book lists
31 Jan 2011

January 2011 Reading Round-up

There was a lot of reading going on this month, 95% of it Required Winter Break Reading of Young Adult Classics.

Wait a second. Make that 100%.

What does this mean? That I should have been keeping a Death Count. Seriously, people are dying/going crazy/trying to kill themselves all over the place in historic YA!

1. Forever… by Judy Blume

I forgot how much I FREAKING LOVE this book. It’s 200 pages of amazingly raw first romance, gratuitous drama, and of course, sexy-sex. RALPH!!! Judy Blume is my hero.

2. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

I was assigned this book for my Reading class in 7th grade… and I remember very clearly not finishing it on time and failing a reading test because I didn’t know what happened with some fire at the end of the book. I felt a little better when, 13 years later, I still didn’t quite understand what happened with that fire. I mean, I get it now, but it took me a few read throughs. Other than that, I was disturbed by how annoyingly didactic this novel is. “If you just go to school and save your pennies, you can rise out of poverty and racism and oppression, kids!” “Be one of the GOOD black people (Logans), children, not the BAD black people (T.J.) 1977 Newbery Medal.

3. Unleaving by Jill Paton Walsh

Rich, pages-long descriptions of the ocean. Thick, pages-long conversations between professors and students about the meaning of life and morality. If that’s what you’re into. Titled after one of my favorite poems. 1976 Boston Globe- Horn Book winner.

4. I Am The Cheese by Robert Cormier

Did I tell you that Robert Cormier’s daughter works at my school… and last semester, she worked withe ME for a few weeks? How bizarre, how bizarre. Much like this book! A psychological thriller with two competing timelines. I’m not sure I figured out what was going on by the end of the book.

5. The Language of Goldfish by Zibby ONeal

Really enjoyed this book. It’s a short, delicate story of a stressed out 13-year-old girl, a budding artist, who can’t figure out how to grow up and may or may not be going crazy. I wish I had time in my busy reading schedule to give this one another read-through.

6. Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson

Read this one during my hellish day of air transportation. A certain classmate of mine *cough* Kristina *cough* hated it and called the main character silent, self-pitying, and self-loathing. I suspect this particular classmate is not an oldest child with gorgeous, spoiled younger sisters. 1981 Newbery Medal

7. Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden

Love, love, loved this book. I wish that 95% of people writing mainstream, heterosexual YA romance/high school stories right now would read this and take extensive notes. It’s really pitch perfect.

8. Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid

A literal coming-of-age novel. Each chapter is an unfolding of Annie John’s life in Antigua, beginning with early childhood memories of idolizing her mother, through the social challenges of high school, and ending when she boards a boat for college off the island. Pretty readable, but I wasn’t in love.

9. House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

I read this using my patented, completely ineffective method of Wii Reading. Meaning – Read 10 pages, play one level of Donkey Kong Country Returns, Read 10 pages, play one more level. Consequently, I don’t remember much about this one.

10. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

This is a book about teenage soldiers in the Vietnam War. I expected it to be vaguely horrifying. It was. But I did not expect to actually enjoy the story. I did.

11. Remembering the Good Times by Richard Peck

Okay, there wasn’t anything WRONG with this book, plot-wise, content-wise, whatever. It was fine. However, all three main characters suffered from acute Dawson’s-Creek-itis, constantly waxing poetic about the Difficulty of Life, the Strength and Duration of their Friendships, the Horror of Growing Up. The three main characters are constantly running around talking about how close a friendship they have, how the three of them grew up together and have an unspoken bond of eternal trust. However, all three characters seem to have forgotten that A) They met A YEAR before the book’s main plot takes place and B) THEY ARE FOURTEEN. THEY ARE TOO YOUNG TO BE TALKING LIKE THEY ARE 50 YEARS OLD. /rant

12. Stotan! by Chris Crutcher

I forget that I like Chris Crutcher’s books so much… but there you have it. I do. Teen male camaraderie at its finest, and sports so well-rendered you’ll forget you hate sports.

13. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

Yet another case of the I-Swear-I-Read-This-Book-But-I-Really-Can’t-Remember-Anything-About-It. I was dutifully impressed, however. So impressed, I would prefer not to write a paper on this book. Unfortunately, the syllabus begs to differ.

14. I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This by Jacqueline Woodson

Ever read a book whose plot relies on some character revelation midway through the novel, and then you read it again and catch all the foreshadowing you missed in the first half of the book? Yeah, that happened here. Such a sad, sad book.

15. A Step From Heaven by An Na

Lyrical prose, vignette-style narration, depicting the suckiness of family life as a new immigrant. 2002 Printz Winner.

16. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Reading this for the umpteenth time, still tickled by Anderson’s wit and Melinda’s survival tactics. Will be spending a significant chunk of the semester thinking and writing and presenting about this novel… 2000 Printz Honor.

libraries
26 Jan 2011

Library (Student) Day in the Life, 2011 edition

It’s that time of year again… time for…. Library Day in the Life!

6:30 a.m. “Jessica!”

“What are you doing here? How is it possible for you to have ANOTHER snow day?”

“I’m sick! I’m taking a sick day!”

“—-”

“What! I get 20 sick days a year.”

“I hate you.”

7:00-9:00 a.m. A little alarm clock snooze, followed by an egg sandwich, shower and blowdry, and generally readying myself for the day. Boyfriend wakes up too and insists upon driving me to Starbucks before work. Well, I mean, if you REALLY WANT to, I guess we can go… Am very excited to avoid taking the damn 39 bus. Every day, I leave earlier and earlier and the bus gets later and later, and – of course – the temperature outside gets colder and colder. The day before, I shivered for so long – knees locked – at the zero-degree bus stop that once I boarded, I had to ask a lady to let me sit down before I passed the heck out. And the bus died. I hate the 39.

9:00-10:00 a.m. Boyfriend texted his friend saying, “Hey, I’m home today if you want to hang out later,” and he of questionable sleep habits replied, “Do you want to hang out right now?” Swing by his apartment on our way, debating whether he actually went to sleep the night before or not. Park in front of the Starbucks – have to shimmy over to the driver’s seat to get out of the car because of severe snowbankage. Order my usual – double tall two pump mocha with skim, and sip while we talk about circular time.

10:00-noon Job #1. Sent about 50 emails, made a few phone calls, and listened to two undergraduates debate where you should and should not study abroad and what majors you should or should not attempt. Briefly discussed Eyes on the Prize and how once you’ve seen the whole series and read the reader, it’s pretty much impossible to speak about race to anyone who hasn’t done the same.

noon-2:00 p.m. Job #2: Reference Desk! The desk is double-staffed at this time of day, so while the library foot traffic is heavy (never fewer than 5 girls huddled around a Laser Printer for two straight hours), I have few questions. I help a student from the Massachusetts School of Pharmacy get set up to search for and borrow books and help a GSLIS student find our secret gratis databases over chat. My boss then puts me to work looking up Choice‘s Outstanding Books of 2010 in the library catalog, and making a list of what we don’t own in Books In Print. Which is exactly the kind of busy work that soothes my soul. Ahhhh. And a friend came to visit me at the Ref desk, too, and we exchanged strategies for pub trivia that evening.

2:00-2:30 p.m. Wait in the interminable Laser Printer Line for some articles to spit out, then headed over to my First Library Class of the Semester! Chat with a few friends before class started, mostly about how much work we will have this semester, how little time, how little money, and how little health insurance.

2:30-5:00 p.m. Programming for Young Adults. The second class of the semester that opened with the question “So what exactly IS a young adult?” Uhhhhhhh. Went over the syllabus – booktalks and observing teens in their natural habitat and critiquing teen library spaces – then went over a brief history of adolescence and library services for teens. Feeling like a bit of a seasoned pro when I can identify the name drops – G. Stanley Hall, anyone? – and random Printz and Newbery winners.

5:00-5:30 p.m. The godforsaken 39 bus…. a;sij;ansdjfkljngksdfa. Call my best friend who I haven’t spoke to since she had a baby last week, and try not to speak too inappropriately while she recaps labor and other gross baby things. Have to squeeze myself out of the bus like a sausage at my stop.

5:30-7:15 p.m. Help my Delinquent Boyfriend make the chipotle corn chowder from Mark Bittman’s Food Matters cookbook, although he took his friend and our roommate to an Indian buffet for lunch and isn’t even hungry enough to eat. Chill out on the couch for a bit before bundling back up and out into the cold for a little pub trivia.

7:15-10:00 p.m. The Brendan Behan is packed. We can’t get a table – just a few bar stools – but with a seven-person entourage, we put up a damn good fight, and answered some seriously obscure questions about weird Coen Brothers films, European explorers and Sailor Jerry’s rum. We were in third place at the final round, and we decided to just bet 10 on both questions… and if we’d got both right, we would have tied for first! However, we got one wrong: apparently The Color Purple was the Steven Spielberg flick that earned the most Oscar nominations without any wins… not E.T. Ugh. We are annoyingly Gen X (or are we Millenials? I’ll report back after a few more classes)

10:00-10:30 p.m. Frosty cold walk home, sleep in a nice warm bed, dreaming of… the 10 to 12 inches of snow on their way to Boston.

Oh, wait. Those are nightmares.

Maybe a few Library Day in the Life’s from now, I’ll be posting from somewhere a little more temperate.

books
20 Jan 2011

get used to it

Four days, four books.

Ah, such is life such is life.

Semester starts in three… two… one…

grad school
17 Jan 2011

three is a magic number

1. I walked into a strange university library today, looking to exercise my borrowing rights as a part of a library consortium and obtain two YA books I need to read for class. The following conversation transpired.

Me: “I’m looking for a few children’s books. I checked the catalog from home and it said they are in, but I don’t have the call numbers or know where the children’s books are.”

Snarky Librarian Who Has No Idea Who He’s Talking To: “Well, call numbers are very important for finding books.”

as;oijao;wiejradosklkadfdfnadf

–

2. I am learning to knit!

I do not know what I am knitting It’s too wide to be a washcloth, and I don’t even know how much yarn I have left. Also, when I do run out of yarn, I think I might have to run to my new local yarn store and ask a knowledgeable employee to tell me how to… oh… stop knitting and do whatever it is you do to cast off or something.

–

3. The Grind is slowly returning. Working 29 hours this week and classes resume in 7 short days. I have a little over a bottle of wine in my fridge, and when it’s gone, I think I’ll have to stop buying/drinking so much alcohol and return to the sober world of early bedtimes and earlier alarm clocks.

Le.

Sigh.

life maintenance
13 Jan 2011

how to travel by air (or not)

Step One:

Somehow manage to completely delude yourself into thinking your flight is on Monday, when in fact, your flight is on Tuesday.

–

Bonus points if the person who informs you of this error is a surly Southwest customer service agent behind the baggage checking counter.

Bonus bonus points if you printed off your flight confirmation email before walking out the door and still neglect to notice the JANUARY 11 staring at your face

Bonus bonus bonus points if your sister had to drive you an hour to the airport.

Step Two:

Put yourself into a mental and physical funk over this misstep.

–

Spend all of Monday working yourself toward a migraine and spend Tuesday morning sleeping in. You will wake up well-rested, albeit rather groggy and in a certain amount of pain, at 10 a.m.

Step Three:

Have the good fortune of attempting to fly home during a week where there is snow in 49 states.

–

The second leg of your flight will be canceled at about 10:15 a.m. Talk to oblivious Southwest customer service agents while you shove down your only meal of the day – toast with peanut butter and jelly – and force your groggy brain to figure out how you are going to get back to Boston A) in time to work on Thursday morning and B) without financial penalty.

Step Four:

Be reckless. Be wild! Be totally insane!

–

Throw caution to the wind. Sure, you could bet on Wednesday’s weather holding out, or even the good graces of your employers, if you happen to end up flying on Thursday and cannot make your shift at the Reference Desk.

But why do that when you can book a 12:40 flight at 10:30, when you are both in your pajamas, half-packed, without a car or a ride, and an hour away from the airport? Oh, and a plane that is flying into a city Southwest has labeled with a weather advisory so severe they are offering free flight transfers ahead of cancellations, and then from there into a city that is expecting 1-2 feet of snow starting in the evening?

Rely on the following for support:

– your tireless mother who leaves her cell phone ringer on during meetings expressly to answer “yes” when you call and ask her if she can drop everything she is doing, come home, and drive you to the airport.

– the fact that because you are an idiot and thought your flight was yesterday, your bags are already 95% packed and your suitcase will only require ten minutes of sitting and stomping and zipping.

– the assurance that even if you are stranded at BWI for anywhere from a few hours to a few days, you have a friend, a cousin, and an uncle who all live nearby and might offer refuge.

– a sister who remembers your energy drink in the fridge and brings it to you for the car trip to the airport.

Step Five:

Open your karmic doors to airport miracles.

–

Repeat to yourself:

“Traffic and weather will not impede my journey down I-94 in any way.”

“I will successfully check two bags and pose for a naked security photo in 20 minutes or less.”

“I will not be randomly selected for a full-body pat-down cavity-check terrorism search.”

“My gate will be preternaturally close to the airport entrance.”

“My connecting flight will be not be cancelled.”

“My boyfriend will eventually pick up his phone or read any of my frantic text messages and know I will be at the airport about 5 hours ahead of schedule.”

“This whole ‘de-icing’ the wings process will not be so prohibitively slow that I will miss my connecting flight.”

“The gate for my flight transfer won’t be too far from my departing flight, or too difficult to locate.”

“My bags and I will make it to the same location at the same time, and if not, my panic-attack-handwriting on my luggage tags will be legible enough for someone to leave my bags at my apartment, eventually.”

“The zipper on my suitcase that popped open in the middle won’t slowly unzip while in transit, my every belonging spilling into the abyss of airplane cargo.”

Step Six:

Don’t be afraid to run.

–

The gates might be close, but you don’t know that for sure and yes, your plane is already boarding, so if you get a move on, you might even have the chance to pee before your flight leaves.

Step Seven:

Be prepared.

–

Carry, on your person:

– Two Touchstones of Young Adult Literature, for productive entertainment (when you control that panicky-fuzzy-brain, finally)

– Gum, for ear poppin’

– Chapstick, for lip glossin’

– Excedrin, for aforementioned migraine

– Three Driver’s Licenses (two expired, one current), because last year you tried to fly with none, so you might as well be cautious

– Headphones and Kanye, for the inevitable chatty passengers who distract you from your riveting Touchstones

– Laptop, for accessing free wi-fi when you are stuck between departures and baggage claim at Boston Logan, due to some kind of security breach, and entertaining yourself while your boyfriend drives all the way from Southbridge after missing all of your frantic calls and texts until after you’ve landed.

Step Eight:

Do not cross your apartment’s threshold before acquiring the essentials.

–

– Groceries for that pesky snowstorm you barely averted

– Three bottles of wine and a case of Sam Adams

– Take-out pad thai, to make up for a pathetic daily diet of toast and airline peanuts.

Step Nine

If at all possible, schedule a day for recovery immediately after arrival.

–

Bonus points if you have snow outside and a boyfriend inside.

Bonus bonus points if you play over 2 hours of video games on your brand new HD-TV.

book lists
05 Jan 2011

Best Reads of 2010

 

10. Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation by Gregory Maguire

9. The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

8. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

7. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith

6. Push by Sapphire

5. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

4. The Catcher in the Rye

3. Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert

2. The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp

 

1. This Is Not The Story You Think It Is by Laura Munson

 

 

boston
01 Jan 2011

2010 Retrospective

In January, I spent two weeks in Michigan, a weekend darting in and out of ALA Midwinter, and started my second semester of grad school with a great deal of vigor and energy. Or at least I think I had a great deal of vigor and energy. If I didn’t, I certainly should have.

In February, I wrote 50 two-page papers about 50 picturebooks.

That was about it.

I also stopped eating meat for the foreseeable future. That required considerably less energy than the first task.

In March, I became a Theater-Girlfriend, and spent a lot of nights and spring breaks alone with my kitty while Lance prepared for his directorial debut: an all 4th and 5th grade version of Seussical Jr. We entertained Lance’s mother during a massive Nor’easter – sightseeing = umbrellas, restaurants, and woohoo, a The Giant Whole Foods in Dedham! I also bit the bullet and replaced my cell phone. Woohoo, texting!

In April, things started getting more fun. I visited David Macaulay’s studio in Vermont, which was equal part childrens-lit-nerdgasm and funky-crazy-roadtrip. And then… AND THEN!! MY FAMILY CAME TO VISIT ME IN BOSTON!! Later, I celebrated 7 years of blogging, got hired for my second job, survived a week in Boston without Lance, and memorized all 151 first-generation Pokemon.

It’s like I KNEW I was boring for the first 3 months of 2010.

May began with signing the lease on a new apartment for September and conquering yet another harrowing finals week. Earlier in the year, I thought finals would bring me unemployment and a brief respite from schoolwork. However, my boss scrounged up some summer work to occupy my time, I landed a swank publishing internship for the summer, and then class! Glorious, class!

The weather also became quite nice – I started running after work with Lance, and walking to and from most places.

June was just a mess of early morning Starbucks trips, 9 to 5’s, and CSA vegetables. Literally.

So in July, we hit the road. Boston to DC. ALA Annual Conference. DC to Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach to DC. Pick up passengers. DC to Boston. When I returned, there was some entertaining (Whale watching and fireworks and heat wave OH MY!), and then back to the internship/part-time job grindstone.

Lance began his first teacher’s summer vacation, and quickly took up a part-time job scouring Craigslist for free and cheap goods. When he brought home a window air conditioning unit, I cried tears of joy.

In August, there was work, packing, a weekend in Maine. A trip back to Michigan, packing, and an extended “I’m moving to Boston and I’m crashing on your couch until I find a place” houseguest.

In September, we moved.

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I am so going to have to move again in September 2011 and it makes me sick to just think about.

Anyone I know want to move into my roommate’s bedroom so we don’t have to move?

Seriously.

In October, I went out on Halloween, under duress and in costume.

November was pretty crappy.

I tried to write a novel.

I tried to not have any nervous breakdowns.

I didn’t try hard enough.

Whatevvverrr…

I did get to go to two Thanksgivings, visit my aunt and uncle and cousins, ran three times a week (before daylight savings hit…) and I’m sure some other redeeming stuff that I’ve forgotten.

And now, December has ended. This month, I wrote two 10 page papers, read 17 books, and made it home for Christmas.

Hello, 2011.

How are you?

Are you going suck a little less than 2010?

grad school
14 Dec 2010

wrapping it up

I’m not really sure what happened this semester.

Things are finally slowing down. I have done all the substantial writing and researching that needs to be done for the semester, and I even have a grade: a B+! My first B of grad school. How precious.

I still have a little catch-up work to do, but it’s manageable. About 3 reasonable days worth of work to do over the course of a week, I’d say. Nothing to panic over. And then I’m DONE done DONE with school work until the 24th of January.

But the last month or so has been rough rough ROUGH and I really can’t figure out what happened.

Option #1: This Semester Was A Failed Experiment

For whatever reason, I am capable of keeping it together while taking 3 courses and working 20 hours a week, but I am not capable of keeping it together while taking 2 courses and working 30 hours a week.

Maybe there’s just something about being out of the house those extra 7 hours of the week that throws my routine out of whack.

I know my body has been hurting: I’ve become a slave to the IcyHot patch this semester. After awkwardly helping me apply one in the restroom at CVS before hopping back in the car for a few hours, Lance asked, innocently, if there was something OTHER than an IcyHot patch that fixed my shoulder (and, therefore, my migraines) more permanently. I laughed at him, just because of the way he phrased his sentence. No, there wasn’t anything that I was aware of, otherwise, my shoulder would be permanently fixed, right?

He got a little indignant. Rightfully so. So I clarified. The only thing that really helps when I’m stuck in a cycle of pain is having some time off, a few days where I can sleep in past 7 a.m. and remain reclined for the majority of the day.

This semester, I was rarely granted two consecutive days off… and then there were the ever popular Twelve Hour Thursdays!

Anyway, so if my schedule is keeping me in a fairly consistently headached state, and those headaches are keeping me from functioning at my peak, then maybe my schedule is ultimately responsible for making me craz

But, I don’t really buy that. I’m young. I’m adaptable. 7 more hours out of the house every week is NOT that much, really.

So, there’s Option #2: This Semester Got Off To A Bad Start And Snowballed Downhill From There

I wrote about how much simultaneously starting the semester and moving into a new apartment threw me for a loop. I’m not going to blame the move in theory – especially because it’s likely that we will have to move again next year – but there was something about that perfect storm of stress, heat, and work that I never quite recovered from.

Things that I threw from cardboard box to shelf on September 3 are still laying where they fell. I unpacked our last taped box two weeks ago, but there’s still an opened box full of miscellaneous crap that needs attending to. It sits on the floor of my bedroom, taunting me.

Like I mentioned before, I’m not sure I’ve had two consecutive days off this semester, and especially not two consecutive days off without homework. Maybe I just never had the mental space to clear house after the summer ended. And it’s not like my summer was a walk in the park either… but let’s not trace my neurosis back that far if we can avoid it.

Anyway, this isn’t a bad theory, really. There’s hope for next semester – my winter break is overwhelming me with it’s Expanse of Nothing-ful Days, and even if I have to move next semester, we can learn from our mistakes and ask for a few days off work to recover from the chaos properly.

But then, when I REALLY look at what I accomplished this semester, I start to feel a little weird.

Option #3: This Semester Was A Bit Busy, But It All Turned Out Better Than Average

I did have quite a few successes this semester that I never bothered to appreciate or chronicle properly.

Academically, things weren’t the best, but they weren’t so bad.

  • A B+ is still a fine grade. If I get a B+ in my second class, that will be a fine grade, too.
  • I completed most of the reading for most of my classes.
  • I turned in all of my assignments on time.
  • I had 100% attendance.

Job-wise, I held it up.

  • I remembered to be in the places I needed to be at the times I needed to be in them.
  • I was able to answer a majority of my Reference questions promptly and accurately.
  • I completed a number of tasks at both jobs.

I was social-enough, by my standards.

  • I attended two school-friends parties.
  • I frequented a handful of bars.
  • I chatted with my friends and family via phone with regularity.
  • I went to two Christmas parties.

Personally, things felt bad, but objectively, they looked okay.

  • I ran 3 times a week between October 1 and Thanksgiving.
  • I spent quite a bit of time petting and cuddling my newly-affectionate kitty.
  • Our budget turned out okay, even though Lance had a smaller paycheck this school year.
  • I cooked a lot of yummy, healthy meals and only had to eat lunch at the salad bar a few times.
  • I read a few books for fun, listened to some good music, and kept up with a few decent television shows.
  • Most of the time, I got 8 hours of sleep.

So maybe things were fine. But they didn’t FEEL fine.

Option #4: There Is Something Wrong With You Because You Felt Miserable This Semester

I don’t like that option either.

But I’m assuming they are all true.

And I’m hoping that with

1) Organization and Strategy

2) Some Time Off

3) Limiting the Busy-ness and Focusing on Being Freaking Positive Already

and

4) Pretending I’m Somewhat of a Mental Patient Who Needs All The Help She Can Get,

that nobody will have to scrape me up from the floor of

Spring Semester.

grad school
10 Dec 2010

NaNoWriMo Diaries – Day 40

Date: December 10, 2010

Day: 40

Goal Word Count: 50,000 (and then some)

Current Word Count: 25,016

Progress Report:

NaNoWriMo, you have bested me yet again.

Last time I checked in, I was crawling out of the cave of paper-writing – I was behind on my wordcount, fatigued, and oh guess what: there were MORE papers waiting for me!

Sometime during that week, I decided that spending a few hours a day with a novel that sucked pretty bad was just taking my time away from doing other more important things, like homework, like reading, like regaining my sanity.

So I gave it up.

And I’m totally cool with that.

Thinking:

I’m thinking that even though I have given up, again, I will still champion you, NaNoWriMo. You have a lot of detractors out there, but screw ’em all. I still remember the first time – the adrenaline, the words flying off my fingers, the stories unrolling at my finger tips, and I think that can happen again for me. And yes, I could decide that next month is the month for me, but there’s also something great about being part of a novel-writing team, about updating your little wordcount thingamawhatsies and seeing, quantitatively, where you’ve been and where you need to be.

That magic can happen. It will happen again, for me, and it will happen in November.

I just couldn’t see it out this time.

I gave up on you this time, but I won’t give up on you forever.

Feeling: Satisfied

Moody Author Photo:

Until we meet again…

books
09 Dec 2010

strange things are happening to me

1. I just realized that in 2011, my youngest sister will get her driver’s license.

2. The judges kicked off the flippin’ Whiffenpoofs last night!

!!!! !!!!!!!!!!

I am majorly offended and am considering retracting my previously pronounced love for The Stupid Sing Off.

I reacted by impulse-buying their latest CD on iTunes.

Which was probably not the best idea for my finances, and reinforced my indignation.

Bah humbug!

~

3. I finished reading a book yesterday that left me with that “No, no, no this CAN’T be the last page! Let me savor you a little longer!” feeling.

I’d forgotten about this book, and I’d forgotten about that feeling.

~

4. This morning, I ran out of money for Christmas shopping.

My bank account isn’t at zero, but 69 dollars will not go particularly far when I still have gifts to purchase for Dad, Best Friend, and Boy friend. Not to mention my weekly intake of caffeinated beverages, impulse purchases of mp3s, and the fact that payday is still a week away.

I started to brainstorm: baked goods, combined birthday/Christmas gifts, praying to the USPS gods to send me my replacement credit cards posthaste, an offer to Clean My Dad’s Car (he seems to like this better than presents).

My mind wandered. “Is there anyone who owes me money?” I thought. “Am I waiting on any checks that I’ve forgotten about?”

This was silly, obviously. There are Christmas checks from the Grandparents to look forward to, but no guarantee they’ll be here in time to shop, and what’s sadder than spending your own Christmas gift buying presents for other people?

I sighed.

And then three hours later, remembered that yes, somebody does owe me money. Somebody owes me A THOUSAND DOLLARS and if I don’t get it by the end of next week, shit’s going DOWN!

(Somebody = my school. I’m not a loan shark, people!)

When does that happen? Ever?