’t just kicking him out, they will make sure he has a solid place to go, but it’s just not enough to me. I love him like he’s my brother, hell, I even call him my brother.

This hurts so much, I wish I had a plan to stop it, but I don’t know what to do. I’ve spent the whole weekend lying in bed, desperately trying to think of something and slowly falling back into the depression I’ve fought so hard against. I haven’t had a conversation with my parents since they told me and right now I can’t even look at them. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive them for this, even though I love them dearly. It feels like they’re just giving up…I know they’re not but it still feels that way.

My heart is broken, my parents’ hearts are broken and Cam’s heart is broken. I don’t want to give up on him, he’s really a great kid. I’m begging anyone for help or answers at this point. I don’t want to lose my brother.