life

You’re On My Radar

So… the new Britney Spears album leaked, apparently, because I’ve been able to listen to it. Non-stop. For the past few days. And it is SO GOOD. Seriously. I’m not joking. I remember years ago, being obsessed with the song Toxic. This time around, it’s Radar. And Break The Ice. And Ooh Ooh Baby. Piece Of Me is pretty good, too. The songs just bounce around in my head and I love it because they’re so great!

Anyway, even though she herself is having a rough time of it, her music is still fun.

Years ago, me and my BFF Charla used to have what was known as the three-song rule. If we liked three songs from any album, then the album was worth buying. That was back when singles were HUGE, but not cheap. At $3.49 a single, three of those came close to equaling the price of a new album. I always bought the singles anyway because they usually had some sort of remix or bonus song on them. When I can, I still hunt down singles and imports for that very purpose.

There have been a few times I’ve broken the three-song rule. It may have been based on artist loyalty. There are some albums I’ll get no matter what, just because of who sings them. Along those lines were New Kids on the Block, Paula Abdul, etc, back in the day. Now, with me being more and more frugal, I can’t go out and buy albums like I used to, but I tend to still stick to that rule. If I’m going to drop money on an album, I’d better like at least three of the songs.

Although, I heard one measure of Sarah McLachlan’s Afterglow album and had to have it right away. One measure. I knew from one measure of one song that I’d love that album. And I do love that album.

My musical taste is varied. I listen to such a variety of stuff that it’s impossible for me to choose any one favorite type of music. It’s also hard for me to pinpoint any favorite artist because I get fixated, then I change and get fixated on someone else. Like, right now, I am into this new Britney stuff, and I love Rent, both the Broadway and the movie soundtracks, and I keep digging out The Crüxshadows, especially Deception.

These are just a few of the songs that will always remind me of 2007:

Glamorous – Fergie
Breakin’ Dishes – Rihanna
Forca – Nelly (I realize it’s old but it’s relatively new to me)
all the Britney songs I listed above
Way I Are – Timbaland

I’ll make a list later.

I realized that I CANNOT listen to Rent while I’m trying to work. It’s way too distracting. Most of them time, I have no problem listening to music with words in it while I am working. I know some of the other editors say they read the words they’re listening to instead of the words on the page. I’d never had the problem before, until I tried to work on Language Support stuff and kept getting distracted and listening to the story of Rent instead of concentrating on the pages. So yes, if I’m doing the Language Support work, then no Rent. But if I’m doing Word Sort, which is mindless checking, then Rent all the way baby!

I recently got Miss Saigon out of the library and for some reason, I can listen to THAT while I am working on Language Support. Curious, that.

I finished reading a bunch of books this week. One of them is called Enchantress, and it’s part 3 of the Sisters of Isis series. I never cared much for fantasy, outside of Harry Potter, in the recent years, and it took some coaxing to get me to start reading Harry Potter. This year, I decided to broaden my horizons, and it started with the Leven Thumps books. So, I’ve been picking up fantasies here and there to see what I could see. The most memorable ones I’ve read this year was Wicked Lovely, my beloved Leven Thumps books, and of course, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

So, the author of Enchantress is a best-selling author and she’s got tons of other series out. I find that I spend a lot of time getting so frustrated at the girls in these Sisters of Isis books. I am trying to have patience with the characters, but they’re so clumsy and awkward! I mean, I try to empathize. I suppose if I one day found out I was a Descendant and had to fight, oh, I don’t know, EVIL from destroying all of humankind, and that I had all these powers and my supposed “mentor” wasn’t helping me at all, I’d be a bit out of sorts, too. I GET THAT. But it seems like they kind of stumble into these huge messes of ancient evil and curses, and then they somehow pop themselves out. It’s hard for me to buy some of the scenes. In the first book they ended up basically in hell, but they were like “like, oh my God, like, is this hell?” and then they somehow managed to pop themselves out without too much trouble. Or they’re in Ancient Egypt–they’ve actually TIME TRAVELED because they have some stuff to take care of to SAVE HUMANITY, and the one girl is like “I hope we get back before the party ends.” HUH????? Are teenagers really that self-absorbed, that they’re in a battle for THEIR souls as well as you know, the WORLD’S, that they’re going to be like “I need to get back before the party ends”???? I mean, YOU’RE the one who went there in the first place to save the world… by your own choice….I dunno, I keep having hard time with the books. So now, by this time, I’m reading because I’m too vested in the book and it’s lunchtime and I’m alone and I don’t have anything else to read. Then, the author throws in this really sweet ancient Egyptology or an awesome battle scene and then I’m like “Okay, I HAVE to read the next one.” In Enchantress, she had this one meathead of a guy named Brian say something that I still can’t get out of my head. “Sweet damn.” I mean, is that a great use of the words “sweet” and “damn” or what? I loved it and laughed for ten minutes after. I still laugh when I think about it. I wish I’D thought of that. I mean, “Sweet damn.” I can totally hear a teenage guy doing it.

I might have to start saying it. 🙂

I am not sure if I’ll bother to pick up #4, though. We’ll see.

Got my car serviced today, finally. I got the long-needed transmission flush, an oil change, fluids topped off, and the air in my tires inflated. So now, I will feel better about driving longer distances. Lately, I’ve been keeping it under 20 miles. Mostly I just commute to work, which is an 11-mile commute each way. It’s been FANTASTIC for my fuel budget, let me tell you. I’ve been filling up every other week. When I lived in Pataskala, I had to get gas twice a week. The notes on the page say that there was metallic residue in the drip pan from the transmission. That makes me kind of nervous. Next month will be the radiator flush thing. Who knows the last time I got one of those. I also need to do is figure out now to fix my passenger side mirror, as it’s completely shattered and hanging off the mirror-holder thing. I’m thinking it’s going to be a while before I get that fixed, though. I don’t anticipate that being cheap AT ALL.

I’ve introduced Aidan to Tom & Jerry, and he thinks it’s the best thing ever. Target had Tom & Jerry DVDs for $5.50. I got him one last week and one this week, with a gift card that Rosa (meimeigui) had sent me. And… get this. My DVD player died yesterday. I had the thing for about oh, say, eight months or so. It won’t play DVDs anymore. It says “WRONG DISC” and won’t load. So, thanks to this gift card, I was able to get a new one. A BRAND NAME one, instead of a generic one. The one that broke is gfm or something like that. This new one is Philips. Not expensive but it already seems nicer. And I’ll bet THIS ONE will play High School Musical and The Proud Family movie.

Anyway, I know that people used to go on about Tom & Jerry, but OH MY GOD. They really are incredibly and almost horrifically violent. But it’s funny as I don’t know what, and Aidan laughs his little head off at it. Anytime Tom screams, and that’s a LOT, believe me, we both fall out in giggles. It’s great. Tomorrow, we’re gonna watch Tom & Jerry, he’s gonna wear his new pajamas, and we’re going to bake cookies!

I’m tired, but my body is bouncing. It’s like I’m restless and tired. My back’s been aching, and I know it’s been because I haven’t been sitting up straight. I slouch like eight bitches on a bitch boat when I am at work, and when I am on the computer. I need to stop that, and I also need a massage. A good, hard back rub. But that’s been relegated to the “luxury” pile and well, I don’t have time for luxuries at the moment, not those kind.

Tomorrow is Friday. Sweet damn. This past week went kind of quickly. I’ve got costume parties to attend, but Aidan’ll be wearing the costume. He’s Spiderman this year. I will post pictures.

My costume is in Chicago and reserved for other occasions.

On that note, I’m outtie. Byeee.

Comments Off on You’re On My Radar

Over The Moon

I’ve about had it with this apartment complex.

1. Friday night/Saturday morning, some jerk decided he needed to do his car repairs right then. Right outside my bedroom window. He revved his engine for an hour and a half. From 12:30 to 2:00am.

2. The lady across the hall asked me if she could use my phone. When I told her I was going to bed and that I needed to talk to Adam before I did so, she stood in the hall and yelled that I was a “damned liar” before going into her apartment and slamming the door.

3. The neighbor downstairs no longer has his loud sexfests because he and his girlfriend broke up, but he still blasts crappy music for 90 to 120 minutes almost every evening while he works out. His work out grunts sound like sex sounds.

4. The lady across the hall also stands at her door and yells “SHUT THAT DAMN NOISE” for no reason. I don’t hear any sounds. There is no way she can hear me typing on my computer. But she’ll stand there and yell and yell and yell. It’s really annoying. The management won’t do anything about it. They’ve tried but now, I think they just figure we have to deal with her.

5. Let’s not forget the chronic door slammer.

6. … and the really stinky apartment (I’m pretty sure it’s the door slammer’s.). It’s so bad that the management had to put those automatic air freshener things in the hall.

Ugh.

Boo.

Blah.

How long ’til I move to Chicago?

Comments Off on Over The Moon

Take Me or Leave Me (Pictures)

I haven’t written in just over a week, so here’s a recap of what I’ve been up to.

I finally got my hands on Leven Thumps and the Eyes of the Want, and OMG. It’s the best one in the series!!! I am so going to renew it when it comes time for it to be due—I can’t wait to reread it!

Seriously, I recommend these books to everyone because they’re so good. You have to be able to make that leap into the imaginary. It’s a huge leap. It’s like the deal with reading Madeleine L’Engle. You have be able to visualize—and the author does a great job of describing things in a unique but clear way—but it can be challenging because things in Foo are VERY different from Reality.

Go to Amazon, and you’ll see solid 5-star ratings for this one, and high ratings for the others. This one is Book 3, and there will be a total of five in the series. I’m already freaking out that I have to wait at least six months for the next one! I wonder if the publisher will put out a boxed set when they’re all done?

– I read Fast Food Nation. Um… Wow. That’s about all I can say about it. As hard as it will be, I am going to try not to support the fast food industry anymore, unless I am near an In-An-Out Burger or Carl’s Jr. The other places… sigh. Knowing that people work so hard in those meat packing plants with almost nothing to show for it. Those dangerous jobs. Those scary jobs. No benefits. Little pay. It’s like a sweatshop or something. 🙁 And the stuff in the meat. The things they feed to the cattle. Cattle is supposed to eat grass, not the remnants of other animals, or poop, or whatever the hell they feed them. The two restaurants I mentioned don’t use those awful meat-packing places. Unfortunately, those places are not in the midwest (not that I know of). That’s okay though, because fast food is not that good for me. And it’ll be great for me to stop eating it.

– I also read The Golden Compass. I started on the new A-List book, and I also have Kite Runner. Oh, and I’m in the middle of the second Daughters of Isis book. The 3rd one is in my queue.

– I apparently won one of the many book contests I enter, because I randomly got a copy of Stephanie Hale’s Revenge of the Homecoming Queen in the mail one day. Awesome, right? When I met Stephanie, it was at the Chicago Spring Fling conference in April of 2006. She hadn’t even had an agent yet. And now she’s all published and stuff.

– I became addicted to Earl Grey tea. Mmmmm. I take it with four sugars. Rosa and Richard tell me that I drink syrup, not tea. At any rate, I’m becoming a tea drinker. Digging out all the boxes of tea I’ve had in my cupboard, and they supply free tea at work. This is a good thing!

– I watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and watched my favorite line over and over:
He don’t eat no meat? What do you mean he DON’T EAT NO MEAT????

– I made it through 2/3rds of Rent without getting interrupted. One of these days, I’m going to get to watch the whole thing in one sitting.

– I got the original Broadway recording of Rent out of the library and have been listening to it like crazy for the past several days. I love Light My Candle, One Song Glory, Contact (my favorite!), Will I?, and Life Support. Every time I listen (which is a LOT!), I hear more and more that I really like. Someday I’d LOVE to see the actual show. Yes, I do realize that I’m ten years behind everyone in loving this musical, but hey, better late than never, right? 🙂

five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes….

But the big thing is that thanks to my rad friend (and bridesmaid) Rosa (meimeigui), and her cool hubby Richard, I got to spend the weekend in San Francisco!! Lots and lots and lots of sightseeing went down, as well as picture taking. I had a blast.

!!!^-^!!!

I flew in Friday, on Skybus. Skybus is a very inexpensive carrier, and if you’re lucky, you can get seats for as little as $10! The reason they can charge so little is because they use smaller airports (for example, I flew into Oakland instead of the big San Francisco airport), they charge for things such as beverages, meals (you can get real food!), and checking baggage. They also bring this little cart down the aisle with products one can buy—things such as perfume and jewelry and gourmet chocolate! I thought that was the funniest thing. There were people buying stuff up like crazy. Basically, they don’t want to charge everyone for what only a few people will take. Not everyone gets a beverage or checks a bag on flights. It was nonstop, and that was very nice. I had the His Dark Materials trilogy with me and that’s when I made a decent dent in The Golden Compass. I’m finding it easier to get into The Subtle Knife, now. My problem is that with these big books, I want to hurry and race to the end so I can see what happens. I have to FORCE myself to slow down and actually ingest the words as I am reading them.

Anyway, I got to the city, and Rosa got me and took me to the headquarters of imeem.com. What a SUPER DUPER cool place to work, let me tell you. When the drudgery of the work day gets too much, the office is equipped with a foosball table, a Playstation 2, a Nintendo Wii, guitars, a drum set, a kitchen stocked with snacks like whoa, a fridge stocked with Red Bull, just to name a few. OK. How awesome, right? Yeah, that would NEVER happen at ZB. Never, never. Ever. But can you imagine working in such a cool place? A place where the boss lets one of the workers bring in her puppy on Fridays?

Rosa and a Puppy

Friday was pretty low key. Hanging out with Rosa and Richard, drinking tea, and hanging out with their cool friends, one of whom was out of town as well. Played Scattergories, drank lots of tea, and watched the “wild ass.”

Saturday was super duper busy, and it started with a trip to the Farmer’s Market.

Me & Rosa
Me and Rosa!

Boquet
Gorgeous Organic Flowers

Pumpkins!
Pumpkins! Pretty!

Chicken Feet!
Chicken feet. Eeek!

Then we had tea service at Samovar in Yerba Buena. Yummy.

Tea

We popped into SF SOMA for a bit and drooled and dreamed over the cool stuff in the museum shop, then we hopped on the trolley (streetcar?) to head to all the touristy stuff. You know the things they had in the Rice-A-Roni commercials? Yeah, I got to ride two. Sweet, right? I also got to take this random picture of a steep street in the city, and also one of Coit Tower:

San Francisco is STEEP

Coit Tower

We hit the top of Lombard Street, and Rosa and I ran down with our arms out. When we got to the bottom, a hippie drove by and yelled “THAT IS FUCKING TWISTED!!!” Rosa and I cracked up because well, Lombard is twisted. And steep. And pretty.

Lombard Street & Me!

Lombard Street

From Lombard, we walked to Fisherman’s Wharf, which is TOURIST CENTRAL. OMG so many people. Lots and lots of people. Didn’t help that the Blue Angels were in town, being all cool and loud and stuff.

Blue Angels

One can see lots of cool stuff at Fisherman’s Wharf, like Alcatraz. And sea lions.

Alcatraz
Alcatraz

Sea Lions
Sea Lions

Sunday morning, I got to meet and hang out with Katy (drkangelmommy)!!

Katy and Me

Isn’t she so cute??? 😀

Of course, no trip to SF is complete without going to The Golden Gate Bridge. Rosa took me there early Sunday morning. It was a perfect day. Cloudless blue skies, no fog. Beautiful.

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge & Me!

So YAY! Thanks a million to Rosa for making this happen. She’s an awesome gal and I had a blast with her. 🙂

I was in a cranky mood at the grocery store today because 1) it was crowded, and 2) they jacked the prices WAY up since I’ve been there last. An 8 oz. can of Hunt’s tomato sauce used to cost about 35 cents, now it’s 40 cents. Lord knows that the organic stuff is priced sky high. No wonder people love Aldi and Marc’s! I usually go to Marc’s anyway, because it’s closer to me than Aldi is. And sometimes Marc’s has obscure stuff one can’t find in a regular grocery store.

I’m heading toward crankiness again because there is one of those little flitty bugs flitting around and being annoying, and it’s already after 7pm (naturally the work day crawled by), and I’ll have to go to bed soon.

OH! I was on the Apostrophe Abuse blog today, and click to see what the cat dragged in: http://www.apostropheabuse.com/2007/09/thank-yous-note-cards.html. Yes, the same issue from Target that I emailed them about two years ago.

I got good mail today! A gift card, a letter, and a coupon for a free chicken sandwich and medium Coke from Chick-fil-A. You too, can have one. Just go to http://freechickenandcoke.com. If it’s still up and running, you can have free Chick-fil-A too! 🙂 Ka-CHOW!

mandibaby just got married! Congrats to her! She looked beautiful! 😀

All right. I need to get going. Time to make dinner. Tilapia, mashed potatoes, and spinach is on the menu for tonight. Yummy. 🙂

Cheers!

Comments Off on Take Me or Leave Me (Pictures)

Whatever

My laptop is officially dead. It doesn’t even bother to turn on anymore. The motherboard finally fried itself out. Aidan is a little bit sad; he used to play many Nick Jr. and Sesame Street games on that laptop. I’m sad too. I liked having the option of mobile computing. But as I said before, I’d originally gotten a laptop for writing, and seeing as I haven’t done much of that lately….

Aidan doesn’t say “four.” He says “foe-uh.” It’s soooo cute. He’s also been eating like a little piggy. And watching the Care Bears movie where they go to Joke-A-Lot. Over and over and over and over.

I have a headache, and I want to sleep. Aidan was up at 9am wanting to play Hide-and-Seek. I was like “Dude, it is way too early for this.” He’s a bundle of energy, so I’m thinking a nap today is out of the question. Last week we got to take a nice long one together.

Last night, as I was putting Aidan to bed, he said “Let’s talk about feelings.” I figured it would probably be the last time he ever said anything like that, so I took it and ran with it. Boys, ya know?

I started reading Fast Food Nation today. Not sure if I should finish or not. I’m already pissed off enough at big companies and corporations. I finished Love, Stargirl and I really enjoyed it.

It’s hard to focus with a four-year old hanging around.

He’s been so cute though, helping me in the kitchen. Now he’s gathering lots of toys together for some sort of toy road trip. They’re going “somewhay-uh.”

I also enjoy it when my friends who don’t use their LJs often have RSS feeds on the sites they DO update more regularly. I’m not inclined to go to sites, but if everything is included in a nice list on Google Reader, then I’m happy.

I need more light in my apartment.

The people who live in the apt. complex I live in are psycho and nuts. This morning I got treated to slamming doors, a revving engine, and loud conversation outside my bedroom window. I’m afraid I’ll have to deal with psychotic neighbors the rest of my life. Houses in Chicago cost hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars and let me tell you, editors/secretaries will never, ever, ever make enough to afford one, plus they’re all smashed up against neighbors as well.

I updated Anywhere Is just a little bit. I have too many Web sites. I might close the review site down, no one ever visits and I keep forgetting about it. I’m having more fun with the wedding/ronni&adam site (http://booknerdsinlove.blogspot.com).

I can’t believe tomorrow’s the last day of September. Months in which I see Adam move much more quickly than months I don’t get to see him. I wonder what that will be like once I’m living in Chicago with him?

Okay, it’s time to get off the computer for a while. Later.

Comments Off on Whatever

Up & Down

Three months ’til Christmas. I’m hoping to spend it with a certain special someone, along with my family.

Maybe my birthday, too.

Last quarter of the year. Then it’ll be bye bye 2007, hello 2008. Another year of huge changes for me.

I want to watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but they didn’t have it at the library.

They DID have The Everything Weddings on a Budget Book, so I grabbed it. It’s so little and cute! And it matches my organizer.

I totally want this one, though: Anti-Bride Wedding Planner.

It’s pink. And cheap on Amazon (but not after paying $84754935 for shipping), but more expensive at Borders.

The library does NOT have the new Leven Thumps book and I am very sad about that. You can’t just order the first two books in a series and not order the rest! That’s just WRONG. Hopefully they’ll get it in soon. I’m going to be checking the catalog every single day and reserving the book the second it shows up.

Interfaith ceremonies are challenging to put together; I didn’t realize Jewish ceremonies had so many components.

I’m broke as hell. No Taco Bell drive-thrus for me. Not that I eat Taco Bell anymore.

Payday is Thursday, but every cent is already accounted for.

My DVD player SUCKS. I’d been waiting forever to get High School Musical out of the library, and my stupid player won’t play it. It also won’t play Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, or Maid in Manhattan. Cheap piece of poop.

Fall is here, and my LJ has a new fall look. I finally said “bye bye” to the sponsored theme I had up; the one by the people who made those shoes.

I need a fall LJ icon. It’s hard to feel like it’s fall when it’s 93º F outside, so there have been no fall pictures.

Ohio weather is so annoying sometimes.

My hair is back to being all weird because it got wet. I had straightened it out all nicely. Oh well.

I’ve not been sleeping well. I fall asleep at about 12:30 or 1:00am, and I wake up at 3:30 or 4:00am, my mind racing, and I don’t fall back asleep until about 6:15am. Then my alarm goes off at 6:46am. *sigh*

I got an ARC of amanda_marrone‘s Uninvited in the mail and dude, Michael is HOT. There are no pictures of him or anything, but I can just tell. He’s HOT. I’ve read two chapters so far, and he is hot. Because he is a vampire. And teen vampires in books are hot.

The book is good so far, too. Amanda had let me read a chapter of it back when it first sold and I was hooked on it then. I’m excited to have the ARC. ARCs are cool.

I’ve eaten too much, as usual.

UGH, I got a telemarketer call at work today. ON MY LUNCH BREAK. Oh hell no, you do NOT bug me on my lunch break, okay? Ew. They started off with this “You’ve been entered to be in a sweepstakes for $25,000” bull crap, and I was thinking “Yeah, right, when are you going to try to sell me something?” Sure enough, at the end, they were like “You get all these free magazines and a diamond watch… but we would like you to pay for the TV Guide. It’s $3.95 a week.” Um, right. DON’T THINK SO. I don’t watch TV, so why do I need a TV Guide? And if I am really that curious about what’s coming on, I can check listings online. So I told her “I am not interested.” She hung up gracefully, but still. UGH. If I wanted to buy your shit, I’d call YOU.

The only time I let telemarketers sell me stuff was when it was the phone company calling to offer me something I was going to order anyway (caller ID back in 1999–which I no longer have because seriously, why pay $10 a month for that when I can just screen calls using my answering machine?–and DSL early this year. DSL is $19.99 a month, cable modem was $34.95, so yes, better deal for sure).

I totally got rained on today. It started sprinkling just a little bit when I got out of the library, then the skies opened on me as I was walking home. There was slight thunder and lightning, too. I couldn’t believe I wasn’t panicking. I used to get horrible attacks a few years ago.

Two-hour meeting tomorrow afternoon. Errata (ugh) in the morning, plus a marketing piece, and Word Sort vocabulary words. The professional development brochure was so much fun. I LOVE to “bleed” all over paper like that.

I feel weird. Not exactly sad, not exactly happy. I can tell it’s going to be another night of mind-racing, and little sleep. My body is all… wired. Tired but wired. I hate that sensation.

I want to speed through the next 400 or so days. I hate when I get that feeling because there is a lot to live for TODAY. Right?

I’m gaining weight again; my jeans are tight. I feel like throwing everything out in my apt and starting over with nothing but veggies and fish. But I won’t because well, that would be plain dumb! I need to stop eating dinner so late at night for one thing. I should be closing the kitchen down at 6:30pm every night. I also need to stop screwing around on the computer every evening for hours and hours. That’s just unhealthy, and I will be the size of a building if I keep this up.

But sometimes I don’t care. I get tired of trying to eat right all the time, and then STILL…never mind. Not getting into it. Not now.

I hate how the evenings go so quickly, but the workday crawls. How the hell is it already almost 10pm? 🙁

I hate how my memory is going to hell. I have a family history of Alzheimer’s, so this cannot be good. I took a memory test on Tickle and scored a 67%. 🙁

I hate that I haven’t written a word in any novel for two or three months now, and I just don’t have to motivation to even bother with it anymore.

My apartment’s a mess and I’m too overwhelmed to give a flying banana.

I guess I’m crashing, finally. I was on this “I just got engaged” high for 12 days, and now the reality of life is setting back in. Work, crap policies, play on computer, sleep, work, play on computer, sleep SEE AiDAN! ♥ work, play on computer, sleep. I guess I can’t be expected to stay on that sort of high for 400+ days, but man, this sucks. All the waiting. It sucks.

…….

I should go to go to bed. I’ll probably be awake until 1am, but at least I’ll be lying down.

Well, a lavender bath first. Then bed.

Night.

Comments Off on Up & Down