The Sunday Salon: On early morning reading in bed

I've been up since 6 am (not that early for me nowadays) and reading Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In. It's been a while since I've read anything in bed in the morning - a time when the world around you is still asleep and only the dog is also awake (but then she's awake whenever any human is awake so that she can demand that they pet her).

I started off the morning with reading a little about superheroes and their origins - part of an online course I signed up for on edX. I love watching superhero movies, I wish I were introduced to them earlier. Every time, I watch a superhero movie, I find myself wishing that I understood the canon better - how it originated, how the characters are related to each other, what their back-stories are, how old these stories are, whether they are based on or inspired by real people, and so on. After each of these movies, I ride a high where I'm obsessed with these stories and wonder how amazing it would be if they were real, minus all that collateral damage.

Attending this course is my answer to understanding this superhero world. I have never hesitated to read a non-superhero comic book but when it comes to superhero comics, I usually look the other direction. Not knowing much about the canon makes it hard to dive right in. Usually, the way to fix this is by reading more comics, but I'm overly particular about doing things in sequence, and therefore would like to know a little bit of history before I jump in. I can already hear my husband tease-laughing me about this, but in my defense, I do this for pretty much anything. I can be quite a nerd sometimes.

After spending about an hour on that course, I moved on to read Lean In. I have to admit - I'm loving this book so much that I cannot recommend it enough, especially to those who work in corporate companies - men and women alike. To think that I had once insisted that this book was probably not for me! Sheryl Sandberg talks about a lot of the silent issues that plague women in men-dominated industries. By silent, I am referring to those issues that don't usually get to the front page of newspapers, as far as women issues is concerned. When there are more obvious gender issues happening in the world, who wants to bring attention to the quieter discrimination happening in boardrooms? Sounds like elite problems? Ever since I started reading this book, I have started viewing my own workplace differently and responding to the same problems differently, plus I am more aware of when I am myself falling victim to many of the red flags Sandberg mentions in her book. Honestly, I loved going to work every day this week - I did feel like a totally different person with a brand new outlook.

Just having those three hours in the morning to read has brightened up my mood immensely. Not that I was in the dumps or anything, but I feel like I am super happy and excited about nothing in particular. I feel like this day has immense possibilities - so unlike most Sundays, when I wake up with the Monday Blues flu. I don't know if the reading had anything to do with it - maybe reading some positive stuff in the morning really gets the day going. Maybe I should spend all my mornings reading something inspiring or learn something new. Maybe I should delegate morning chores or fiction reading to later in the day.

After that long rejuvenating reading stint, I spent the next couple of hours, preparing brunch - a South Indian combination dish of Puttu and Kadala, which is one of my favorite dishes from my childhood. This pregnancy has left me craving for so many childhood favorites that I have tried to either make them at home or have at an Indian restaurant. These efforts to make them at home usually involve a phone call or text to my mom to check on ingredients and allowed substitutions, and sometimes also to my dad. Luckily, today's brunch was a success and I couldn't stop licking my fingers. We have plenty of leftovers, so I'm looking forward to having more in the evening or maybe sometime tomorrow.

Now that the best part of the day is over, it's time for the chores. I don't mind them so much today - I'm probably still on a high. I want to head to Kohls to get some maxi dresses for myself and a coming-home dress for our little peanut. We are halfway through painting the downstairs family room to convert it to a playroom. I need to order the crib and several baby necessities today. Hopefully, all these will leave me with plenty of time to read more.