Book-tastic Summer

I have been a reading FIEND this summer. Though I wish I could say its because I'm expanding my horizons and bettering myself through reading, in truth, it is because of the dismal summer TV lineup.

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to read a book per month. I'm not sure if I'll keep up that pace in the fall with the return of trashy TV, my eye surgery and the holidays but the net-net of this year is easily 12 books.

And though I once aspired to write book reviews here regularly (like a million  years ago, BC even [Before Cade]), I now have much more realistic goals. A quick run-down of the books I've inhaled recently and a simple yay or nay on if they are worth a read.

Summer Sisters -  Yay. Judy Blume, yeah like Judy Blume of the tween books fame. Who knew!? The prologue scene had me skeptical because it just sounded too much like every fluff girl book I've read about some rich girl who lives in NYC and works at a PR firm. But I was determined to read at least a quarter of the book before giving up and I'm glad I did because it got better. It reminded me of a Kristin Hannah book in that it centered around the story of a lifelong female friendship with between two really different girls who have lots of ups and downs. It ended much differently than I expected and in a less fluffy way.

The Boston Girl - Yay. The life story of a Jewish woman who goes against the grain and works in an era when few women worked; who vacations with her single girlfriends and marries for love and only love.

Leaving Time - Yay. A story of a teenage daughter looking for her long-lost mother with the help of a washed up psychic and equally washed up detective. But I gotta tell you, this one ends very surprisingly. Like if you are super mushy about motherhood, maybe don't read this one. I literally had to go into Cade's room while he was sleeping to look at him I felt so mushy when this book ended.

Big Little Lies - Double yay. First the author and characters are all Australian and THAT is always fun. It's one of those books with multiple plot lines that all intersect at the end. Much of the book is fun and light hearted but the story that is ultimately told is deep and serious. I liked the combination.

Yellow Rose Beauty Shop - Nay. Truth be told, I couldn't finish it. Maybe I read a quarter? It's set in Texas and the accents and folksy sayings are just way way way too over the top. It made me gag.

The Rumor - Yay. This one was delicious. The author, Elin Hilderbrand, is one of those author's who has found her genre and sticks to it. Not quite a series but she did have a small reference to characters from another of her books because they all take place on Martha's Vineyard and, as the books rely on, it's a small island where everyone knows everyone. Anyways, this was a fun look at how rumors start ("she leased an apartment - did you know she's leaving her husband?") and how sometimes the actual truth is way different and even juicier than the rumor.

The Deep End - Yay. Total fluff. Rich lady is swimming at the country club and swims right up to a dead body floating in the pool. The body of her husband's mistress. I mean, c'mon. FLUFF.  But fun.

Room - Yay. A young woman is abducted and held in captivity (the "room") for years during which time she gives birth (a product of the rapes). A totally creepy premise almost made creepier in the sense that it is told from the perspective of her son who for the first third of the book or so doesn't know that their situation is a bad one. The book has to distinct halves: before their escape and after (which is written on the summary so not a spoiler alert). Very intense but I liked it.

At the Water's Edge - Meh. It wasn't awful but it did not captivate me. It starts with a scene that does not make sense relative to the rest of the book for a really long time. Instead of being intriguing, I found that distracting.

Curious George Chases Waves - Ok ok not my summer reading list but in addition to the above, we've read a LOT of Curious George and Thomas the Train books this summer. Given the frequency, I would have to say Cade gives them all a "yay."

Staycation Day 7

Ah, a Friday that felt like a Saturday. Coffee and coloring on the back porch, play time in the gameroom, gym/Kids' Club (a pilates class that isn't offered at times I can normally attend - so good to go today!) and then home for lunch. After lunch I ran errands while the boys played. From what Ross says, lots more running from Lexi Bear. Then a pre-dinner play time with Holden and after dinner, the main event. America's Birthday Storytime at Barnes & Noble!

It was the first time we've gone to storytime and had Cade actually sit through it and pay attention. In fact, he did REALLY WELL, Four books were read and he sat without wiggling for the first two. On the third, he talked but only to say "Mom come sit with Cade." (Yeah, I'm "Mom" now. Not "Mommy" any more. I hope I go back to "Mommy" soon.) And when all the books were done he said thank you, gotta go, night-night. Because he is awesome.

Latest Reads

One of my new year's resolutions was to read more, a book a month if possible. So far so good! Here are the two books I have read this year and short reviews.

Labor Day 
I saw the movie trailer and decided to read the book first. The basic premise is an escaped convict comes home with a single mom and her son and spends Labor Day weekend with them. The mom is a recluse and as you learn through the book has had serious battles with depression after multiple miscarriages and then divorce. She's pliable for the convict who shows her concern, kindness and sexual attention. The boy, from whom's perspective the story is told, has a mixed bag of emotions from knowing harboring an criminal is illegal to really liking the guy and loving seeing his mom happy.

The book started out really interesting, had a lull about 2/3 of the way through but then ended in a nice, unexpected way. Not on my top 10 list but not hours wasted either.

The Astronaut Wives Club
This title immediately caught my native Clear Lake/Seabrook eye. It's the space race told from the perspective of the wives (nonfiction). Geeky for history, women's studies and my hometown, I really enjoyed this. I learned tons, including things I was really surprised to not have already known given that I grew up right there. Like the land that NASA is on used to me a Girl Scout camp. How did I not know that? I was a Girl Scout, with a troop leader who was married to an astronaut and my grandpa and uncle both worked at NASA! Another interesting revelation for me was that Ed White died on the launchpad. I knew Ed White was an astronaut but literally that was all I knew, despite attending summer and after-school care at the Ed White Youth Center.

Unlike Labor Day, I liked this book for everything except the very end. There was so much interesting detail on so many of the missions that when I got to one of the best known missions of all time, Apollo 13, I was really let down to find it was only a page of the whole book. (Given the program's end shortly thereafter, that was the last bit of the whole book.) But the lackluster end aside, I really enjoyed this book. It was super interesting to read about neighborhoods and areas I know inside and out but to better understand how the area developed and the role launching the space program (pun intended) had on my hometown.

Pictures and Parties

We had quite the eventful Saturday morning. First, our family of three went downtown to the Capitol to take family pictures.

We'll have them back from the photographer in about two weeks but here's one I took with my phone before she arrived. She told me I was the only mom who ever greeted her with "my boys are reading a book," not "my boys are playing in the mud" or "my boys are wrestling." Apparently one of the "boys" being the husband doesn't typically alter this statement either.

Cade has really been into the 1, 2, 3 Texas book so in addition to this picture, I think it is in at least half of the ones the photographer took too.

Post-pictures, Cade and I went to Kenneth's second birthday party. And it had the best thing ever: a ball pit. It was Cade's first ball pit experience and he loved it. I know in this picture with Kenneth, their grimaces would make you think they are doing homework, not playing at a birthday party but they really did have fun.



And this afternoon post-party Ross took Cade for his first ride in his bike buggy. We realized we forgot to purchase a helmet (oops) so it wasn't quite as ambitious a ride as originally planned. But a helmet will be arriving Tuesday via Amazon and then the great bike buggy adventures can begin!

Finally in the spirit of full disclosure and not putting overly rose-colored glasses on my blog, in addition to "picture and party day" Cade also decided it was No Nap Saturday. Which I decided meant it was also Early Bedtime Saturday. I ran to the store after Cade went to bed and Ross tells me that's when some debate over my decision erupted but thankfully it is parent-ocracy in our home so Cade was vetoed and Early Bedtime Saturday prevailed.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday (like really, not just a silly made up day like No Nap Saturday) and Cade and I are going to Houston! This will be his first holiday in H-Town and we are very much looking forward to seeing our family. Yay!

Gone Girl and The Husband's Secret

The two most recently books I read did not end in ways I expected at all.

Gone Girl is about a couple going through a rough patch in their marriage (to say the least) when she disappears on their wedding anniversary. At first I thought it would be your typical whodunnit but I was way wrong. It was much more twisted and interesting than that. I wish I could tell you more but seriously any more and I would give away too many of the juice details. Just read it.

The Husband's Secret was a Nancy recommendation and since it takes place down under, I was sold. It tells the stories of three families and (as would be expected) they are eventually intertwined. But really that is the only very predictable part of the book. Most of the book goes along ho-hum. Interesting enough to keep you reading (there's the secret from the title, a love triangle, an affair...so plenty of reason to read). The last few chapters and then the epilogue, goodness the epilogue. Wowzas. Total curve ball.

I know I'm not giving you a lot on either of these but with the super unexpected endings I think I'd unintentionally give something away. And that would ruin them for you.

Take my word, they are both worth reading.

Baby Literacy

Cade is very advanced; he loves books.

I'm devouring this book.

Today's Brand of Awesome

More Father-Son Awesome

Today's most awesome moment was family story time. I held Cade while Ross read him a book about dogs and Lexi sat close by. The book included different textures so we helped Cade reach and feel those. It was the best!

The Bet

A couple weeks ago I consulted the New York Times best seller list for book ideas. You would think our nation's biggest newspaper might be a relatively sound resource for book recommendations right?

Number 6 on the fiction list was The Bet, the story of a girl who while pretending to be her best friend's fiance to help him fool his family falls for his brother. Needless to say I was expecting a light, fluffy read.

What I got was TERRIBLE. The dialogue was incredibly unrealistic, as were the characters mood swings. The characters themselves were fantastical - a former CIA/actress Grandma in 6 inch heels who is having an affair with the neighbor. Seriously?

I'm just glad I only paid $0.99 for it on my Kindle.

For that dollar, you'd be better off buying a chocolate bar.

Fly Away

As promised, when the sequel to Firefly Lane came out, I promptly purchased it and got down to business reading it on my Kindle (thanks again hubs for the great gift).

I finished it this morning, during baby boy's second nap of the day (he's on his third nap right now; it's awesome). I really liked it. It wasn't quite as good as Firefly Lane, but Fly Away was better than most sequels ever are and like so many of the review say, it really could stand alone.

The book picks up right where the first one leaves off, after the death of one of the main characters. It's the story of how the other characters do, or in a lot of cases don't, cope with the death. One sentence that really stuck out to me, and I'm paraphrasing here, is that there are support groups and books for dealing with the loss of a spouse, parent or child but never for dealing with the loss of a best friend. So true. Fortunately I've never had to cross that bridge but I certainly can see it as a void in the "acceptable grieving" list.

One of the characters, Cloud, who was more or less a background character in the first book, is more center stage in this one. As such your opinion of her softens and you even sympathize with here where in the first book you scorned her. I like how the author transformed our attitude toward her.

Long story short, it was a good read. And though it can stand alone, the first one was so good, it shouldn't. Read them both.

Good Money

I just started reading The Rainmaker by John Grisham. It didn't take much more than a chapter to see it was clearly written at a different time and in a different place. Why? Because the main character is decently pleased with his $34,000 annual salary. As a lawyer.

This reminded me of a question on the radio a few months back: What is "good money"?

I think the question came up in relation to a woman saying she wanted to date/marry a man who made "good money." The male DJs wanted clarification on what good money was. What was the magic figure?

Surprise surprise, I had/have an opinion.

I vote that "good money" is whatever you need to live without (much) debt.

For John Grisham's Memphis lawyer, maybe $34,000 is good money. If he can pay rent, eat, etc and not go into debt, it probably is (granted I doubt any real lawyer would say $34,000 is good money - how would you ever pay your school loans on that?).

Honestly, even if you make six figures, if you have outstanding credit card debt, are financing EVERYTHING and wonder how you are going to pay your bills - does it even matter if you are making six figures?

I hope the lady looking for a man who makes good money is actually looking for someone who knows how to live within his means and not who makes some arbitrary annual salary. She's likely to be much happier with someone who does the former v the latter.

Firefly Lane

Somewhere between feeding and diaper changes I read a book on my new Kindle (thanks hubby!). The funny thing is when I bought Firefly Lane it sounded vaguely familiar. But I knew I had read the author, Kristin Hannah, before and she's one of those authors who has found a formula that works well for her. So I wasn't really sure if I had read this book before or if the "teenage best friends who grow up and tackle life's obstacles" plot was just familiar.

Turns out I had read it but I couldn't remember any of the plot more than a page before things actually happened. I must have liked it the first time around though because I liked it this go around too.

It sticks to the best friends formula described above focusing on two girls/women, Tully and Kate, who start as polar opposites and end as polar opposites but besties the whole time. The character development is really good and I thought very realistic - I could hear myself having the same conversations with my bestie. It has some pretty raw, realistic emotions through it too. Jealousy, anger, pride, love.

I'd characterize it as a chick drama of a read and if you are looking for a good book, recommend it with two thumbs up. Further I suggest reading it now as a sequel of some kind comes out April 23 (you know what I'm getting myself for my birthday!).

Ladies Who Lunch

Well I'm about a week behind the game on this but better late than never right?

Last Friday the girls at work had a baby shower for me at the always delicious Austin Cake Ball Kitchen & Bar (sadly we did not enjoy the bar part). It was a book shower so Baby Cade already has a healthy start on his on personal library. Among the books were classics like Green Eggs & Ham and Go the F*ck to Sleep.

Yes, variety might be one way you would describe it.

Even more awesome than the books was the group of gals, including cameos by some of my favorite Convions - Jenn, Lori and Blair!

A Most Spoiled Honeydew Melon

35 weeks down folks! And here's the belly to prove it.

Baby Cade, my sweet honeydew melon of a son, is getting big. Estimates are a little over 5 pounds and 18 inches long. Which goes a long way to explaining why mama can't reach her feet to put on socks and shoes anymore. (God bless flip flops and 80 degree days in February.) Cade's main job at this point is putting on weight. And then in roughly 5 weeks - maybe a little  less if he's listening to me - he'll be here!

Our friends are helping us ensure that he's the most spoiled of babies. On Sunday our friends Mike & Lindsey hosted a SuperBowl/Diaper Shower for us. Now when Baby Boy arrives, we've got the necessary supplies to cover his cute little butt. And fortunately because we received diapers in all sizes, we're prepared for growth spurts too. Big thanks to Mike & Lindsey for hosting and for all of our friends who contributed to the baby diapering.

Today we received another Delta gift in the mail, this time from Kristin. As soon as I opened it I knew she hit a grand slam. (I expect nothing less from a pediatric physician's assistant.) A book about the Tickle Monster and accompanying Tickle Monster gloves! Ross has taken the gloves for a test drive and they work very well.

Thank you to everyone who is helping us prepare for our honeydew melon of a baby!

Baby Bucket Update

Whittling my way through the Baby Bucket List I've been reading, napping and movie-watching like a champ. I recently finished Sharp Objects (don't recommend) and am more than halfway through Between Sisters (jury is still out). I also re-enlisted in Netflix's DVD service and this afternoon watched What to Expect When You're Expecting. As a pregnant lady, I found it HILARIOUS. Also I know the Baby Bucket List said "movie date" which we still fully intend to go on one of these days, but I would like to add to the list "catch up on movies" because I am going to do my best over the next 10 weeks (!!! just 10 weeks!!!) to watch all the movies I said I wanted to watch but never got around to. Netflix, you are about to get a work out.

Also here are a few new additions to the Baby Bucket List

• Finish our wedding-2012 "yearbook" (I'm at June 2012, not too bad if I do say so myself)
• Lots of Lexi walks
• QT at the gym (because 1. it makes me less achey and 2. I can)
• Cheryl-only activities when Ross is working
• West Wing on Netflix (Not sure if I'll watch the whole series but I want to watch at least enough episodes to determine if its worth committing to the full series)

And so that you don't think/I remember all the awesome things post-pregnancy, here's a list of things I'm looking forward to enjoying when baby boy arrives

• 12 weeks home with the little guy
• And as a result, lots of time with my hubby too
• Lots of baby pics, per my 2013 resolution
• Puppy kissing baby, and vice versa, for years to come, because nothing is sweeter
• An additional day each year to enjoy birthday cake
• Giving family/friends the best excuse ever to visit me/us (reserve your spot on the Google calendar now!)
• Shaving my legs
• Pants that button

Think Twice

A couple nights ago I finished Think Twice, the story of twin sisters, one good and one evil. The story began with the evil sister, Alice, trying to bury the good twin, Bennie, alive. Bury her alive! While Bennie is escaping and dealing with the repercussions of being buried alive, Alice goes into the city and impersonates her sister. It's really interesting and frankly impressive how Alice pulls off the impersonation of her sister throughout a surprise visit from an old boyfriend, client meetings at the law firm and more.

I wasn't wild about the very end but the chase part, which was most the book, was good. Both characters were clever in their deception and run for the goal.

Verdict: Sure, why not.

Uncharitable

On my recent biz trip I brought along and devoured Uncharitable by Dan Pallotta. Holy smokes it was good.

The whole premise of the book is that there are these unwritten rules about how charities are supposed to be run but these rules hold charities back and render them ineffective, or at the very least, unable to live up to their full potential.

Pallotta goes into many many rules but let me touch on the ones that resonated most with me.

• Charities can't take risks primarily because if they fail then money that was supposed to go to a cause has been "wasted." Of course, with big risk comes big reward, even if it takes a few tries. How many people are going unserved because charities can't take a risk with funding sources, program delivery and more?
• Employees of charities should be working out of the kindness of their hearts and willing to sacrifice some (or lots) of pay. Demanding a compensation package that accurately reflects their skills and worth is supposedly greedy and taking from the cause. However, it is somehow moral to get rich while potentially harming people (tobacco anyone?) but immoral to get rich helping people. Imagine if charities could match the private sector in salaries. Maybe Warren Buffet or Bill Gates would have made their fortunes curing diseases.
• Charities can't advertise. Again because it is "taking" money from the cause. Buying a Superbowl ad, or even local paper ad, is seen as frivolous spending despite the awareness it creates. However we all know from our personal consumer experiences that the more awareness we have of something, the more attractive it is. For example, you didn't want an iPod until you were aware of it.
• The most important figure for determining a charity's effectiveness is the percent that "goes to the cause" versus the percent that is overhead. While I doubt anyone would salute ineffective or mismanage charities, this figure is virtually meaningless since 1) there are no guidelines as to what "going to the cause" actually means. For instance, the electric bill at a community clinic is considered overhead by most but is certainly required to have the lights, computers, screening equipment, etc on. And 2) it says nothing about effectiveness. A soup kitchen that spends 90% on "the cause" but serves watered down soup is not more effective than a kitchen that spends 80% on "the cause" but is serving hearty vegetable soup.
• Charities are expected to act like a business but without any of the same allowances. Since a business can rake risks, pay employees almost whatever it likes, advertise, sell stock, spend on infrastructure how it see fits etc, it has a nearly endless set of allowances not afforded to charities. This is a pretty all encompassing point.

It could be easy to read this book and think "well, charity is doomed." But of course, it's not. Charity and the charitable sector have been around for centuries and aren't going anywhere. However if we want to see our charities grow stronger, do more good and enhance our communities even more, we need to empower them.

Here's my attempt at providing a few guidelines any one of us can do to make it happen.

• Give unrestricted gifts. When you make your donation, don't specify how it has to be spent. Trust the org to use it wisely (the vast majority do) and if they need staplers or bathroom cleaner or staff health insurance, just let them spend it that way. It all helps the cause in the end.
• Ask about the change made and not the percent "going to the cause." Volunteers or staff will be thrilled to tell you how many kids learned to read, the amount saved by keeping someone out of jail and the number of kitties with new homes. You'll be able to better determine how much good the org is doing and probably feel really satisfied with your donation or volunteer service. It's a two-for.
• Advocate for better salaries. If you read about a nonprofit exec "getting paid too much," look into it before declaring the person devil spawn. Have they increased fundraising dramatically? Enhanced services? Improved effectiveness? And if you have the chance to serve on the board, support staff salary increases or bonuses to help retain the most effective staff members.

Happy do gooding!

What's Goin' On

Holy mole it's been a long time. Let me try to summarize...

• SXSW: Owned me for 5 days. It was a lot of fun and I had my first experience on the MetroRail here in town (success!). As expected it was also very busy and I was a tired girl when it was all said and done.
• New Job! Well, very similar job, new title. A week or so ago I was promoted to Sr. Marketing Specialist. Very exciting :)
• Date Night: Ross and I took advantage of a Wednesday night off together and saw a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse. Our flick of choice, John Carter, starred the kid (Taylor Kitsch) who plays Tim Riggins in Friday Night Lights. Given the premise of the movie, Confederate war vet ends up on Mars, it was better than I thought.
• Boston! And more importantly, Dr. Jane's wedding. More on that later.
• The Castaways: I finished this book on my flight home from Boston yesterday. It's about 3 couples who are all besties on Nantucket and the way the accidental drowning of their 4th couple friend affects them. It sounds more morbid than it was and I enjoyed all the soap opera like twists.

Hollywood Night

Last night we wrapped up 2011 with our annual party. In addition to being a fantastic party (I'll get to the details, just wait) this year was even more fun for me because having been there a year, I know everyone much better. Also Ross was able to join and since we've had a few functions with my immediate team recently, he knows them and their spouses. We even started with a little happy hour with them. I'm telling you, I work with some wonderful and fun people and despite spending 40 hours per week with them, I really enjoy seeing them socially too.

Anyways, back to the party. It was at a new-to-me location this year, the One World Theatre in Westlake. The theme was "Hollywood" and our party planner nailed it!

It began with complimentary valet parking, always a nice way to start the evening. Then they literally rolled out the red carpet up to the doorway. Our CMO and VP of Sales were greeting partyers on the red carpet with microphones, conducting interviews, asking who you were wearing, etc. ("A local designer"...ie I couldn't remember the name of the cute little boutique where I bought my dress.) As you walked through the door the "paparazzi" stopped you for photos.

Everyone was dressed to the nines. Ross bought a new tie for the occasion (I love his new tie, it's gorgeous) and paired it with his good pinstripe suit. He looked dashing, handsomest man there. I wore my gray dress from our own Christmas party and accessorized with some new black stud earrings and a big black cocktail ring.

The food and drinks were great. The decorations were awesome, lots of red and white. The annual awards were presented with videos from the Oscars dubbed over with our own audio. (I became the voice of Angelina Jolie.) One of our favorite things though was a flip book making booth. It was so fun! And the little book is great. So great that I wanted to share it and while I can't upload a flip book, I'm sharing the next best thing: our homemade video of our flipbook.Enjoy!

Review: Wired and Dangerous

I don't know if I would go as far as to call it a new year's resolution, but instead of just blogging about moi all the time, I would like to spend more time this year reviewing books, movies, events, restaurants, destinations, etc. I'm thinking we can sum them up as the lifestyle section of the blog. (In fact, I think I'll create a new "lifestyle" label. Yes, yes I will.)

Last month I read Wired and Dangerous, by John Patterson and Convio Summit 2011 keynote speaker, Chip Bell (hence the interest). It was definitely a work read so to be honest it took me a little while to get through. It was a good book, and I'll hit some of the highlights, but you know how it is, after working all day, who relaxes with a work read?

Like I said though, good book. The big idea is that consumers today are more demanding and more vocal than ever. We're more demanding because a few stand-out experiences, like working with Amazon and their amazing customer service, have really started to raise the bar. We're also demanding because we're less tolerant of human error - just think of how often you go to the self-check out lane or ATM instead of conversing with a real person. It's just like they say, if you want to get something right, do it yourself...so we do.

We're more vocal somewhat on accident. Many moons ago if we had a bad experience, say at the airport, we would moan about it to our friend who picked us up after the flight. Now we tweet about it from the runway, consequently reaching way way more people. We've also started to learn that if we moan in a public enough way, someone might fix it for us right then and there. Quite reminiscent of Pavlov's doggy experiment.

All that means that as customer service people, we have to work a lot harder to make our customers happy. You have to remember what their most recent site search, recommend books based on their last purchase, alert them of deals based on their habits. Admittedly, it is a little daunting.

Throughout the book John and Chip share personal stories of customer service gone wrong (very funny in many cases) and customer service gone oh-so-right (make you say WOW). And even if you don't think your job is about customer service, their stories help you see how all of our jobs are about customer service in one way or another. It's a good read for thinking about how you approach your job, your clients, the retention of clients and all the people who are serving you and their performance and the fact that maybe you should cut them some slack for simply being human. After all, it happens.

Latest Addiction

In high school I read Friday Night Lights and it quickly became one of my favorite books of all time. (Summary: small town loves high school football and goes to the extreme to support it [Interesting note, our friend Stacy grew up out there in West Texas. He and even more so his older brother, were high school students at that school during the time the book takes place.]) I was stoked in college when they made a movie of it but was sorely disappointed when I saw it. Such gratuitous teenage sex, drinking, drugs, etc and they totally changed the ending, I mean as dramatic as making the Titanic not sink. I was so disappointed in fact that when they made a TV series, I didn't even bother. I figured it was the same characters from the movie in a "what happens next" sequel style series.

Fast forward many moons to this holiday season. Our new BluRay player is smart and thus we can stream in Netflix. Totally awesome. The Friday Night Lights TV series was filmed here in Austin so locally it's discussed often and many people I know, with varying entertainment interests, have raved about the series. Rave reviews, filmed in my (new) hometown and now free on-demand via Netflix. What the hell. I'll give it a shot.

Well that was three days and 12 episodes ago.

First, the TV series is not an extension of the movie. It's just loosely based around the same familiar story of a small Texas town infatuated with its high school football team and the holy grail of winning state.

Second, the characters are so loveable. The coach with his guidance counselor wife and their daughter who is so over football. The unlucky start QB who suffers a major injury. Then the self-conscious second string QB forced to step up as an underclassmen and who develops a crush on the coach's daughter. It's wonderfully cheesey, dramatic and wholesome.

And finally, the oh-so-familiar scenes. It's like looking into my life at times. In some ways, literally: the game scenes were filmed about a mile from the house at Pflugerville High, which I just confirmed via Wikipedia but which I ran across the house to tell Ross when I recognized the district office building in the back of one game scene. (This makes living in a town with such an absurd name a little better. The realtor should have told us this back in 2009; I would have felt a lot cooler moving to P-ville if she had.) I also recognized the shopping center across from our house with the ridiculous ice cream sundae shaped building. You can't fake that kind of ridiculousness folks. And according to Wikipedia, there's one future episode filmed in Boston, including a segment at BU.

But beyond the neighborhood scenery, the plot has some crazy familiarity. Like the scene where the football players dress in drag as cheerleaders for a pep rally. Oh Friday Night Lights, that was so CLHS circa every year 1999-2003. Or the CheerAmerica Classic which I'm pretty sure I competed at and won my division in back in sophomore year of high school. And while we thankfully didn't have any injuries as severe as the starting QB in this series does, my sophomore homecoming date, starting QB Michael, did break his femur one week before the dance.

So basically take my new home, plus my high school years and add in a little more drama and scandal and you've got Friday Night Lights. It's no wonder I'm addicted. The only thing standing between me and all five seasons is the inability of our internet to stream both Netflix video and Ross' new online computer game addiction.