Thank You Santa! and Bill!

So for Christmas this year, a tame one considering past Christmases, I received some truly great and greatly appreciated gifts. Hamlet on dvd (the four-hour one with Kenneth Branagh), a jewelry box from Michael, a pen with a mini etch-a-sketch attached, and a most wonderful Conair neck/shoulder massager. I think though that my three favorite gifts are as follows: the History of Joseph Smith by His Mother (the most recent revised and enhanced edition), and two Barnes and Noble gift cards totalling $120. YAY!!

Now obviously I couldn't do anything with the gift cards on Christmas day. Instead I watched Hamlet while using my new massager, spent a large amount of time cleaning up Sarah's mirror after she decided to drop it on her head, watched Mamma Mia with mom and Sarah after their return from the hospital, gave Morgan a ride home in a blizzard (pretty fun, actually. Thanks for letting us use your truck, dad!!), and stayed up late watching Bill's new blu-ray of Dark Night with him and with dad.

I slept in on Friday morning, much to my chagrin on one level-I still have much cleaning left to do in my old bedroom before it's ready for Lisa and Christian to move into. I did do some cleaning, but left early for work as I was worried about what the roads would be like. I fortunately made it safely, with only one slide through an intersection. I also made it early, and so took myself off to ye olde book shoppe, Barnes and Noble. I spent every second I had and then some dashing amongst shelves in quest of several books I knew I wanted and those I knew must exist that I would want. After some debate I settled on six books, grabbing a seventh as I made my way up to the register. Courtesy two of the books being on sale, and thanks to my membership, I only spent $70.46, leaving me with $49.54 for future book shopping happiness.

I got home from work after 10 pm, after trading my car for the Explorer and giving Kim a ride home. I did some cleaning in my old room before I decided I needed boxes. I'll be taking some home from work today-the advantage of working in a store is that I have access to any number of boxes. I then cleaned up my new room a bit, putting away my laundry and straightening up the post-Christmas mess. I'll be cleaning the old one tonight after I pick up at least one new bookcase, possibly two considering that the one large set I have now is already full and holds not even half my books, let alone my growing vhs/dvd collection. I think I have room for two more bookcases...I hope... At least a lot of my other stuff will be getting carted off to DI after today. I'll be cleaning out at least four of my 6 under-bed bins, as well as my two huge blue bins, and condensing what stuff I am keeping into the emptied under-bed bins. I'll be getting rid of any blankets and pillows that don't have extreme sentimental value (such as my graduation quilt and the quilt I got from one of my Iceberg managers, Cinta. Needless to say, though, I will not be getting rid of any books. Not a single one. Not even you, Cup of the World, which I'll most likely never read again...

Books Books Books!!!

Can I just say that I love books? I LOVE BOOKS!!! There, I said it :)

Anyone who knows me, with perhaps the one exception of the person I started training on the register today (sorry Whitney), knows that I read practically every day. I read on my breaks (or at least I would if they existed anymore), I read when I get home. I read every night when I go to bed. If I have the day off I read before I even get out of bed. For years, books where an escape. The only way that I didn't feel like I was lacking, like I didn't measure up. In books I didn't exist as myself. I learned at a young age how to relate to the characters and then became completely absorbed in their lives. I lived their adventures, rejoiced in their successes, felt their pains and wept for their losses. Yes, I cried. I still do. My favorite way to spend my time when we lived in Marysville was to go to the library and check out a whole new stack of books. That's how I first learned to walk and then to ride my bike while reading. Over time I no longer needed to escape. I learned how to live my own life and enjoy it. Books will always remain a huge part of my life, though. They're still my favorite way to de-stress. Even now if I have the money the first place I go to is Barnes and Noble to find all the new books my by favorite authors (Tamora Pierce, Robin McKinley, Mercedes Lackey and Gerald Morris to name just a few).

Now to my success-I finally learned how to add my goodreads widget to my blog! Yay! It took me several websites and methods, but it is now proudly placed on the left-hand side. Two hundred of the books I've read, in alphabetical order by title. I will probably be adding other widgets later, such as my current-reads list, and perhaps I'll find a way to post the book we're reading in my ward's Relief Society book club. Right now it's Christmas Jars by Jason Wright and Christmas Oranges by Linda Bethers and Ben Sowards.

Thus begins the end of a long, hard day. As soon as I'm done posting this blog I'll grab a spoon and some Brownie Batter ice cream (thanks again, Morgan), head back to my room, curl up in my robe and continue reading Brisingr by Christopher Paolini. Fortunately I don't work tomorrow, so even if I stay up through the wee hours of the night I'll at least be able to sleep in a couple of hours.

Uh oh. Dad just turned on an eye-catching episode of Northern Exposure. Looks like I won't even start reading until the wee hours :)

Another Excerpt

Hi all! Things are stretched a bit thin right now, at work and at home, therefore limiting the time I've had to post. I'm taking a quick dinner break right now though and decided to post another excerpt of my "novel" to be. I don't know when I'll be picking it back up, but not before the new year at least.

This excerpt is from the beginning. It ties in with both my current job at the children's museum and also with the book I was reading at the time, which plays a key part in the story.

"As she stood there she heard a small girl talking to her mother about how excited she was to go to the children’s museum. “I want to play with the balls, and the hecilopter, and the doggie in the house.” Sally smiled at the young girl’s enthusiasm, and wondered if since she pronounced helicopter as ‘hecilopter,’ she also said ‘basghetti’ in stead of spaghetti.

“We’ll have to wait and see, sweetie, we don’t know how many other children will want a turn” the mother stated, bringing her sometimes boundless patience to bear with this her youngest, most energetic young child while trying to manage control of the girl’s two brothers. It seemed that for the moment, taking the train to down town Salt Lake City held even more promise of excitement to the boys than their destination. They soon started to run up and down the platform, bounding after each other with enthusiastic whoops of happiness and glee, barely heeding to their mother’s plea to “please settle down, there are other people here!”

Standing at the far end of the platform, Sally held the perfect spot to view the spectacle. While perhaps a little shocked at the mother’s limited control over her young ones, she also knew that the boundless energy young children generate must be released somehow, and found a simple joy and humor of her own by the combined performance of the rambunctious boys and the ever lengthening list of things the girl planned on doing seemingly instantaneously upon arriving at the museum. She determined that perhaps one day she would visit the place and find out if all of the things the charmingly blond girl described could possibly fit all in one place.

As she watched, she noticed an old gentlemen standing a few feet away, calmly gazing at her. His faded flannel shirt, worn out wind breaker and faded blue jeans told her this was a man who was no stranger to work. His bearing, however, seemed to be that of a dignified noble lord right out of one of any of the medieval books she had read over the years. The straightness of his posture, the assured and open expression on his face, and particularly the intelligent, dancing gleam in his eye gave him a presence that practically guaranteed respect from even the highest placed executive of the most successful corporations. Curious as to how she could have drawn the gaze of such a man, particularly in light of the scene being provided by the young trio, she took a few steps over and struck up a conversation with him. After exchanging vague pleasantries, he commented on the small hard bound book tucked under her arm, asking if she had read much of it and inquiring after her feelings on the book as a whole. Delighted to have already found someone to share her new treasure with, she gave him a brief synopsis of its contents, and how it came to be written. His questions slowly drew more out of her, and he soon began making comments that inspired her to make new connections both through the book and in what more she could draw from it to apply to her own situation and self-perspective."

So there you have it! Let me know what you think :)

Leaves Dancing in the Wind

What a great time of year! The first thing I really noticed this morning, aside from my annoyance at my alarm, was just how strongly the wind was blowing. On my drive downtown for work, particularly north of 2100 S., I was enthralled by the number of leaves on the road, and how they were dancing in the wind. It lent almost a mystical quality to the morning, on a day I know I'm in desperate need of any such help I can get. It's pretty busy at work, and the first order of business was a meeting regarding recognition of child abuse. Not the type of meeting that anyone particularly enjoys sitting through, but a necessary one for employees at a children's museum.

I'm doing Nanowrimo this year. I know that I'm not going to be able to finish the full 50,000 words, but I'm going to make a serious effort to tack on another couple thousand words tonight. Here's an excerpt, if anyone's interested:

"She soon lost herself amidst financial documents and order forms, wandering through them as a fairy would drift through an enchanted woodland. She flitted through meadows filled with catalogues of children’s novels, weaved through the stands of music and art literature, forged through rivers of nature and science reference works, and finally fought her way through those venerated tomes of knowledge that bore the history of everything from the United States of America to the creation of string cheese. She had stopped to gaze into a small pond claiming to know the answer of the difference between Canadian bacon and Danish ham (apparently it was the sound the pig made, the Canadian one going “oink, ay”) when a knock came to her door."

The "she" is Sally Bradford, my protagonist (main character), who works at a book store. The whole canadian bacon/danish ham thing was inspired by a conversation at Litza's Pizza with some great coworkers.