How this penguin is a penguin and has penguins...

Also known as "Why my husband totally rules."  I haven't yet mentioned this blog to my husband, but we do have an ongoing penguin thing (more on that in a moment) so for Christmas I got two little stuffed penguins and a fleece blanket with scarved penguins on it.  LOVE them!  :)  (I also got the Wall-E DVD and a new watch, both of which I desperately wanted... and I thought we weren't exchanging gifts at all.  My husband totally rules.)

So... the bookish penguin.  My usual online moniker was already taken and active on Wordpress so I had to come up with something else. It was actually kind of difficult to think of something to symbolize me and my life (especially since the name has to be chosen before the blog even takes shape and becomes whatever it will be). I finally realized that the whole "penguin" thing would work since my husband and I have an affinity for penguins and I really like the symbolism: they mate for life, the females go to work and provide for the family while the males are the caretakers of the eggs/young.  My husband and I have even talked about getting penguin tattoos; his would be a penguin with a guitar and mine would be a penguin with a book... and then I got it: Bookish Penguin.

Now, bookish doesn't actually mean someone with books. In fact, it's not an entirely positive word all the time. So why choose a word with occasional negative connotations? Well, let's look at the meaning (as per dictionary.com):

book⋅ish
–adjective
1. given or devoted to reading or study.
2. more acquainted with books than with real life.
3. of or pertaining to books; literary.
4. stilted; pedantic.

One - check. Two - not as true as it used to be, but still true-ish, so check. Three - I will write about books I'm reading, so check.

Four - I looked up both stilted and pedantic to make sure they meant what I thought they meant.

stilt⋅ed
1. stiffly dignified or formal, as speech or literary style; pompous.
2. some architectural thing

pe⋅dan⋅tic
1.     ostentatious in one's learning.
2.     overly concerned with minute details or formalisms, esp. in teaching.

Okay, four. If we take stilted to mean a form of uptight, then check. I can definitely be uptight. As for pedantic, it's a quality I've actually worked on overcoming. I'm definitely not an braggart about my education (there's no basis for it) but I do hold education highly. I used to be more concerned with minute details and formalism in my teaching, but I've learned to ease up on that and focus more on content than form. So while definition four of bookish isn't a strong check, it is sort of a faded check.

So there's that. Now I just need someone to design me a nifty penguin with books banner for the page. Right now I have a picture of the Trinity library (in Ireland) since it's the most beautiful library I've ever seen (sorry NYC Public Library).

I used to actually consider myself somewhat of a writer. Not an ACTUAL writer, but someone who liked to write... and that all fell by the wayside after I finished my B.A.. I kept written journals in high school and college (I actually hate to think what I would have written publicly had blogs existed back then) and also wrote poetry. That all just withered away, like so many things I used to do for myself (like go to the gym). So maybe this is step one in my "take back my life" mission. Now, I recognize that my life will never be what it was. I will never be an undergrad again. I'll actually never be a FT grad student again. I'll never be single again (well, hopefully not, anyway). So my life has inherently changed... but it shouldn't change the things that I'm interested in and want to do for myself, within reason.

And now, as I sign on to Wordpress, I see something about cheat codes for a DS game named Club Penguin?  Oh, game, where have you been all my life?  I should beat Million Heir before I get a new game, though.  Too bad I can't bring my DS to work tomorrow.  It would make for an infinitely better work day.

P.S. "Penguin" is one of those words that looks less like a real word the more you look at it.