The Giver Recap — Mad Libs Style
May 3, 2012 in recap
Alright, three reasons to justify this post:
1. I am horrible at posting these recaps in a timely manner anyway.
2. I knew it wouldn’t get done over the next week/week and a half because I have to turn grades in soon or students get all fussy about not knowing whether they’ve graduated. *whiners* (#justkidding #totallyjustified)
3. I knew it STILL wouldn’t get done EVEN AFTER grading because I’m freaking getting married in LESS THAN A MONTH, which apparently just hit me yesterday (you may notice some of that anxiety coming though in the recap).
I typed out this post before book club, and I left blanks so that I could fill in info. Underlined words are the fill-in-the blank answers… that I secretly filled in DURING book club. NO, I’M NOT KIDDING. #worstbookclubmemberawardgoesto…
Here it goes…
On a hot but nice Thursday evening, we met for Saloon! We were all excited for a break, because Des needed a rest from filling out job applications, Jen wanted to relax after all her recent exciting dating adventures, and I couldn’t wait to think about something other than grading.
Food
We started off by basically inhaling Des’s amazing chicken-wonton-wrapper thing for our appetizer, which Jen and I requested the recipe for. I fixed a Crockpot creamy chicken recipe that was just average, but at least it was dominated by potatoes, which everyone seemed to enjoy. The girls were not too surprised by my trickery, but amiable upon hearing that the recipe was completely gluten, egg, and dairy free! Also, Des and Jen were happy that I did not include peas — even though I love them and the recipe called for them. Jen fixed wonderful little Strawberry Shortcakes and a parfait from the leftovers for dessert, which was Made From Scratch! AND so yummy and cute that we gobbled up seconds. We all tried the Great Lakes beer sample, which was something Jen had tried before.
Music
Next, we did music, with each person clicking through their songs and discussing memories. This is the second time we’ve done the “5 songs each” format, and so far we think it’s a great strategy. Des’s songs were fun, even though she did add the depressing SPCA commercial song, I threw in a bunch of Spice Girls and Amy Grant–just in case you guys weren’t sure how awful my music taste is, and Jen’s songs were adorable, Canadian-related, and Jonathan Coulton inclusive. I didn’t remember to burn three CDs for everyone until after we reviewed songs, but it worked out since we all posted them today.
Book Discussion
After music was the discussion of The Giver. I’ve been wanting to reread this book for a while, and luckily I was just able to reread it before our meeting. Jen, the only one of us who hadn’t read the book yet, thought it was great and different from the children’s book she was expecting. We talked a lot about what it would be like to live without feelings, what the ending meant, and how we enjoyed the precise language of the book. We agreed that we would give up colors before music and sex, and we disagreed about nothing, because we’re actually the same nerd in three different bodies.
Current Events
Finally, we talked current events. We talked about the ridiculousness of The Titanic first, which we all agreed was silly. Then we talked about the equally-silly-but-not-at-all-funny ridiculousness of Amendment One, Des’s successful defense and other less successful projects we’ve seen, the exciting Life of Pi movie coming out this December, and post-graduation advice. The most interesting point of the night was probably the sad discussion about Amendment One, and Jen and I dominated the conversation with our back-and-forth argument about NOTHING, which is rare, since we normally have to agree to disagree about something!
Overall, it was a great book club. Next month we’ll be reading Des’s fantasy choice, Mistborn. We ended the night by talking about almost nothing but wedding stuff, from wedding chocolates to ribbon pieces, and to top it off my amazing friends volunteered to help with favors and tags AT HOME, WITHOUT ME, ON THEIR OWN TIME.
In the spirit of The Giver, here’s a memory I’ll keep from tonight: Watching my two friends walk out of my house with arms full of tiny tags, ribbon wheels, hole punchers and more, ready to do wedding crafts that they totally shouldn’t have to do but were willing to do anyway.
That’s all, folks! Until next time, when my poor friends can finally enjoy a Saloon night with no talk of wedding planning. Thanks for being so awesome, guys!
-Sarah
