• jumbo black pepper and sea salt croutons
• fans
• opening my jewelry desk for the first time in months
• options
• what happens after the emotional floodgates open
• watching Balthazar voluntarily sleep in his new bed
• getting an email from an old crush, saying she was thinking about you (*twirl*)
• blueberry jam
• finally getting the house to cool down
• tape dispensers that only take one hand to operate
• caving in and getting a cutting board (for paper) - took me long enough!
• devouring a book a day
• my "women against coffee" mug
• having enough money to pay the bills
• floating through the days
• going through old journals and having memories suddenly come flooding back
• the Scottish play
• french bread and butter
• having my cat still climbing on me and purring, even if I overreact sometimes
• really getting going on packing & finally feeling it hit: I get to move and nest in my own place
• melon oolong tea brewed cold
• superstition
• good subtitles for movies
• cranberry muffin tops
• re-crafting my book of shadows
• installing fonts for the first time on Ubunutu

37 ~ Actors, actresses
17 ~ Lost, Evangeline Lilly
16 ~ BTVS, various shows

Preview:

Don't you just hate when someone is asking for a book recommendation and you blank out and can't remember any of the books you love or have read? Does this happen to anyone? It's so horrible and what makes it even more horrible is when, afterwards, you suddenly remember exactly what book you should have recommended to them! This happens to me all the time when I'm working at B&N.

Last night a young guy come up asking for a Flannery O' Connor short story collection. He was looking for a birthday gift for his girlfriend who loves Flannery O' Connor. We had a really nice one with a lovely cover but he couldn't remember if she had it or not. And so he asked for recommendations. But I couldn't remember any! My go to is always Murakami so I took him to his short story collections. And our anthology section. He ended up taking The Elephant Vanishes since we didn't have Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. But then when he left I thought "Gosh! Why didn't I show him Aimee Bender or Jane Avrich or Karen Russell or Julie Orringer...really great contemporary women authors?!?!" Sigh.

The other day though this teen girl who looked like she was real into manga came up asking for I Am A Cat by Natsume Soseki which we don't carry but I told her Japanese fiction is like my forte so I took her to Tanazaki, Banana Yoshimoto, Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburo Oe and, of course, Haruki Murakami. I was wishing we had a better selection of Japanese authors but as it is anything really good you have to order. She was super excited which made me happy! Stop reading manga, little lady.

So, I'm going through a really strange period in my life right now. I don't know why everything is how it is now...or even why. But I want to start updating this journal with more personal entries, friends only of course. Just to write...because writing is good. I cleaned out my friends list, mostly journals who weren't updated anymore and there were many. Lots of people moved on to blogs. If you had a Flickr or blog somewhere else I bookmarked it. I kept those who I know very well or would like to know very well and who I know won't judge me. Most of my entries are going to be public just how it's always been so no worries. For those I kept, if you don't want to read the writings of a depressed socially awkward girl, feel free to unadd me. Today is Sunday and so far it's going well.