Bed Bound Monday

There’s something about a bad breakup that sends me spiralling out of control into…..everything girly. I don’t know what it is. But I kind of like it. Instead of sitting in the shower bawling my eyes out, I’m painting my toenails a lovely shade of coral. Instead of drowning my sorrows in a glass of wine, I’m falling in love with love all over again with Nora Ephron films. Instead of listening to sappy love songs on repeat, I’m shopping for a sassy little pink dress. There is comfort and hope in beauty. And I’m damn well going to have my fill.

So. What do you say? Shall we cozy up here a while? Shall we eat macaroons and sip lemonade? Shall we read Bridget Jones’s Diary or Sense & Sensibility? Let’s.

Jane Austen’s Fight Club

Any Austen fans out there? This may make your Friday. Enjoy!

On Direction

We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.

– Jane Austen

Guaranteed Bawlers

Whether you’re expecting a visit from Aunt Flo or just got dumped by the guy you were crazy about, there are moments that a girl needs a good weep. I’m talking one of those gasping, heaving, runny-nosed sobs. But how can you measure whether your sob fest is truly cathartic or not?  After spending days mulling over “why”, “what if”, “maybe I should have”, and “I’ll never” scenarios, I personally get rather tired of sobbing without the satisfying crescendo that a conclusion can provide. Sometimes your own problems just don’t have clear cut answers, no matter how hard you rack your brain to find them. And that’s where the arts comes in. Here’s my list of movies and books that are guaranteed to make you bawl – with a beginning, a middle and an end that makes sense.

Films:
Becoming Jane. No one can outdo Jane Austen’s sense of romantic idealism. Unfortunately her own love life was less than she’d hoped for.

Little Women. “I could never love anyone as much as I love my sisters,” cries Jo March. This tale will make you count your lucky stars for the wonderful women in your life.

Anne of Green Gables. Only the Cuthberts could embrace the wildness of Anne with an ‘e’ Shirley.

The Duchess. This movie makes me grieve for the many women who have lived and died in loveless marriages.

Marie Antoinette. From the harsh criticisms of her new French family to her angry subjects, this girl couldn’t catch a break.

Books:
Eat, Pray, Love.  This book came to me after a bad break up and helped me put my trust in fate. Elizabeth Gilbert travels to Italy, India and Indonesia looking for inner peace and finds just that.

Mister Pip. When civil war strikes Matilda’s island, only Mr. Watt will hold down the fort and teach the island’s children. Without a teaching background, he reads Great Expectations aloud to the class and Pip quickly becomes Matilda’s hero.

Come, Thou Tortoise. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book where I’ve literally been smiling and crying simultaneously. There’s no protagonist like Audrey. Coming to grips with the death of her father, you’ll fall in love with this girl in the first chapter.

java jots

I spent much of the weekend reading in bed with a cup of coffee in hand. It was a good weekend. The only thing that could’ve made it better? Well alright, besides Leonardo DiCaprio (sitting next to me) handing me my cuppa jo? A  fresh coffee (cream please) in one of these mugs. A close second.

Janeites Unite

Every girl knows who Mr. Darcy is and wants one of her own. But what about the author of Pride and Prejudice? Did you know she never married? The writer of the greatest love stories of all time never got hitched! When I first found out, I was shocked! But I sat with the thought a little more and remembered women of her time were forced to marry for status, not love. And I can’t imagine Jane would marry for anything less. She certainly didn’t allow her characters to marry rich, foolish men.

So what does that make her? A love sick fool? I think she was more of a feminist. For centuries, women were married off by their fathers who’d throw in a couple of cows to seal the deal. To imagine a woman could choose her husband or choose no one at all in spite of the patriarchal institution of marriage? Pretty brave for a woman of the 18th century. Although she found romance easier sought out through her fiction than her own life, she dared to poke fun of all the Mr. Collins’ in her world and dream of a Mr. Darcy. And for that I will always be grateful to the lovely, Miss. Jane Austen.