Why I love used books so much

People are always asking me what it is about used books that I love so much. Well, first and foremost, the obvious is that they're a fraction of the cost of brand new books. I watch people drop $25 on a new hardcover book, or $15 for a trade paperback, etc., and that baffles me. I've gotten books that look brand-new, like they've never even been opened, for just a few dollars. But, to each their own. I don't judge. That's just not how I choose to roll, haha.

I don't think I've paid full price for a book in well over ten years. I started in college, going to the local used bookstore in town, where I found a copy of She's Come Undone for maybe $1, and I took it back to my dorm room and just devoured the book. I read it at a really pivotal time in my life, because I was a freshman in college, and struggling a bit to find my way- I was having difficulty making friends because I've always been on the shy/quiet side, classes were harder than I thought they would be, my time management skills weren't quite the greatest just yet, my roommate and I didn't really vibe well together, I was breaking up with a guy from back home, etc. This book... well, it just came along at just the right time, because I was starting to feel like I was coming undone too. To this day, it's still one of my all-time favorite books and will always hold a special place in my heart.   :-)

But it's not just about the price or the bargain aspect of a used book. The cool thing about used books, is that each book has a story within themselves. You know? Used books have a history, a personality. They've taken journeys, been places, visited other people. They have a past. And that's before you even open the book. It makes a book special and unique. It gives them character.

I've bought used books with bookmarks already in them. With personalized inscriptions, to people I don't know, from people I don't know, but now I feel like I know them a little bit. I bought a copy of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister last year (which I still haven't gotten a chance to read- it's on the list!), and you know what was in it? Letters to a girl from her family. I don't know if she'd been away at college, or camp, or what. One was from her younger sister, who wrote to say that she missed her sister, and their parents missed her, and the dog missed her, and that she'd just started school, and was happy to report that the lockers are "too small to be shoved into", and that she's made a lot of new friends. And she put stickers all over the letter, and reminded her sister to wear sunscreen and wanted to know how the lunches were wherever she was. How adorable is that? And there was also a letter from their father, talking about how everyone missed her, and they're still looking for a house, and did she get the pictures that her mother had e-mailed her? I read those letters and could honestly picture the young girl and the father who wrote them, could actually visualize them in my head. I kept those letters. They're still in the book. I plan on keeping them too. It doesn't seem right to throw them away.

And take the book I'm reading now- Just Between Us, by Cathy Kelly. Yeah, I could have bought it on amazon or ebay or a local bookstore. But my copy? For starters, it's from Ireland. There's a price sticker from a bookstore called "Dubray Books", which I googled and it's a bookstore in Dublin. But I could tell it was from abroad because of the price sticker. Instead of a dollar sign, there's a pound sign (the currency, not the #, LOL). This book is autographed by the author. And it has a personal inscription in it, and it says, "Judy- Lots of Love, Jo XOXO. Enjoy! I am reading it too!" I got all that- and a great book to boot- for $1.

And that, my friends, is why I love used books so much.

And now, I'm going to unload the dishwasher and then read all of your lovely blogs.   :-)

No fair... I wanna hop on the white chocolate macadamia nut love train too!

Every blog I visit these days have beautiful pictures of the brand new Clif and Luna White Chocolate Macadamia Nut bars, and everyone's raving about how delicious they are and how they're the best things in the world and they're so sweet and tasty and wonderful, and it's seriously channeling the inner four-year-old brat in me who wants to scream, "No fair!" (Not, um, that I ever did that... I was an extraordinarily well-behaved child with perfect manners all the time who never once threw a temper tantrum. Okay, fine, I wasn't that either. I was somewhere in the middle.)

Where on earth are you all finding these bars???? I've checked their website and don't even see this flavor on there! I haven't seen them in supermarkets either. I haven't been to TJs recently, but I need to take a trip there this weekend so I'll definitely be on the lookout. Hell, I'll even venture to Whole Foods if need be. I ordinarily don't shop there- the one by me is always so crowded- plus I think they're a little on the pricey side- although I admit, some stuff isn't, and is actually even cheaper in some cases. But I digress. Please clue me in!!! I want to get in on the WCM love too!

Enough whining. I am happy to report that I got through Monday relatively unscathed. I was tired and cold most of the day, but that's nothing new. I hope you all had decent Mondays as well!

So I've had to resort to wearing stretch gloves indoors now. My hands have been chapped, cracked, bleeding, and hurting pretty much all throughout winter because of all the dry air. And I'm sick of seeing little tiny spots of blood on my books and paper. I have all sorts of creams and lotions that I've been trying, plus hydrocortisone cream, and some of them don't work at all, and the ones that do work (Aquaphor has been helping the most) are very thick and greasy, so I can't really touch, well, anything when I put it on. So I have resorted to wearing stretch gloves inside, and putting them on after I put on the Aquaphor. I look completely ridiculous- I look like I'm about to go pull a bank heist and I don't want my fingerprints at the scene of the crime- but it's actually working. The gloves are preventing the lotion from being exposed to air, and I think it helps to work it into my hands more because of the same reasons. Plus, it's alleviating the pain- I feel fine- and I can read and write and type and not have to be in pain and stress about bleeding on anything. I'm wearing them as I type right now. This is just one of oh-so-many reasons why I abhor winter immensely. Well, hopefully there's just a few weeks of misery left. In my mind, March 1= spring. I know that's not entirely true, but let me be.   :-)

Hey, is anyone else going to watch that new TNT show Trust Me, with Eric McCormack (Will from Will & Grace)? I'm going to go check it out. It's starting, well, now, so on that note, goodnight!   :-)

MIA blogger

Wow... the weekend got away from me! Sorry for the lack of posts; I was too busy having a kick-ass weekend!  :-) I spent most of it with my sister... she came up to visit and we saw Bride Wars, which was seriously cute! We went to a matinee- the earliest show that they had, 1:50... and it occurred to both of us that neither one of us had ever been to a movie that early in the day! And I can't remember the last time I went to a movie in the late afternoon/early evening in general... maybe high school? Haha. It's just become more of an evening event for me, I guess! But it was pretty cool to go in the middle of the day. It felt almost a little indulgent.  ;-)  Plus, it was kinda cool to leave the theater and it was still broad daylight and only 3:30! After the movie we headed to the mall and puttered around there a little bit, then took a quick trip to Wegmans, came back to my place, and chilled for the rest of the night, making grilled chicken wraps for dinner and watching Undeclared. And then today was a bunch of errands, dropping her off, having some bonding time with the elliptical machine at the gym, etc. Oh, and of course reading. My sister is as much as a book fiend as I am, and whenever she comes over we always read. Yes, we read at our slumber parties. No wild games of "truth-or-dare" over at this pajama party!  :-D

I still have a bunch of stuff to do tonight to get ready for the upcoming work week- which I pray to God is not nearly as brutal as it was last week... I have some projects lined up, but nothing too stressful or horrible, they're actually projects that I really like working on; plus, they're time-consuming and so they make the day fly by- so this is all I've got for tonight. I barely got to look at anyone else's blogs this weekend and have some serious catching up to do! I hope you all had fun-filled weekends- the emotional high of a great weekend makes it a little  bit easier to get up for work on Monday! (At least until you get to your desk, that is!)   :-)

A MUCH better day

Hey kids! Happy Thursday! I didn't post last night because yesterday was one of the worst days I've had in a long, long, long, LONG time. I spent most of the day fighting back tears (unsuccessfully at times- there were a few trips to the ladies' room at work throughout the day) and then I came home and had a total breakdown- I just let myself have a good, hard cry. But then I did yoga, and all the stress and anxiety of the day just melted away, and I felt a million times better. So I didn't want to get into a long post about why my day was so wretched and waste all those good and happy yoga vibes!

It was all work-related though, I will say that. I'm not really happy with my job these days, which I feel kind of ungrateful to complain about, because of the economic recession and the fact that so many people lost their jobs this year, I feel like I have no right to complain. So I'm really trying to keep that in perspective. The problem is that I love my profession (I'm a proofreader), but I don't like the industry that I'm in (I prefer to keep that on the DL because you never know who's reading the blog, you know? Just because I'm not happy with my job these days does NOT mean I want to lose it!). In a perfect world, I would be a proofreader or an editor for a publishing company (can we say pipe dream?), or maybe a health care environment, or a college/university, or a food company or magazine, something like that. But it is what it is for now. Maybe someday. But right now I'm still building my skills and experience, plus, I really do work for an amazing company. I just know that I won't be able to do it for the rest of my life. And right now we're working on a specific project with a team of really difficult people, and so that's only adding to my discontent. Oh well. I need to just keep remembering that I am lucky to have a job to go to, which is, unfortunately, more than some people have these days. Plus, there really are lots of days where I love my job! Just right now, there aren't too many of those. LOL. Ah well. Things will get better soon.

But lots of things DID put a smile on my face this week!

*The obvious- Obama's inauguration! I'm still so happy about that! (sidebar: Did you know that Obama's left-handed? I'm a lefty too!)

*One of my most favorite places in the whole wide world- Wegmans- was listed the #5 Best Company to work for on the "Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For" list! They make the list every year! Actually, maybe my dream job would be to work as a proofreader/editor at Wegmans... I'd brave those harsh New York winters if I meant I could work at their headquarters! I dated a guy who worked at Wegmans during the summers between college, and he loved working there. He couldn't go on enough about how great they were to their employees... and he just stocked shelves!

*Tomorrow's payday for me! Woo-hoo!

*I ate a sweet potato in some format or another as part of my dinner almost every night this week. Simple as this sounds, they're seriously one of my favorite foods- not just because it's incredibly delicious and versatile, but they're nutritional superstars! They're one of my favorite comfort foods and they did a great job of comforting me through a pretty difficult week! (I've got one more scheduled for tomorrow night's dinner, haha)

*I'm about 80 pages into Just Between Us (this baby's more than 500 pages!), and it's AWESOME so far! I knew it would be... Cathy Kelly has never let me down!

*The Office and 30 Rock are new tonight, and they're hysterical!

Friday's ALMOST here!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait!!!!

That's all I've got for tonight. I'm off to finish 30 Rock, do some channel-surfing, and curl up with my book! Have a lovely rest of your Thursday!   :-)

Witnessing history

Today in my cubicle, I sat and watched history unfold as Barack Obama was sworn in as our 44th President, and our very first African-American President.

I cried.

I didn't bawl or anything like that, but I started to get a little choked up and teary-eyed when our new First Lady, Michelle Obama, was introduced. And while I watched and listened to Barack Obama vow to serve and honor our country to the very best of his ability, a few tears did escape. Tears of total amazement and joy... I honestly couldn't believe what I had just seen. It might seriously have been the best thing I've ever seen in my whole life. I was definitely excited and looking forward to today's inauguration, but my emotions kind of surprised me... I didn't expect to be moved to tears, that's for sure! Did anyone else get a little choked up?

It was an encouraging and awesome moment in an otherwise miserable day. I had a horrible day at work (soooo don't feel like talking about it right now; will post details probably tomorrow), and I felt kinda physically "off" all day too... I had a headache for most of the day, which at first I attributed to work stress, but then after lunch I started feeling a little nauseous too. I did have a PB&J sandwich for lunch today; however, I am not as concerned about the peanut butter crisis as some people because I use a generic-brand peanut butter (Wegmans Crunchy Natural), and I've already confirmed with both a customer service rep and their website that their brand of peanut butter is safe to eat. So I don't think it's that. I'm hoping it's not that GI virus that was apparently pleasantly distributed around the retirement center that I helped paint yesterday. I had also briefly wondered if it was my preworkout bar- I'd had a ThinkGreen Cranberry Apple bar, and I vaguely remembered that the last time I'd had one, I'd had a few side effects (NOTE TO SELF: Sometimes, items are "discontinued" for a reason, and you don't always necessarily need to stock up on these products simply because they're on sale!), but I had started feeling a little nauseous right after lunch, hours before I ate the bar (although I didn't feel all that great during my entire workout and certainly don't think the bar was any help). Or maybe it was just nothing. I snacked on a few crackers when I got home and that seemed to help a lot. Who knows. Today's sandwich marked the very last of a jar of peanut butter, so I guess we'll see how I feel tomorrow, because I'm planning on busting open a new jar for tomorrow's lunch. I'm not concerned about it really, because Wegmans is a really reputable company/store, and I think that if they were truly concerned that there was even a remote possibility there was a problem with a product, they would pull it from the shelves as a voluntary recall. So I'm really not stressing about that too much! Is anyone else not really sweating the peanut butter crisis too much or not really affected by it? Thank God for that too... I literally eat PB&J every single day. I never bring anything else. It's easy to make, and probably the cheapest meal out there- PB and jelly last a while! MUCH cheaper than lunchmeat or buying lunch. Plus it's super-satisfying, healthy, and gets me through the afternoon. And even though I eat it every single day, I never, ever get sick of it. And it's so nice not to have to think and plan what to bring for lunch, since I already know every day, LOL. So let's hope the salmonella scare doesn't extend to Wegmans brand peanut butter, because if so, I am officially up a creek. Well, not really. I'll just suck it up and buy a different brand until it tides over. Anyway, that's enough salmonella talk for one night.

So I did finish One Small Thing last night, at about 11:30! It was good, I guess.... I mean, I was really into it and I couldn't put it down, clearly, but not only did I dislike the main character throughout the entire duration of the book, but I really didn't like- or believe- the ending. I won't give anything away because I hate when people do that, but let's just say that it all concluded and was wrapped up a little too swiftly and neatly. The book lacked plot development and character development as well. So I really can't figure out why I couldn't put it down! Maybe it was because the plot concept had so much promise, and started off really well. Maybe because I liked the supporting characters a lot, although some of them were seriously underdeveloped. But yeah... so I didn't like the way the book wrapped up, and I thought the main character was a really selfish biotch! So I can't really pinpoint what I liked about it! Strange, huh? It's really weird... I didn't not like it, but it didn't sit well with me... kind of like whatever's going on with my tummy! Very, very strange. Has that ever happened to anyone else? You liked a book or a movie, but you're not really sure what exactly you liked about it? Hahaha.

I have very high hopes for my new book, though!

It's called Just Between Us, by Cathy Kelly. It's a fiction novel that focuses on the lives of three sisters and their mother, who is getting ready to celebrate her fortieth wedding anniversary with their father. I bought this last year at a book sale for $1, and it's an autographed copy! Can't beat that! As I've mentioned on this blog before, Cathy Kelly is one of my favorite authors, so I'm sure this book will be nothing short of awesome. I'm already into the first chapter a little bit and so far, it's living up to my expectations! I probably won't get to do too much reading tonight, because I really want to write in my journal and get out all the emotions of the day- the good, the bad, and the in-between!

And on that note, I hope you all had a wonderful Inauguration Day and were able in some way to witness the monumental moments of the day, and that you were just as moved as I was and the hope that change is always possible- we saw it today, and I think we're going to be seeing it for a while to come. :-)

Snowy day off

Greetings from snowy PA! It snowed here all afternoon, slow but steady! It didn't look too bad at first, but they just said on the news that the roads are a little slippery, and I have yet to see anyone plow our parking lot. Good thing I got home before it got too bad! I had debated going to the gym after lunch, but looking at my totally unplowed parking lot, I decided just to stay put! I got a lot of stuff done around the apartment, like laundry, getting stuff ready for work tomorrow, loading and unloading the dishwasher, vacuuming... we'll just consider all that my cardio for the day. And I helped paint a retirement home this morning, so we'll call that my strength training, haha. Although there were so many volunteers- more than needed- that it felt like I was doing more standing around than painting! Oh well- I guess it's better to have too many volunteers for a project than not enough! We were done by 10:30! But I needed a shower ASAP afterwards, not only from the paint that I got on myself, but also because apparently there was a nasty bout of a GI virus circulating around the senior center last week- there were a few memos about it on some bulletin boards- along with some safety precautions to take to stay healthy. Needless to say, that made some of the volunteers a little anxious, including myself! Right now I'm doing a load of laundry with the clothes I wore today in there- I'm sure I have nothing to worry about, but I really don't feel like getting a nasty 24-hour stomach bug, so I'm playing it safe just in case!

Is anyone else getting excited for tomorrow and the inauguration? We're actually allowed to watch the inauguration at our desks tomorrow online- pretty cool, huh? I didn't think we would be able to! One of my coworkers actually took the whole day off to watch it.

So the Eagles lost yesterday, so no Super Bowl hopes and dreams for Philly this year. Ah well. We still have the World Series win! Good thing we had off today so my coworkers could spend the day mourning the loss (and most likely nursing some hangovers, although I suspect that would be going on regardless of whether the Birds won or lost, haha).

My weekend was nice and low-key, which is just what I needed. This is going to be a really busy hell of a week at work. I'm already looking forward until the upcoming weekend! LOL. We have a lot of projects coming in with extremely tight deadlines, so I'm going to be a busy, busy bee. Oh well. We always get through it! Luckily my team works together very well, and we're really good at helping each other out during busy times and everyone doing their fair share of the work, so that helps a lot.

I have, like, 50 pages left in One Small Thing, and I REALLY wanna finish it tonight, so I'm off to go do that! I wanted to try and finish it this afternoon so I could post a review and pick a new book, but restlessness got the better of me (probably from not going to the gym!), so I did some domestic multitasking instead. Sometimes, I have a hard time just sitting still and chilling and vegging out. A lot of the time, actually. Normally I get rid of the excess energy by running some errands or hitting the gym, and that helps a lot. Does this happen to anyone else? Anyone have any ideas or suggestions on how to be a little more, well, chill? ;-) So I think I'm going to finish the book tonight, and post a review tomorrow. This book is too damn good to put down. So I'm going to pick it back up! :-)

I hope you all had wonderful Mondays- sorry to the people who had to work today. :-( Goodnight!

I can't feel my toes... :-(

I think that today is the coldest day of the year here, for real. The words "frigid" and "freezing" were thrown around on the news today. Needless to say, miserable doesn't even begin to describe the emotion that I feel right now. I've been home for about half an hour now and I still can't feel my toes, despite being layered up and in my warmest sweatshirt, my warmest socks, my extra-fluffy Cookie Monster slippers (don't judge me), and am sitting at my desk with my heating pad on high and my space heater on. This is bad. I'm so hoping that this is going to be the worst of it, because I'm not really sure how I'll be able to physically tolerate anything much more colder. I've always reacted pretty poorly to this weather. I get cold to the point where I actually feel physically nauseous from being so cold sometimes. I get tested for anemia every year, and every year I get the bloodwork done and I'm told that I don't have it, but truthfully, I don't see how I'm not at least borderline anemic, because I react so extremely poorly to the cold. But blood tests don't lie, you know? Still, I've always had a pretty strong reaction to the cold, and the fact that I've lost weight this past year really doesn't help my cause much.

Anyway, enough bitching about the cold. Three cheers for a three-day weekend! Who else has off for Martin Luther King Day? Hell, I'm excited enough that the weekend is here- I keep forgetting it's a three-day one! I had a long week and I'm really happy that not only it is over, but that my weekend's not too busy, so I don't have to go out in this wretched cold for long periods of time! I need to go to Wal-Mart and Wegmans, and I'm planning on hitting the gym, but that's about it! That's about all I can take in this weather! On Monday I'm volunteering to help paint a retirement home in West Chester. My company hosts all of these community events in honor of Martin Luther King Day, and while we're not required to participate, we're strongly encouraged. There's a pretty big variety and list to choose from. But I always do the same thing every year- paint this particular retirement home. It's close to where I live, and only takes a few hours, so I get to enjoy the satisfaction of volunteering and helping out a good cause, but then I also get to be a little bit selfish and enjoy my day off! (Some of the events are all-day and a lot more emotionally taxing.)

I finished Tripping the Prom Queen yesterday. I liked it a lot! It was a real eye-opener to me, because truthfully, I had no idea that women felt the need to compete over so many aspects of everyday life. I see where it's necessary (work, promotions, etc.) and that it's natural to feel jealous or insecure of other women at times, but some of it was seriously cutthroat. I loved reading all the different anecdotes and stories from women! It made the book!

Here's my one complaint about this book, and I find myself having this issue often in sociology/social science books where there are lots of media and pop culture references. When trying to illustrate her point, the author would occasionally bring up a TV show, book, or movie plot, and then would reveal the ending of the book or movie plot as a way to drive her point home. I get why this is necessary when writing about society, but at the same time, not everyone has read that particular book mentioned or seen that specific movie, so it's a bit annoying that the endings are given away. I see why they do it, I just wish they wouldn't. Oh well!

So that means... I selected a new book! Nothing like starting off the weekend with a new fun book to read!

It's called One Small Thing, by Jessica Barksdale Inclan. I actually got a free advance readers' copy of this when I worked at Borders five years ago! (Yes, I have books on my shelves that I've had for that long but haven't read yet- hence this project!) It's a fiction book about a woman who has an idealistic life- perfect home, perfect husband, perfect body, perfect paycheck, lives in picture-perfect suburban California, the whole shabang- but the one big fallback in her life is that she is desperately trying to get pregnant and has been trying for two years, but hasn't yet. I don't really get her desperation, as she is only 28 years old, but whatever. Then her husband finds out that he has a ten-year-old son that he never knew existed, and the boy's mother has just died, and as the father and next-of-kin, the boy comes to live with them, and how that turns their lives completely upside down. I started it today and read on my lunch break and at the gym, and it's a very good book so far. I'm actually not liking Avery (the main character) too much though. She's a little self-involved and bitchy. In one paragraph she looks down on construction workers, and inwardly thinks to herself that had they attended college, they wouldn't be stuck in such dead-end jobs. And when her husband finds out he's a father to this boy, her immediate concern is how it ruins her plans to have a baby. Not even their plans- her plans! Like her husband's just a sperm donor or something. I don't know. I hope she gets a little more likable and relatable, because right now, I'm having a hard time feeling sympathy for her character. Maybe being a stepmama will help soften her up and mellow her out a little. Right now I'm still very early on in the book- they haven't even introduced the little boy yet. They're just finding out about him now.

And the cool added bonus about this book is that because it's an advanced readers' copy, it's unedited. So it's chock-full of editing and proofreading mistakes. Ordinarily, this annoys me. Not the case here, because it's an unedited manuscript. And the reason this excites me so is not just because I'm a dork, haha. But my "dream job" is to be a book editor someday, so I actually see this as a little bit of practice! I'm years away from achieving this goal, if I ever achieve it at all- I need to build a solid career in proofreading before I can really make a transition into editing, and even then, book editor is an extreme long shot- but hey, it can happen! And it's good to get in practice where I can! I've already seen quite a bit of mistakes- not just proofreading mistakes like grammatical errors or misspelled words, but things at a real editing standpoint- sentences that don't make sense with the rest of the paragraph, confusion within the plot, etc. Definitely good practice! At least I can pretend to be a book editor for a few days, haha.

I have some exciting food-related news for all my foodie bloggers out there. This might not be news to you, but it is to me. I have discovered something fascinating. Sweet potatoes + hummus= AMAZING combination. This is probably something that everyone already knew... I'm the last to know everything and am usually ten steps behind the rest of the world, haha! But I'd never thought to pair them together before, but I did on a whim yesterday, and now, I'm totally hooked on the combo:

Tonight's amazing dinner: microwaved sweet potato topped with steamed broccoli and a Boca Tomato Bruschetta burger broken into pieces, with steamed carrots happily strewn about the plate for extra veggie love (dinner is usually the only meal where I can get my veggies in- lunch is always PB&J and fruit- so I really try and load up on the veggies at dinner- gotta get in my five fruits and veggies a day!). My hummus of choice this week is Tribe Cracked Chili Pepper Hummus, which is seriously good stuff. This is a superyummy, superhealthy, and superfilling dinner. I didn't even use all the hummus (it's about two tbsp). This meal definitely has some staying power in my tummy.

Now I'm sad because I'm out of sweet potatoes. What am I supposed to do with my hummus now, until I go food shopping until Sunday? Go back to WRAPS? I can't! After discovering how delicious it is with sweet potatoes, that almost feels like a step DOWN. :-D

Speaking of wraps, this is for my girl Chandra:

Look, Chandra, look! Wraps that didn't bust open! Okay, I cheated a little and the ends aren't closed, so it isn't superperfect, but it's definitely an improvement, wouldn't you say? I'm getting there! :-)

I hope you all have fun and exciting plans this weekend! I'll be around, checking in, posting updates on the uneventful weekend and my reading adventures. The Eagles are playing the Cardinals for the chance to go to the Super Bowl! I know Mrs. Lindsay over at Love of Oats will be watching!!!! :-) I admit, I could care less about football for the most part. I've never understood the game and I probably never will. They get up, they fall down, a whistle blows, and someone comments on the five seconds of players getting up and falling down and how apparently that was a "strategy". But all I see is big men running into each other full force and knocking each other to the ground. I just don't get it. I've tried. Really. I even tried to read Football for Dummies once. But I don't get it, and I'm okay with that. But when your city's team has the chance to go to the Super Bowl- AGAIN- and after your city's baseball team just WON THE WORLD SERIES LAST YEAR- your city pride kicks in and you can't help but get a little excited! Gotta root, root, root for the home team! Haha. I'll either be at the gym or at home when the game's on, so I'll either check in here and there to see the score on the gym's TVs, or if I'm at home, I'll channel-surf back and forth between craptastic Sunday TV and the score. I can't bring myself to watch the game, but I definitely want to check in and see what's happening! If Sunday TV is at its all-time low, I might just have the game on in the background while I do stuff around the apartment- my bedroom floor is practically begging to be vacuumed, and my cat seems displaced and pissier than usual even though he has fresh food and water, and this leads me to believe he is unhappy with his current litter situation. Sigh. Ah, the life and times of a glamorous twentysomething gal.

That's all I got for now. Later gators!

EDIT TO ADD: I've been home for hours now and am feeling much warmer. I started this post around 7ish and am just finishing up around 11. So I CAN feel my toes at this point! I didn't want people to think I had hypothermia or frostbite or dead nerves, LOL!