Feeling like a bull in a china shop

Winter has settled in around my waistline. Lack of exercise and excess of stuffing my face has led me to feel like a blimp. Add to that bathrobes and bulky coats and my usual clutter around the house and I feel like I am always knocking into things and making oddly perched boxes of what-not fall to the ground. Have STOPPED wearing a coat for just such reasons....all of my shoulder bags fall off my shoulders with all that excess bulk. I had to pick an outrageous weather week/month to go coatless. The weather is brutal, the wind is ferocious and my house is cold. Spending today in my car (WARM!), at the Health club (oh so proud of myself), in the library (right now), at the chiropractor, and volunteering at the college performing arts center. Staying home just depresses me since I have no fireplace.

Freedom (audiobook), by Jonathan Franzen. I usually try to listen to an entire audiobook, no matter how it displeases me. But this one I had to abandon halfway through. There were no people to like and they were making a lot of inappropriate, pedantic speeches to each other. It followed three friends from college into later life. They all were assholes in their own way. Things happened and then the narrator went back in time and told the story from another perspective.

I'm a stranger here myself (ebook) : notes on returning to America after twenty years away, by Bill Bryson. I like this author and read much by him. They are all so different. This is essays on life in America. He married a British woman and then they moved back to the states and took up residence in New Hampshire.

Vegetarian cooking for everyone (book), by Deborah Madison. Had to get this out of the library because my sister made some really good oatmeal pancakes from it and I wanted to copy the recipe. I have a few more to copy, like a sage and butter sauce, which is what I had in Italy. I aspire to be a vegetarian. Do not really enjoy meat most of the time when I get it.

They don't wanna f*** wit me

Listening to Missy Elliott via Hoopla. Previous to that I was listening to Nicki Minaj.

Got into the Girl Scout cookies I just bought and ate three already.

Finally got to the hair salon....only because I "won" a gift certificate at a recent fundraiser. So, now, my hair is a different color and a different style. Getting tired of myself, the same old same old. Got quite a bit cut off and I got BANGS. Tired of flipping the hair out of my face. I notice it even makes me have a bit of a tic.

I can mess up any space

My computer space at the library looks like a whirlwind hit it....clipboard, container of wipes, plastic folders bulging with papers, plastic bags containing all of my little essentials, a ring of keys, my cell phone, thing that I keep my headphones in, thick folder of books I want to look up, pile of "New business", big black calendar where I keep a two-page-per-day manual calendar. plastic folder of things-to-be-filed in current file folders that I keep in the car, a large blue purse, a larger brown leather briefcase, ripped papers to go in the trash can. Some of my friends refer to the library as "my office".

Going to a lecture about George Agnew Chamberlain downstairs at 7 PM. Enjoy living in my neighborhood for HISTORY reasons....three of Bridgeton famous historical characters lived or visited at my house or across the street....Mother Bloor, Sylvia Beach, and George Agnew Chamberlain. Unfortunately, there is not much left of the good old days. I guess they weren't so good because Mother Bloor and Sylvia Beach couldn't wait to get away!

I have a sudden need to replace my fence. The only thing uglier than my fences are the neighbors on either side. I have a dumpster on each side. I know, I know, I should be throwing crap in their dumpsters. I want to put in a HIGHER fence so I don't have to look at the neighbors. But who knows what regulations or permits are needed? That is why I fix nothing!

Signs of Spring

Here are some signs of Spring that I have seen:
- brilliant sunsets
- cars on the corner FOR SALE
- people renovating their homes
- robins
- birds making a lot of noise on top of my air conditioners
- me no longer wearing a coat

My dream of you (book), by Nuala O'Faolain. Don't know where I picked this book up. It was a so-so fiction tale of a travel writer who goes to a town to do historical research about things that happened around the time of the potato famine in Ireland.
A woman of the higher classes was vilified for having an affair with a tradesman....true or not?

I am an obsessive list maker. One of my lists is called "Computers to avoid at the Vineland Public Library". I just added THIS computer, number 9. I hate it when those little thingys are broken off, the thingys that hold the keyboard up at an angle. Invariably, ONE of them is broken, rendering the other one useless. Problem number 2 is that the keys are worn away and you have to type from your memory of what the keys are. Also, I hate the mouse. It is a Dell and very "reluctant". The screen is tiny but that does not really bug me so very much.

Phuc Dat Bich

Learned from my Vietnamese nail technicians...there are some names in Vietnamese which become BAD words in English. Of course, the pronunciation is different in Vietnam, but. For example, the name Phuc means happiness or good luck but comes across kind of dirty in English. The word Bich refers to a kind of gem (jade). They actually knew somebody named Phuc Dat Bich. But mostly, people with these names change them. They witnessed one guy at the Motor Vehicle agency who didn't change his name and the lady had to SPELL his name instead of call it out loud.

Tried to read the book Alan Turing : the enigma (book), by Andrew Hodges. This is the book that inspired the film The imitation game. I found the book totally dense and full of mathematical jargon. I gave it my best effort because I really enjoyed the movie and because Alan Turing is everywhere these days.
He makes the analogy that gay people are always playing "the imitation game" when they try to appear heterosexual. Another comment was the irony of the war (WW II) being won by a gay, atheist, British mathematician. I was glad to learn that he did have a number of friends and relationships. The movie made him seem like a bit of a loner.

It is a very gray, gloomy day. I don't enjoy being home of such grim days. It is DEPRESSING. Starting my plan of getting myself together and getting ON TRACK. That means eating right and exercising every day. I have to get myself under control as a 50th high school reunion is coming up. That is a daunting thought.
I am not calling it being on a diet, I am calling it ON TRACK. I have been extremely OFF TRACK lately.

Where does the time go?

OK, so I was LATE getting to the library. I wanted to get my TWO hours on the computer (the bare daily minimum a person needs, in my book). I was puttering around the house this morning and called my cousin. We only see each other every 5 or ten years and don't communicate all that much, but I love her. She caught me up on most of the family down there in Cajun country and said she would be at Disneyworld during Mardi Gras. That was OK by me since my February is totally overbooked already.

I can't believe the head of the reference department just reprimanded me for having my wet ones next to the computer. She thought it was a beverage and then thought it looked too much LIKE a beverage and asked me to put it away. Yes, I do sometimes expect special privileges since I used to be a librarian. Strange that I get more special privileges at libraries I DIDN'T work at.

The chocolate castle clue (book): a chocoholic mystery, by JoAnna Carl(MYS Carl JoAnna at the Vineland Public Library). I picked this up at a "Cozy mystery" display. That is the kind of mystery I like but I didn't like this one so much. Silly with stupid characters and too many of them. There was the culinary theme, which I sometimes like. I ended up skimming this light-weight book.

Murder at a Vineyard mansion (audiobook), by Philip R. Craig (AUD CD MYS Craig Philip at the Vineland Public Library). This was a find, probably because it was read by Tom Stechschulte. I must get more books narrated by him. A main character, J. W. Jackson, used to work for the police solves crimes within the limited purview of Martha's Vineyard. I have been there and enjoyed hearing about the local landmarks. He has a nice relationship with his wife. So I am also interested in reading more in this series. I guessed who the murderer was.

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.