The End

Tonight Dad, Mom, Naomi, and I finished the special features on "The End of Time" - the final David Tennant Dr. Who special. Us girls found ourselves getting a bit emotional listening to the actors and watching the replay of the last scenes of the episode. It isn't the end of Dr. Who, because we know that Matt Smith has taken over and there have been two more years of Dr. Who since that ending.

But it was the end. It felt much more like a series finale than a season finale for me. I think some of that has to do with the nature of Dr. Who. Because of the regeneration, it's very much a new show with, in this case, a whole new cast and even a new producer.

(If you don't care about Dr. Who hang in here with me for a moment and I promise I'll tie it into a larger topic in a minute.)

Besides that, as brilliant as I'm sure Matt Smith is, I just think that David Tennant is absolutely brilliant and he was my first doctor. I've heard it said that you often feel a stronger connection to your first Doctor when you encounter Doctor Who.

Anyway. It's over and the specials have all been watched, but I find my thoughts lingering on the show and I find myself feeling almost depressed over the fact that this fictional character of the tenth doctor is never returning to my tv screen. Knowing I'll never see him make friends, make mistakes, continue to grow and change and LIVE makes me incredibly sad. But it was satisfying and beautiful at the same time. This got me to thinking - what makes a good ending? And then I started thinking about other endings that have affected me just as strongly and I started wondering why some are so memorable and others aren't.

I love a happy ending, but I also seem to like shows, and even books, that leave things a little bit open. I like room to imagine what's going to happen next. And honestly, I seem to like a little bit of bittersweet as well. Which is kind of a revelation for me, because I'm such a firm believer in the happy ending ending. I think it depends on how it's handled and the MOST important thing is that the ending is satisfying.

I could make a really long list, but here are a few endings I have loved:

The Hunger Games Trilogy and the Gregor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins. I am such a Collins fangirl. I think she is absolutely brilliant. Both of these series end so bittersweetly and the thing that makes the difference is the hope. With all of the tragedy and death and horror there is hope that the characters can survive and can overcome the terrible things they've come in contact with. I get teared up just thinking about it. But the hope at the end would never have been so powerful if there hadn't been the terror right up until the last possible moment. The pain of the characters emphasizes the power of their ability to move on.

From Crazy Frankenstein

Friends. I discovered this show when I was an undergrad when a friend started lending me the seasons. I fell in love with the six characters and the ending was perfect. Each of them ready to move on with their lives, filled with possibilities, but that poignant moment when they all set down their keys and leave the apartment and the slow pan brings me to tears every time. It's an absolutely wonderful moment.

From Flash Screen

Lost. Yes, I was on the side of those that loved it. It threw me for a loop the first time I saw the finale, but after some time of processing and talking with other fans I realized that it was a beautiful and perfect ending. So there were unsolved mysteries. Wasn't that the whole point of the show? To keep people thinking and guessing and speculating? If everything was wrapped up nice and pretty it would have destroyed the power of the entire show. The characters were what really mattered. It was because of them that we cared so much about the mysteries. And each of them had some sort of conclusion to their story in a beautiful and meaningful way.

From Here

The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. I cannot express my delight in these books enough. They are some of my favorites of all time and I was honestly terrified in wondering how the series would end, but I should have had more faith in Mr. Snicket. Open ended, bittersweet, and hopeful with enough bizarre twists and strange happenings to make it a worthy finale to a wonderful series.

I definitely have a lot of food for thought as I work towards the ending of my novel. Because I want to make it an ending that people will love and remember.

So what makes a good ending for you? Do you like wrapped up and happy? Or loose ended and mysterious? Or a mixture?

BEA!!!!! (shh... I KNOW it's late... deal with it)

I know, BEA was like ages and ages ago - also known as two weeks.

But the POINT is that I am writing about it now! Right? Right!

So there were 5 of us that went together. Me and my sis and Cupcake and CC and HPFanGirl.

Okay, so those aren't their real names, but I don't have permission to call them by their real names here, SOOOOOO I had fun coming up with fake ones :D

We decided to meet at 4 so we could catch the 4:22am train. And Naomi and I live 1/2 an hour from the meeting place, so we had to leave the house at 3:30... I do not know how commuters do that every day. I think I would die.

We thought we would sleep the whole way to the city, but we were all too excited, so we talked and probably annoyed EVERYBODY to pieces, because they were all being sleepy and quiet. But no one shushed us like they did last year, so I guess we weren't too bad.

The ride in was fun too. We talked about Lost and Buffy and books and authors and stuff and had a grand old time.

Then we got to ... I think it was Penn station. Pete's sake, you'd think I would actually know that, but anyways.

We were trying to get our bearings and there was a crazy lady standing on the corner talking to her imaginary boyfriend who was apparently a real jerk. So we crossed the street. Ah New York.

ANYWAYS.

We found the Center with no problems and got our passes and got our tickets to see the BIG authors we wanted to see and then checked our suitcases.

We were there SO early so we grabbed some bagels and sat down to peruse the signing offerings and put together a strategy of who we had to see when.

And we kind of got scared that we had used up all our energy before the show even opened!

Not so... when those doors opened and they let us in, we were raring to go.

First up we hit the Candlewick Press booth and they had a TON of ARCs available and they all looked fantastic! AND they had two girls dressed up like the characters from Kate DiCamillo's upcoming children's book Bink and Gollie Then we headed off to the autograph section to get a signed copy of said book. It looks SO adorable!

Then we got in line for Sarah, Duchess of York who was signing copies of her new picture book. But there were a gaggle of camera people waiting to video her and she was WAY late, so CC and I decided we'd rather hop around and get some other signatures instead.

So we bounced over to Karin Slaughter who was signing Broken and then bounced into line for Maureen Sherry's book Walls Within Walls (It looks like a lot of fun - right up my alley). We did a little bit of wandering through the booths, but there were SO many great authors doing signings that we spent most of our time in the autographing area. Also, most of the booths didn't have too much exciting stuff going on as compared to last year. A LOT less ARCs available (or so it seemed).

I will say that whoever decided to cram everything on one level so the autographing area was smashed up against the booths needs to be trampled by a herd of angry librarians, teachers, authors and booksellers. It was terrible. You know you're going to have a ton of people lining up to see authors like Rick Riordan or Kate DiCamillo or Melissa Marr or James Patterson. So WHY on EARTH would you have a space only big enough for MAYBE 50 (but more like 30) people. And THEN have NO official people out there directing the line. It was squishy and people were rude and you couldn't get anywhere. That was my major complaint of the day. Next year they need to separate the autographing area out again. Or have at LEAST 2-3 volunteers to direct traffic PER LINE.

Okay, rant over.

Next it was off to stand in line for James Dashner's newest 13th Reality book - I haven't read the others, but they've always looked really interesting. While we were in line, a guy was making his way down introducing himself to the people in line. He said he was James' publisher and asked how we had heard about the author. I said I had received an ARC of The Maze Runner and was really looking forward to reading it though I hadn't had a chance to get to it yet. The publisher was SUPER nice and was chatting with a couple librarians on either side of us in line. He brought back some ARCs for them of a book called The Hourglass Door. Naomi and I were craning our necks to see what the book was about and so he offered us ARCs too! Yeah for sneaky tactics to get more free books! :P

That was Shadow Mountain Publishing and they were great - we saw the guy 3 or 4 times throughout the day and he was always great, they put out a lot of really good books. It's so nice getting to see some of the really great publishing houses that are out there.

Then I got a copy of Murder in Vein a new Fang-In-Cheek mystery novel by Sue Ann Jaffarian. It looks really fun.

Lunch Time! We unloaded our stacks of books into our suitcases and grabbed a quick bite to eat.

You know, I thought I had more pictures, but I guess I was just so excited about meeting these people that I forgot to take pics most of the time. :D

So right after lunch Jon Scieszka was going to be doing a signing. I love his books. The Time Warp Trio series is hilarious and of course all of his picture books like The Stinky Cheese Man and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and Naomi really likes him too. HE was signing a compilation of short stories called Guys Read: Funny Business but I just wanted to have a chance to meet him and get the autograph. The other girls were, oh it's not that interesting, so it doesn't matter. But Naomi and I said NO, we have to get up there now so we don't MISS HIM! So we ran away from them and got into line.

They were giving away those glasses with the nose and mustache along with the book and there were like 4 of the contributing authors there. So much FUN!

From 1-5 there was author after author that we wanted to see, so we had to be well planned.

Got Jon Scieszka and then .... oh THEN....

Then it was time for ....

LEMONY SNICKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I SWEAR I was hyperventilating just a little. You have no idea. The Series of Unfortunate Events is one of my all time favorite kids' series and I've read them all multiple times and I own the entire set, plus all of the ones that they put out as paperbacks, almost all of them on audio, all of the other books he's come out with since then from the tie ins to the Series (The Beatrice Letters and The Unauthorized Autobiography) to the holiday books (The Latke That Wouldn't Stop Screaming and The Lump of Coal) to his first picture book (The Composer is Dead) to the collection of wisdom (Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid)

AND when my sis and I went to London they had DIFFERENT COVERS!!!! SRSLY! So I bought 1 (I think it was The Unauthorized Autobiography) Because I couldn't HELP myself!

It turned out he and the illustrator were signing posters from the new picture book 13 Words and other people were all, "I have to stand in this ridiculously LONG line just to get a POSTER signed? And I was like, um... they could be giving away POST IT NOTES and I would stand in a line TWICE as long. But that's just me.

His line was taking a little longer than most of the lines did, but that was because he actually took a moment to TALK to each person! OMW! He totally insulted EVERYBODY and it was the FUNNIEST thing ever.

Werd. I am SO gushing here, but I cannot express my excitement over this enough.

So anyways...

So Naomi went first and she has a number of friends that were super jealous that she was going to get to meet him, so she says, "2 of my friends hate me because of you."

Lemony Snicket got this strange look on his face and he said, "Where I come from we don't call those friends. So he turned to HPFanGirl, who was behind her, and asked, "Do you hate her?" And HPFanGirl said, "Maybe a little." So he said, "Then you must be her friend!"

And when he signed Naomi's poster he wrote, "To Naomi, who has questionable friends"

hahahaha!

Then it was my turn and I knew I was going to be an idiot, so I just went for it.

I said, "I know this sounds cheezy, but I am your biggest fan."

He said, "Don't put yourself down like that. I've known people much bigger than you."

OMW, I was LAUGHING so hard!

Then he said, "Well, it's very nice of you to say that now that I've turned it into an insult."

Then it was CC's turn and she was wearing a t-shirt that he read aloud. Except the t-shirt said, "Love Your Body" so he read it and then was all, oh excuse me, I was just reading your shirt. Do you wear that just in the hopes that someone will read it aloud?"

Oh my. I could have just sat there all day. We were all cracking up.

Next was Cupcake and she had decided to get the poster signed for her dad. So when Lemony Snicket looked at who he was supposed to make it out to, he said, "And this is for... Jim. Hello, Jim. I don't care what anyone says, you are very masculine."

*sigh* :D

After that I hopped into another line and was grinning from ear to ear. I couldn't STOP smiling. My face was so happy that it just stayed in this giant dorky grin for like half an hour! The lady in front of me was looking over at the Lemony Snicket line and looked at me and says, "I was GOING to see him, but that line was so long and they're not even giving away a book."

I looked at her with my giant grin and said, "It's the chance to get to meet the author. I don't care what they were giving away."

And she looked at me like I was crazy. But people, come on. As great as the ARCs and everything are, are you not there to get to MEET these people that you have come to LOVE through their BOOKS!? If they had signed my program and sent me on my way I would have been happy just for the opportunity (but I LOVE my ARCs don't get me wrong.).

Anyways. Here's a couple bad pics of Lemony Snicket :D

So that other line I was in was for Gail Carson Levine who is ALSO one of my FAVORITE authors! Have you read her stuff? It's SO great! She's written Ella Enchanted and Fairest and Ever and The Two Princesses of Bamarre and she was signing ARCs of her newest picture book Betsy Red Hoodie and (later) Fairies and the Quest for NeverLand. It was all just SO happy :D

Naomi went to Brandon Mull and John Flanagan while the rest of us got in line for Rick Riordan. That line was SO long. HPFanGirl was hyperventilating at this point. She was as excited about getting to see him as I was about Lemony Snicket. I was pretty excited too. He was signing copies of The Red Pyramid the first book in his new series.

He was really nice and HPFanGirl was OVER the MOON. Here's another kinda crummy pic :P

I got another picture that was better, but HPFanGirl is IN it so...

After that we ran over to see where the line was forming for Melissa Marr. She was there last year as well and she is SO nice!

Right in front of her, in the same line, Diana Peterfreund was signing and Naomi had found the logline for the book interesting so she decided to get in line for that and then come back around and join us. It was for the book Ascendant and the logline was this: The killer-unicorn phenomenon continues in this sequel to Rampant.

Intriguing, no?

Well, apparently it was more of a phenomenon than the BEA folks thought, because they put her in for 1/2 an hour and right before Melissa Marr. But the line exploded and they ended up creating a booth for her to sign in so they could get Melissa Marr in and she was signing until her ARCs were gone. But Naomi had to leave the line because of it, so she and I made it back there later and both got signed copies :)

Anyways, Melissa Marr was signing copies of Radiant Shadows the 4th book in her Wicked Lovely series. She is great and the series is great. I've been following her on Twitter and told her so and we chatted for a moment about that. SO much FUN!

While I had been waiting in line for Melissa Marr with CC, I saw we were right next to Jonathan Maberry who was signing ARCs of his new YA book Rot & Ruin. It's about ZOMBIES and so I immediately thought of MIA and HAD to get a copy. OMW it is A. Maz. Ing. I love this book a LOT.

Then we went to Bree Despain signing copies of The Dark Divine which looks really interesting.

While we were standing in line for Rick Riordan, a couple of young girls (like middle school age) were going around handing out fliers. They were signing copies of poetry books and inviting people to come down and check it out. Now I thought it was pretty cool that such young kids had a BOOK published, so Naomi and I made sure we found our way down to them. There were two books they were signing... Winter Coat and Blindspots both poetry books put together by students of their own poetry.

Now here's the exciting part for you guys... They signed an EXTRA COPY of EACH BOOK for me so I could review it for all of you Lovely Blogger Friends and then do a GIVEAWAY! Aren't you EXCITED?!

SO - come back on Friday for the review and giveaway. It's gonna be FANTASTIC!

So then it was late and we were tired and our shoulders felt like they were going to fall off so we gathered everything together and made our way back to the train station. Unfortunately there was some international soccer game that night and all of the trains back to Secaucus were mad full and people were rude and hogging extra seats! What is up with you commuters? The ride is only like 15 minutes! People sit closer together on 8 hour flights!

Anyways, we eventually made it back and it was after 9 by the time we got back to our cars. A LONG day, but SUCH a GOOD one.

And that's my story!

Sorry it took SO long to get it up, but I hope it was worth it.

And don't forget to come back on Friday for the giveaway!

Retro Retail

So, I've had one day back from vacation (by the time you read this it will be two, but I have to do this early because I'M GOING TO BEA TOMORROW [which is actually today to you or maybe even yesterday, depending on when you stop by] AND I'M SUPER EXCITED. I'm hoping to meet Rick Riordan and LEMONY SNICKET [ZOMW I think I might hyperventilate just a little] and get to see Melissa Marr again and tons of other fantastic authors and AHHHHHHHHH!!! And we're leaving at 4 in the morning, which is why I'm doing this post ahead of time) and not much of anything of note happened in that one 8-hour shift (except a LOT of Lost talk, because we're cool like that) so I decided to do a Retro Retail post (as you can tell from the title) so I would still have something up here :D

If you can untangle that sentence, you are amazing!

And this just made me smile, so I thought I would share:

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Back in the day (meaning 4ish years ago) I worked for Eckerd Drug Stores. They no longer exist - have you noticed that? I left and the company went under (or so I like to tell myself :P).

But I have some pretty funny stories from my time working there. These are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Enjoy!

Not The Brightest Crayon In The Box Award:

A customer came up to the register and handed me a bag. "I need to return this calculator," she said, pulling it out of the bag. "I've tried and tried and I can't get it to clear or enter anything new."

I look down and think, man, how am I supposed to do this without making her feel like an idiot. Suppressing a sigh I peel off the clingy plastic sample equation leaving the screen free. "Try it now. They put this on to protect the screen and show you the size of the font."

Woman takes calculator and starts punching things in giddily. "Thank you SO much," she gushes.

I honestly don't know which was worse - the fact that she couldn't figure out it was just a sticker, or the fact that she was so impressed that I figured it out so quickly...

Look! A poster for my AWARD! *does happy dance*

I don't know who originally did this, but THANKS!

Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? Retail Edition:

A woman came in looking for a specific type of makeup. I can't even remember exactly what her question was, but it's not really that relevant for the story. She was super nice and it was a valid question and we weren't busy so I didn't mind helping her.

We look back and forth at a few of the boxes and narrow it down from several options to a few.

We decide to call the 800 number on the back of the package. As we walk over to the phone the customer starts laughing - "I'd like to phone a friend, Regis," she said and I had to laugh with her. I called the number and it's... disconnected. Yup. By now we are both giggling and she says, "I guess we have to poll the audience!" She asks another customer and ends up deciding on which she wants to buy, but it was pretty funny that we had to use all of our lifelines...

Densest Customer Award:

This was actually a multiple offender award.

People would come into the store, march up to the register and demand to know where the batteries were. At which point we would point directly behind them to the giant 3-sided display of batteries about 2 feet from them. Most people would just kind of chuckle awkwardly or say something like, "Well, if it had been a shark it would have bit me."

Just. Like. This.

But one guy glared at me as though it were all my fault that the batteries were not hidden in some remote spot that he would actually have to be directed to.

It's your fault I can't see past my nose!

The Milk Lady:

We sold half gallons of milk - and at a REALLY good price. People would come in and stock up on milk like there was no tomorrow. It was kind of ridiculous.

But there was one woman who will go down in infamy amongst all of us who ever worked at that store.

I don't know how many times she tried to pull this off over the 8 years I spent there. She would wait for different cashiers so it took us forever to realize she was doing it like EVERY week.

This is how it would go.

ML (milk lady): (comes up to register with empty half gallon milk jug in a bag) Excuse me. I bought this milk yesterday and it was sour today. I poured it out, because it had like chunks and stuff. But I only bought it yesterday. You can see it's still within the date. Can I get a replacement?

Cashier: Yes, that's fine (which at the time, it was fine - we would do these occasionally, because with milk sometimes this happens.)

ML takes her new jug of milk and leaves.

Comes back a few days later to repeat performance.

Once we realized what was going on we told her she had to bring it in with the sour milk still in it so we could prove to our vendor that there was a problem. Thought that would take care of the problem.

Not so much. She starts bringing in half full cartons of sour milk for exchange.

At this point we're wondering if she realizes that you have to REFRIGERATE milk.

Then the delivery questions started.

For a while they were shuffling our delivery dates around, trying to find a good system to keep us well stocked with milk. She would call or come in ALMOST DAILY to find out when our deliveries were coming. Then she would rant and rave that none of us knew what we were talking about, that everyone always gave her different answers as to when the milk came. That she had to buy it as soon as we got it or it wouldn't last.

I think she needed a hobby.

Or at least this shirt...

Outright Bizarre Award:

I had a woman call on the phone (I think I might have shared this before, but it TOTALLY bears repeating!).

Woman: I'm looking for foundation and was wondering if you carry it.

Me: We have a lot of different kinds. What brand were you looking for?

Woman: I'm not sure. What brands do you have?

Me: Cover Girl, L'Oreal, Revlon, Maybelline...

Woman: I think it's Revlon.

Me: All right, which color did you need.

Woman: What colors are there?

Me: There's about twenty different ones.

Woman: Well, can you list them?

Me: (sigh) Hold on a second, I'll go take a look..... (I begin to list some of the different colors)

Woman: I'm not sure... (no joke) What color do you think would look good on me?

Me: (stifling laughter) I really can't tell over the phone. The best thing would be for you to come in and take a look at them yourself.

Woman: Oh no! I don't leave the house! Someone's coming to get it for me.

Me: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Oh! I thought of one more and then I have to run...

Drama Queen Award:

Two customers were getting milk. The male customer accidentally bumps the female customer's bum with the door to the case.

Female customer loses it and begins yelling at him for touching her bum and how dare he do that and yadda yadda yadda.

Male customer is trying to be apologetic, but obviously finds the whole thing amusing, because it was completely innocuous and accidental.

They both end up at my register. He is starting to get a little heated as she continues to rail, her voice escalating. But he keeps his cool while she looks like a complete nutjob.

Manager approaches the register and asks what the problem is. Happens to glance over at the male customer as he asks.

Female customer FREAKS OUT... "You're just taking his side, because you're a MAN!"

Actually, this is more how I felt, than how she looked.

OMW.

Yup, pretty much wherever you work, the customers are INSANE! sometimes nice and sometimes nasty, but ALWAYS, ALWAYS insane!

NY See!

Friday Naomi and I headed into the city for a day off with a very special and fun dinner at the end!

Here we are on the train, being goofy and probably driving everybody crazy. Fortunately there weren't many people on the train to bother :)

We got into Penn Station around noon and then walked our way all the way down to...

We walked up to the bookstore and there were like 20 carts of $1 books outside. I knew we were doomed. Look at all the lovelies!

I thought I was going to get out pretty easily, but then I found the Lemony Snicket audiobooks - which I have slowly been trying to accumulate, but they are hard to find and expensive and these were on sale for only $12! I was so excited.

Of course, then we had to carry our bags of books all over the city.

After the Strand, we sat in the park and had lunch. We bought some fresh fruit to share. mmmm...

We walked all the way back up past the Empire State Building and then sat outside the Library for a while. The weather was gorgeous. Then we walked through Times Square (fortunately not during the Poland Spring bomb scare) and up toward Columbus Circle.

It's funny, all through all of those "famous" landmarks and we took hardly any pictures, but we stopped to take pictures of this church (Of course I can't remember which one it is)
And this random building. Yeah, we're like that.

So after taking a break in Borders, we headed off to the Jekyll and Hyde Club to meet up with Nikki Stafford and some of the other Nik at Niters for dinner.

The restaurant was a lot of fun - a little loud - but fun. The characters played their parts well - especially the caretaker whose name completely escapes me and Miss Misery.

Naomi and I were standing outside the restaurant waiting for the others to show up and Naomi looked at me and said, "We're insane."

I looked at her. This is of course a given. After all we are both writers and therefore a tad insane. I just wasn't sure why in this particular time we were insane.

"We're doing what they always warn you against. Meeting people you met on the internet."

haha! But, as my boss put it, most serial killers don't travel in packs, so we figured we were probably safe :)

You know how it is when you are really good friends with someone and then you haven't seen each other for like five years and you get together again and for a couple minutes it's a little weird, but then you just feel as though you were never apart?

That's the best way to describe how it was meeting everybody. Even though we had never met face to face, it was like we were getting back together with old friends. It was amazing. We talked Lost and other TV shows and other random things and just had a marvelous time. I so hope that I have the chance to meet up with some of the other Nik at Niters in the future.

Naomi and I are going to Polaris in July and we'll at least get to see Nikki again (so excited!) But I'm hoping that some of the other blogger people will be there too.

Here's the happy little crew.

Yeah!

I could have stayed and talked all night long, but unfortunately, there was one train back to our stop and if we had missed it we would have been stuck overnight, which would not have been cool. We did have a nice long evening together, though and it was just amazing. Getting to actually speak to people and see their expressions as they throw out their theories and being able to immediately bounce back and forth ideas and expand on and qualify and question and answer with each other. So much fun!

Blam posited a grand theory, which he illustrated with the best napkin sketch ever. I'm pretty sure Nikki is going to put up a picture of the napkin, because she saved it so we would have proof that Blam figured everything out. But one of the best things was when Kevie picked up the napkin and "explained" Blam's theory to the other half of the table. It went something like... "See, here's a circle and that makes this line go woowoowoo" hahahahahahaha!

Okay, maybe you had to have been there.

And I really hope Blam posts it up sometime soon, because it's a blow-your-mind kind of theory.

Anyhoo.

It was a blast. and I'm dying to do it again soon.

*happy sigh*

Random Things That Make Me Happy

I saw Joan has done a couple of these and some other blogs I have popped onto, so I decided to do my own. I will do somewhere between 5 and 10 and will exclude obvious things like Lost and Family and Books to the more obscure things that most people don't know about me.

1. Ever After - I tend to forget this movie when I am naming my favorites, but it is my all time feel-good movie. I absolutely adore the sound track, too and put it on when I am stressed and it almost immediately soothes me.

2. Chicken - Yes, you read that right. I love chicken. I could eat chicken every single day and never be tired of it. I had some for dinner tonight. It was delicious. mmmmmmm

3. Lemony Snicket - I love the Series of Unfortunate Events and every other bit of anything at all loosely related to Lemony Snicket. I am minorly obsessed with it. I am very sad that the series is over. I signed up for the e-mail updates and have all of them saved in their own Lemony Snicket folder.

4. Classic Pooh - Makes me happy just thinking about it. I really like the classic stories and poems done by Milne, with the illustrations by Shepard. I have quite a collection of knick knacks, books and other assorted items. I visited Harrod's when I went to London because it is the store where A. A. Milne bought the original Pooh bear for his son.

5. Seattle's Best Whipped Cream - I am not a big whipped cream fan. Most of the time I can't stand the stuff (Cool Whip is another story all together) but I love Seattle's Best whipped cream. I could eat an entire cup full of it by itself. Mmmmmmmmm...

6. Pens - I like pens. Colored pens, felt tip pens, ball point pens, marker pens, highlighter pens, gel pens. They all give me a tingly feeling inside.

7. Calenders - I currently have 6 calendars around my room. My bedroom. My one small room. What is there not to like?! It's like a poster that changes every month! How amazing is that!? Or in the case of the day by day ones, that changes every DAY! Calendars I currently have: Lost (duh), Classic Pooh (see #4), New Moon (Yes, I am one of THOSE people. No, I am not obsessed or crazy. No, I cannot stand Edward), Dilbert day by day (This mimics my job WAY too often), one of those funeral home calendars that they send our church every year (with the funeral home advertisement cut off. It's really pretty pictures of landscapes with Bible verses- pretty!), Play With Your Food (amazing scenes made entirely out of fruits and vegetables. It inspired me and my sister to create an entire story).

8. Blogging - I never planned to do this. I opened an account simply so I could post on Nikki Stafford's blog. Then this empty space was just sitting here calling me, so I thought, sure I could post a couple things. And I wrote about Lost and about books and then about other random stuff and now, if a week passes where I haven't written it kind of makes me sad. Who cares that no one reads the stuff (Okay, Blam and Joan and AchingHope, you aren't no one), I read it and I write it and I have fun with it and that's all that matters to me :)

9. Pictures - photographs, paintings, drawings, posters, whatever I love them all! Every square inch of wall in my room is plastered with frames, posters, pictures and other random items. I am the reason we have stuff hanging in the living room, dining room, hallway and other places around the house. I like creating them and displaying them.

10. L. M. Montgomery - Probably my all time favorite author. She is know for writing Anne of Green Gables but her scope was so much larger. I love some of her lesser known works the most. She is a serious contender for a thesis (once I get to that point). I have so many favorite books of hers, but one of the top ones is definitely Jane of Lantern Hill. It amazes me how she can create an entire, captivating story built out of simple every day moments. There is nothing earth shattering in her plots. No major villains, few major tragedies, but her characters live and breathe in a way that makes me immensely jealous as an author. There are times that I read something she wrote so long ago that still catches me up in emotion and thrill and I despair that I will never write a sentence worth publishing. But it also pushes me to keep going, to strive, to never think anything is beneath writing about. One of my life dreams is to have the chance to go to Prince Edward Island and visit all the places she wrote about.

So there you have it, 10 random things that make me smile. :)

What I Read This Year - Post 3

Whew... This is taking more posts than I anticipated, but I love books, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.


51. Elyon by Ted Dekker (Another title in his YA series. Pretty good)

52. Raven Rise by D.J. MacHale

53. Soldiers of Halla by D.J. MacHale (The final book in the series. It was satisfying. There was a whole lot of exposition, but there really wasn't any other way to explain all the mythology so that the ending worked. All in all a nice end to a series I thoroughly enjoyed.)

54. Thirteenth Child by Particia Wrede (Loved it. Historical fantasy? How do you make THAT work? She does. I want to read the next one.)

55. Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Another book our store focused on. Very dense prose. I really liked it, but it took me a while to get through it.)

56. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (Absolutely heartbreaking and beautifully written. This is one of those books that will stay with you.)

57. The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf (Fascinating book with a great twist.)

58. Wild At Heart by John Eldredge (The counterpart to Captivating, this book explores God's design for and of men. Very enlightening.)

59. Sold by Patricia McCormick (A heartrending fictional account of a real atrocity - the sale of young girls and women into prostitution.)

60. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (A very good book. I read this one on the recommendation of Blam and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson you should enjoy this one, too.)

61. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (I had never read this before and now I want to know why! It was amazing and I loved all the play on words. Fun, fun, fun.)

62. Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain (I picked up an ARC of her second book, Sweetheart, quickly saw it was a sequel, so I read her first one, Heartsick first. Not my usual fare at all, but it totally sucked me in. Liked the first one a lot. Second one was okay. Third one was necessary to wrap things up, but started to feel like a repeat of the first two. I hope she moves to new characters for her next book.)

63. Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink (Not only is this book fantastic, but Michelle is one of the nicest authors you will ever meet. I am lucky enough that she is a local author and came to do a signing at our store. She is a fantastic lady and her book is wonderful. I am dying for the sequel to come out.)

64. The End by Lemony Snicket (Listened to this on audio. I've read the entire Series of Unfortunate Events multiple times. I love it so much.)

65. The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket (Another audio.)

66. A Summer to Remember by Mary Balogh (I really like the way Mary draws her characters. They are great.)

67. The Guinea Pig Diaries by A.J. Jacobs (A friend of mine recommended The Know-It-All to me a few years ago and I've been following Jacobs' books ever since. This one was fun, but I preferred his first two books over it.)

68. The Earl Claims His Wife by Cathy Maxwell (I feel really bad because I can't remember anything about this book or why I picked it up.)

69. Sweet Revenge by Diane Mott Davidson (I got this book on audio and fell in love with the author. I like a good mystery and she delivers with character, plot, humor and heart.)

70. Suspicion by Kate Brian (Another book in the Private series. I'm pretty sure Kate is a Lost fan after reading this book. Deserted islands, a character named Sawyer that always has his nose in a book... I recognize the signs :)

Well, one more post ought to finish this up. Maybe I'll get to that tomorrow.