Why I'm Not Team Peeta

Let me just get one thing straight:  Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen are perhaps my favorite literary characters of all time.  Not as a couple and not as a team, but as individuals.

My love for Katniss is obvious.  She's a survivor.  She's a badass.  She is woman, hear her roar!  But what makes her truly brilliant is that she is devoid of an emotional connection to nearly everyone and everything around her.  She's so in her head all the time that she hardly ever has time to be in her feelings.  I, on the other hand, am constantly in my feelings.  Reading about Katniss is refreshing in a weird way because she's so different from every other female protagonist out there and so very different from me. 

And then there's Peeta.  He is unapologetic about being just who he is all the time.  He cries on the trip to the train station because he needs to cry because he's about to go into the em-effin Hunger Games.  He likes decorating cakes.  He loves Katniss with his entire being and he's not afraid to say it to her or all of Panem.  He likes to bake and paint pictures and doesn't feel emasculated by Katniss's superior hunting skills and he loves the color of orange at sunset.  And perhaps most endearing, he helps Katniss stay alive (without actively keeping her alive) when everyone else was thinking only of themselves.  Even when he's been hijacked by the Capitol, somewhere deep inside he knows who he is enough to know he loves Katniss.

Gale is an okay character, but I don't like who he becomes in Mockingjay and I was never that excited by him in the other books, either.  As a character he didn't really intrigue me or keep me on my toes. 
Yes, I like Peeta more than I like Gale. But that doesn't make me a t-shirt-wearing, poster-board-waving member of Team Peeta.  Because I also like Peeta more than Haymitch and Finnick and Effie...and Jay Gatsby and Harry Potter and Atticus Finch, for that matter. 

The reason I'm not Team Peeta is that these books are about so much more than a girl picking out a boyfriend. They're about survival, growth, and  being true to who you are.  I'm not Team Peeta and I'm not Team Gale because I'm Team Katniss.  I root for her because if there's anyone who deserves to survive, it's her.  It's the girl who has done nothing but take care of others all her life.  And ultimately, Gale is right, she ends up with the guy who she can't live without.  She doesn't need someone with whom she can be angry at the world.  She needs hope.  She needs the first dandelion of spring.  She needs a loaf of bread when her family is slowly starving to death. She needs Peeta.  She never truly had a choice because, in my humble opinion, she always knew she needed Peeta. She doesn't need him to physically survive because we all know she's got that covered, but she needs him to make life worth living.

Perhaps I'm most angry about this whole Team Peeta vs. Team Gale nonsense because Team Boy vs. Team Other Boy was born with Twilight, a book about how important it is to have a boyfriend.  There was no Team Harry vs. Team Ron because the Harry Potter books were about a lot more than that, as are the Hunger Games books.  So let's just quit it, please?  Pretty please?  For the sake of the integrity of the books, cut it the eff out.

Current Obsessions

The New Girl

I have a new favorite TV show and, surprise, surprise, it's not a reality show!  I love "The New Girl."  Read these quotes from  the latest episode where Nick spends some time in a "fancy man's" office. 

• Jess:  "It makes me want to sit by the fire and talk about how annoying Ghandi is." 
• Nick:  "Do you smell that?  It smells like leather, Teddy Roosevelt, and Wistfulness."
• Nick to a wooden duck:  "I want to kill you because I respect you."

           Nick to Jess:  "I think I understand hunting!"

• Nick:  "I just came in here and it smell like Shakespeare...if Shakespeare were  damn cowboy. And hawksnests, and boat fuel, and cigars, and bourbon, and man stuff."
• Nick:  "He smells like strong coffee and going to see a man about a horse!"

The Hunger Games

I've been obsessed with the books since I read all three in five days right after Christmas and last night I saw the movie at the midnight release.  I've read some reviews critiquing it for various things, including that the character's relationships weren't developed enough because it was too fast paced and that Jennifer Lawrence didn't have any on-screen chemistry with the rest of the cast.  To those people I say that the movie was fast-paced because the book is fast paced and Jennifer doesn't have on screen chemistry with the cast because Katniss doesn't know how to relate to people.  She played the part just right, as did everyone else, and it's quite honestly the best book-to-movie adaptation I've seen in a long time, possibly ever. 

Rice

Yep, rice.  I've been really into the idea of rice lately--chinese food, japanese food, mexican food, you name it.  I haven't been terribly pleased with my own rice dish execution, but any takeout involving rice is my friend.

My New Watch/Rose Gold

Source

I don't know if my obsession is with my watch or with rose gold, either way I love this watch and I love that I got a really good deal on it. 



Tales of an Apathetic Hypochondriac

I’m a pretty healthy gal.  My lipids aren’t perfect and I could stand to shed some pounds, but other than that I’m pretty easy for doctors to deal with.  Or at least I was.  You see, I spend 8 hours a day sitting in a cubicle reading medical records.  At first this just made me kind of weird in social settings because I would randomly start spouting off weird medical facts.  But recently I’ve turned into a full on hypochondriac who diagnoses every cough, itch, and pain as something that is killing me.  HOWEVER, as this post's title suggests, I’m a pretty apathetic hypochondriac which means that I rarely if ever go to the doctor to follow up on all the ailments that I’m convinced afflict me.  Since this all started I have diagnosed myself with the following:

Brain Tumor

A few months ago I started getting really low grade frontal area headaches.  They are just enough to get annoying but not enough to take Tylenol (because then I’ll get hooked and get liver disease….DUH!).  But I’d never gotten this many headaches so frequently so, of course, I had a brain tumor.   You may say, “Stop it Trista, you don’t have a brain tumor, that’s absurd.”  But do you know how many of my claimant’s found out they had brain tumors after they had headaches?  Okay, neither do I, but it was at least 2.  And I have joined their ranks.  Nevermind the fact that I realized around the same time that I was clenching my jaw and grinding my teeth a lot.  Clearly those things are not related at all and I have a brain tumor. 

Connective Tissue Disease

A few weeks ago my legs hurt, my arms were sore, and I just didn’t feel right.  So clearly I was finally showing symptoms of that connective tissue disease that’s been dormant all my life.  I mean, what else could it be?  It wasn’t that I was coming down with the nasty cold that Paul was getting over.  And it clearly had nothing to do with my having just overdone it at the gym.  Nope, I had a chronic disease that can’t be cured.

Diabetes

The other day at about 11:30 I started to get a little shakey and weak.  So I decided it was time to go to the doctor pick up a prescription for insulin and a glucometer because obviously I’ve got the ‘betes.  It had nothing to do with the fact that I had replaced breakfast with coffee that morning, my stomach was grumbling, and it was time for lunch.  Nope, my pancreas had decided to stop cooperating with my body and I should just get used to the idea of shooting up insulin for the rest of my life.

Osteoarthritis

Sometimes my knees hurt after I run and sometimes I can hear them when I walk up stairs.  Like any sane person I attribute this to the osteoarthritis that is going to not-so-slowly rid me of my mobility in a couple years.  It obviously has nothing to do with the fact that these things happen after high impact activities and that I probably need to replace my running shoes.  It also has nothing to do with the fact that I typically sit with one of my knees bent under the opposite leg.  Nope, I’m just a couple years away from the first of many bilateral knee replacements.  Also, don’t I sound convincing when I use words like bilateral?

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Really, who hasn't diagnosed themself with carpal tunnel syndrome at least once?  Oh, you haven't?  Well the point is, clearly I have it.

But it should be noted that I’m not just diagnosing myself.  Oh no, I’m also diagnosing those I love and no one is safe from my diagnoses.  Don’t complain of any pain or I’ll be asking what type of pain and what other symptoms you have.  Just ask Paul.  I recently decided that he has bronchitis and that my mom had a stricture in her esophagus.  But to be fair, it turns out she really did have a stricture.  So score one for me.  But not for her because, you know, I can’t imagine having you esophagus dilated is fun. 

**It should be noted that I in no way actually think that I have these things all the time.  I'm just momentarily convinced of one diagnosis every time I don't feel 100% amazing.  So Mama, calm down.  I'm okay.