A strange sense of melancholia

I'm feeling... strange. I just got back from seeing "The History Boys" with Sebethis, and I thought it was brilliant. Thought-provoking, uplifting and then... the ending. It wasn't bad, far from it. It was just that the whole movie had such a sense of hope and aspiration and dreams as the boys went through the preparations for taking their entrance exams for Oxford and Cambridge. And at the end (stop here if you don't want to know)...

...we find out how mundane their lives turn out to be. Even if they aren't mundane. Even though they did succeed, it felt like such a loss. Of the possibilities that are there while going to school. Of the potential futures. Of the subjunctive moments. I feel sad and as if I've lost something. I was choked up at the end not because of any one event, but because of the loss of something ephemeral and something that I felt very personally. And it's not that I'm unhappy because I'm definitely not. It's that there's part of me that I was that I'm never going to be again. There will always be possibility and moments, but those particular ones were a product of a very specific time and place, and they can't be relived, only reinterpreted.

The agony of being a cover model

How Did I End Up On The Cover Of This Romance Novel?

Last week at the supermarket, while shopping for my weekly supply of three dozen eggs and 12 pounds of mutton, I spotted a rack near the checkout...

Funny by itself, even funnier when you go to Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and read about the Duncan Larksthrush fanfic contest.

I used to know these...

I got hooked on the Geography Challange this week. Disgustingly, my highest score is 80%, and my average is around 50%. I might suck at it, but it's highly addictive.

How awesome is this?

I get a daily email newsletter called Shelf Awareness, and in today's edition was the following article. What a brilliant idea!

Weller's Readers in the Window
Cool idea of the day. Every afternoon through Christmas Eve, volunteer readers sit in the windows of Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore, Salt Lake City, Utah, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

"Decorated like a living room, the window is warm and comes stocked with snacks and hot drinks," the paper wrote. "When the store set out criteria for the window, it asked for all kinds of families--however people defined the term. So far, readers who signed up range from teenage friends to couples on dates to a grandfather and his grandson. 'It's everyone,' said Jennifer Nielsen, who is in charge of decorating the store's windows and coordinating the readers' shifts. 'All the customers have loved it.' "

Most people read, silently or aloud, but some have played board games or chat. Friends and family of readers receive a discount on purchases while the readers are reading. Readers themselves receive a discount after their face time is up.

All better!

Everything is back on track and I'm no longer depressed (or very stressed). Yay! That was a bad six days I just had, and it was more than enough anxiety for one lifetime.

Now back to our regular programming:

Cute baby animals!

I have a acquired a food fairy

Yesterday at the end of the day there were two massive chocolate bars waiting on my desk. Today I step away from the department for five minutes and when I come back there is a slice of cherry cream cheese bread on my desk. A girl could get used to this...

I guess the upside to being awfully stressed and depressed is that people feel the need to feed me. They also do lovely things like arrange to have an adorable two-year-old pay me a cheer-up visit.

I'm trying not to be tiresome about everything that's going on so as not to become that whiny girl. Times like these make me realize what wonderful friends and family I have. Thank you everyone - I do love you all, and I'll try not to take advantage of your broad shoulders too often.

Oh, for goodness sake

Sometimes there just have to be common-sense limits, don't you think?

Lawmaker aims to allow the blind to hunt

Durian

Smells bad, bad for you

Sing it out!

I saw this on Neil Gaiman's blog right before Thanksgiving. I think it's fantastic!

After the hordes descended

Saturday was the big Thanksgiving Potluck/Leftover Party, and it was a smashing success. We had tons of food and about twenty people to eat it all. Check out the table near the end of the festivities:



I do so love that all my friends are total foodies!

When they get it wrong, they get it really wrong!

Part of my job is ordering paperback books for the library. To do that I use the Ingram iPage website. Today I was going through my booklist for the week and pulled up Linnea Sinclair's new book. Cool. I really like her (and if you like romance and science fiction you will too). As part of the promotional blurb, the page has info about the author. It says at the end "Fans can reach her through her website at www.starfreighter.com"

Um, no they can't. Because I, all innocent, went to that link. And instead of science fiction, I got "SUPER GAY COCKS!"

I'm not quite sure how much of an audience overlap there is between straight romantic science fiction and graphic gay porn, but I'm guessing that it might be small.

Why I love my friends, exhibit A

Conversation (almost verbatim) with Micaela on the phone at work tonight:

M: Remember the best turkey burger in the world I told you about?
D: Um
M: From Delaware. I brought you half.
D: What?
M: I ate half and saved you the other half. I'm bringing it to you right now
M: I'm right in front of the library. Bring napkins and come out and eat in the car.
D: I'll be right out!

And she even got the timing right - just as I was about to go on my break.

Much as she would protest the characterization, Micaela is one of the nicest, most generous people I know.

Jingle hell

I stopped on the way to work to pick up a wrap today and inadvertantly stepped into the beginning of Christmas hell. The radio statio playing in the deli was B-101, which is now all-christmas music, all the time! until Christmas day. And it's not even Thanksgiving yet! Argh!

On a happier note, I finally used the gift certificate some of my wonderful friends got me and went for an aromatherapy relaxation massage at Terme di Aroma. I've never had a massage that wasn't dep tissue/therapeutic before, so I was stunned to realize that massages don't have to hurt!

So true!

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
Philadelphia
The South
The Inland North
The Northeast
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Zombie Singalong! (...or, this is the week that was)

Tuesday I had an unfortunate peanut brittle accident. Don't ask - it was embarrassing and my finger still hurts.

Wednesday I had an evening of consolation drinking and greasy food with a friend who got bad news.

Thursday was Girl's Night - Indian food from Lovash (yum) and the first episode of Project Catwalk (the British version of Project Runway)

Friday I'm pretty sure I did something, but I don't remember.

Saturday I joined Sebethis going out to Ardmore to see Jonathan Coulton, my new singer/songwriter boyfriend. It was a great show, and he ended with an audience participation zombie song, so we ended the set singing "All we want to do is eat your brains!" Sebethis was ecstatic, as she is a HUGE zombie fan. Here she is squeaking with pleasure because she gets to sing about zombies:

And Ninja Stan, I remembered you - I have an autographed cd for you!

Little and Big

Yesterday I spotted my first Smart Car in Philly. I've seen them in Canada a lot, but this is my first American sighting. I wasn't the only one intrigued. Every person passing by stopped and checked it out. The guy in the picture was all but lifting the hood to see what made it tick. I think they're adorable - they look like little shoes, and I think I could probably pick one up and put it in my pocket. Plus, parking would be a breeze!



On a size-related note, my friend and I went into Famous 4th Street Deli today and saw the largest apple turnovers I've ever seen. Witness her amazement:



She bought one for her boyfriend, so I'm waiting to hear if size is any indication of quality.

*UPDATE* Apparently in this case size is an indication of quality. Carl says the turnover is delicious (and I figure they've got a week's worth of dessert now, so it's economical as well)

Sometimes packagers can go slightly overboard

I bought an adorable little Bodum teacup and infuser from Amazon. This is it:


Notice how small and delicate it is. The little box measures 3.5” by 4.5” by 3.5”

Now, take a look at what it came shipped in:



Yes, that’s two Amazon boxes, a sheet of heavy duty bubble wrap, and so much of the airpack packing filler that I could strangle a horse with it. You have to wonder sometimes. And on a related note, my much larger Bodum tea press came in a freakishly small Amazon box.

Things left unfinished

Today I started reading a book and after one chapter decided to put it down. I do not feel guilty about it at all. This is a big statement, since I've always been the type of person that finshed whatever she started reading. I always felt that I make a commitment to a book, and must see it though. It's only recently that I'm coming to realize that it's okay to put a book down without finishing it. It doesn't happen very often, but when I just can't get into a book there's no shame in stopping. Actually, I think I need a twelve-step program.


Anyway, I tried to start BreakupBabe today at lunch. I lasted until page 19.

That's worse than the other book I couldn't finish this month, Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose. And that one's for book club. I'm bringing the movie version as my contribution to Book Club, as I couldn't get past page 52 in the book.

New obsession

Thank you to Bruno Gridley, who mentioned Jonathan Coulton in a livejournal post. I've fallen insanely in love with him, as have all the friends I've played his stuff for. You gotta love a guy who can write a delicate and beautiful ballad to both the mad scientist on Skullcrusher Mountain as well as IKEA


He's playing a show out in Ardmore on December 16. Some of us are already planning to go and see him, so if you're interested, drop me a line.

p.s. thank you Grimmgirl, for introducing me to the joys of orange-mango mohitos at Copa!

...worries for another day!

As reported by the fine poeple at Zap2it, Fraggle Rock is going to be a movie!


Let the Music Play, indeed!