Too many Tasty-cakes

I brought two boxes of Tasty-cakes today and of course I had to sample BOTH.

Younger (book), by Pamela Redmond Satran. I know the woman who wrote this and it is being made into a TV show. So I had to borrow it on interlibrary loan.
It is a light chick lit sort of book about a woman from the New Jersey suburbs who needs to start a new life after her husband leaves her. Finding that there is discrimination, she has a make-over and pretends that she is 20 years younger. Things start to go her way, both in the workplace and romantically. The lies become more difficult to maintain eventually.

Don't kill my vibe

Cool title for a song, don't you think?  I am inexorably drawn to the poetry of rap, even though it is probably expressing some sentiments that I abhor.  That is why I am reluctant to view on YouTube.
But I might put this song on my playlist so I can figure it out.  Listening to Power99 on the FM dial today. Jay Z is one of the people involved with this song.  Oh dear, it is really called BITCH, don't kill my vibe.  Sigh....

Going out of my mind now that my CD player broke and I can't listen to my audio books in the car.  When did the AM dial get so LAME!

My addictions...
- Diet coke
- the Internet
- coffee
- newspapers
- cheese

Gorgeous day out...finally.  And no bugs, which seems unusual.  Took a little stroll just to get out of the library.

High times, the Playboy of the pot world

Not that I would know. I just thought this was an amusing comment. Very interesting program on the legalization of marihuana in Colorado. This was on NPR today with Terry Gross. I thought the segment on 60 minutes on medical marihuana a few weeks ago equally fascinating. Today there was a description of the dedicated, devoted indoor growers, some shirtless and shoeless and playing rock or classical, depending on the what the plants want. The growers even SLEEP with the plants. It is all very controlled and measured and I wish it would come to New Jersey.

Drove all the way down to the shore today. Not a very pretty day. But the weather was varied on the way down and beautiful in spots. Don't think I could live down here in the winter. It plays on my feelings of loneliness. Kind of sad right now. Only a few signs of the recent tragedy of Hurricane Sandy, but I only perused a few blocks. There were some piles of brush, some uprooted trees and sidewalks, and some sofas out on the street. I came down here to renew my library membership and see a film. Don't really like being home on these long, cold evenings. Of course, I don't really like driving around in the dark, either. Oh well.

How can people talk on the phone so much? Many times I see these people in the library with headphones on and they seem to be carrying on a constant conversation with someone. I don't get it.

A mistress of the sedentary arts

I just breathe a sigh of relief when it is time to SIT DOWN...and use the computer, drive the car, watch a play, read, etc. OK, I guess I am just lazy...but I have a lot of pain and discomfort moving around, climbing stairs, lugging all of my stuff around. I really should carve out a comfortable space at home and get the Internet, but then maybe I would never leave!

My calendar for 2013 is getting out of hand. Feeling the yearly anxiety...what kind of calendar should I get for the upcoming year? Of course, this decision should have been made in JULY but I am a procrastinator of the first degree. Shall I go electronic, get a bigger paper one or a smaller paper one, go back to the one-page-a-day or the two-page-a-day. I have a lot of things to record...all the possible events, things I should do, things I accomplished, good and bad things that happened to me.

Yesterday I came across a lot of people trying to apply for jobs online. They all looked frustrated as hell. One young woman had been having trouble with the phone giving her all these choices, none of them the appropriate one. Someone had told her she had to go online to apply for a job up at Carll's Corner for Bank of America but wherever she went online, she just went around in circles. Another woman I overheard at the library said, "When I ask for a job near Vineland, New Jersey, they give me jobs in Pennsylvania". The guy to the right of me was being quiet about it, but I could see from the red sentences on his application form that he was having trouble advancing to the next page. The new online application process is just nature's way of weeding out 90% of the people.

Captions, oh my captions!

So excited to have discovered how to make a caption for my posts. Reminds me of way back when, when it was cool to be reading The Village Voice. It must have been about 40 years ago, cause most of my memorable adventures were about 40 years ago. The person who organized the letters to the editor would give each letter a headline. When someone wrote a letter about how good the HEADLINES were, the headline read, "Captions, oh my captions!"

Am hanging around the historical society to use the wireless (of course, my main addiction). Also trying to get into this whole historical area and find some way I can be useful. Do I want to index a publication or input cataloguing info? Cataloguing is right up my alley, but I would have to LEARN SOMETHING NEW (Pastperfect software). Sometimes I think I don't want to learn anything new, but that really isn't true. I was overhearing a Power Point class last night and thinking I should really TAKE that class again. Even though I took it once and did nothing with it.

It WAS kinda fun and interesting to read an old newspaper, The Bridgeton chronicle, from December 20, 1862. First of all, it was (and is) HUGE. Pages about twice the size of todays and really tiny print. Each page is composed of 8 columns, about two inches wide. How the heck could people even deal with reading it? Most of us have to resort to a magnifying glass to cope. And I am a lover of newspapers who is quite sad about their pending demise.

What is a blog? An online diary that serves as a welcome diversion from working, meeting people or having sex. Ever.

This is on a magnet I purchased at a GREAT bookstore in Lewes, Delaware. I go there once a year with some friends and I was delighted to see that Biblion was still in business. Truthfully, I don't BUY many books, as I am FRUGAL and a librarian and a retired person. Librarians are specialists in getting stuff for FREE. This is a USED book store, but with oodles of other cool stuff like bookmarks, magnets, greeting cards, etc. Also, the owner leaves little notes around the store calling your attention to things and she makes cool arrangements of items. I got a couple of good quotes there (another one of my addictions).

Wow, it is really hard to blog and listen to the Eagles football game at the same time.
I am listening to the local radio station on the computer. Also I am a bit chilly. I am sitting at a picnic table in front of the Bridgeton Public Library and drinking a Diet Coke and the day is waning. I refuse to admit that I am COLD. After all, I am the person who never put a coat on all last winter. Oh dear, now it is starting to get BUGGY.

Sunday is such a drag of a day. Nothing is open. OK, that is a bit of an exageration.
But, I needed a library and an electronics store. That is why I am sitting OUTSIDE a library in order to get wireless access.

The worst of public Internet usage today - annoying baby noise, sick person hacking next to me. other people laughing or rocking to their own personal headset activities. Had to put on the headphones and listen to MY loud music from Playlist.com. As many problems as I have with Playlist, I just haven't found a good substitute such as Pandora or Grooveshank. I don't want to listen to things LIKE my favorite song, I want to listen to specific songs. Reluctant to use itunes cause I am CHEAP, or "frugal" as my girlfriend would say.

Butterscotch krimpets just aren't as good when you buy'em in a box. I was so addicted to them in the waning days of my working life that people started giving them to me as gifts. Then someone made butterscotch krimpet cupcakes for my retirement party. Yeah, baby!

New lists I need to make:
- people to not sit next to in the library
- issues to discuss with my doctor (who can remember them all)

Audiobook reviews:
- The thing around your neck - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - short stories about African people, immigrant stories, etc. I like the title, Just picked it up in a browsing sort of way since I like immigrant fiction, also African-American fiction.

Went to doctor this AM with lung complaint. She couldn't hear anything wrong with my lungs so she put that blood oxygen tester on my finger. She said 92 was very bad and I should maybe have to go to the emergency room. Then she suggested taking off my nail polish and it worked better. My blood oxygen went up to 97 (good). She hadn't seen that problem before and said, "Maybe it is just with BLUE nail polish" (!?!?)

Computer addiction...one of my many. An hour is just not enough time!

Hsving trouble figuring out this blogging stuff. I added a blog to my reading list and the next time I looked, it had reverted back to ITALIAN. That is one of the languages I do not speak. Now I can't figure out how to DELETE that blog from my reading list. Grrr...

It seems to be getting dark earlier. Yes, I should expect it, but I don't have to LIKE it. Other than that, I think I prefer Fall to Summer.

Went down to the shore today. It was quiet, TOO quiet, as my mother used to say. Also it rained, which was totally unexpected by us, in our bathing suits! So we watched other people swimming and surfing in the rain, talked to adorable life guard and other fun visitors on the covered deck at 101st St. in Stone Harbor. Then went to one of those new YOGO places. Been there, done that. You choose your yoghurt, put stuff of your choice on top and get charged $7 or so. (I tend to like the HEAVY stuff)

OK, library about to close, forced to get off of the computer. I really should try and watch some of President Obama's speech tonight, even if it is on after my bedtime.

Got lost this AM due to road block. Kind of fun. I think I will add it to my list of things to do...drive all over in strange direction and then turn on GPS on phone to find my way home. How scarey is that?

"What kind of a Democrat are YOU!?" yelled my friend when she heard that I didn't watch the convention last night. I know I should change my TV watching policy which is, if I'm home and it is on, I will watch it (for five minutes). I know everyone else in the world is DVRing it, but....

One good thing about Facebook: you can see which of your ex-coworkers and ex-boyfriends are Republicans. How COULD they!

School bus nightmare today. It took me twice as long as normal to get around. One bus sat there so long delivering the school children that I turned off my car. Then I backed up and turned around to go another way. Then I ran into a car blocking the road who had tried a similar maneuver but had a fender-bender with another car. So I turned around AGAIN. I swear that bus was holding up traffic for at least 15 minutes.
I was driving along a street which was recently cited as the most poverty-stricken street in New Jersey. The kids were pretty solidly Mexican with a few African-Americans thrown in for good measure. How things change. I tried to just feel good about the fact that they were all getting a fresh start and making progress with their free education.

Strange but true: the song Strange fruit was written by a white Jewish guy from the Bronx.

Addictions:
- one cup (no more) of coffee each day
- one bottle of Diet Coke (no more, but definitely no less)

I have to get the bottle so I can get the code for mycokerewards.com. I have gotten a couple of magazine subscriptions through that. I asked someone downtown if she stocked Diet Coke and she responded, "No, we do not stock ANY of that imperial rat juice". That would be Coke OR Pepsi.

Still involved in a Downton Abbey watching marathon. The plot got REALLY crazy last night (somewhere in the middle of season two). There are people we LOVE (Matthew) and people we HATE (Thomas) and it is quite addicting. Maggie Smith plays what must be the best role of her life as the Dowager Countess. The costumes and the furnishings and the rules and the scenery are all mind-boggling and truly fine.
It gives a good view into the changes wrought on English society and country manor life before and after World War I. I enjoy the role of letters in this series. Yes, before texting, there were letters. Season three starts on PBS in January 2013 so you have some time to watch it.

I used to have a boyfriend who was a parapalegic. I met him in a bar in Vermont. I was on one of those weird ski weekends where four couples sleep in two bunk beds. I moved to Vermont to be with the guy I met in the bar.

When researching blog names, I came across so many abandoned blogs. It must be a temporarily addicting pastime. One I like is Stuff white people like.