I'll have a blue christmas without you...

I am working on Christmas Eve. I am working on Christmas. None of my family is in town, so even if I get off for a couple of hours, I still can't see them.

I'm not a big holiday person, but working on Christmas sucks. I even thought earlier, "What a bummer, I won't get to see my young niece and nephew open their Christmas presents." Calm down, it isn't like I was crying.

I'm actually kind of looking forward to being at work. I mean, if I can't be with Devin and his family or mine, I would rather be at work. I'd rather be at work than in traffic. Or sitting at home with nothing to do. We are having a carry-in for "Christmas Dinner" - I'm making Smoked Gouda Mac & Cheese!

It's going to be awesome.... right?

Book Club

Hey now, a post that finally relates to the title of this blog! You have probably been thinking, with all of my 5 blog posts, when the H is this girl going to write about books she's read... And now I am. Well, kind of.

My former co-worker and now friend decided to start a book club. I don't know how it came up, but it was going to be her neighbor and her, and some other girl from law school, and me. And as she has been telling people about it, more and more people have joined. I don't know how many women are doing the damn thing, but it's going to be great.

I've never been part of a book club before. Truth be told, I'm a little nervous.

What if there is some underlying symbolism I didn't even come close to picking up on? What if there is historical significance and the main character is actually a representation of the Cold War or something?

I'll let ya'll know how it goes!

grumpy at work

I hate it when I have a good day - I could even say a great day - and then it all goes to trash in the last hour.

Maybe I am just grumpy.

Maybe I am just having one of "those days".

It still sucks.



(I just I should specify with "work day".)

Toasted Marshmallow

I haven't gone into a Bath & Body Works in a long time. Too many smells. Too many women wearing aprons offering me baskets and telling me store offers. (I get easily overwhelmed.)

A couple weeks ago I went to the mall to get some work clothes - I don't think I got anything - and walked past the BBW, which was having a sale on their 3-wick candles. It was all of their "treat" candles. I went in thinking I would not be impressed and I would get a couple pumpkin candles like I did last year.

I WAS WRONG.

Salty Caramel - duh
Cinnamon Glazed Donut - duh
Oatmeal Raisin Cookie - duh
TOASTED flipping MARSHMALLOW - OMG

Best purchase of the year (probably)

I have worked all of my life, so I really don't have any hobbies. - Stephen Hill

Oh, Stephen. I have studied all of my life, so I really don't have any hobbies, either.

When I graduated with my bachelor's degree in 2007, I decided I would start picking up some hobbies. My mom bought me a sewing machine for graduation and I meddled around with it a few times. I made some simple curtains for not one, but three different apartments that year (2 were mine, was my beloved friend, Gianna's - come to think of it, I think I still owe her a window or two worth of curtains).

I also fixed the inseam of a pair of pajama scrubs. and I made "Stockings" for Christmas two years ago. They are "stockings" in quotation marks because they are just rectangular and not actually stocking-shaped.

But I have been in school since the fall of 2008 pursuing my second degree, so my "hobby" of sewing pretty much took a turn for the dusty and forgotten.

This summer I decided I would try to knit. My needles, 1 ball of yarn, and copy of Stitch 'N Bitch are still waiting for me to take another go at it.

I have obviously continued to read for pleasure - now on book number 23 for the year (this number would be more impressive, but I re-watched all episodes of Parks & Recreation, The Office, Glee and Grey's Anatomy... and now I am starting Mad Men on instant Netflix. I can't really be proud of getting rid of cable television, but have watched this many TV shows in the same year....)

I am going to start working on a quilt this month. I need to figure out the logistics of it and then sit down and actually start it.

And one of my more elusive (and hipster) hobbies - owl hunting. That has DEFINITELY picked up this summer when I went on a solo road trip and stopped in a couple different antique malls through Mississippi. And etsy.com.

One of the many owls who have made it to my living room this summer:

______ Books A Year Challenge!

I joined goodreads.com in November 2007. In 2008, I participated in a "group" challenge of 50 Books A Year. I read exactly 50 books (for leisure) that year. I finished the last of the Harry Potter series on New Year's Eve. Since 2008, I have been slacking in the reading department.

I can blame going to school and working, but to be honest, I was a little lazy. We had cable (with HBO for crying out loud!) We bought a house and put a lot of time in house-stuff. The time I had, I wanted to be lazy with. I kind of forgot about the joys of reading and reading and reading until my eyes get heavy and I fall asleep with the lights on, burning bright.

NOT THIS YEAR, FOLKS. I am fighting my laziness (it is still very, very prevalent on my days off though). I finished school this May (hopefully for a long, long time) and now I have a job where I only work 3-4 days a week. This means that I have a LOT of free time.

Free time = Reading.

This year, I have set a goal to read 30 books. Currently, I am reading Room by Emma Donaghue and it is my 24th book. (According to my goodreads reading challenge, I am 10% ahead of schedule. I will probably read more than 30 books this year, which will help me set my challenge for next year.

I know you!!!!

Before I graduated with my second degree (the one that I actually use now in my profession), I worked at a law firm. Right down the street from the law firm was this seemingly dingy, hole-in-the-wall chinese/vietnamese food restaurant. And I love it. It is cash-only and so so so so tasty.



The girls I work with and I would go at least once a week. It was that damn good (and economical!)

It got to the point where the gentleman working at the front counter who would take our orders would know us just by our order (even when we were calling it in!) It would go like this:

Guy: Chinese Wok Express.
Me: Can I place an order for pick up?
Guy: Go ahead.
Me: I would like chicken w/ broccoli w/ white rice -
Guy: Hi. How are you?
Me: I'm good. And-
Guy: I know. Crab rangoon and soda to go.
Me: Yep! Thanks.
Guy: $5.75. Be ready 10 minutes.

I LOVE that he remembers me. I don't work downtown anymore. I am no longer 1 block away from the best chinese food in town. Actually, it isn't even on my way home and I don't get off in time to go there before they close for the night. So when I do get to go (like today) - it is a magical little treat. And the guy still knows me!

It makes my day!

Vacation-ing!

I am lucky enough to have a job that allows me to have 6 days off in a row without having to use any vacation/personal/sick/fake-sick days.

I am also lucky enough to have family who live 15 minutes from the beach.

I am also lucky enough to have a car that can take me 834 miles down there and then 834 miles back. (With some stops along the way, of course!)

I'll have a real post when I am actually home! Until then, nothing but smiles from the road!

The more I see of man, the more I like dogs. ~Mme. de Staël

It is no secret that I love animals. I have this bad habit of humanizing them and giving them little narratives for damn near everything they do. One of my many endearing qualities, I'm sure.

I LOVE our dogs. People give me grief and say I love our dogs the way most people love their children. True story. Our dogs are amazing. We have a coonhound named Scout Pants (originally named "11 lb male Treeing Walker"). He looks like a really big, tall beagle. I've even told people he is a genetically mutated beagle (I get bored at the dog park sometimes and some people can be really easy targets for my bullshit). My other dog is a mutt - her name is Watson Bean (originally named "Chloe" - she is definitely NOT a Chloe).

My dogs are best friends. They love each other. I could talk about my dogs for hours. Currently, as I am typing this post, my dogs are on the couch with me, curled up in the cutest of sleepy pup dreams.



I refuse to believe there are people out there who do not want to get involved in a cuddle puddle like this one.

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library. - Jorge Luis Borges

So I don't know Jorge, but I agree with his statement! I love the library.


When I was growing up, we had to use the county library because our city didn't have its own library. So we went to what was known as Headquarters (there were many libraries in this particular county and this was the "main" one.. I promise I didn't make up the name). We didn't get to go to the library too often because my mom had (probably still has) a strange fear that we were going to lose a library book and have to pay hundreds of dollars for it.. This might be because she is really forgetful (drives me nuts) and I don't think we ever had a library book that didn't have a late fee associated with it.

Anyway - our library growing up had this really creepy, isolated section for Non-Fiction. It always reminded me of the scene in Ghostbusters when Slimer slimes that old lady and the card catalog goes bananas. I never mosey-ed around Non-Fiction much as a kid. I was far too busy with RL Stine or Christopher Pike to be meddling in non-fiction, but every once in a while, I would have to go looking for my mom or older sister and there I would be, 11 years old with my backpack purse (filled with necessary things, I'm sure) and jean shorts (jorts, if you will) hoping and praying that the card catalog would stay put, the lights would stay on, and Slimer would NOT chase me.

Now I have a very healthy relationship with my library. I go to the library about once a week. I LOVE going to the library. I almost always leave with someone I didn't plan on getting - and the library is one of the few places where you don't feel guilty about this, since the library is FREE. Not only can you get books for free, but magazines, movies and cds too! I even had my taxes done for free at the library during my college years.

I get a happy feeling every time I drive past the library. If I drive past it when I have people in my car who aren't from here, I point it out to them.

Paradise will totally be a kind of library.

I love it!

New Blog, First Post

Here is what happens. I get an idea to start a blog. I start it. I make a post or two a week for about a month and then I stop.

Here's to round who-knows-how-many.

I decided to start a blog today because I was driving around running some errands and I started thinking about how I would explain something I saw (I don't remember what it was now) on a blog if I had one. And then I thought, "Maybe I should start a blog rather than thinking about what I would write about if I had one..."

So here we are.

I decided to call my blog Thoughts from a Village Bookworm because:

a) I didn't have a more-clever title;
b) There was a bookmark from a local bookshop (Village Books in Columbia, Missouri) right next to my computer;
c) I consider myself to be a bit of a bookworm; and
d) Until now, my "website" was my goodreads.com profile.