Kayla's Book Nook

     Spoiler Alert: If you have not seen Easy A then do not read the rest of this review.      I watched Emma Stone do an amazing job in her new movie, Easy A. Which is about the fact that she lies about losing her virginity, and sleeping with a lot of guys after that. At first you are pulled in by the dry sarcastic humor, the funny family, the interesting character that Emma plays, Olive. But, then you are pulled in by the message of this movie: That lying about who you are, can actually make you momentarily forget who you are.      This movie had many great moments that were funny, happy, sad, intriguing, and for many people that actually went to high school, accurate. I find this movie very accurate in the way that rumors often spread like wildfire, without fact checking at all. Also, there is a bible hugging jugdgementalist (not a real word but still works in this instance) in this movie, that seems to perpetuate all the religious ...

     Right now on this website  there is an awesome book sale! They are selling books 5 for 15$ with free shipping! It is a selection of kids books, fiction, non-fiction, classics, and new titles. There are about 2000 pages of books to choose from! You can also get more than 5, what I mean is that you can get 10 for 30$, sometimes websites allow only 1 set of books for a sale to be sold at one time.     The best part about this website, is that when you purchase books from there they donate money to organizations that help people read, give books to children, and support literacy everywhere. They also do carbonfree shipping which adds on a little to your books, but it helps  "offset" these emissions through the purchase of clean energy credits and reversing deforestation."  Although, books can sometimes seem like they are not environmentally friendly, this website is trying to change that and help build trees again.      Once...

     I am the type of girl that loves sports, I played 3 sports a year for six years in middle and high school. I loved watching my now husband play football, and wrestle in high school and college. Now I love to watch the Yankees play baseball with my husband during the season, and we love to watch the football games during the fall and winter, Go Packers! We have even gone to see the Yankees play at Yankee stadium, and we also saw Buffalo play at their stadium against New England (the season they were undeafeated).      Last football season, my husband was asked by a friend to play fantasy football. At first, I was like no that's cool I'm not jealous, I don't know all that much about football anyway. But, as my husband picked his players, and checked his scores, and watched the games with new excitement, I wondered what I was missing! Alas, at the time the league was not allowed to add more players.     So this season, I decided to make m...

    I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful car, which has a cd player and pretty nice speakers. Therefore, for long road trips or commutes, I usually make mixed cds to help pass the time. I usually make a cd of newly downloaded songs to my ITunes, or of songs that I really love that I know will help me stay awake during the ride.      Lately, I have been listening to Sirius Radio the Octane channel. It's their mostly rock channel with a little bit of metal thrown in there. Most of the time I love this channel, it has really good rock oldies on there, and awesome new rock for me to get into! Also, my favorite dj is a girl and her name is Kayla! This station usually gives me a ton of new music to download when I get home. So I downloaded about 14 songs from the Octane station to make a New Rock Mix for my car and for ITunes.      This is my New Rock Mix: ✓ Dragonfly by Shaman's Harvest ✓ Liar by Rains ✓ Dumb Luck by Re...

     Finally, I have had some good luck in my life. Recently, I have gotten a part time job at The Family Dollar, and although that is a break for me, I was still worried. I need more hours, and I also need benefits, because my pay at The Family Dollar is not going to cover me to pay for my own health insurance. The Good News: Lowes finally called me back! I have a full-time job with them for more than minimum wage and it's full time with all the benefits. Even though I will not be working at Lowes for the rest of my life (I hope not), it is a good job that gives me exactly what I need right now, stability.      It just feels great to finally have something going right in my life right now. I needed something like this, or I was going to lose faith in the employment system. It's very disheartening to put yourself out there time and time again and be shot down over and over again. As a person who had very little personal rejection, I met my husband in 9th g...

     This last week I have watched every single Resident Evil movie in order to go last Friday to see the new Resident Evil movie, Afterlife. Now, I don't want to spoil any movie for anyone, so if you haven't seen any of these then don't read any further.      After watching the first one, I thought wow that really was kind of interesting, and I love the lead action figure being a woman, a kick-ass woman at that! I also really LOVE the zombies rage right now: Call of Duty has a zombie game integrated into COD4, Zombieland the movie is hilarious, and many books are being remade into zombie and monster stories now.      Then we watched the second movie, Apocalypse, and although action packed, wasn't really an awesome plot, but then again what do you expect from a movie made from a game right? This one centers around a few people trying to survive in Racoon City after the Umbrella Corporation has sealed the city off. The third one, Extinction,...

       For some reason or other, I have been out of work since the summer of '08. During the school year it was hard for me to work, because I had a very heavy workload. Then when I started student teaching, our advisors told us that we would probably fail if we tried to work and student teach at the same time. Therefore, I did not work during that school year. This last summer I didn't work because I was getting married in July, and it was hard to find someone to hire me, and let me take off 2 weeks for my wedding and honeymoon, and then leave again in August. So to sum up, it's been awhile since I have held down a job. (Although, two summers ago I did have two jobs at the same time, and worked quite a bit.)        Like I have said in previous blogs, I needed a job this year to fill up my time before we move again to go to Buffalo for graduate school. I got a job at the local Family Dollar, and although it is not intellectually taxing, it is phy...

       I just wanted to say thank you to all those people out there who serve our country, and protect us day and night.        9 years ago, I was sitting in my 7th grade study hall, when we heard people running through the halls, thats when my teacher went out to investigate and he found out what was going on. He came back into the classroom and turned on our tv. What we saw was horrifying, surreal, and very very sad. I saw the second world trade center tower fall, and I saw people jumping out of the building, and I saw debris crashing to the ground in NYC. As a 7th grader, I was in shock, to me the U.S. was impenetrable. I really never thought that something like that could happen to my country. I was shocked, appalled, and confused. I realize now how naive I was, and how my judgement and view on life was forever changed that day.        I really have no idea whether it was the planes that knocked the to...

       Well after a month or so searching for work, I have found a part-time job as a store clerk or cashier at The Family Dollar in the town where I live. It's not exactly what I wanted, because I wanted full-time, but it's not really that bad. I worked an 8 hour shift today, mostly training, filling out paperwork, and getting to know my co-workers. I enjoy ringing customers up on the cash register, and connecting with people in a different, yet new way. On the other hand, I do not like standing on my feet for 8 hours. I have never really done well with standing for a long period of time, but I know that I will eventually get used to it. My co-workers are very different, and very interesting, and I look forward to getting to know them better.        It just kills me, because I know what I want to be doing: teaching! I know that I am a good maybe even excellent teacher, even though I do not have a lot of experience. But I will never get experience...

       Tonight, my husband and I went to a movie and dinner with our two best friends. We met right in the middle between our two houses, and went to see Resident Evil: Afterlife and then to Olive Garden for dinner. I know what your thinking, "Who Cares!" But, the point I am trying to make is that meeting up with friends for simple things like movies, and dinners is what keeps us going. I have had a rough month or so, and just getting together with them, talking about other things like their pregnancy, or the UFC, school, and others just makes me feel at ease. It helps me remember that there are more important things in life than jobs. You need people in your life to sometimes help you sit back, relax, and enjoy the moment. Although the movie sucked, and disappointed us all, dinner was wonderful and it was great to see one another. We have all been friends for a long time, and it just makes me so happy that we are still very close to one another even though we are al...

I received a call yesterday from Pro-Tell, a company based out of Norwich, saying that they had seen my resume online and would like me to come in and do the typing tests to become a data entry clerk. So I figured, hey I might as well try this right? It's full time, 40-45 hours a week, and it will last until next summer! Exactly what I was looking for, and well I have been typing on the computer since I was like 5! I get there and I have to do two typing tests, one for words and one for numbers. Before I begin both tests, I am told that accuracy is more important than speed. Therefore, I make sure that my typing is correct rather than speedy. Both of my tests are completely correct and accurate, but I am told on both that I need to pick up my speed. No problem, I think to myself because when I am regularly typing I am pretty quick. Well the boss comes in and tells me that I am right on the borderline, and that he will have to call me tomorrow to see if they will allow me to become ...

I started reading Harry Potter when I was 11 years old, I know it was meant to be. As a child, I began to love books, and reading with a passion that not many other children my age could understand. I went to the library often, read every afternoon, and read as soon as I finished my school work. After awhile, my classmates began to tease me, and I hid my love for reading and books. During high school, I felt a little more comfortable with myself and began to read in public much more. I was still teased, but I thought to myself that if I'm getting teased about anything, it should be something that is intellectual, exciting, important to me, and fun. In high school I did find a few teachers that helped me develop my love for reading. They brought new books and authors to my attention, and helped me expand my limited view of the written word. I also met my husband during high school, and I knew he was the one for me as soon as he told me that he loved reading the Harry Potter books as...

Since I graduated college, I have been searching for a job in the area where I now live with my husband and our dog, Brama. At the moment, to be honest, I do not care where I work. I just need a job that will keep me busy and pay my bills. I have applied to about 15 stores and locations, have had 6 interviews, and one part time job offer at a local dollar store. My problem with this situation is that I am a college graduate! I graduated from a good school, with good grades, in what I thought would be a wonderful career, which is teaching. So far though, I realize that the recent economic problems are affecting me more than I thought they would. Many places are either not hiring, or only hiring part time, which does not help my situation at all.  I am not trying to complain, but at the same time, I did not pay that much money to go to college, and then not get a job because the economy is in a recession and school budget cuts are at an all time high. Why is it that when the economy...