……zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…….

Annnnnyyyyyywayyyyyyyyy.

I’ve been reading alot lately. ALOT. My commute to the office is 35 minutes each way – on the L. Nothing for me to do but stare out the window or people-watch…or read. I love to read, so I think it’s wonderful – BUT…books are heavy. And they take space to store. And we already have six bookcases that are crammed FULL of books. And there’s boxes that haven’t been unpacked that have books in them.

And then there’s the times that I’m only half-way to the office and I realize I have two pages left and panic sets in because I still have 17 minutes before I get to work and then oh mah holy hell, I’ve got to ride home again and what will I do because I’ll be bored silly and and and…so must buy more books before the day ends.

And did I mention that books are heavy?

So. Ehem.

When I received an Amazon gift card in the mail (credit card points), I did what any awesome wife would do. I asked Mr. Hot if there was anything that we needed to round out the massive post-move-to-Chicago purchases we had been making to replace all of the shit we figured we could do without before we left Ann Arbor.

(Seriously, I think that for everything we tossed there, we’ve bought something to take its place here.)

He looked at me and said, “I think you should buy a Kindle.”

Now, before I tell you more, you have to understand that I was adamantly opposed to EVER purchasing one of these because there’s something in my makeup that believes a book is a work of art. It has a smell and a feel to it that creates an energy that becomes part of the words you’re reading. How was I going to be transported to the world of the characters by a piece of plastic? If I stuck my nose down into the screen, was I going to be able to smell the slight mustiness escaping from my worn copy of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

I looked back at my darling husband, squinted my eyes, wrinkled my nose and responded, “Meh.”

Then I opened up my laptop and started reading about what I would have at my fingertips. Bestsellers. Free, out of copyright books that I never got a chance to read. New authors and award winners.

And if I was mid-way through a southbound train ride and got to the last page?

No biggie. And no heavy. Fifteen hundred books fit on this thing that weighs less than my wallet when I forget to empty the change out for a couple of weeks.

And that did it. It made up my mind for me.

In the past week, I’ve read:

- Two-and-a-half Michael Harvey novels
- An issue of Electric Literature and
- The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair

ASIDE: Which reminds me – I copied a passage from The Jungle that I know you all will appreciate –

Surely it is moderate to say that the dishwashing for a family of five takes half an hour a day; with 10 hours as a day’s work, it takes, therefore, half a million able-bodied persons — mostly women to do the diswashing of the country. And note that this is most filthy and deadening and brutalizing work; that it is a cause of anemia, nervousness, ugliness, and ill-temper; of prostituion, suicide, and insanity; of drunken husbands and degenerate children–for all of which things the community has naturally to pay.

Because, really…now we can blame everything on having to wash dishes…which is exactly what I told my mother when I was 11. /Aside

Annnywayyyyyyyyyy.

And while I’ll never, EVER, stop loving the feel of a much-read paperback or the smell of cracking open a new hardcover, I have to say that I’ve named my piece of plastic “Preciousssssssssssssssssss”.

—- Why does the term philistine come to mind? —-

No, I’m not munching on chips and scarfing bowls of ice cream and getting skinny (I wish) … but maybe I was channeling Kristabella last night when I got in a Chicago cab.

I’d been out with a friend for Indian food and then got into a cab with an Indian driver. It was almost like being back in India except for, y’know, no cows on the road. As we were tooling north on Lakeshore Drive, his phone rang.

“I know this number.”, he yells into the phone. “Nikki. I know you. Cheater. You gonna die. 3 months.”

He mumbled. Hung up and threw his phone on the seat next to him. Before he managed to get his hand back on the wheel, it rang again.

“Nikki. You bastard. 3 months. Bastard!”

—- At least he didn’t ask for my phone number. —-

—- So Krissa will stop begging. —-

I know I complain, but I really do enjoy my work. The people, for the most part, are fun to be around, they laugh at my jokes (the way to get into my good graces {wink}), and are working just as hard as I am. It makes for a great team and days that, while long and exhausting, fly by. It’s not until I’m packing up to head “home” that I realize I’ve been going for 15 or 16 hours.

I wish I could tell you more about what I do and where I am, but…y’know…then I’d have to kill you. And neither of us would like that much.

So…annyyyyywayyyyyy.

*****lalalalala*****

In the randomness of non-work stuff in my mind lately – I decided to complain about other shit. Like…

• Shrink wrap. I mean, really. Why is it necessary to shrink wrap stuff without providing some way of removing said plastic without a sharp object?
• Unshoveled sidewalks. I wear snow boots. I can walk through snow up to my shins. But after all of the train passengers have walked on the uncleared pavement, it’s less like walking through snow and more like walking on shifting boulders.
• Pens that go missing. I just get used to writing with a certain pen and then wham! it’s gone. Why is it that the one I pick up to replace it never, EVER, writes as nice as the one I lost?
• Cold feet. When my feet are cold, it’s all I think about.
• Having to switch glasses to read. Yes, I’ve tried bifocals. No, they don’t help. I need trifocals, but I don’t want the size lenses that I would need to have them. Yes, I am vain, thankyouverymuch.

Okay, I feel better now. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

*****lalalalala*****

Oh, wait. Why are there not more:

• Hugs.
• Tootsie Rolls.
• Meeting cancellation notices.
• Naps.
• Handwritten letters from far-away friends.

???

Just asking.

*****lalalalala*****

Mr. Hot and Shortman texted back and forth today:

Woo Hoo! Campus is closed!
Great! I’ll come pick you up and you can help me shovel.
Woo Hoo! They just re-opened campus!

*****lalalalala*****

Finding a package from Alice.com on my doorstep ranks right up there with total awesomeness at the end of a long day. It’s so much easier than lugging home laundry detergent.

—- I think I’ve proven that I need to get to bed now. —-

• I have gas. Cooking gas. In the apartment. I can now officially make my own meals. The problem is that I have meetings until 7 p.m. every night this week, and I’m far too tired to actually make anything.
• On the other hand, I should lose weight, right?
• I have internet access via a wireless air card. So I can post and read and watch videos. Again, though – no energy to do either.
• There’s a grocery store on the corner! BUT! Stopping in would have meant not getting “home” until 8:30 tonight. So I stole a roll of toilet paper from the office – it was the one must have that I couldn’t do without.
• Tomorrow my first meeting is at 7:30 a.m. and the last ends at 7 p.m. Which means I may as well plan on tomorrow night being just.like.tonight.

—- Someday, I’ll be able to write something worthwhile again. —-

• Got up at 4 am to get to work.
• Walked to the office with icy snow blowing sideways into my face.
• Went to meetings and meetings and meetings and…yea. More meetings.
• Ate two really spicy chicken tacos for lunch.
• Fielded calls from relocation people and mortgage banks that want my business.
• Wrote 17,386 emails – none of them personal.
• Changed the desktop background on my laptop.
• Answered a phone call from Shortman telling me he didn’t know where my good pen is.
• Missed the first 40 minutes of House.
• Watched the last 20 minutes anyway.
• Drank only coffee, tea and water.
• Read and commented on a couple of blogs…
• Checked out a link Mr. Hot sent me of a really nice townhouse in Chicago.
• Walked to the hotel in the same icy, sideways snow.
• At 7:30 p.m.
• Called Mr. Hot to say goodnight.

Today I did not:

• Eat dinner.
• Answer personal emails.
• Write anything compelling.

—- This week is going to be another one where I ponder the “Work/Life Balance” question. —-

• Work this week ended at 10:30 p.m. on Friday with the release of our contract draft.
• It’s all football, all the time, at my house this weekend. Both kinds. But Aussie Rules. However, if we actually got the AFL, we’d be watching.
• Oh, and basketball. Let’s not forget basketball.
• Spent this morning taking the dog for his walk through the woods. Now he’s asleep on the back of the couch and my ass hurts from walking up and down the hills in crunchy snow up.
• Mr. Hot mentioned Pamplona – where they run with the bulls. Then he mentioned something about Tomato Tossing. And I had to look it up. And it really exists. What’s weirder? That it exists or that my husband knew about it?
• I spend an awful lot of time lately browsing Ravelry and drooling over the photos of yarns.
• I see I completely missed DeLurker day, what with my being buried under exhibits 6, 6-A, 6-B, 13, 12, 17-A and 17-B, and the ever popular 4-C. Also, 3A through G about killed me. If you’re a lurker here, will you click comments and say Hi?

  

• My o key still refuses to work unless I really pund n it. Now my period (the punctuation mark, nt the other one) is acting wnky, to. I think there’s ptato chip crumbs in my keybard.
• I started my annual “This year’s taxes” folder today. I hate tax time. This year, I’m hiring an accountant – what with the severance pay and the self-employment-bit and the new job – I’m far too scared to actually go it on my own.
• I’m going to go knit now.

—- I think I just won the award for the lamest Saturday post ever. —-

1 car splashing slush all over my pantleg on the way to work this morning.
2 people falling on their asses in the middle of the slick street.
3 meetings where people shook their heads sadly when I mentioned I was trying to fly home tonight.
2 flights cancelled before mine.
40 minute 1 hour delay of my flight. So far.
8 to 14 inches of disgusting white stuff.

—- 7,268 people waiting in O’Horror with me. —-

• The sun has been shining and the sky has been blue ALL DAY today!
• Shortman brought all of the dishes he used during yesterday’s Myth Busters marathon viewing out of his room upstairs. WITHOUT being asked!
• Mr. Hot said yesterday was his BEST BIRTHDAY EVER! Considering how many he’s had, that’s high praise, indeed. (snort)
• West-by-Gawd-Virginia University lost their football bowl game AND their basketball game yesterday. Marshall University won. (Go Herd! Although in the interest of being completely honest, Marshall’s win came last year.)
• I went to the mall with Shortman so that he could get his glasses repaired (freakin’ nose pads) and we walked out WITHOUT SPENDING ANY MONEY!
• I finished “>the circular needle project and it may actually BE WEARABLE!

(Pictures to follow.)

• There’s still chocolate covered cashews left – even ONE WEEK after getting the box from MomandDad.

Shit I could do WITHOUT this year (already):

• The ‘o’ on my keyboard getting stuck repeatedly.
• Discovering that my jeans are WAY tighter than they were before this season started.
• COLD. Fucking single-digit weather.
• A fruit salad dumped in the front seat of my car (courtesy of Shortman.
• Thinking about a 4 a.m. alarm two days from now.

—- Oh, and home delivery of wine legal in Michigan again. THAT goes on the first list. —-

• It’s snowing sideways.
• Shortman is out snowboarding.
• He took my car to go snowboarding.
• The hill is 40 miles away.
• His phone is dead or turned off.
• My fingernails may not survive until he gets back.
• I’d like to go finish reading my book.
• I’m about 1/2 way through.
• I am reading a new policies and procedures manual instead.
• I know you’re envious.
• I did get to stay in Michigan this week though.
• Santa brought the cats a new toy mouse.
• The dog killed and ate it.
• Yes, even the plastic bits.
• I’m wondering if the stuffing will reappear.
• Y’know. Sometime.
• We’re supposed to go see these girls tonight.
• If my car makes it home.
• I just wrote a big freakin’ check to the University for the winter semester.
• If I kill him for not charging his phone and letting me know he’s okay in this BLIZZARD, can I get a refund?
• No, really. It’s snowing harder now.
• Shit. Seriously. White-out conditions.
• Okay, it’s stopped now.
• I’m making progress on my knitting project.
• If it’s wearable, I’ll show you when it’s done.
• If I can figure out how to end it.
• Kind of like this post.

—- Here, say hi to the cutest nephew in the world. He loves his Aunt Ree Ree. —-

Edited to say: Shortman made it home. In one piece. We made it to the basketball game. They lost.