waiting for 40 minutes

Today has crawled by for me. Maybe its the fact that it's the end of the quarter at my work, and I'm ready for a break. Or, perhaps the sinus infection that I've had has dwindled down my patience. I usually don't mind the quiet - when students and staff aren't around to use the library. But, tonight - I just want to go home and down some chocolate! And, settle in to watch maybe Adventureland or more of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Last night, I finished this book in the picture - Only Uni. Most of my reading is fluff, but this had something more. Characters that I could relate to as they struggled to grow in their relationship with God and juggle their work, family, and dealings with the opposite sex. Only Uni is the second book of a series so I look forward to getting the next one.
Now I'm down to 30 minutes. Agh!
The flow of words to put in this post has temporarily stopped so I think I'll sign off.

did you ever have one of those days..

when things seem out of wack? Today is that day for me. My alarm woke me at noon. Who knows how long I would have sleep if I haven't set it? Anyway, Friday is normally my laundry day, but I had no quarters so I left for the bank at a time (I thought) that would allow me to catch a bus to get there, but I was wrong. So by taking, an alternative route, I walked about 10 blocks to get there. That's okay - it was nice day. So I get my quarters, and I plan how to get home, but I soon find out that my plan is arry because I see two buses that I could have taken whiz past me. Since I wasn't near the bus sign, they didn't stop. So I come up with Plan C, but I had to wait about 15 minutes. Not bad, but by that time, I'm kind of sweaty from walking to the bank and to the bus stop. So I sit on the curb, next to a shady tree and a motorhome in the Walmart parking lot and wait. I catch my bus and make it to my next stop, the library. Now the bus that dropped me off was late so I was booking it to walk to the library, return my items, pick up my new items, and make it to the bus stop. Luckily, I didn't have to wait to be helped, but I had this guy basically staring over my shoulder to see what movies I had to watch. Which I found annoying and slightly creepy especially since I had only five minutes to catch the bus. I suppose I should have been more pleasant. But, all I could do was smile and say "un huh" and "I didn't know" when he asked which ones I was checking out. Maybe if I had given him a detailed description he would have left me alone, but I didn't so he was craning to see the spines of the DVD cases. Anyway, I made it to the bus stop and after about 10 minutes or so I assumed that I had missed it so I started walking home. But, low and behold, I looked and saw the bus coming down the road. Running, I make it to the next block and the bus stops - yeah! Since the bus was late, though, it made my connection to another bus moot since it had already left so I wait about 10 minutes for the next bus. By this point, I'm very thirsty and hungry since I really didn't eat lunch. So I hit the only fast food joint in my neighborhood - Mr. Twisty. I order a walking taco and hot fudge shake. Digging into the taco - I realized that it has everything in it that I asked for except the meat. Go figure! Instead of complaining, I laugh to myself and consume my meatless taco mainly because the shake was kind of thick like a frosty. So I come home and do my laundry. I watch the last two discs of season two of How I Met Your Mother. All was going well until the last disc - the first episode was fine. But, the DVD got randomly got stuck on the remaining episodes after that. So I was able to tell that Lily and Marshall got married and Ted and Robin broke-up. But, anything in between that, I missed. So move onto a movie with Sarah Michelle Gellar called Surburban Girl. The cover made it look like a chick flic - romantic comedy, but I quickly discoverd why it wasn't in theaters. The girl that played Buffy making out with Alec Baldwin - ick! So then I decided that I'd order some stuff from Amazon that I've been wanting. But, when I log onto my comptuer, big surprise, it starts doing the security scan. I suppose I could order the stuff, but I didn't. I decided to record my wacky day here. So that brings me to now. It's after midnight and the Superchick CD has run its course. So I guess I should sign off, and unpack my laundry. My sheets and pillowcases are in there. So ta ta for now. Oh, if you by chance, oh library shoulder watcher, should be reading this, these are the movies I checked out that I haven't mentioned already.
Slings and Arrows
Burn Notice
Fireproof
Henry Poole is Here
Samantha Who
Duplicity
My Bodyguard and
Due South
Good night my non-existant readers. :-)

finished breaking dawn

wow! In some ways, I found Jacob imprinting on Nessie a little too tidy. But, I was glad to see the Edward-Bella-Jacob triangle be resolved And, the ending, I wanted to read it all the way through, but distractions preventing me from doing so. But, I'm glad Meyer picked the conclusion that she did. Anything else, I think, would have been very depressing.
And, I think I like Bella married to Edward and being a mother to kid. But, maybe that's the point of the series - watching Bella mature.

i don't know what to post

I'm not sure what is going to come from this post. Honestly, I just needed a break from reading Breaking Dawn. A co-worker of mine told me that it took her a while to get through reading it. Of course, at 768 pages, it close to the length of a Harry Potter book. So it's not a light-weight by any means. In fact with a spine 1.75 inches wide, Breaking Dawn could cause some real damage if I ever needed to wield it as a weapon. Fortunately, that hasn't been the case which I'm glad about because its a library book, and I don't want a fine for its damage.
The break from Breaking Dawn, though, was more facilitated my the need to give my brain a rest to process what is going on in it so far. I am somewhat of a Twighlighter because I'm reading the books, and I'm curious about what happens to Bella, Edward, and Jacob. But, as a reader, I prefer more of popcorn-style subject matter rather than the intense drama of Meyer's books. I can read them for a while, but then my brain needs a break from Bella's angst of becoming a vampire and Jacob's pain of knowing he'll lose Bella. Ah - the drama.
So in non-Twilight speak, I've become hooked on two TV shows recently. How I Met Your Mother annoyed me at first because my first impression of Barney was that he was kind of sexist. And, Ted was so focused on being married that he was kind of desperate. But, I kept watching it, and I don't know if it was the repetition or the fact that I was won over by the funny, quirky storylines. And, seeing Neil Patrick Harris as a hippie was a hoot as well. But, I could only get season one and half of season two from the library at once so that left me with time to start another new series.
Actually, its a cancelled TV series, and I saw the pilot a long time ago. But, I recently watched Men With Brooms again so it made me curious to see more of Due South. So right now I'm trying to watch season one before it's due back at the library. The funny thing I that I noticed last night about watching this series is that I was most concerned about the wolf. I mean the main character, Constable Benton Fraser, is an attractive man, but while watching him and Det. Stanley Raymond Kowalski solve crimes, I was was constantly watching to see if Diefenbaker (the wolf) was okay when they encountered trouble. Hmm - so maybe worrying the wolf isn't exactly non-Twilight speak.
But, I did watch a movie recently that had nothing to do with wolves. I actually got to see The Hurt Locker at my local cineplex. My faith that its 18 screens can show alternatives to mainstream cinema is restored. Well, a little bit at least. As soon as I saw The Hurt Locker playing, I knew I had to go right away, and I'm glad that I did because a week later, the only showtimes available were in the evening.
So about The Hurt Locker - I agreed with the Time review that it was an "almost perfect film." Because it was. The action was suspenseful. The storyline made you interested in the characters and what happened to them. But, walking out of the theater, I just felt numb. The adrenalin level of the film was so high that I felt spent. And, in some ways, I felt like I would never be the same because I had seen something quite extrodinary. Men who suit up and walk out into no man's land to disable bombs. They don't know always where they are or if the people around them are friend or foe. But, they control their emotions and figure out, if they can, how to cut the wire before they and their friends are blown to bits. Walking out of the theater and knowing that what I saw was somewhat based on reality, I was in awe.

pasta rant

I tried this mac and cheese dish tonight for the first time. And, what did I find in it besides the pasta, cheese, and veggies featured on the cover? Tofu - ick!

This is the 2nd time I've discovered weird things in my pasta. When I visited the Hard Rock Cafe in Nagoya, Japan, I found squid in my pasta dish. Yuck! It was kind of nasty, but the good thing about finding it there was that I had no qualms getting some Ben and Jerry's ice cream for dessert. That was my first encounter with Ben & Jerry so I guess the squid was worth it.

Now I'm just waiting for something good to come from the tofu.

summertime blues

I really haven't take a vacation from work this summer. But, these past few week-ends, I've found myself doing vacation-like stuff. Two Sundays ago, I went to the North Shore and hiked a lot near Gooseberry Falls, Split Rock Lighthouse, and Tettegouche State Park. Since I'm more of a walker and a biker in 10 to 20 minute intervals, the hiking started to take its toll on me at the end of the day. In fact, I reached a point where I didn't want to put my feet forward anymore. But, logically, I knew I had to keep going because I needed to return to the car. So as I was straining to go up the steps at Tettegouche, I recalled Donal Miller's story about him climbing the Grand Canyon in Through Painted Deserts.

The other vacation-like destination I went to last Saturday was the Mall of America. Think there's a recession going on? You could hardly tell with all the people there sporting shopping bags. Surprisingly, I didn't return with one. But, I did spend money on food. There's this stand that sells chocolate bananna crepes that were great. And, another place that had terrific veggie rolls with tomatoes, cucumber, and avacodo. Of course, I walked around a few hours so hopefully I burned everything off. I guess time will tell on that one.

Of course, I've also been watching movies and reading books. Kind of taken a break from zombies. Vampires, well - I watched most of the 7th season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And, spies? I have the part of the 6th season of MI-5 at home, but I haven't watched it yet. I like MI-5, but it's kind of intense to watch. And, lately, I've been more in the mood to watch popcorn type stuff. But, I might see 500 Days of Summer this week-end so that's a romantic comedy, but with an indie spin (at least that's what I heard).

Basically, like weathering the heat and humidity, I've kind of flowed through time these past weeks. People are in town that I want to see, and I want to use my bike before time runs out (when the cold temps and snow arrive). A friend of mine asked me recently how I spend my time. I really couldn't come up with a cohesive answer. My response was more of a little of this and a little of that. But, I suppose that's what life is - a flowing syrup of moments. Some fly by without sticking to you, and others just graze the surface.

spies, vampires, and zombies

In some ways, I like having a blog because I can sort of publish my thoughts. But, in others, I always feel guilty for not updating my blog more often. But, I have an excuse this time - actually three. They are the title of this post.


But, before I get to that, I must explain something about my public library. I recently moved to a smaller town, and I have discovered that even though it doesn't have an Indian restaurant (that I know of), the public library system is more speedy in terms of getting items (specifically DVDS) that I request. At my previous public library, I had to wait weeks - sometimes months - to get the stuff that I wanted. But, at my new library, the wait time has decreased, but my amount of requests have not.

And, if you want to talk about guilt, try going to the public library and having 14 DVDs waiting for you to pick up. The helpful circulation worker asks you if you're going to have time to watch all of them in a week. I can tell she's thinking about all the taxpayer money at work to transport the items to a specific branch so I don't have to make more than one trip to the library. So I smile and say, "Yes" even though I've returned a few without using them. But, most of them are things I want to see, read, or listen which has gotten me into trouble time-wise because some the DVDs are full seasons of a TV series.

So spies - The fact that both Matthew Macfadyen (Mr Darcy from the Keira Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice) and Rupert Penry-Jones (Captain Wentworth from the recent BBC version of Persuasion) were in MI-5 made me curious about the show. Thankfully, British TV shows only have about 10 episodes, and the first 4 seasons haven't let me down in terms of a good, suspense, spy drama. I'll see about season 5, though; I'll pick it up at the library tomorrow. Besides MI-5, another spy distraction has been Burn Notice. This is something I've been wanting to see, but I don't have a TV. And, I'm cheap so I didn't want to buy two seasons of it unless I knew I liked it. Compared to MI-5, Burn Notice is not as intense, but it's good fun. At least, the first half of season one was - I'm still waiting to get the last two DVDs of season one from the library.


Vampires are perhaps what started my non-blog-writing spell. Like I said, I don't have a TV, but I do keep up on what's out there - to an extent. Anyway, I heard about Joss Whedon's show, Dollhouse, and they were talking about how he also created Buffy the Vampire Slayer for television. And, my librarian curiosity caused my to look the show (Buffy) up on the Internet Movie Database. Much to my surprise, I found out that Seth Green was on the show so my curiosity to see him and the fact that Target had the first two seasons of Buffy on sale for 20 bucks caused me to go down that rabbit hole. The rest of the seasons (1-6) I've gotten through the library, but I am waiting to receive season 7.


Tangent - this has nothing to do with spies, vampires, or zombies, but a benefit of being hooked on Buffy was that I was somewhat impressed with the musical episode, "Once more with feeling," that I had no qualms seeing Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. Although it's somewhat over the top and rather quirky, its quite entertaining. At least I and a few of my friends think so.

Back to the vamps - I also have been reading books from the Twilight Saga. Since they are ultra popular at the moment, I have a month or two in between reading them. But, it would be more if I hadn't requested the large print versions of them. Right now, I'm about half-way through Eclipse. So for those who are wondering (I'm not sure who because I don't think many people read this blog), I am Team Jacob. Edward is all fine and dandy, and I know he's the true love of Bella's life. But, she's less moody and more happy when she's around Jacob. At least - when Jacob is acting more like himself (the one before the wolf transformation).

So that leaves zombies. For that, I'm going to try to enclose a picture. Looks like its going to be at the top of the post rather than right here. Oh, well. I actually read this book. From first glance, it appears to be sacrilegious. Teaming Jane Austen's timeless words with zombies? But, the author does respect's Austen's ideas and the way he adds the zombies into the story is rather clever. I've learned from experience that describing how makes it sound worse than it really is so if you're curious and not entirely an Austen purist, I'd say check it out. The same goes for the recent TV series, Lost in Austen, that has a modern London girl getting transported into the story of Pride and Prejudice. That adaptation is zombie free, but it does require some flexibility in allowing the events of the story to take a different course.

So besides working and riding my bike when the weather cooperates, that's why I haven't been blogging. I am making no promises, but I will try to write more when I'm inspired again to do so. Austen, vampires, and zombies aside.