I listened to “Marcelo In The Real World” on audiobook and am confident I wouldn’t have experienced it like I did if I had read the hard copy with my eyes.
Why? Well, I’ll get to that.
Seventeen-year-old Marcelo Sandoval best describes his quirks as traits commonly seen with Asperger’s Syndrome. He goes to a special school – Patterson, he has a special interest (what you or I may call an obsession) – religion, and he lives apart from his family – in his treehouse in the back yard.
He has difficulty performing many tasks expected of most people, and he is uncomfortable in many social situations.
Marcelo’s big plans for the summer center around working with the Haflinger ponies at his school, a job he will continue with the next – his final – school year. Before he can start, Arturo, Marcelo’s father, proclaims that Marcelo must join the Real World and work at Arturo’s law firm. If he succeeds there, he can finish school at Patterson. If he fails, he must stay in the Real World and graduate from public school.
Marcelo joins the Real World, and boy howdy, does he get swept right up in the Very Good and Very Ugly that he has been sheltered from at Patterson.
Read by Lincoln Hoppe, the audiobook presents the book at a slower pace, and Hoppe reads in an often-monotone voice similar to how Stork describes Marcelo’s own voice. Listening to this book made me chew on each and every word, the way Marcelo chews on each and every experience and thought.
If I had read this book at my own pace, in my own internal voice, I’m pretty sure I would have gotten Marcelo all wrong and wouldn’t have found such a deep appreciation for his journey. There is so much readers will pick up on right away, perhaps what normally would register as “totally saw that coming” plot twists, but we’re meant to see them and understand them, and we’re meant to watch as Marcelo works things on his own in his own way. If I had read this book instead of listening to it, I probably would have zoomed through the “come on and figure it out already” stuff to get to the resolution of what’s going on around Marcelo, and I would have completely missed out on the bigger picture, which really is a coming-of-age story for Marcelo.
Marcelo works through some problems he faces with some tremendously deep considerations – some of which I must say I don’t always consider in my own life, even when deep considerations are rightfully required. The way his brain forces him to overthink is somewhat of a wake-up call to do the same more often.
Portrait of PCOS
Details to make note of:
- Token PCOS drugs: Femara and Metformin
- Acne: I got through my first 26.8(ish) years with basically clear skin, but I’ve spent all of age 27 battling zits. IT SUCKS.
- Rad hair. No, I did not get bangs. I shed more hair than normal in the seven months my body failed to ovulate. It didn’t bother me then because I have wicked thick hair. Losing more than normal was no big deal. Now, it’s growing back, and the 2 inches of hair closest to my scalp is extra thick, and I have these heinous stellar “bangs.” I tried making the short hairs stick out all over, but guess what! They aren’t uniform, so it’s impossible for me to properly illustrate the shit growing out of top of my head.
- Sarcastic smile and thumbs up – because sometimes there’s nothing left to do but smile.
It’s McHealthy Monday again, and I’m kind of out of healthy-type photos. Do you really want to see the carrot sticks I munched on today or the yogurt I had for breakfast? Do you want to see a photo of my water bottle or another pic of me on the treadmill?
I thought not.
Instead, this entry is sponsored by my PCOS, which is partly behind my motivation for McHealthy Monday.
I have scaled back on my high-GI foods, but I’m not happy yet with my cuts. I’m still trying to figure out a good balance that works for me. So far, I think it’s going to be something like oatmeal or a smoothie for breakfast, a sandwich on whole wheat for lunch and only protein and low-GI veggies for snacks and dinner.
I’ve treadmilled three times since last McHealthy Monday, and, while that’s not ideal, it is more than I did before.
Super Bowl party perfection
Rocky, the hellcat
‘Tis the first photo taken with my new camera. I threw it on easy mode to see what it called easy, and hey! Not too shabby!
I’m on my way to remembering/refreshing my brain on what things like ISO and f-stop mean so I can take over the world … er, the manual settings. Till then, my photos are going to be a total work in progress. These next few Project 365 days should be funsies!
So, I had this brilliant idea to photograph my oatmeal ingredients.
Then I realized I’m out of bananas.
Then I had this brilliant idea to digitally add a cute banana.
So I set up my ingredients, took the photo, edited the photo, added the banana, uploaded the photo to the Internet … and realized I forgot two ingredients.
Milk and water.
Screw.
Apologies, blog readers! I failed at my brilliant idea, and I’m too lazy to rectify it. You’ll just have to suffer and imagine milk and water in your sweet little heads.
You can do that, right?
Great.
Once upon a time, I could only rarely stomach oatmeal, and only the fruit-and-cream instant variety. Then I read about Kath’s oatmeal, which she swore was delicious and life-changing, and I decided to give it a try.
Oh. My. Goodness.
This oatmeal recipe has changed my life.
You can check out Kath’s original recipe and variations, but since I’ve modified her recipe some, I’ll share what I use for my oatmeal base:
Makes 1 serving
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/2 banana, mashed
pinch of kosher salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tbs. ground flax seed
Combine oats, mashed banana, salt, milk and water in a saucepan. Heat on medium until bubbly, stir/heat until it reaches your desired consistency. Stir in vanilla and flax.
DUNZO.
That’s it.
Really.
Well, you can add in stuff after that, like berries or peanut butter or pureed pumpkin and spices.
Try it. This oatmeal will change your life.
(For the super observant, you’ll see I have two varieties of oats. I use steel-cut oats when I make a batch to last all week. Instead of following the instructions that say use “this much” water, I use that amount of half-water, half-milk. Does that make sense? I hope it does.
Anyhow, follow the cooking directions plus bananas and salt, add in the vanilla and flax, let cool, and portion out into containers for the week. Add toppings the morning you eat the serving. VOILA!)
