Percy Jackson and The Olympians: Reread Dates 8/8/2010-8/11/2010

Books: Percy Jackson and The Olympians by Rick Riordan

Published: 2005-2009

Edition: Hyperion Trade Paperbacks

Pre reread Notes:

Hi my name is Reenie, and I’m a book franchise a-holic

It’s been seven months since I started my last franchise. And that franchise was Percy Jackson And The Olympians. OK, so technically speaking, this is five books, not one, but they’re written for ten year olds, so guess what, they only count as one. Also, I’m going to be in Chicago this weekend, on break from school, so I’m going to have a lot of reading time. And the first book of the sequel series, The Heroes of Olympus comes out on Tuesday. But that’s another story entirely. So, where to begin with Percy?

I guess you could say it starts with Xena. I loved that show. Then I loved Disney’s Hercules. Plus I loved looking at constellations. Greek mythology has always resonated with me. I also love interpretations, and anything that makes learning fun for kids. I hadn’t ever heard of Percy Jackson until this winter, when buzz started to circulate about the movie version, which incidentally is not very good. I was working for big super book store, and selling a lot of copies of the books. I was intrigued by the concept. In case you didn’t know, the idea behind Percy Jackson is that the Greek gods of the classics are real, and haven’t changed much in a thousand years, although they have relocated to the center of Western Civilization, these days? New York City. The gods still well, they’re still the gods, they still influence humanity in their small ways, and at times they still er, couple with humans, and produce demi gods. This children are easily spotted by their superior strength and speed, plus their predilection for ADHD and dyslexia (Fast reflexes, better for fighting, and their brains are hard wired for Ancient Greek, not English!) However, they’re also chased by evil monsters. As such, they spend their summers at a camp on Long Island called Camp Half-Blood. Percy Jackson is one of these kids.

The books aside from being action packed and super educational (they contain lessons galore about the classics) are really well written and devastatingly funny. But let’s bring it around to me. I finally picked up the first book in the series The Lightening Thief in March. I’d been working at my job for a month, out of school for three, and was still, well, struggling a little. I was happier than I’d been in a few years, but I was still floating and unsure. I needed to smile. And these books did it. It had also been a while since I had an obsession. I mean, I have an obsessive personality. This is something that I’ve just accepted as a part of who I am. I’ve had some good ones through the years, the whole Happy Days/Scott Baio thing (Age 14) was a winner, The Mighty Ducks movies (Ages 16-20), also a good one to cite, Harry Potter (Age 12-Now), Degrassi: The Next Generation (Age 17-22), Twilight (20-22), Joss Whedon (Current), and those are just off the top of my head. But I was due for one. And Percy and the other Heroes answered the call. Here were five books full of characters for me to devour! And they had lots of nerdy goodies for me to pick at about ancient civilizations. Plus it was something to talk to my younger cousins about.

Seriously, my cousin Bobby, is ten, and he’s possibly the best conversationalist I know. He’s really into Percy Jackson. So you might be thinking, “Reenie, you read this book seven months ago, how could it have had that much of an impact on you?” It just did. It was a light fluffy easy distracting obsession at a time in my life when I really needed that. So, there it is.

But seriously, I love a good book franchise. Give me your boy wizards, your sparkly vampires, your teen super sleuths, your Upper East Side teenagers, your NY Princesses! I’ll take ‘em all. But the demi-gods, they’ve got something special, and I can’t wait to see how that holds up!

Post Reread Notes

Big spankin thumbs up.

I love these stories, these characters, all of it. But there was something else I forgot about in the pre reread stage about why these stories resonate with me.

Percy is a son of Poseidon. The Sea God.

Why does this matter, exactly? Well, it’s kind of a funny story. When I started college I was really lucky. I had this awesome freshman year roommate. Seriously, she was super fun, and we had loads in common. We also had this friend that lived up the hall. Now, I was eighteen and away from home for the first time ever. I used to be a cheerleader. In middle school. I was very into it. I’d gone to an interest meeting about trying out for the Scranton squad, or I was on the way to a meeting, or something. Who knows? But I do know that Jaws was on TV and the three of us were watching it. Loath though I was to leave the Great White, I did. It ended up pouring raining. My friends’ response to this:

“You’re not supposed to be a cheerleader. It’s a sign from Poseidon.”

Yes, the rain and leaving Jaws was a sign from Poseidon that I’m not supposed to be a cheerleader. From then on it became a convenient excuse for us. If it rained and we didn’t feel like going someplace, such was Poseidon’s will. Jaws was one of his servants. If anything went wrong in our lives, it was Poseidon’s fall, he was screwing with us. So we had to pay tribute to him in stupid little ways before we did anything. Our biggest tribute came our sophomore year, when we went to Universal Studios Florida.

That’s us in front of Poseidon’s Temple in Universal Islands of Adventure The Lost Continent. Possibly the worst ride ever, of course saying this is the reason our flight home was delayed by four hours (damn you Poseidon!)

That’s us with his servant Jaws at Universal Studios Florida.

I haven’t thought of this in a while and it was kind of nice to reminisce. So, thanks for that Percy Jackson. Thanks a million!

The Scarlet Letter: Reread Dates 9/4-9/30

The Book: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Edition: Signet Classics 199 Pre Reread Notes:

The time has come for the first "2nd Chance book. I think there's something inherently perverse about having 16 year old students read Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. After all, on the surface it appears to be a "don't have sex or bad things will happen," kind of story. Once Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale get it on, their entire lives go to the toilet. First, Hester gets pregnant, then when she keeps her mouth shut and doesn't implicate him, she's forced to live as an outcast with the kid. Dimmesdale on the other hand is tormented by his conscience. And her husband shows up and mentally tortures them both.

I don't like this book. Or I didn't when I was 16. I though it was boring and stupid. But I'm older now. I've studied literature on a University level for 4 years. Maybe I'll see something else this time. I'm hoping to.

To be honest, I'm really reading it now because that movie with Emma Stone Easy A came out when I started. I still haven't seen it but I think it looks awesome. I love Emma Stone. And Penn Badgely, who is intensely adorable is also in it. I'm curious to see it, and I want to know what I'm dealing with when I go in. I know it's about a girl who pretends to lose her virginity to her gay best firend and then gets branded a slut, while he gains a stud rep. Deciding to own it, she starts dressing the part and donning Hester's A. This is what I've gathered from the trailer.

So will The Scarlet Letter be worth my second look? Or will I prefer the Pop-Punk infused cute TV actor laden version that takes place in a suburban high school? OK, I think we know the answer to that, being that it's me. But I'm hoping to see something different in the book.

Post Reread Notes:

I don't care how many Gossip Girl cast members make movies about The Scarlett Letter, that book is terrible and no one should have to read it ever again! Awful, just awful.

Gone With The Wind: Reread dates 8/9-8/18

The Book: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

First Edition: 1936

My Edition: Pocket Books Paperback edition 2008

Pre Reread notes:

OK, so I’ve got a busy week ahead of me. When I’m not working or writing I have this kind of quirky hobby. I produce musicals for this group that Katie and I started. It’s a time consuming and expensive hobby, especially because our production goes up this week. Producing the show is really fun, but it also means that I won’t have a lot of time to read or write, so I knew that if I wanted to do any list books it would have to be one that would take a while. Hence, Gone With The Wind.

I’ve always considered Scarlett’s particular philosophy:

“I can’t think about that now, I’ll think about that tomorrow.”

Very influential to my life. Sometimes you just can’t think about something as it happens.

Unfortunately a lot like Scarlett, I often find myself 100% in denial of my situation. Sure, it’s a little different, because well, Scarlett wasn’t thinking about things like, starvation, or her dead husbands, or the one man she ever loved leaving her forever, where as mine was stuff like, not wanting to move into my dorm so I wouldn’t pack.

Gone With The Wind is another one that I actually don’t remember the book so well. But the movie has had a huge impact on me. Not just because of the poofy dresses thing. But here’s the thing, Scarlett was one of the first characters who I really comprehended who was a bitch, and that was what was good about her. She didn’t take people’s crap, or anything. Not a lot of time to write here, most everything will be in post.

Post Reread Notes

You know how sometimes when you’re twelve you’re an idiot?

When I was twelve, I was an idiot. I’m not saying I don’t love Scarlett anymore. I still totally appreciate that one can be a bitch and still get ahead. No, it’s not that. It’s that I used to hate with a passion that stupid mealy mouthed Melanie Wilkes.

Not so much anymore.

Melly’s a pretty badass character. Sure because she’s sickly and her husband is a douchebag (I’ll get to Ashley later, UGH) you don’t get to see a lot of it, but really, the way she’s always super nice to Scarlett, and the way she stands up for her when everyone says that Scarlett and Ashley are sleeping together, it’s so nice. Also, I think she was just not an idiot and knew that there was no way that Ashley and Scarlett were sleeping together, because well, she slept with Ashley and I bet he’s really bad in bed, and she knew Scarlett would probably not put up with that. Hence why she married Rhett. Or maybe that’s just my interpretation.

And speaking of Rhett…

Oh Rhett Butler. It’s hard to forget your first real literary crushes. While most of my like minded friends were swooning for Mr. Darcy (fools!) I was wishing more than anything for Rhett Butler. Yes, I never cared much for romantic sappery, because I loved Rhett, I wanted (and still want) a sparring partner, someone who I can match wits with, the way Scarlett and Rhett do. I hold by the truly romantic notion that Scarlett goes home to Tara, and she does get Rhett back. These two were destined for each other. Other literary romantic couples don’t give me that feeling. It always sort of bugged me when Lizzie and Darcy got together, he was just so stuffy and she was so freewheeling and independent. It would be like if, well, if Scarlett ended up with Ashley.

Ashley Wilkes might be my most hated character in literature. I can’t stand him. I actually said to my sister when I started rereading:

“God, in the book, Ashley is even more of a dipshit than in the movie.”

And he is. Just a total dipshit. Oh boo hoo, you can’t have sex with your wife because she can’t get pregnant and might die. You want to know what you shouldn’t do in that situation? Uh, string your childhood sweetheart (her best friend) along with “But I really love you, aw gee, if we weren’t married we could totally get it on!” Dipshit. Melly deserved way better.

I’ve realized lately how lucky I am, that I’ve found my Tara, finally. What is my Tara exactly? Well, any person’s Tara is their touchstone, the one thing that can clear their mind and heart and make them feel like nothing can touch them. My Tara? Is Tom Foolery Theatre. That’s the group that Katie and I started. It’s my touchstone, and I’m kind of Scarlett like when I’m there. I yell, I throw fits, but god help any person who tries to take it away from me.

So I started school this week. I’ll be busy, but I’m going to keep reading (at least 1 a month, right? That’s the rule!)

Bitter is The New Black: Reread Dates 8/2-8/4

The Book: Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-centered Smart ass or Why You Should Never Carry a Prada Bag to The Unemployment Office by Jen Lancaster

First Edition: 2006

My Edition: 2006 Paperback edition

Pre reread Notes:

Jen Lancaster is one of my favorite writers. As a matter of fact, she’s one of the reasons I started coming around to the idea of non fiction writing as a valid form of creative expression. (Not just “whining and writing a journal and getting it published for attention” as I previously dismissed it.) This might have something to do with the fact that Jen and I have a lot in common. World view wise I mean. Jen also does things like watch TV that she knows is terrible because she thinks it’s hilarious. Jen has also drank an entire bottle of white wine and not understood why she always gets a headache when it happens. Stuff like that.

I discovered Jen because my two best friends Katie and Katherine (yes, those are their real names, and I know, it can get confusing) were both really into her. Katie had been reading her blog Jennsylvania, and sent it to me asking, “Are you posing undercover as this person?” Katherine was reading Bitter and insisting to me that I read it. “Reenie,” she said. “You don’t understand, when I read it, I feel like I’m talking to you.” So I picked up the book.

I was hooked. I sped through it and immediately bought her other two books, Bright Lights, Big Ass and Such a Pretty Fat. I started reading Jennsylvania on a regular basis (I still make sure to catch up on it at least once a week, although my life is more crazy than it was at that point.) But I loved everything about this book. From the opening lines, where Jen describes a time that she traded her lunch with a homeless man for a Coach briefcase he was holding on to. This is not something I would do, not because I don’t wish I had a Coach briefcase, but because homeless people terrify me. I know that’s not PC or Christ like of me. But they smell bad, and they often yell at you, and there’s this one lady by my office who has a rabid cat on a leash and she terrifies me. Anyway, this story enlightened me to how much I needed to be Jen, or at least like her.

Then we met Fletch, Jen’s boyfriend and later husband. Katie, Katherine and I have decided that we want to be in a polygamist marriage with Jen and Fletch. We figure Jen would be cool with it because it would make a good reality show. Either way, we adore Fletch.

So how did Bitter change my life, exactly? Well, it just did. It got me into memoirs, got me blogging seriously (for a while at least, and here I am doing it again.) and of course brought me closer to the two friends who will always and have always been there for me. Having something else to talk about (not that Katie, Katherine and I have ever had a shortage of conversation topics) plus a new event book every year. I never experienced what is commonly called “Post Potter Depression” because I’ve spent every summer since Harry Potter ended trying to fill the large gaping hole left in my life by a new book coming out. Jen almost does the job. Seriously. It’s not exactly the same, but instead of magic and drama Jen offers be unbridled hilarity and drinking stories. And that my friends, is absolutely life changing.

Post Reread Notes

“I’m rereading Jen.”

“Which one?”

“Bitter,”

“I wish I could go back and read Bitter again,” Katherine sighed, “but like read it for the first time again.”

I think in general this is a feeling I’m going to get a lot during this year. I would give anything to go back to the first time I read some of these books, I totally get why Katherine feels this way. Bitter is not one of those books. It’s one that I’m so glad I read again now, after the past six months of my life. True confession time:

I’ve been living at home and working at a job that I love for the past six months, but none of it is for a good reason. I had a nervous breakdown and flunked out of school.

Well, not exactly flunked out, but I’d dropped/blown off/stumbled through too many classes for my parents and my school to take it anymore, and mental health-wise, I was mess. There was crying and yelling and anger and excuses, but the fact of the matter was, I don’t think I had real deal depression, though for a while I convinced myself I did. I think by being selfish and acting like a spoiled bitch, I’d made a bad situation worse.

I told you. Me and Jen, we’ve got a lot in common.

See, the whole point of Bitter Is The New Black is that Jen brought about her own destruction by being selfish and acting like a spoiled bitch. In her later books I learned that even though by the time she hit her teen years she was living in the Midwest and has stayed there ever since, she lived about fifteen minutes from where I live when she was a kid. See, Jen and Fletch got really rich during the dot com boom. And they weren’t so smart about it. They rented a huge apartment in a trendy neighborhood. Jen developed a huge shopping addiction. (Not the kind that can be satisfied at discount stores, or by frequenting the clearance rack). So when they both got laid off, their excesses made them lose everything.

I’m luckier than Jen in a lot of ways. My self indulgent, stupid behavior manifested itself not in spending too much money (at least not my money) but in eating wayy more fried food than I should, watching too many old teen dramas on my laptop instead of doing my homework and going to class like a good girl. While I do not regret the wonderful times that I spent with Mlles Buffy Summers and Veronica Mars, not to mention the close personal relationship I formed with the Walsh twins and the Scott brothers, I do think I could have planned my time with them better. See, when you fail five out of eight classes in two semesters (yup) people get pissed. My parents were sick of me wasting their money and concerned that I wasn’t doing it in the usual social way of drinking too much cheap beer with my friends.

Jen’s downturn resulted in moving to a bad neighborhood in Chicago, getting her car repossessed and not being able to pay her electric bill. Mine was way less dramatic. I did have to move home, explain to my friends at college why I wasn’t going to be around for our last semester (something I still haven’t done for a lot of them, during my “bad time” as I call it, I was really isolated and stopped talking to them for the perfectly good reason of no reason at all.) I was lucky to find my job, which I’m convinced pulled me out of my self created black hole. And I have these two really amazing friends. I mentioned them before, Katie and Katherine. I know God sent me angels in the form of these two. Jen had Fletch and the two of them pulled together and got their life back on track. Jen discovered her calling as a writer, and I discovered my passion for retail. See, our stories are like totally the same!

Alright not really but I saw enough of myself in Jen the first time around, that rereading it, I saw what I needed to see. I felt a huge swell of pride when I realized what I’d been through, and how well I’d come out the other side.

In a few weeks I’m headed back to school. My screwing up has lead me to need two more semesters instead of just one, but it’s cool. It’s six months of my life. Just six months. It’s nothing. Jen lived in that horrible barrio apartment above that vegan poet for a year. I can certainly live in a student apartment four nights a week, so that I can my degree and chase a career in a retail or publishing or some combination. (Barnes and Noble or Borders? Yes please!) And you know something, I’m ready for that.

At least, I think I am.

The Princess Bride: Reread Date 7/26-7/28

The Book: The Princess Bride by William Goldman

First Edition: 1973

My Edition: 1987 film companion.

Pre Reread Notes:

I’m going to be perfectly honest. (If I can’t be honest on my blog, where can I be?) The first time I read The Princess Bride I was underwhelmed. I love the movie. I love everything about the movie. I love the cast, I love the dialogue, I love all of it. But well, I was young. It was a long book. I read it at the beach. There was no Billy Crystal. I think you get the point.

That being said, the copy that I found in my basement has that really awesome well loved feeling. I mean to say, it is falling apart. In fact, I’m pretty sure it fell apart. The cover is held on with masking tape. To be fair, The Princess Bride has been crazy loved. We love this book in the Nayden household. My brother especially. And my brother doesn’t love books. My sister once gave a copy as a Christmas present to her ex boyfriend, do you know why? Because he’d never heard of it and she said if they wanted to continue dating he had to read it. He did, they were together for about another year and a half. Of course, that guy turned out to be kind of a loser, but I digress. The point is, The Princess Bride has magical uniting powers. It makes everything better. But really, from what I recall, the movie is way better.

Post Reread Notes:

I still like the movie better. That’s not really fair. It’s just the reading is so tainted by the movie. I mean, how could anyone not hear Peter Faulk’s voice in the narrative prose, Mandy Patinkin’s perfect baritone talking of his father’s death, etc. when they read it. To be fair, I enjoyed it much more than when I first read it. I was able to appreciate the satire of it more. I got the joke.

The idea behind The Princess Bride is that it was originally a satirical novel about the fall of royalty written by S. Morgenstern, about the fall of royalty, that William Goldman’s father read to him when he was sick in bed with pneumonia. (Yes, here it’s father to son, to grandfather to grandson.) But the thing was that his father skipped all of the satire and turned it into a romance and adventure story. So Goldman claims that his is the “good parts” version, complete with the occasional commentary (which in the movie is the Faulk/Savage parts.) It also helps that Goldman wrote the screenplay, so he was able to iron out any of the problems that were in the novel (and there are a few). I think that’s why it’s better. Or maybe it’s just Billy Crystal.

Either way, it boils down to this I liked it. This book is an amazing piece of work. A classic. I understand why my father waited years for us to be old enough to read it. But for all of that, I still think the movie is better. And that’s not even because of Cary Elwes’s pecs (Cary Elwe’s was Orlando Bloom before Orlando Bloom, except funny, you know, on purpose) although they are quite nice. A pre Wonder Years Fred Savage doesn’t hurt either. I still think his performance as the video game and baseball obsessed Grandson more greatly impacted his little brother Ben than Kevin Arnold, because this kid is Cory Matthews. And all roads lead to Boy Meets World. But I guess that’s not the point. Actually I’m not sure I have a point. I just wanted to extol the virtues of this spectacular film. But back to the book.

I said already that it was a family favorite. But I didn’t quite expect what happened when I told my brother about this whole project and asked if he had any suggestions. (I noted before that Mike’s not a nook person. Just not his thing.)

“Princess Birde, is on there right?” He said urgently. I gasped in horror at the presumption that I would ever not include it.

“Of course!” I said. “I’m not crazy!”

“Good,” he nodded. “What about Jurrasic Park?” (Mike will also read anything Michael Chrichton wrote. It wasn’t. I added it.)

What I said before about the book bringing people together? I meant that. I think it’s the only non school book that all five members of my immediate family have read. Maybe something by Grisham, except that Mary doesn’t really read Grisham. Therefore, it’s the only book that we can all five of us have a conversation about without the tint of teacher’s voices in our heads. Although usually, those conversations descend into us saying over and over again:

“Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!”

Ella Enchanted Reread Date: 7/26/2010

The Book: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

First Edition: 1997

My edition: 1998 Scholastic Paperback edition

Pre reread thoughts:

I decide to start with something simple, something small, but still epic. So I chose Gail Carson Levine’s fractured fairytale, Ella Enchanted. The first time I read this book I was in elementary school. I was already pretty into feminism, or what I thought was femnism. So, Levine’s quirky feminist retelling of Cinderella totally appealed to me. The book itself was even better. Ella of Frell, who is cursed by a fairy at birth to be ever obedient, is funny and whip smart. Her prince, Prince Charmont (French, for Charming) is her match in wit and temperament and the pair fall in love not under the starry night sky of a ball, but over the year that Ella turns from fifteen to sixteen and Char to seventeen to eighteen. This is also the year that Ella’s mother dies. It’s not your average Cinderella story.

Ella Enchanted is one of my comfort books, which is why it made this list. To paraphrase the other Ella, no matter how my heart is grieving, Ella manages to give me a little lift. I read the book every year or two, just to make sure that it still hits me the same way. So far it always has. But, like every book that I reread I find something new in it every time I read it. I haven’t read it again since I really took on feminism. So that’s what I’m looking for. Also, it has the added benefit of being a fantasy story, that takes place in a medieval fictitious country, so there’s none of that messy dated pop culture feeling to it that some children’s and teen books get. Anyway, we’ll see.

Post Reread thoughts:

Well I was right about it not taking long. Four hours later, I’d laughed, cried and fallen in love with Ella and Char and their story of magic, fairies, ogres all over again. I was also right about the feminism. My God! If we’re worried about what Bella Swann is going to do to the feminist possibilities of young girls who love to read from now on, we’re just going to have to count on heroines like Ella to counter act them. I have to confess, I did sort of take this simple children’s story and read it as a feminist allegory. It was just so easy. After all Ella fights against her patriarchal father, saves herself, rather than waiting for Char to save her, and creates her own happily ever after.

The romance between Ella and Char is perhaps the biggest revelation at this point in my life. The two form a friendship, a “we like each other but don’t know what it means,” kind of relationship and then fall in love. It’s remarkably mature for a romance meant for little girls. It teaches the steps for building a healthy relationship. Plus in the end, the choose each other. A beautiful sentiment. Oh, and did I mention the part, where he falls in love with her all over again, when she’s disguised at the ball? I love that part.

Ella’s evil step family in this version aren’t portrayed as outwardly wicked. No, they are instead shown as foolish, greedy and mean spirited. Her step mother Dame Olga and her two daughters, Hattie and Olive are like mean girls in a middle school. They use Ella’s curse against her, but never in the ways that Ella most fears. Hattie controls Ella while the girls are at school, banning her from speaking to her only friend, a girl named Arieda. Dame Olga uses it to force her to be a servant in her own home when her father loses all of her money. Olive uses it to take money from Ella. Eventually, Hattie tries to use it to steal Char. But our stalwart, feminist era prince will have none of it. No, he sees right through Hattie and wants only Ella.

I’m not crazy. I swear, I mean, a lot of fictional characters have helped me become a feminist. But I think Ella’s a major one. I’m not saying I’m looking for my Prince Char and that’s why I’m so terminally single. Or maybe I am. Is it so wrong to want a guy who laughs at my jokes, and would catch me a centaur colt (which Char does for Ella before she leaves for finishing school) or put up with my crazy family. I’d settle for life without the centaur. Because if Harry Potter is to be believed, centaurs are kind of douchey. But I don’t think it’s wrong to strive for that kind of relationship. Or that delusional. I mean, expecting him to be the crown prince of a mystical country would be delusional, but not unacceptable, if it turns out that Narnia or something is real, and some guy I’m totally compatible with is the prince of it, that’s cool. Or even if say, I make really good friends with Prince Harry, or one of Grace Kelly’s grandsons, I’d absolutely do the marriage thing with them. If we were right for each other, the way that Ella and Char are. I’m not saying I’d marry them just because they were Royal. (Her Serene Highness Princess Irene Brady Nayden Renaldo does sound super nice though)

So, basically after rereading it, with more education and life experience behind me, Ella Enchanted still gets a huge thumbs up from me. I still adore everything about the book. It’s well written and funny, and gives a real look at what a real heroine could be. Even if she does still end up with the totally cute guy at the end, Ella gets much more than just that. And that is what makes her special. Or at least what makes her special to me.