Today after work, I’m going to a signing for Such a Pretty Fat by the only and only, Jen Lancaster of Jennsylvania. I will be going with the other, just a fabulous, Jenn who turned me on to the books by gifting me with Bitter is the New Black for my birthday! It should be a good night.

- I finally seen The Darjeeling Limited. I loved it. You should see it if you haven’t.

- Miley Cyrus is really annoying. Of course, people are going to get all worked up over a photo of her backless, covered with a sheet, a head of touseled hair and pouty lips. She’s 15 years old has millions of fans that are practically babies. I don’t care who shot it, they (Disney, Vanity Fair, her people, parents, etc.) had to have known it wouldn’t be well received  - artsy or not. I couldn’t careless honestly, but I’m just sick of seeing it as *BREAKING NEWS*! If by miracle you haven’t heard about this or seen the picture, Jenn has it up on her blog. What do you think?

- I’m going to Florida in a month and a half! Time to step up the dieting and exercise game. Seriously. I need to look hot for Mickey Mouse. Ew that sounds dirty.

- I slept horribly last night. I woke up and felt like I had just went to sleep. Then I get to work and the kids have colds. Awesome. I love those little germ magnets, but they better not get me sick.

- This weekend I get to see my favorite blogger BFF! We always have an awesome time when we go out. We are kind of ridiculous so look out Chicago.

- Final word on Bright Light, Big Ass? Not thrilled on it and had to kind of push myself through it. Loved Bitter is the New Black though. I definitely recommend the latter. I’m hoping her new book is more like Bitter. Next up is Eat Pray Love. Heard some mixed reviews so I had to check it out myself.

I think that is it. Pretty sure I will be taking a nap when the kids go down this afternoon. I’m exhausted.

Care to share your randomness?

Go for it.

Thank you all so much for entering the Eileen Cook Unpredictable contest! I loved reading everyone’s stories, some where hilarious (I’m looking at you, Virginia!), some were sad and some were incredibly brave. Oh and there was Erin who rooted for the Cubs for a man! Never stray again, girl! Anyway, I had William and my sister, Sara, pick out the winners. They had a rough time since all your stories were amazing and so different, it was hard to choose!

A copy of Eileen Cook’s Unpredictable and a $5 Starbucks giftcard go to: Susie @ Everyone Loves a Boston Girl Everyone agreed you were amazing and so patient. I don’t know how you did all that. Plus, I don’t know if I would massage my boyfriend’s butt to make him fall asleep every night (haha sorry, babe)!

The other 2 $5 Starbucks giftcards go to: Kari who lovingly and patiently works through her SO’s mental disorder and is so brave & Magda who converted to Catholicism for a boy who she didn’t even end up with! It all worked out for her though in the end

You can read Susie, Kari and Magda’s stories, along with everyone else’s in the comments of the contest entry! There are some really great ones, so if you get a chance, definitely go check them out.

Again, thank you all so much for participating! If I could give everyone something, I totally would. I know $5 isn’t a whole lot, but it’s just a little something to say thanks for helping make my first contest here at Oh! How Lovely! so fantastic!

Ladies, email me at jamie(at)ohhowlovely(dot)net with your address, so we can get your prizes out!

Yes, that’s right, kittens! The day is here for the super, fabulous Unpredictable contest that I mentioned on Monday! All you have to do is answer the question at the end of Eileen Cook’s guest post here. That’s it! Seriously, not too hard. The winner will be announced Friday. What does the winner get, you ask? Well, first off, Miss Eileen Cook will be sending a copy of her brand new novel to you and to sweeten the deal, I’ll throw in a $5 Starbucks gift card. This way you can read your new book and drink that mocha frou frou stuff you like. Or if you are like me, some hot chocolate, because I hate coffee! Depending on how many people enter the contest, I might throw in another Starbucks gift card. MAYBE. Consider it my Valentine’s Day gift to you. So spread the word!

Let’s see what Eileen has to say.

———

What we do for love
(subtitled I must have been on drugs)

There is a theory that being in love releases a chemical reaction in the brain. This chemical reaction is the only explanation I can come up with for some of the things I’ve done in pursuit of love. Clearly, I wasn’t in my right mind.

Humiliating myself in the pursuit of love came easily to me starting at a very early age. In junior high my girlfriends and I would call the object of our affection and when he would pick up the phone we would give a super sonic giggle (capable of being heard only by dogs) and then hang up. Looking back on this- the purpose of the call eludes me. We didn’t give our name so the point must not have been to let him know we liked him. We never actually spoke to the guy in question so getting to know him also wasn’t a goal. The best I can determine is that the purpose of the call was to establish that he was in fact home. How this brought us closer to our beloved is unclear.

Then there were the stalking years. One guy that I liked worked in the mall. Along with a posse of my friends we would walk s-l-o-w-l-y by the front of the store dressed in our very best. We would then wait about .05 seconds and then repeat the slow walk going in the other direction. This would then repeat over and over sometimes lasting for hours. In today’s high security society no doubt I would have been arrested as a suspected retail terrorist- but those were simpler times.

By University my ability to go all out in the pursuit of love would lead me to signing up for a course on Ancient Chinese History simply so I could sit next to a guy I liked. I endured an entire semester of trying to memorize names that all rhymed. Was that Emperor Chin? No Lin. There were hours long road trips to show up (all casual like) at a party and one instance were I swore I LOVED downhill skiing (despite never having gone before) and then nearly killed myself in an effort to look like we had a shared interest.

A friend recently told me a great story. She had the intern where she works call the object of her affection and gave him a fake survey so she could learn all about him. On a scale of 1-5 how important are looks to you in choosing mate? It’s a shame I’m married now- because I thought this was a brilliant plan.

So why do we do it? Why do something insane for love? Because sometimes it works. After all- I married the Ancient Chinese History guy.

What have you done in the name of love?

Contest over! Thanks everyone! Winner will be announced shortly!

Good news — I will not be turning into a human popsicle today! My dad came home and fixed our heat. We are currently at 58 degrees and working our way on up! Yay dad!

————

Last week, I received an email from an up-and-coming author, whose book was just released February 5th, asking me if I’d like to check out her new book.  Me, being the fabulous person I am, decided if I’m getting hooked up with a new book, so is one of my readers! I’m going to be giving away a copy of Eileen Cook’s novel Unpredictable. Eileen also will be guest posting here on Wednesday, which is also when we will be holding the contest and telling you how enter. Seriously, I’d check back — guest posts, new reads, and maybe a little something extra! It should be fun!

Plus, this is the first giveaway, I’ve ever had here. It would be awesome if people entered and I don’t look like douchebag for trying to do something cool and having it fail miserably!

Don’t forget. Wednesday!

I love my job. Seriously, it’s going to suck when I have to get a “real” job when I graduate with a nursing degree (if ever). I mean, I get to color, build towers, shoot hoops on a Little Tikes basket ball hoop, teach the 2 year old to count in Spanish and I get paid for it. Of course, there are days when I’m exhausted from working 11 hours and feel like I am going to scream if I have to hear the Wonder Pet’s screechy voices singing about saving the baby triceratops one more time. But really, I can’t complain too much. Turning the key and hearing the pitter pat of little toddler feet that can’t get to the door fast enough to rush me in and sit me down to show me something or other, is not the worst thing to have when you walk in the door. Two babies who are excited to see me everyday and shower me with hugs and kisses? Can’t beat that.

My job is awesome.

My favorite thing to do at work is read books. I lovelovelove children’s books. Last Christmas, the little guy got Where the Wild Things Are and Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day. Two of my very favorite books. This year he is getting The Giving Tree and baby girl is getting a plushy taggies book because she’s still little and loves to put everything in her mouth, she will love the textures though! Mom and Dad are getting a photo album of pictures I’ve taken while with the kids. This way they have cute photos of the kids and get to see what we do while they are at work. All kids get books though, families I work for, my own family, family friends. I have a little list of essentials.

Help me add to my list.

Do you have a favorite book from when you were a kid?

Yesterday, my boyfriend and I went to Old Navy to get him another warmer coat because, well you have to have variety, duh, and Old Navy was having 40% off on all outerwear sale. I was soooo close to buy a super cute grey wool coat. That would have been ridiculous because I have a perfectly good Triple 5 Soul parka I bought last year and a brand new Reaction wool coat that is gorgeous. Do I really neeeed a new grey wool coat? No. Did I want it? Yes.

Oh, shopping, you will be the end of me.

Thank you for all the book suggestions yesterday! You guys are great! In return, I want to share some of my favorite books with you.

Geek Love - Katharine Dunn (I will recommend this book forever and ever)

Invisible Monsters - Chuck Palahniuk (some people love him, some hate him. I love this book)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon

Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris

The Nanny Diaries - Emma Mclaughlin and Nicola Kraus (I love the book, hated the movie!)

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers

The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd

Those are just some of my recommendations I throw out when people ask.

Agree? Disagree? Love them? Hate them?

The wait is over! More useless information about Jamie is here! I updated my 100 Things About Me list, number 35-65 are brand spanking new.

Today is my day off. Yay! A day off for me! I am going to spend my day lounging with my pup, until my boyfriend wants to go buy Ocean’s 13.

Can I just say how I am a little upset that my cable is broken? I obviously missed the rumble between Heidi and Lauren, last night on the Hills. Thank God, the boy has DVR or I would be very upset. Not like MTV won’t play the rerun 500 times between now and Friday, but I want to watch this nonsense on MY time.

I need your help, guys. I am in a total book slump. Nothing is holding my attention, I need an intervention.

Suggest some books for me to check out?

I’ll love you forever.

Seriously.

Yes. Your eyes are not mistaken. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore has been outed by none other than Jo herself at a reading at Carnegie Hall. Rowling revealed that she always thought of Dumbledore as gay.

The question was: Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?

JKR: My truthful answer to you… I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. [ovation.] … Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us to an extent? But, he met someone as brilliant as he was, and rather like Bellatrix he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. Yeah, that’s how i always saw Dumbledore. In fact, recently I was in a script read through for the sixth film, and they had Dumbledore saying a line to Harry early in the script saying I knew a girl once, whose hair… [laughter]. I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter, “Dumbledore’s gay!” [laughter] “If I’d known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!”

The comments are already reeling about this new tidbit of info. If people are going to starting hating on this fact now, when they loved Dumbledore all this time, well that’s absolutely ridiculous. He is a great character with a lot of depth and secrets, and this was just one of the many. I can’t believe people are getting so worked up about it. I personally love it. I always thought Dumbledore was quite fabulous!

Other highlights from the Q&A: Neville finding love, Molly vs Bellatrix and so much more. You can read all about it at The Leaky Cauldron.