Reading Plan Complete

The last two books I read for my chick-lit reading plan were not really chick-lit. They had some similar appeal factors but were not mainstream chick-lit books, but were more like appendage's. The first was Bitter is the New Black: confessions of a condescending, egomaniacal, self-centered, smart-@$$ or, why you should never carry a Prada bag to the unemployment office: a memoir by Jen Lancaster. (Great title, eh?) The second was Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner.

Bitter is the new Black is non-fiction. A memoir to be precise, about a 30's something woman who is living the life. She's got a job that makes her oodles of money, a fabulous apartment, and has a committed boyfriend. There are things she would like to change, like she would like to move to New York, but otherwise, things are good. Until she looses her job. And then her boyfriend looses his job. And they have to move. And their car gets reposed. And you get the picture.

The author has a lot in common with many characters I see in, or associate with, chick-lit. She has the big-paying job, and all the latest fashions, the monthly hair appointment with the best stylist in the city. She is not currently looking for a man, because she already has one, but her mother does occasionally bug her about when she's going to marry the guy. The tone is light and snarky and fun, despite the huge life crisis she goes through. And it is a crisis. It takes two years before someone offers her a job. But despite the snarkiness, you can see how her attitude towards work and money and life change. She starts up as the stuck-up princess type and ends up as the funny, blunt, girl-to-hang-out with type.

I'm not sure which category to put Best Friends Forever. It could be women's fiction, or chick-lit, or mainstream fiction. Addie has always been shy, and lately, she's become something of a recluse. After high school, her father died suddenly from and aneurysm and it was left to her to care for her ill mother. Val is a mix of dare-devil and beauty queen. If you cross her, she'll get you back. Addie and Val have been best friends since they were nine. But an incident in high school caused a falling out between them. Now, the night of their high school reunion, Val is at Addie's door, asking for help.

There is a little bit of mystery in what actually happened at the reunion and back in high school, but it is the relationship between Addie and Val that really drives the novel. The mystery is actual a bit anti-climatic, but it does allow Addie to get together with the cute local sheriff, so I suppose it serves its purpose.

So that's it. My 2010 reading plan is complete. And I still have a whole month left over.

Fuzzy's Journey

Mark and I like to go on walks on Sunday afternoons. We may not live in a neighborhood, but there are several nearby that are good for strolling around. Today we went a road that went behind some of those neighborhoods. On one side of the street were fences and the other side were fields. While we were walking, we saw a fuzzy caterpillar. It was pretty big and it moved very fast. Well, fast for a caterpillar. We named it Fuzzy.

But, isn't it the wrong of year for Fuzzy to still be a caterpillar? Shouldn't he be in a cocoon by now? Yes, we asked ourselves these same questions. We found out that Fuzzy is the last of his kind. The rest of his clan was destroyed by Grackles and he is on a quest to find a new homeland and rebuild. He cannot start his cocoon until he has found a safe place to call home.

We wished Fuzzy luck and went on our way. We did not see him on the way back.

Book Suggestions

As part of my work duties, I get to review the titles that our patrons request that we buy. I really enjoy this part of my work because it means I get read reviews and buy books. A lot of what gets suggested are the blockbuster bestseller authors whose next book won't be out for three months, but they have to have it now anyway. Those request I just toss because our vendor sends those to us automatically. No request needed.

There's been a lot of requests for out of print romance titles, in large print. I've been getting the same three or four titles over and over again, all by the same author. I may have inadvertently encouraged this person to submit titles by actually buying one of his/her requests. Sometimes I wish I could contact patrons like this to tell them to "Give it up!" Their beloved romance author is no longer writing and no one wants to print their books anymore. Its time to start hunting the used book stores and Amazon because the library is never going to get it.

Of course, if I ever did run into the person requesting these titles, I'd never have to courage to tell them that.

Internet is Evil

People who are used to doing the same thing every day have a hard time noticing when something chances. This morning at work, our Internet management system went down. It was having trouble all weekend and it turns out that there's something wrong with the hard drive, so our IT department had to take it away. We find all this out a few minutes before we open, so we have some time to get ready for manual sign up. We print out our sign up sheets and post all our "Please sign up at the desk" and "No printing today" signs.

The first rush of people are easy to catch because they come in sign file, so I just stood by the first Internet computer and took names. After that, things were not so easy.

We are suppose to have 15 minute express Internet computers, but with the name taking, that gets too hard to keep track; so, when the system is down, all computers are equal. Getting people to come and sign up when they're used to just sitting down and taking one is next to impossible, no matter how many signs you have up.

About a half hour after opening, I spot someone on a computer who did not sign up. I take my clip board and pencil and walk over to him to get his name.

Me: Excuse me, can I get your name? Our sign up system is down so we're taking names to keep track of computer time today.

Guy: (checking his gmail) Oh, is that why I didn't have to enter my library card?

Me: Yes.

Guy: You should really put up a sign about that.

Me:(pointing to the two signs on either sign of the monitor) We have. So if I could just get your name so you can continue using the computer.

Guy: (closing his gmail) That's okay. I'm done.

Luckily, this conversation didn't repeat itself often, but I did have to nab people from the express area several times to explain what was happening.

An email went out to all reference staff about the manual sign up. This is standard procedure for computer meltdowns. Of course when my relief comes, she doesn't know anything about it and immediately starts telling some poor visitor about 15 minutes express computers. Which don't exist today. Which she passed on her way to the desk, with all the signs.

The good and the bad

Good news and bad news everyone.

The good news is that Mark is no longer working graveyards.

The bad news is that Mark is no longer working.

*sigh*

Earlier this week the company he works for changed his schedule unexpectedly to an earlier time. Of course he didn't find out about this until after he logged on to work his shift and saw that he was supposed to have been teaching several hours earlier. This change was rather last minute and no one attempted to contact him in any way to let him know. So he emailed the scheduler and his HR contact to ask what happened and to apologize for not being on. And because he's up at 3 am and has nothing better to do he blogs about it. He didn't name any names, but apparently the company's CEO found about it somehow and decided Mark was giving him negative PR. He then sent the order down to have him let go.

So we're back to searching for teaching jobs. We've given up on San Antonio and are looking at Idaho, Pennsylvania, and Missouri. If you know of any school districts looking for biology teachers, let us know. 'Cause if we don't find anything by March, we'll be off to Japan, because Japan loves Mark.

Working

Mark has got a job!

Yeah! *clap hands, jump for joy, do a little happy dance*

He's teaching English online to Korean students. He's teaching high school and elementary school kids. These are like extra credit, after school program, classes, so the classes are smaller. The high school students are one on one and the elementary schools kids are three at a time. And the lessons are short, too, only 15 to 20 minutes a day. He started training Monday morning and taught his first group of students Friday.

The only drawback is that after school hours in Korea is the middle of the night here. So that Monday morning was technically Sunday night. Yep, he's working midnight to 8:00 am. Its very much like when we were dating, with my rushing home to be with him for a few hours before he has to go to work and I go to bed. Only instead of him being in another country, he's in the living room. And I'm learning how to sleep with the lights on.

The Marriage Post

This post has been a long time coming. Sorry for all of you out there waiting to hear about it. It took a while to get the pictures (I'm still waiting for some) and then the time to write. Apparently marriage does stuff to your time. My days are now split up into two categories: work and Mark. Everything else has been pushed aside. But he's a Sunday afternoon napper and I'm not.

We were married on July 23, 2010 in the Ogden Utah temple.

All our parents and siblings were able to come, which was a great blessing. I haven't seen all my siblings in the same place at the same time in many years. After the ceremony the photographer took over. It was a bright sunny day and we were facing the sun and in many of the shots you can see us squinting.

We actually had some extra time between the ceremony and the reception. We had so many people helping us set up that we had time for a game of Munchkin. If you do any sort of role-playing, you have to play Munchkin. Its a card game that has elements of role-playing, but instead of everybody working together to defeat monsters, its every man for himself.

We only had two little problems the entire evening. The sugar jewels on my cake melted, so Mom spent most of the afternoon fixing that instead of relaxing and playing games and eating pizza. Not that you can tell that anything was wrong with the cake. Mom is brilliant that way. And the button hook on my dress ripped during one of the photos. The photographer had the groomsmen make a chair out their arms and put me in it. The dress ripped as I was getting in. (Sorry I don't have a picture of this yet. Its on its way.) But a safety pin kept everything in place for the rest of the night.

We had a pretty good turnout for the reception. My friends from high school came, and Mark's cousins, and a bunch our parent's friends whom neither of us knew well.

And here are some random pictures from the reception. Sorry about the quality of some of these. You know how disposable camera are.