Etc Time

Life is a roller coaster ride isn’t it? 

We go from high to low in the blink of a minute.  My high is the house is coming along great in its transformation from hoarder home to happy home.  We did the bedroom this past week and that went so much easier than I feared it would.  For any who haven’t been with me long term, my husband died of cancer over 10 years ago now and I still hadn’t dealt with his person items, clothes, personal items and so on.  They have been haunting me but I couldn’t do what’s been needed to be done for a long time now.  But with the help of my organizer, we did the bedroom.  And it was in bad shape overall let me tell you.  I couldn’t even see the floor, it was so covered in clothes and boxes and stuff.  I can’t remember the last time I made the bed.  It was only 1 layer, not a drastic case like you might watch on Hoarders, but for someone who suffers from frequent falls like I do these days, getting up in the middle of the night in the dark, to use the washroom, was quite an exercise.

But I ended up going through Ron’s things very quickly with only a few very emotional moments but also with some amusing ones.  Because I had the dresser and Ron had the chest of drawers, I never checked the dresser until the other day.  He had 3 drawers full of socks – THREE.  One full of white socks, one full of dark socks and one full of work socks.  I donated most of his clothes and a lot of personal items.  The only things I have of him now are his leather jacket, his ID bracelet and 2 jars FULL of pennies.  We don’t have pennies in Canada anymore.

My floor is now completely clutter free.  I’ve been making the bed the moment I’m out of it – except this morning since I forgot to set the alarm clock and woke up late.  Because the comforter is black and I have two cats who love to sleep on it when I let them in there, I found myself using a clothes brush on it until I wash it.  That might take a while as I have a huge backlog of clothes to wash and my dryer needs some work.

So now I have 3 rooms that don’t look like the others – until we get to the others and as the clutter gets cleaned up, it seems my shoulders are lifting higher and higher.  We’ve had bags and bags of junk lined up outside along the driveway.  We have a 3 bag garbage bag limit and there are a heck of a lot more garbage bags than 3 so yesterday I had 1-800-GOTJUNK  to come and take them away.  There was also a lot of yard trash they took and now the outside is looking real good.  I have lawn maintenance people and so the grass is properly maintained – I had major landscaping done also last fall – so it’s looking good outside and inside – main rooms anyway at the moment.

So. That was the high.  Now for the low.

My work world came crashing down on my head on Friday.  One of the reasons I’m still working and don’t plan on retiring next year – YIKES – next year when I turn 65 – good thing I don’t look it – is for the social aspect of the job.  I live alone with 2 cats – 2 happy cats now they have clean kitchen counters and a bedroom they can hang out in.  So I need the interaction with people I have at work.  It sure helps that I adore the people I work with and I love the job.  It’s in non-profit health care and there are many times a day when I’ve helped someone that I get that inner happiness.  Most of the people I work with are so much fun.  While I mostly work, as long as long as there is work to do, at times the social aspect of the job win out.  Of course there are those who are difficult to work with – NOT team players. You’re going to get that wherever you work and as long as I keep in mind that’s just who they are, I can get along quite cordially with them. 

But on Friday I learned all the people I interact with the best are leaving the department.  There have been a flurry of openings in other departments and they’ve all bid and got positions in another area.  Even my job share partner said she was leaving and knew I wouldn’t want to.  She told those around me that she had emailed me – since the very nature of the job is we don’t work together – but I didn’t get one.  These are the people to the right of me, people to the left of me, people who make it a joy to come in and work.  One has already left and the other ones will be leaving within the next several weeks.  While not letting it show on the outside and wishing them well, on the inside I’m devastated.  The guy I sit beside I’ve worked with for 8 or so years and he’s one of the most funny and fun people I’ve worked with.  And the coworkers who has left, she moved to a different city altogether as it’s a 45 minute drive from where she lives and a 5 minute drive from her new location, is one of the sweetest, kindest person I’ve worked with.

So now all that remain will be the difficult coworkers, the ones I have had run ins with, the non team players, the ones that make me grit my teeth and let out steam when I’m tired and the ones I don’t really have conversations with.  Yes, the others will be in the same building but it’s a large building with many employees and when they leave it’s never the same again.  I’ve experienced it many a time during the years.  A couple of years ago they moved me from where I was and it took a long time to get over it and the relationships are different now.  It takes me a while to let my guard down in many cases and get involved in conversations so even though we will be having others replace them, it’s like starting over again.

This is the kind of thing that triggers a depression and it’s like I’m on the edge of that cliff, whirling my arms around in order to not fall in.  I know I won’t, I’ll get past it and be OK but in the meantime I was up crying the other night at 2:30 in the morning as I don’t want them to leave me (that’s how it feels though I know it’s not true).

See, roller coaster?

*** update***

The roller coaster hadn’t quite hit bottom yet.  We had a meeting this afternoon whereupon we found out that all our caseloads had changed for better balance numbers.  The case manager I’ve worked with since I started in this department and I are no longer paired.  And of all the many,

many care coordinators I’ve worked with over the years, she is right up there very close to the top.

‘til later

 

PS – but then on the roller coast going up again side

, I found the jar of homemade blueberry jam I’ve been trying to find for months now.  Now since we went from almost winter, straight to summer, I just need to find the little girl fan I bought in the winter. 

I have room on the end table in the bedroom for it now.

 

Random Ramblings

I follow Sarah of Smart Bitches on Twitter.  She tweets about books that are on sale and if it’s a book, I’m a masochist and I will check it out.  ‘Masochist?” you are thinking.  “What gives there?”

You see, inevitably when I check, the Most Excellent Price is only for the US romance readers and there is no break if one is buying from Amazon.ca or any other Amazon apart from Amazon.com.  I usually get annoyed, sometimes more than annoyed and sometime VERY annoyed depending on how bad I want the book.  But last night it was to the point of painful.  Years and years ago I read Keeper of the Dream by Penelope Williamson and LOVED it. 

I’ve read it a few times since that first read and it’s one of those books I check every few months to see if I can get it as an ebook.  It’s one of my top keeper books.  Last night Sarah tweeted it was on for $1.99 at Kobo.  So holding my breath and crossing my fingers, I clicked over.

 

AAARRRRGGGGHHHHH

Not only was it NOT $1.99, it was $14.99.  I’ve been giving in a bit more and paying higher than I want for some of my very favourites but there’s not a chance in hell I can justify to my inner “I’ll get anything I want to get” goddess.  Knowing that less than an hour away I could have got it for the promised $1.99 hurts like a sonofabitch!  I have the paperback........somewhere amongst my 36 boxes of books.  But now the urge to read it is coming over me so I might have to start digging through them.

 <<<***>>> <<<***>>>

I think it’s time I either gave up or start digging deeper!  When I went to RWA I was determined to get a minimum number of print books.  Well, best laid plans and all that, I ended up getting considerably more than I planned so I ended up shipping a box home.  It wasn’t a large box and I packed the ones I had wanted the most into my suitcase and carry on bags.  But the box never came.  For weeks after I’d eagerly come home hoping to see the box on the porch or at least a notice stuck on my door that the box was waiting at the nearest Fed-Ex depot.

But alas, no box and no notice have arrived.  And I’ve no idea where I would have put the shipping slip.  It’s time I either start looking all over for it and do everything I can to locate the box of books or just accept the fact it’s gone.

And in a very related kind of experience, I gave kudos’ at the time to Avon for giving out cards where we could download ebooks of all their print books.  I picked up a bunch and kind of sat around with them for a few weeks.  Then I decided to start downloading before they expired.  But another alas.  Some of them, not any of the Avon books, had expired before I got ‘round to it.  The Avon books are a different kettle of fish.  I have to download a special app to get the books and as I have the original Ipad, it’s not ‘strong’ enough to support the app and not updated.  I do have an Acer tablet that should do the trick – BUT (there always seems to be a but when it comes to me and technology) the power is almost all gone – the red line is showing.  And I seem to have misplaced the correct charger. 

I do have some other charges that fit and I’ve tried charging the Acer table with them, but the charge doesn’t take.  This is something else I’m going to have to go ‘on the hunt’ for.  I don’t like going on hunting expeditions.  I like things to be nice and close and for life to be nice and simple.  It seldom is though.

 

 

 

<<<***>>> <<<***>>>

 

I’ve been ordering a lot of books lately from Amazon.  Unfortunately it came up with the dreaded “action required”  I took this to mean I hadn’t paid my Visa bill in time so I stopped at the bank machine last week and paid quite a sum but I was still coming up with the same “action required” notice.  I thought perhaps it needed 3 business days to go through but even after the 3 days it still didn’t seem to work.  So last night I stopped at the bank machine again last night.  This time there was no fancy way of asking what I wanted and I clued in – all the money I thought I was putting on my VISA credit card was actually going to my VISA line of credit. 

Now that is down considerably now but alas it wasn’t doing a whole lot of good for my credit card.  Never fear though.  Things were all good this morning but man I bought a lot of books over the past 7 days or so.  BookBub and Amazon have been having some great sales!  It was kind of like an odd birthday present.

I almost made up for the box of books I didn’t get and the ONE EBOOK I REALLY WANTED.  Almost.

 

‘til later

Random Ramblings

I’ve been suffering from the probably well-known ailment amongst romance readers which I’ve decided to call Restless Reader Syndrome.  It’s related to the much dreaded Slump, but it’s not exactly a slump in that the urge to read is gone, but instead, the reader afflicted can’t settle on a book.  We jump around from book to book, knowing that it’s not the book’s fault; it’s just not grabbing our attention.  I’ve started and went ‘meh’ to quite a number of books.  I’ve gone up and done my books on all 3 platforms; Kindle, Kobo and IBook’s and none of them are calling my name loud enough for me to hear them. One did, Blue Eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas and I answered its call and reread the Most Incredible Book, but then I got restless again.  I started about 3 or 4 different books but none of them were the ‘right’ book.

Now this syndrome is very close to the “It’s not you, it’s me” syndrome when we know a book is pretty good, but it just doesn’t hit the spot for us.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I posted a review online at Amazon for a book I found absolutely dreadful and I only gave it 1 star the other day.  Much to my surprise someone responded not very happy at all with my review of the book.  Right away it put my back up and my reply was pretty much ‘I stand by my review, for me the book was awful and NO book will be loved by everyone.’  I explained in my review why I didn’t like and the issues I had with it.  It wasn’t simply a “this book is crap and don’t read it” though I may have implied that; I really had a bad reaction to the book.

But the point is, I would never argue with someone on a review they posted.  I have, when I’m feeling bitchy, sent a response something like ‘you are being unfair to the author when you give a book 1 star because it wasn’t in the best of shape when you got it’ or another time I sent a response to one of those “Christian” reviewers who absolutely trashed a book by an author I really like who now writes mostly inspirational books.  Said book though wasn’t an inspirational  and I explained to the reviewer that said book was written before she made the transition and should be judged accordingly.  As the rabid complaint and low grade wasn’t because the book was poorly written but rather that it had *gasp of horror* S.E.X. in it, I said she was being unfair.  And *wince* because I was in a particularly bitchy mood I may have accused her of sounding very judgmental and sanctimonious, traits that should NOT be held by Christians.  And yes another thing I do when bitchy is to go down a list of ridiculously high 5 star reviews and if they only write one or two sentences about HOW WONDERFUL THIS BOOK IS, HOW THE AUTHOR MUST HURRY AND WRITE MORE or THIS BOOK MADE ME LAUGH AND CRY – you get the picture, I will mark the review as Not Helpful.  If they give the book a glowing review with reason, as in at least a paragraph, then I won’t do that as even I may not agree, they have made an effort.

Which is why I was puzzled by the ‘message’ I got.  I obviously made an effort to explain why I wrote what I wrote.  Plus said writer called me Randy and while I post Amazon reviews under my initials and maiden name, neither is Randy.  I’ve no idea where they came up with that name.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

And along similar vein, authors, if you have rabid fans, encourage then NOT to engage with other readers who don’t hold the same appreciation.  Sadly if that happens, often the author will be painted with the same brush and it may affect how the average reader views you.  I know it’s unfair, but don’t let your fans or even yourself, interact with readers who don’t hold the same level of appreciation.  Again, not every reader is going to love every book.  Hard as it is for me to believe that not everyone loves say Dreaming of You  by Lisa Kleypas as much as I do, I’m not going to argue with them and tell them why they should and say they are wrong.  It just is what it is.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

And following up with Amazon and its reviewers/ readers, I was on my break and decided to read an outline on the book I settled on and am now reading.  There was a good review with a few comments.  The first commenter was rather snotty and said they didn’t appreciate spoilers in the review and weren’t happy that the person who wrote the review let it slip that the hero and heroine fell in love.

Say what???  It’s a ROMANCE.  By what stretch of the imagination is it a spoiler to say in a ROMANCE book that the HERO AND HEROINE FALL IN LOVE?

I’m afraid I have little patience with stupid statements, complaints and questions.  Now that I’m getting older I’m trying to decide whether to be a real crotchety old lady or continue on with being nice.  I’ve been nice my whole life so the thoughts of letting loose my crotch (and I don’t mean that in a salacious way) is very tempting.  I expect I will be crotchety a few times and then do over the top apologies to everyone I meet for being mean.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I’ve been getting a bit more involved in checking out GoodReads.  I signed up for the challenge and I can gleefully say I’ve completed it and I’m 18% over.  Since I have a whack of books I haven’t even added yet, I’m really going to be doing well this year.

I must say though that many of the readers there are, well, the word exuberant comes to mind.  A Very Dear Friend picked up an ARC of Cold Hearted Rake and I’m reading it now (and loving it but more to say when I finish reading it).  I went to mark it as ‘currently reading’ and my goodness there are some enthusiastic readers there.  First off all there gif’s gave me a headache.  I know I’ve mentioned how much I hate them before – so please, if you care about my head, tone it down by about 95%.

And so much of the comments are ALL IN CAPTIAL LETTERS.  ANOTHER THING THEY NEED TO STOP.  PLEASE!!!!  Goodness knows I can be a queen of drama – but many of those commenters take it to the extreme.  Again I wish they would tone it down.

They also have a tendency to be overly dramatic, at least to my way of thinking.  Again, I can be the drama queen with the best of them – the people I work with know this, but I try and keep it at a reasonable and mostly unannoyable level, but many of the posters there are exhausting.

 Anyway, it’s Friday, it’s time for me to head home for the day so I’ll say for now….

 ‘til later

The Saga of the Cell Phone and Other Stuff Complicating my Life

I’m not a cell phone user.  I have one but it crapped out months ago and wouldn’t charge up again.  And I can’t say I really cared or noticed.  I had taken a few pictures and was just learning how to text, but for the rest – well, I couldn’t even really figure out how it worked.  But since I’m headed off to NY next week for RWA *happy dance* I need it again for its texting abilities and I decided I’d best start looking on how to get it fixed.  I scoured the internet – at work – for someplace that could fix it, tried a few numbers but they were asking an arm and a leg.  I finally got hold of one place that was reasonable and had been around for a while.  I drove quite a distance after work to take it there.  They took one quick look and told me it was obsolete and they didn’t have any parts for it.  Come On!!  I’ve only had the phone for about 3 years.  How can it be obsolete this soon!!

So I drove a long ways once again to my local Rogers thinking ‘the heck with it, if my phone is outdated, I may as well get another one and Rogers is the provider.

 

Well, I hit another nasty snag there.  I’ve had this plan I’m on for so long now, that I would have to get a new one if I were to get a new phone.  At present I pay $15/month, which for me is too much since I’ve gone months and months now without using my phone.  But if I were to get a new phone the monthly cost would jump to $80/month!!  And that’s not even with internet capabilities.  Well dang straight if I’m not getting my money’s worth at $15/month, I’m sure not going to pay $80!  So then he said the only other alternative was to buy a phone outright and transfer the info.  The lowest priced phone they had was $300.  I hate Rogers, hate them hate them.  I know they are in to make a profit and I don't begrudge them that. But what they do is highway robbery!!  

I looked at him, blinked a couple of times and then said “well, I don’t like either of those options”  I think I rather stumped him.  I was on my way out of the store thinking to myself ”shit! Shit, Shit!” when a young mother stopped me and said she overheard the conversation and said she had gone through the same thing and ended up getting a real good phone for a real good price on Amazon.  I thanked her but inside was thinking (I do a lot of thinking inside my head – and cursing too) “but I need it by Friday.”  I looked on Kijiji and Amazon last night but as for the most part I can’t even figure out how to answer my phone, knowing what to look for was beyond me so I quit in frustration and went on to watch So You Think You Can Dance.  It was rather funny as one of the peeps I tweet with sent me a private tweet asking if my phone number was the same as she’s going to RWA also and that’s the best way to connect.  So I’d hit the wall on the phone issue.

 

BUT

I was telling one of my co-workers yesterday about the problems I was having with the cell phone and she looked at mine and said she thought her son had almost the same one on his desk – several cell phones before.  And lo and behold didn’t she bring it in this morning for me just in case I needed it.  Bless her heart!!  I took out the charger to plug it in and get it charged up after changing SIM cards so all my info on the other phone would be in this one – including the phone number so she said and wasn’t it so not the right phone charger.  I don’t even know where I got the one I was carrying around.  And since I thought it was the right one for the phone, which means I’ve no idea where the correct charger is!  So I have a feeling my next hunt will be for a phone charger.  

*sigh*

Last time I went to the States to visit my sister, I somehow managed to get pulled over by New York States finest somewhere around Buffalo.  While I’m a very law abiding citizen in general, I do seem to have a need for speed when I’ve been a way for a while and I can almost smell the American/Canadian border and home.  I saw the flashing light and moved over the outside lane so he could pass me to get to the real criminal, only he didn’t pass me.

*sigh*

I was being pulled over for speeding.  Now this is where it gets strange.  He gave me a ticket but the ticket didn’t say how much I owed.  I was to enter my plea and sent it back.  Being a mostly law abiding citizen – except for my need for speed – I pleaded guilty and mailed it back.  And I’ve never heard from them since.  That was months and months ago.  Now I’m crossing the border again and in the back of my mind I’m terrified I’ll get stopped at the border for the criminal I am.  I tried calling yesterday so get it sorted out but talk about voice mail hell!!  Yikes!  By the time (20 minutes later) I got through to the proper place, the office had closed.  I did learn though that they closed the DMV in Buffalo which is where I would have gone.  And that you can pay on line with Master Card but I have Visa.  I’m just keeping my fingers crossed now that they are busy at the border and backed up and they’ll just waive me through.

 

I have On Star.  I love On Star – one of the reasons I haven’t worried too much about not having a cell phone.  In case of emergency I can phone them through my car and if my car crashes and air bag deploys, they call me.  But the last couple of times when I’ve headed home, for some reason they can’t download directions home.  And I don’t remember exactly the route – it’s an 8 hour drive to my sister’s place.  The last time it was almost funny if it wasn’t so nerve racking.  I had a live OnStar person talking me through Troy New York while at the same time I had happened to have an old GPS that I ended up using too.

 

The live On Star person could hear the Garmin and was saying “yes that’s the way you go,” or “no, don’t turn that way” 

 

 

By the time I got onto the I95, it’s no wonder I was stressed and started to speed.  I just wanted to, like ET, go home.

 

 

'til later

Random Ramblings

It’s still busy and I really should be concentrating on what I’m getting paid to do, but I don’t think it will hurt if I take a few minutes here and there as what I’m doing is pretty routine and my mind is once again taking flight.

 

The snobby snob in me can’t help but chuckle at the flogging of the dead horse and the utter ridiculousness that is the FOURTH installment in the 50 Shades phenomenon.    For those who pay attention to such things, I haven’t read the books, will never read the books, haven’t seen the movie, will never see the movie.  I’m annoyed at the fact that so many have read these books and the buzz has been out of this world for, from what I’ve read, is poorly written fan fiction.  There are so many fabulous authors out there who write well written books that will pass by completely unnoticed by the general masses who then read garbage.  To me it’s not unlike Keeping up with the Kardasians winning a Golden Globe for  best acting.  It’s wrong, it’s just wrong.

So I couldn’t help but laugh at the indignation of so many who are discovering that book 1, from Christian Grey’s POV is just one of three and the author has 2 more of the exact same book planned.  Good grief - talk about flogging a dead horse!! 

 

I read some reviews on GoodReads and word is – it’s garbage.  I can’t help but hope the author plummets down to earth where she never should have risen anyway.  I tell you, I am such a bitch some days.

 

~~~***~~~***~~~

 

I’ve been designing – sort of – my own calendars for a number of years now through Vista Print.  Every month was a different scene from North and South each and every time the calendar ended in August with “The Train Scene Kiss”.  I brought it into work and as more and more people from work watched and loved it, I began to order more calendars for coworkers – just to share the love.

 

Well people, we have come to the end of an era I’m afraid.  For the first time since 2011, North and South screen caps no longer grace the months.  Nope, I’m figuratively doffing my cap and passing the calendar torch onto Outlander. 

 

 These are a different kind of calendars.  Instead of starting in January, as most do, mine start in September so it’s getting really close to time to order them.  Because we often plan schedules 2 weeks to even a month ahead of the current date, I have 2 of them on my desk, the current month and the next month.  So I’m needing September soon.  A few other people do the same thing and some of these happen to be fellow fans of Outlander.  So I’ve designed the calendar – just have to hit that pay button and the order will be winging its way to VistaPrint.  I just hope Richard/John will forgive for leaving him behind as I move on to Sam/Jamie.  I will love you always John Thornton and at least we have 2013.

 

Bet you all thought you'd never seen the day.

 

~~~***~~~***~~~

 

I know I’ve bitched about this before but I will continue to do so until JUSTICE IS SERVED!!  They have a thread again at AAR for freebie or ebook sales.  There are a couple lately for books I would love to get and they are on for a great price at Amazon.  Amazon –dot COM that is!  It’s an entirely different story at Amazon.ca.  And of course it’s through my favourite publisher (not) Harper Collins/Avon. 

Sex, Lies and Online Dating by Rachel Gibson (love her books)

Amazon.com - $1.99

Amazon.ca $8.99

Secrets of a Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas

Amazon.com - $1.99

Amazon.ca $8.99

Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase

Amazon.com - $1.99

Amazon.ca - $7.99 (squeal of a deal there she said sarcastically)

GRRRrrrrrr

 ~~~***~~~***~~~

I received a mood calendar as a gift a while ago and I brought it to work.  I love this calendar and changed it every day to reflect my mood.  Coworkers are starting to check my mood before checking how I am.  Lately it’s mostly been on the negative side of things, but starting Thursday, July 2 (Wednesday is a holiday here in Canada) the calendar mood will be starting to change.  Why you ask?  Well, it’s cause then we will be into the actual month I head once again to RWA – this years in New York, to meet up with my people again.  I think anticipation is even higher this year as I missed last year, mostly because of the depression but also because I had another big project, new bathroom that I had to pay for.  This year I’m getting new siding but that’s not going to stop me from RWA.  There are SO many people I’m looking forward to seeing, but a special shout out to Wendy,SuperLibrarian.  We will be roomies again after several years apart and my first question will be “Wendy, Wendy, Wendy, what do you have against Jon Snow that you are glad he’s dead????” 

 

Mind you I haven’t watched Game of Thrones for a few seasons now, it became just to bloody bloody.  I have tried a couple of times over the other seasons since and then there would come a scene where someone got stabbed in the eye and that was all she wrote.  But from the first season that I was an AVID watcher, Jon and Daenerys and Tyrion were my favourite characters with Jon being #1.  AND THEY KILLED HIM OFF!  As if Ned and Robb and Catelyn all dying wasn’t enough.  As if what’s happened to Sansa and Arya isn’t enough?  I’ve lost track of the little boys.  So did they then have to go and kill of Jon??? Why, Why, Why?

 

 Then I can hardly wait to see Lisabea and Rosie – I hope Rose is going again!!  Of course there are so many other too, but the four of us seem to hang out the most.

Now back to the point – see how I ramble and get off topic?  So now that I will be in countdown mode, my mood will be picking up until I’m up to daily bouncy

~~~***~~~***~~~

 

 This has nothing to do with anything to do with romance but it is a real bug-a-boo I have.  I’m on the phone a lot anymore at work.  And I can tell when the person is speaking on a cell phone.  Cell phone reception/quality is TERRIBLE a lot of the times.  I’m constantly adjusting my phone’s volume, calls cut out, they are mumbled and I can’t hear what they are saying, they are calling while in traffic and all I hear is background noise.  A lot of the nurses who call in have been issued cell phones and I think the company they worked for must have ordered the cheapest cell phones they could get.  It makes me so cranky (and then I have to change my mood calendar) whenever I get one of these calls and chance are when I’ve had to ask for the fourth time for them to repeat something that I can’t hear, an impatient tone in my voice may come through – not at the person I’m talking to, but the cheap piece of equipment they are using.  I’m cranky enough as it is since I don’t like talking on the phone, but talking on the phone and not hearing what the other person is saying, well, many of those kinds of calls a day and I really need to de-stress at the end of the day.

Anyway - that's all I have for now

'til later

 

Thought for the Day.......

 

 

Still at work, still bored and still thinking.

The thought for the day – am I a reader snob?  I started thinking this when I mentioned in my review of The Longest Ride that I’d never read a Nicolas Sparks book and had no intention of ever reading a Nicolas Sparks book.  I wondered why really and the “other” voice in my head answered “it’s ‘cause you be a snob beyotch!” (she sometimes talks to me like that – I really should teach her respect)

But I had to admit she might have a point.  Since I’ve never even tried one, how can I turn my nose up at this author’s whole body of work?  I like, and even love some of his movies though I haven’t seen them all.  I’m still a bit reluctant after watching Message in a Bottle.  I’ve heard his books aren’t well written and not all of them have happy endings and I’ve read where many question whether his books should even be called romances but maybe instead they should be qualified as romantic.

I’m the same way with Danielle Steele.  I think I read one of her book years ago and was less than impressed and scorned her too as “not a real romance writer.”  But she does seem to be popular.  They turned some of her books in to television movies and I think I might have started watching one once and thought “blech” and turned it off.  This is another author I’m a snob about.

Then we have Jackie Collins.  Now her books were popular back in the 70’s and 80’s.  I read one.  Once.  And that was quite enough thank you.  At the time I was also reading Mary Stewart, Daphne Du Maurier, Anya Seton so when I read Jackie Colllins, well, her book really was sleazy trash.

(OMG!! Squeak -  I sound like my mother.)

E.L. James is another author I can be accused of being snobby about, and probably with just cause.  I haven’t read the 50 Shades books, have no intentions of it, haven’t seen the movie and have no intentions in that either.  I’ve read and heard enough that the writing amateurish and the subject matter not true to life and not something I want to read about in any case.  I don’t really understand pain and sex together.

I have read so called racy books. I read quite a few Harold Robbins and Sidney Sheldon and I don’t have a problem with them.  I think, in my own convoluted mind that holds at least two people, that since they weren’t marketed as romance then I’m OK is their books are somewhat tasteless

I do believe it’s because I’m protective of the romance genre.  It’s my genre of choice and one of the big reasons is the quality of many of its authors.  I’ve read all genres and the authors themselves who write romance are some of the best actual writers and I don’t want what I consider ‘posers’ mixed into the genre – like fake chocolate chips mixed in with real chocolate chips.  They may look the same and at first glance they seem real, but the quality just isn’t the same.

But in my defense of romance authors, have I strayed too far into snobishood?

 

‘til later



Random Ramblings

Egads but I’m bored!  I’m on the later shift and I was a busy little worker be and got all my work done during working hours and now I have nothing to do, but I have to kill two hours.  The coworker I’m on with is great, but she’s a mega-worker and would be aghast if she knew I wasn’t working working.  But I’ve nothing to do except spew words here.

I met with my former trainer last Monday.  It went good, but I’m still most upset with myself at what I let happen.  But – I just have to get over that.

I was supposed to meet him again last night but I had a tooth pulled in the afternoon.  Now one of the things that is strongest about me is my imagination and when it comes to imagining pain, I doubt there are few who can top me.  I caught a glimpse one time in my records and it was right there in black and white, patient has low threshold for pain.  So they doped me up real good yesterday.  They gave me (I think) 1 ½ Lorazepam that mellowed me real good and then nitric-oxide for the actual tooth extraction.  I had no idea I would be loopy and when I was talking to the dentist before the tooth was yanked out of my head, I mentioned I had an appointment later in the day with a trainer and she said I absolutely shouldn’t go.  I had my neighbor take me and pick me up.  From the time I got out of the dentist chair, I remember nothing.  I meant to call Mark and postpone as soon as I got home.  I don’t really remember but I’m pretty sure I did and got voice mail.  Then I totally zoned out for a few hours and called again around 5:30 because I didn’t remember calling the first time.  I tell you it’s scary not remembering things like that.  I have no idea what I said on the phone – but I sure hope I didn’t say anything embarrassing like he’s my non-sexual crush or anything like that.  *gulp*

I also have no memory of paying for it.  The way our plan works, I pay up front and then the insurance company sends a check.  I was debating on calling the dentist’s office to see if I paid but an email came through saying they had processed the latest billing.  But I’ve no idea how much I paid – or even more important – how I remembered my debit password.

I’m still feeling the lingering effects today.  My jaw feels like someone punched me and if I move my head to fast I get dizzy.  I shall be very glad at the end of the day today.

 

The list of authors who are attending RWA this summer is out.  Many of them I’ve never heard of, but I’ve copied the list and highlighted the ones I want to meet.  But it’s going to be way different this year.  In years past, I’ve picked up tons and tons of books.  I’ve had them shipped home as I’ve had to many to carry myself. 

But now that I read mostly ebooks, the call of the free mass market book is silent.  I didn’t make it last year but I know the year before different publishers were giving away cards that you could use to order ebooks from.  I was in transition then so I picked up some, but not a great many.  I’ve my fingers crossed that publishers have caught on and have an even number of books and ecards.  That will also make the traveling much easier.

I did notice though that a lot of authors I’ve discovered in the past couple of years aren’t signed up.  I don’t know if it’s because the vast majority of their books I’ve purchased as ebooks and they either self-publish or write for small independent epublishers. 

 

Which leads me to wonder what the pros and cons of these authors attending RWA might be?  How many are even members of RWA?  Since they write and self-publish, is there any benefit to them going?  Are they hoping to be picked up by a big name publisher?  While for their sakes it would be nice, selfishly for me, it wouldn’t be so good since as soon as they do, the prices of their books would sky rocket.  I see that Courtney Milan and Carolyn Crane will be there and if I’m not mistaken they both self-publish.  I’m looking at some of the workshops they are offering and some look like they would be helpful for those authors.  I guess I’m just bumbed that there seem to be so few.  Or then again – maybe they will be there and just not at the literacy signing.

Speaking of traveling, I was dithering on how to get there this year – drive or take a plane.  The thought of driving in NYC simply can’t be contemplated.  So I’m doing what I did the last time it was in New York.  I’m going down a few days early to visit with my sister who lives in Massachusetts and then take the train from Albany, which isn’t far from where she lives) to NYC.  The train trip, much of which is along the Hudson, is gorgeous.  I’ll put on my soundtrack to Last of the Mohicans and just go back in my imagination.  It’s not just pain I imagine.

 

Well, almost time for me to head home.  I did it.  I made it through day after tooth extraction day.

 

‘til later