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Back from vacation, and not entirely raring to go.  I left a fall heat wave in Las Vegas, and came back to a fall cold snap in Connecticut.  Not pleasant, I feel like I haven't been warm in forever.  I'll have pictures to post soon, depending on how good a job I do in getting all of my electronics working again; instead of charging the things that need to be charged, and setting up the software for my new camera, I have just been going home and falling asleep so far this week.

Also, more books to add to my previous list.  One I'd read a while ago and forgot to add to the list before, and one I finished on my trip.

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, by Michael Chabon
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz

For some reason that I could never, EVAR, hope to explain to anyone who doesn't know me; I spent about 6 hours today reading crack!meta for a series of books I am not even a little bit interested in reading.  No, seriously.  And, it was funny, but even I know that isn't a good excuse.

Spent time Friday night with a couple of girls I went to high school with (they were two years ahead of me), the middle-school friend of one of them, who I first met when I was about 16, and the wife of one of my guy friends from high school.  I was...Well, weird is one word.  

It was 'pizza and a movie girls night', so I dutifully brought with me two romantic comedies I thought might fit the theme.  I brought 'Music & Lyrics' and 'Waitress'.  I hearted Music & Lyrics (I wrote about it previously on LJ, but I can't find the entry to link it here); and I've never seen 'Waitress', but...Well, it's Nathan Fillion (MAL!) and Keri Russell (who I hearted with little purple polka-dot hearts in all my collegiate squee-ness when she was on Felicity) so where is the bad, right? 

Wanna know what movie we ended up watching?  'The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants'.  No, seriously.  I agreed to the movie half-heartedly, because everyone else seemed so gosh-darn excited about it; and really, who has a movie night to really seriously watch the movie, anyway.  Right?  I mean, the muskateers and I, when we watch a movie someone ends up pissed half the time that they missed half the movie due to conversations and commentary.  These women?  Sat quietly through the whole movie, with only the occasional commentary on things like 'oh, I wish I had her body'.  There was a brief conversation about Bradley Whitford (!!!!), between me and one of them, but it was quickly silenced.

This morning I sat and flipped through my yearly Halloween catalog of everything I would buy to decorate for my dream Halloween party if I had the A) Money (which I kind of do at the moment, if I wanted to set myself back a few months in the saving-to-move process); B) Party Space; and C) Enough people in the same area to make it a really awesome time.  My mother semi flipped out through the entire thing, as though I was planning to plonk $1,000 of film-quality gore in her living room and make her deal with it.  Then I went through the sale brochures in the newspaper for some reason (I must have PMS; I hardly ever read newspapers because the smell of the ink makes me nauseous, and as I am on shopping-restriction at the moment there was no reason to be looking for stuff at lower prices).  I found what I thought was a really awesome gift for a friend of mine, and wonder-mom totally shot me down, because (I'm not kidding) "Where would I store it when I wasn't using it?"  Umm, hi, since when is your name XX?  Srsly??

So, it's been a weird few days, that have mostly just made me really, really grateful that I have RL and LJ friends who understand my POV on the world and love me anyway.  **hugs**

I'm just gonna continue to post my opinions about books, and possibly random other things.

So I finished 'heartbreaking, etc...', see yesterday, by David Eggars last night, and I was not entirely pleased.  It just kind of...Ends.  For no reason, with no resolution.  Which, I guess is kind of the point of the book, that so often things just happen and make no sense no matter how we try to string them into some kind of order.  It still made me unhappy, though.

Started a book called "Citizen Tom Paine" this morning, about the author of the Revolutionary War pamphlet "Common Sense" (for those having trouble placing the name).  So far, it is very good; visceral, with details that bring the era to life.  The typeface is very awesome, which is not the kind of thing I normally notice in a book, but I noticed it in this one.  The type is done to mimic that of the 1700's, which is really a neat little effect.

I started working on another neglected project during Bosslady's absence, to give myself something to do.  Waiting for her boss to get back to me with anwers to questions she usually answers slows the process down, unfortunately. 

And, that's all I've got at the moment.  I meant to get back into fic writing, and I swear I am not giving it up for good, but right now I don't have the documents at work and I'm just too tired by the time I get home.  If I remember over the weekend, I want to try getting my documents off of the laptop that's no longer a laptop and into my office computer, so I can work on them. 

Stuff has been going on, but much of it has been rather mild on the 'noteworthy' scale.  We had a watermain break on the street in front of my building; Monday the street was flooded, and there was only a 1-foot area near a drain where you could hop across the rushing puddle/stream of water onto the sidewalk.  They shut down the sidewalk not long after I got through.  The next day, they dug the entire street up, and were only cleaning up when I came in today.

I got very pretty flowers from bosslady yesterday (I haven't had the heart to tell her I'm allergic to them, it was so sweet of her), and bossman let me keep some promotional toys he was sent (no cost to him, yet I was pleased - he's a practical gift giver).  That was cool.  They also let me leave at 4:30 so I could have dinner with my folks, which was cooler.

And other than that...Well, not a heck of a lot.  I've read 'American Gods' by Neil Gaiman and 'The No-Asshole Rule' by a guy whose name I can't remember at the moment.  Robert something I think; it's on Amazon.  The second was a very interesting quick read about management in business organizations and 'building a civilized workplace'.  Highly recommended.  Started a book called 'The Turning' by Jennifer Armentrout this morning, it seems alright so far; I laughed out loud while reading it, which is usually a good sign.

Oh, and I'm going to be back in DC for a visit over Memorial Day weekend.  Hopefully, it will be relaxing and drama-free for me.  I need that at the moment. 

EDIT:  I'M GOING TO SEE GEORGE MICHAEL WITH HAPPYNONOPLACE IN JULY!!!!!!

I have two friends on LJ, who not only write such great fic that they are two of my first 'favorite authors' in the BtVS/Angel fandoms, they also publish original fiction together.  One of their books is coming out in wide realease paperback this weekend!  From pepperlandgirl4's LJ:

Chasing Silver is special to eurydice72 and me [pepperlandgirl4] for a lot of reasons. For one thing, it is literally the first novel we ever wrote together. And we love this story so much. We love the characters. I don't know if any other book is so close to my heart.

Here is the blurb on the back of the book:

On the run in Washington, D.C. from a cop who cares more about inflicting pain than serving justice, Remy Capra grabs a handful of coins and jumps out a window. She lands seventy-five years back in time and across a continent in Los Angeles--at the feet of bounty hunter Nathan Pierce.

Remy isn't like any woman he's ever met. She's street-smart and sassy, but she needs help, and Nathan, against his own better judgment, offers it. Danger looms on all sides: Remy might be whisked back to her own time at any moment, a murderous gang lord is after them, and then there's the mystery of the Silver Maiden, a mystical coin with strange powers. Remy and Nathan may have a future--if she can evade her own past, and if they manage to keep alive in the ever-threatening present...

We want to celebrate. And we want everybody to celebrate with us. And in my entire life, I don't think I've ever experienced anything as exciting as knowing that my book is going to be in book stores across the country. I'd love to see some proof of it! So here's the deal: If you see a copy of our beautiful book and take a picture of it and mail me the link to jamiecraigbooks (at) gmail.com, I will send you a book from our Jamie Craig backlist. We'll be running this contest all month. Also, if you post this in your own blog, livejournal, etc, and post a link here you can win another book from our backlist.

To summarize:
1) Take a picture of Chasing Silver in a bookstore
2) Email the picture to me at jamiecraigbooks (at) gmail.com
3) Win a copy of a book!

Or
1) Cross-post this to your own blog/LJ/etc
2) Email me the link at jamiecraigbooks (at) gmail.com
3) Win a copy of a book!

Or
1) Do both
2) Win two books!

Everyone seems to be traveling these days.  One friend just returned from 3 weeks gone, another is moving away today, another considering an extended vacation, and I'm leaving soon for a vacation of my own with a possible long weekend later in September.

It's nice to shake things up once in a while, and I'll be glad for the chance to see my fam and get some rest, but it still feels like too much change for poor little me.  I'm not a fan of the change...Or any change, really.  An excellent week is one where I go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, make the same bus or train every morning and afternoon, eat the same number of meal in roughly the same quantity every day...I'm sure you see where I'm going with this.  No matter how excited I am for a new thing to begin, it still means a change, which unnerves me.  It's something I try to work on a lot, without a great deal of success.

I did get a great souvenir/gift from mymagritteafter her long trip; one of those 'choose your own adventure' books that I used to like so much when I was a kid.  I read it last night on the Metro while I traveled home from the going away party for Naomi.  So silly, so PG, such fun.  None of the stories made a whole lot of sense, but so what.

I've finished one of my large pile of books, and begun a second.  Sadly, two of the 4 pairs of shoes had to go back.  I also ordered some clothes last week, which were supposed to be cruisewear for my trip, in wrinkle-resistant travel-friendly fabrics.  Not only did all 3 garments come out of their packages wrinkled, but none of them worked out, and all 3 went back.  No more internet purchases for the cruise; anything else I get will be in person, if I get anything else.

Tonight, I'm heading off to an 80's mania dance party with some friends, then I'll be spending the rest of the weekend laying low.  I have serious laundry to do, to make sure the rest of the potentially itch-contaminated fabrics are clean, and I have things to pack.  Hopefully I can get my ipod working again, and get over my writer's block as well.

Possibly, more later.

Meant to post this last night, but the fickle internet connection at home was feeling no love for me.

We've all seen lists of favorite books on one another's LJ's, but what are your LEAST favorites?  Is there something a friend recommended, that made you rethink the friendship?  Ever pick up a novel and find out it read like badfic?

I'd prefer not to see a lot of cheesy romance novels listed, but if you really must, hit me with 'em.

Here are some of mine, feel free to respond in comments, or post to your LJ.
***

'The Stress of Her Regard' by Tim Powers.  Three words: Dead. Baby. Marionette.

'The Catcher In The Rye' by J.D. Salinger.  Feel free to argue, but it will do you no good.  I even read it a second time, at the urging of friends, to make sure I wasn't just on crack when I read it the first time.  Nope, still didn't like it.

'The Poisonwood Bible' by Barbara Kingsolver.  Now, I finish nearly every book I start.  Even if I take time off in the middle of the book due to RL, I'll get back to it eventually.  This is one of the few books I've ever put down with the full intention of never picking up again.  I even gave my copy away.  As far as I can tell, there is not a single likeable character in the thing.

And, your romance novel freebee:
'Single White Vampire' by Lynsay Sands.  This one actually wasn't too bad, as supernatural romances go.  But, vampires from Atlantis?  Seriously?

Yeah, it's been a while.  I got a call last night from a BFF, wondering if I was dead, so I should probably write a little something to reassure the rest of you.

It was a chill weekend; went out Friday night, had the funniest cabbie EVER on the way home, and a headache that was much less amusing in the morning.  Spent an indecent amount of money at Target on Saturday (and, as per usual, forgot several of the things I actually meant to get while I was there), then puttered around the house for the remainder.

Wireless Internet Card should arrive today or tomorrow, to my joy and excitement.  Posting at home!  The ability to work on the same story in either location!  It'll be great.

Also, new book on the way.  The third in a series, by a quirky fantasy/mystery writer named Kim Harrison (sp?).  I opted to get that as my moving-treat, rather than replacing my long absent copy of Pet Sounds.  I can wait another month for the Beach Boys.  I'm finally half-finished with 'The Mysteries of Udolpho', and it's beginning to grab me more.  It'll make for some lively discussion, at least, when Reader's Circle starts up again.

SO, there's the past several days in a nutshell.  I hope it was good for you...