books

Reading and Watching

/ books, movies

I did a Bad Thing.

I signed up for Netflix.

Well, their two-week free trial, anyway. I also put a HUGE reminder to myself to cancel on January 29th so I won’t get charged. I put Covenant and High School Musical in my queue.

I watched Dogma for the first time over the weekend. To think, for some reason, I’d been against ever watching that movie because I thought there were demons in it. And there are, but they aren’t the scary kind. Not really. Anyway, I REALLY enjoyed that movie. A LOT. And Alanis Morrisette looked so pretty in it. As did Salma Hayak, who I just love. Anyway, Dogma and Clerks II are my favorite Kevin Smith movies.

(I’ve been told by two people that Rosario Dawson reminded them of me. WHOA? Do you know how freakin’ beautiful she is?????)

I also put sixteen books on reserve at the library. Four of them are ready, and I will go pick them up tomorrow. YAY for books!! Especially “free” ones. 🙂

Finished reading Tattoo. It was QUITE the page turner! Jennifer Lynn Barnes (jenlyn_b) has done it again. BUY IT NOW!

Melodye Shore (newport2newport) was kind enough to order me a copy of Better Than Yesterday, AND she sent it by two-day shipping! I should have it this weekend! 🙂 Yes, I think I will read 100 new books this year, too. And I won’t lose the dang list this time.

So far, I have read:

1. Two Steps Forward – Rachel Cohn
2. Indigo Blue – Cathy Cassidy
3. Just As Long As We’re Together – Judy Blume
4. Gathering Blue – Lois Lowry
5. Tattoo – Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Granted, most of the books I read are YA, so they tend to be a lot shorter than adult books. But that happens to be my preference. Adult books take too long to get to the point for me, and they tend to have a lot of pointless filler.

I think I’ll read Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator next. 🙂

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Potluck

/ books, life, sick

I can’t stop playing the Hidden Pictures game on the Highlights for Kids website. Especially the ones with all the cool sound effects. Sad, huh?

I went home early yesterday and stayed home today. I slept a lot, and woke up a bunch of times today barely able to swallow because my throat and ears hurt so much. Things are still not ideal, but at least the rest of me feels close to normal. Or maybe I still AM sick, because I did the dishes, and you know how I hate to do dishes.

Drinking TONS of orange juice. I have to go back to work tomorrow, feeling better or not, so I hope the OJ helps. At any rate, I will be going to bed pretty early tonight.

Just went through and read all of my Sarah Dessen books. Not in order again, but close enough together that I began recognizing patterns and other characters making cameos. I LOVE when authors do that. But her main characters all attend at least one party, there is always a group playing quarters or cards, and people drinking (ew) beer. I got excited once I recognized places and characters and things all interchanging. Good times. I hope I get to publish more than one book so I can do that, too. Who am I kidding? I hope to publish ONE book. *sigh*

Anyway, I’m not going to sit here getting all depressed and whatnot. It’s probably time for me to eat some dinner, curl up with a good book, and make an early night of it, huh? 🙂 ‘Til next time.

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Sunday….

/ books, life, weekend

I know I say this every year, but DANG there are a lot of people with birthdays in the first two weeks of November, oh say…NINE MONTHS after Valentine’s Day.

The pot roast Crock-pot experiment was a sucess! Well worth getting up at 730am for!!!! (You know, to cut potatoes and such). Everything is sooo yummy.

Had another VERY lazy Sunday. :X Weird dreams, too. Finished reading Sweet Revenge by Nora Roberts for the 438574893567th time. I LOVE that book. It’s easily one of my absolute favorites. Such rich storytelling. Nora Roberts is truly gifted. My copy of the book is starting to fall apart. I’ve had it for about ten years, now.

I’ve passed my goal of reading 100 new books this year. I think I’m up to 104 or 105 now. Amazing, huh? It might be time to put some new ones on reserve at the library. 🙂

I’m playing around on 43 Places, and wow, I didn’t realize I’d traveled so much throughout my life. I mean, I know it’s not a lot compared to some people, but for me, it’s impressive. No wonder I have such wanderlust! Here’s my page: [link] No complaints here, I just want to travel more! 🙂

In other news, a certain fire is coming back in me. Slowly but surely. And that’s all I want to say about that certain matter. Just know that it’s a GOOD THING.

That’s about all for now. Gonna get another plate of food. 😉 See ya!

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Friday…!!

/ books, life, work, writing

Yesterday, I read The Giver by Lois Lowry. And like a fool, I started crying, right there in my cubicle. I swear, I’ve cried more in the past month I’ve been there than I have the entire six years I was at Nationwide. Okay, that’s an exaggeration. But WOW. That book just gripped me. I remember Lois Lowry’s Anastasia books. I loved those books. But The Giver. Wow. She’s versatile and sooo good. Soooo good.

I’ve been reading a LOT at work. Since I’m working on the Literature and Character Education (LACE) teacher guides, it’s important for me to know the material in the books. OH DARN, right? SUCH a hardship. Getting paid to READ, right? Seriously, I cannot complain. Except for the fact that I read too damned fast! I need to slow down. Some days I manage to make it through two books AND the LACE guides.

What else? Oh yes. My doctor put me on a medication for my headaches and BOY DOES IT MAKE ME SLEEPY. He told me to take it before bed, which I did. But I had a hard time keeping my eyes open today. I was so cold so I had the hot thing and I was drinking cocoa and once that stuff took effect, I felt all fuzzy and warm. It was hard to stay awake.

Speaking of cold… there was snow here yesterday! Lots of flurries. Lots and lots. Kind of exciting, but then again, not really. Although I did enjoy getting out my cute scarf and hat and gloves.

I’m so glad it’s Friday! I really am. Two days of not getting up when it’s still dark out. Nice.

Last night, in my drug-induced post-sleep haze, I started thinking of the church I used to go to when I was in college. The St. Thomas More Newman Center. There are people there who were there when I used to go there!! Wow, such a long time ago, the Catholic me. But you know, there is a little bit of her still in me, the current me.

I’ve been on a MADONNA kick lately! I don’t know what my deal is, but I’ve been listening to loads of Madonna. I guess it’s just time for that phase in my life.

Writing. Sigh. Even though I’m on a break, of course it’s calling me. However, I stay out of the professional loops and things–I’ve really cut myself off from that world, because hearing of everyone else’s success is just highlighting my failures and it makes me depressed and bitter and angry, not to mention jealous–so yeah, it’s a good thing I’m keeping away from the writing world for now. It’s really hard to see everyone else moving ahead, while I stay stuck. 🙁

Anyway.

Happy Friday, people! 😀

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I Don’t Really Want to Post

/ books, life, work

I don’t really want to post, but I feel compelled to.

Firstly, I want to tell everyone to friend Andy (crimsonghost_oh), one of my best friends for… well, the number of years is in the double digits (*feels old*). He just got a LJ, so go say Hi.

Secondly, work is draining me. Not because it’s hard. Oh no. So far it’s been too EASY. I’ve been doing Handwriting and LACE. The LACE stuff I love, because it has some meat to it and introduces me to some great children’s books. The one I read yesterday, Grandma’s Records, actually had me in tears. I’ve never cried over a picture book before. But the story is beautiful and the illustrations (also done by the author) are out of this world.

But the Handwriting. There MIGHT be five or six lines of text to a page. And I get finals, so most of the big, glaring errors are gone. It really only takes me a couple of hours to do Handwriting proofs, but the work is so scarce and the due dates are sooo far ahead, that I try to stretch things out as long as I can. Unfortunately, that makes me REALLY nit-picky and drained by the time, oh say, 11am rolls around. I like copyediting, but I wish there was more. I wonder if I’ll want to take that back in a few weeks.

Anyway, enough about that.

I booked my ticket for Philadelphia in November. I can’t believe I’m actually travelling for a concert. My mom would never let me do that as a teen. But I really would like to see Dylan do his new songs and he doesn’t appear to be coming to Columbus anytime soon. It’ll be fun, and yet another city to add to my Many Travels of Ronni log. Not that I had one, but maybe I should start one.

Right now, I’m reading Burned by Ellen Hopkins. It’s blowing my mind. Only this year have I started reading free verse novels. The emotion in them is so intense. I would LOVE to be able to write a free verse novel. I tried, but I can’t do it on a computer. I think I’ll need a journal to do it.

Oh darn. Like buying a journal is such a tragedy for me. 😉

That’s all for now, I guess. ‘Til next time.

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