Mixed Bag

Did Taylor Swift start out on American Idol? I must know if I'm allowed to like that Romeo and Juliet song and if she was on that show, I don't know if I can like it or not. :) You know I suffer enough cognative dissonance just liking Kelly Clarkson. Ok. I KNOW David Cook was on Idol (that makes me sad but I think TWOP had a picture of him on their main page when he was in it). Luckily I'm kind of meh about his song. (I'm watching VH1. Did you know they actually show music videos at 7:30 on a Sunday morning?)

Since I've been sick (caught a cold. I blame the Philly Airport) I've been using those breathe right strips at night (in conjunction with real cold medicine). I really think they help. I don't wake up in the middle of the night unable to breathe because of my head being so stuffed up. I got the wrong sized ones (I wasn't paying attention when I grabbed the box. I don't THINK I have a large nose, but maybe I do... :) ) So the ends don't quite stick down the way they are supposed to. Also, taking those things off in the AM SUCKS. I've been trying to soak them to make it easier to get off, but it sometimes doesn't seem to help.

I just finished a fabulous book called The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University. It is about Kevin Roose, a student from Brown who decided that instead of taking a semester abroad, he was going to take a semester and go to Jerry Falwell's university, Liberty University. Roose is an excellent writer for 19 years old. I was completely under his spell and enjoyed his whole book. He really humanized Evangelical Christians on an individual level. You get to know these students he interacted with and get to appreciate them as individuals. He offers an interesting critical view of Liberty (but not painting it with the "Oh it is an Evangelical college so it sucks" brush). He even finds things to praise about Liberty. He talks about how comforting it is to have these large events where all the kids are united (he's not describing a mass protest of an abortion clinic or anything, but their thrice weekly convocations). Through an interesting twist of fate, he was also the last person to do a print interview Jerry Fallwell before he died. He talks about how he feels when Fallwell dies (the day before his last exam) and what it is like to stay at Liberty for the funeral. His article is passed out to the mourners as a rememberance piece of Fallwell. He also talks of his conflicted feelings about their political views vs his. All in all a really excellent book that even had me tearing up over the death of Fallwell.