Perfume: The Story of A Murderer – Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. And some Gossip.

Has a book ever left you a little stumped?  Like WHY IN THE WORLD WAS THIS BOOK CALLED A CLASSIC??  I wrote a post about “Popular Penguins” awhile back.  I LUV Popular Penguins (Classic Books in Australia) and I think I even said it was fate that I found these books.  I’m not prepared to rescind my dramatic exclamation; however, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer???  Are you serious?  Seriously?  That?  A classic?

Oh boy.

The book was GROSS!  GROSS!  And GROSS!  Like the part where he murdered 25 girls so he could wrap their body in linens to capture their smell.  Then when he was arrested the raging mob turned into a mass orgy, and instead of crucifying him and breaking the 12 major joints of his body, they worshiped him because using the perfume from his victims he created a perfume that made him smell like a God.  WHAT?  Or how about the end when this same perfume that made others worship him turned a crowd of normal people into cannibals and they ate him?  And they didn’t feel guilty for eating a HUMAN?

Out of the 263 pages that I read I liked three parts and they were at the very end so I decided to put them at the end of this post.

DAILY DOSE OF GOSSIP:

LOSER (from this post) sent me a text tonight at 10:45 pm saying “Too bad you’re not here right now!”  HAHA!  Too bad he didn’t show up to the party on Friday is more like it!

And then this guy who looks like MIUB asked me out and it’s weird so I haven’t said yes .  He talks like him too – it freaks me out a little.  He is like a less-built, less hair-gel, nervous version of MIUB.  LOL!  Can I really go out with MIUB’s younger, nerdier version?   Has anyone else ever gone on a date with a previous crush double?  Maybe I’m being dumb about it but I think it’s weird.  In fact – this may be a deal breaker …

Oh and here is a picture of some of the girls in our dinner group from New Year’s Eve (the fun part of my night.)  ) If you can’t tell which one is me we have some serious problems.  ;)

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Quotes from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind.

  • What he had always longed for – that other people should love him – became at the moment of its achievement unbearable, because he did not love them himself, he hated them.  And suddenly he knew that he had never found gratification in love, but always only in hatred – in hating and being hated.
  • He could do all that, [rule the world] if only he wanted to.  He possessed the power.  He held it in his hand.  A power stronger than the power of money or the power of terror or the power of death:  the invincible power to command the love of mankind.  There was only one thing that power could not do: it could not make him able to smell himself.  And though his perfume might allow him to appear before the world as a god – if he could not smell himself and thus never know who he was, to hell with it, with the world, with himself, with his perfume.
  • No one knows how good this perfume really is, he thought.  No one knows how well made it is.  Other people are merely conquered by its effect, don’t even know that it’s a perfume that’s working on them, enslaving them.  The only one who has ever recognized it for its true beauty is me, because I created it myself.  And at the same time, I’m the only one that it cannot enslave.  I am the only person for whom it is meaningless.

Kindred Spirits

I LUUUUVVVV Anne of Green Gables.  The books make me laugh out loud and the movie is delightful.  I’m telling you this because (mostly) I want to bore you.   I mean seriously, who cares about a scrawny little redheaded girl with too many opinions and an imagination that runs wild?  (Don’t answer that.)

Anywho -  Tonight I met the cutest girl (a new friend of Matty Matt’s) and we hit it off instantly.  She even teased Matty Matt that she was excited to meet a kindred spirit (me ).)  HOLD UP!  Did she actually use the phrase “kindred spirit?”  YES!!!  And that basically like sealed the deal because for real!  Who else even uses that phrase except for me?  lol.  We are obviously kindred spirits!!  And now we can hang out all of the time.  D D Oh wait – except that I’m about to go back to AUSTRALIA. (

Being back home has been so much fun and I can’t believe it’s almost time to start packing again.  Everyone told me that I was going to go home (to Utah) and realize that I LOVE Sydney and be so excited to return.   They said memories are better than the real thing and when I got back to Utah I’d realize it wasn’t as good as my memories.  WRONG!!

I have the COOLEST family.  My little brother is not only a kindred spirit but a BFF.  My parents are sa-weet.   My older brother and his family are freakin’ awesome.  My BFFs are the BEST!!!  I meet kindred spirits left and right (not so in Sydney) and if all of this weren’t enough – my dogs are here!!!

12 months ago moving away from Utah to “find myself” was the most important goal in my life.  Now that I’ve left it seems I’ve “found myself” right where I accidentally left my heart – in Utah.  My most important goal now?  Moving back.

11 months to go.  I wonder if I’ll still feel this way next November when it’s time to move back for good.  I’ll laugh if November rolls around and I write a post saying instead of moving home I’m shipping my dogs to Australia.  I doubt it will happen but my life never ends up the way I expected.

No, it’s not me. It’s you.

Part of the reason I avoid relationships is because I have a difficult time breaking up with someone.  Say what?  Yeah it’s usually me doing the break-up.  Why?  Because I have a black hole where my heart is supposed to be.  ;) No, no, it’s not me!  It’s them.  D And how much would I love to be able to come right out and say that!

Granted, I am the common denominator in the break-ups – or am I?  YES!  But it’s not as simple as that.  I think it’s also possible that I keep meeting guys that suck – and that makes them also a common factor in this twisted math relationship.  Wahoo!  Avoiding responsibility is fun!

I’m kidding – kind of.  I’m reading this book on boundaries and I’ve realized I need to do some serious work on mine.  In that sense it is ME that is the problem.  However, as I struggle to firm up my boundaries and as I work on having the courage to enforce my boundaries I’ve also realized I’ve taken too much of the blame.

I’ve always shouldered 100% of the responsibility in any potential relationship that didn’t work out.  That’s right.  And it’s not just the line, “It’s not you, it’s me” either.  I actually take the responsibility to heart.  In my happy rainbow land I believed that I should be able to like and get along with any person in the world.  Matty Matt reminds me continuously that I don’t have to like everyone (I’ve already accepted that not everyone will like me.)  And what’s more – he says I don’t have to have a reason for not liking someone.  He says if I just don’t “feel it” with someone then it’s ok.  I don’t need to feel guilty.  I can’t wrap my head around that entirely but I also recognize he’s over-simplifying things for me because I martyr myself over every person I don’t like.  I feel SO guilty that I trap myself into being with that person even MORE because I’m crazy and think I owe them penance or something for feeling they aren’t that great.

This has to stop.  Why?  Because maybe it IS them.  Maybe it’s not me.  Maybe they really aren’t that great.  I think it’s time to give MY feelings more credit.

The Kitchen from Down Under (and by that I mean the opposite of heaven)

Some of you may remember the post Sometimes it’s hard to fake it where I listed my kitchen among the many frustrations in my new life.  Then I decided to start an Australian Gratitude Journal to help me change my attitude and the journal was good (see here) and bad (see here.)

HOWEVER … I think the good pretty much outweighed the bad and in this “Recipe – Lemon Squares” post I actually said,

I have been soooo frustrated with the kitchen where I’m living – like seriously – sooooo frustrated!! BUT it’s just a kitchen and as such I really shouldn’t let it get to me right?  D So instead of being frustrated I’ve decided to try and work around its inadequacies.  Sure the oven is junk – but it still gets hot and I still have blue ribbons to win for my baked goods so it will have to do!

And it was with this new happy, nothing-can-get-me-down-and-I-just-super-duper-LUV-my-kitchen attitude that I walked into my kitchen this morning and found this:

Can anyone guess what that is?  How about you!  The smart kid with the glasses down in front – what is that?  [roll my eyes]

It’s a hole in the CEILING!!!!

Basically the roof is going to cave in on us at any second.

Sweet.

I hope it takes the oven with it.