Oh sooooo giddy

I'm bouncing and it is either from the free extra shot of espresso in my iced non-fat latte or the horde of books and movies I just picked up from 1/2 priced books. Oh yeah, the used book store was having a huge Labor Day weekend sale....$1 paperbacks or 10 books for $5 and $1videos and 20% off anything and everything in the store. Yep, I went a little nuts and so did the husband. I left him still there and I spent almost $100. Sooooo many books and now, so much caffeine rushing thru my veins. Where do I begin??

Some of the things I picked up:
- Beautiful hard cover editions (like coffee table edition sized) with illustrations of Alice and Wonderland and The Wind in the Willows
- The Velveteen Rabbit ....family tradition there, long story
- Several Ian Flemming paperbacks: I finally own Casino Royale!

- Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator: It is the edition I read when I was 9 years old!! I now only need the same edition of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
- Some of the Outlander series by Galbadon (Yes, I will share them as soon as I am done)
- A couple of kids' movies we didn't own yet
- a few interesting looking paperbacks

There were some books in particular that I was looking for by Laurell K Hamilton, but the section on the shelf for that author had a huge space, as if someone had just swiped everything by her.

So long old blue friend

Inky is gone. Yep, sold him this morning. I took for a last drive last night with the daughter and had the husband take pictures. I will miss him, but it is time he goes to a new family that can maybe give him more TLC than I could.

I remember:

- My first and only ticket with you was the night I bought you. I took my friend cruising Friday night and since I didn't have new tags yet, I got pulled over for a fix it ticket.

- The gas fumes that plagued you the first couple years

- The broken fuel gauge that left me stranded only once

- The way you slowly putted up to Mt Hamilton observatory

- The daughter's face light up the first time she rode in the back and felt the rumble of your engine

- The sounds and smells of driving on a clear night and the feel of the air blowing on my face

- Almost maxing out my free tows from AAA in one year

- The constant slow dribble of leaks from under the car

- The looks of kids faces as they saw you drive by

- The friendly waves from other VW owners when we passed on the roads

- Changing your oil and adjusting your valves

- The shimmies were so bad at 55 mph that your side view mirror fell off on the drive home from Hollister and was just praying that nothing else would fall off

- Push starting you when the battery died

- Christmas day picnic at the beach

We will miss you Stinky Inky.

I met a cool lady

I have to write about this one because I can't stop thinking about her. I was debating whether I should or not, but maybe writing about it will free my mind a bit.

I met a woman who is practically my age with a young one at home. She has tattoos, loves motorcycles and was about to get married to her significant other of several years, but something happened that allowed me to meet her. She was diagnosed with leukemia and eventually ended up in the ICU. She had been tired at home and started having some weird bruising. What she thought might be nothing turned into an immediate hospitalization and her first round of chemotherapy.

Her white blood cell count was so low that we had to be extra careful with infection control measures. Her platelets were so low, she was bleeding and brusing easily. Overall though, she was stable in ICU, just getting chemotherapy and lots of blood transfusions. She keeps talking about how she wants to go home and take a shower and see her kids. Her and I have had lots of time to talk and she has maintained strong attitude so far.

As her condition started to improve I set her up for walk around the unit. I put a mask on her and hooked her up to our portable monitor. Her S.O. was there so he went with us. I then led her out our double doors to see the outside. In my mind, this was a simple thing and a no-brainer thing to do, considering I had the time and I know mobility does great things for patients. What I didn't realize in my busy day was how important this was for her emotionally.

As she was walking across the unit she made a comment about her thinning hair and two ladies visiting their mother (also on our unit due to complications from cancer) heard her. They gave her beaming smiles and one said, "You look beautiful."

We kept walking. We made it to the double doors to the outside stairwell. As she stood on the back stairwell looking outside, she started to cry. She hadn't seen the outside in about 30 days. It was a beautiful day too. Trees so green. View so clear. Gentle breeze. Warm. Sunny. No clouds. But to her, it was the best view she had probably ever seen. She reached over to hold her husband's hand and said, 'This is the first time we have held hands since I was admitted to the hospital.' They were so afraid of her giving her an infection, he hadn't touched her.

Of course, I later told them they could hold hands and about how to wash hands, etc. But, I almost cried with her in that moment and I have been on the verge of crying every time I think about her situation. She says she wants to get a tattoo on her head once she is totally bald but she isn't sure yet. We joked about one possibility, "If you can see this, my hair has fallen off." It was in reference to the shirts her and her husband wear while riding their motorcycles. "If you can see this, the bitch has fallen off" or "If you can read this, the bastard won't let me drive."

Now you can probably understand why I am always on about not sweating the small stuff and enjoy life and your health while you got it.

So many books

Since the last post, I finished 'Son of a Witch', 'Interworld' and 'Mistral's Kiss.' With that last book, I have read all the books in the Gentry Fairy series except for 'A Touch of Frost' and a new one due out this Fall. Whew, no wonder I have had no posts lately. 'Son of a Witch' is a sequel to 'Wicked.' It is an interesting book that was a difficult start for me, but after the first couple chapters it picked up a bit more. It had lots of links back to 'Wicked' and did have some of intrigue, religion and politics of Oz, but I'd have to say the story wasn't as rich and complicated as that of 'Wicked.' 'Interworld' was a fun little adventure story that I think would make a great SciFi series. It is about time travel, paralell worlds and endless possibilties. 'Mistral's Kiss' was the weakest storyline yet out of this series. I was mildy disappointed and left wanting a lot more. I'll be looking for the next one in the used book store. Speaking of which, I have managed to abstain from the used bookstore, but they are having a big sale this Labor Day Weekend and I have those days off. I am so heading there Friday. My next book will be 'The Shadow of the Wind.' Looks like it will be a great one.

I also been working on the little one's new RenFaire costume. I'll post some pictures soon.

In other news, Inky (my VW) may have found a new home. That is a mixed bag of good news and bad news.

Gearing up to a new book

I have been in a rather addictive frenzy of late re-reading my Meredith Gentry Fairy Princess novels by Laurell K Hamilton. I could barely put them down and sometimes my eyes burned or my wrists hurt from holding the book in certain positions for too long. Now, I think that borders on addiction, eh? Especially since I read them all over a year ago. Anywho, I only own the first 4 books and the 5th and 6th books are missing from the library so I picked up a book a friend mailed me. Did I mention I plowed through all 4 books in less than 2 weeks? I think I needed a pick-me-up after reading 'Cold Mountain' and 'The Mermaid's Chair.'

Starting to read this new book, 'Interworld', was kind of awkward, but in a good way. You can read a certain author for a while and then when you pick up a new book, those first few chapters feel like you are driving a car you have never driven before and you haven't even been driving for a few months. It feels like that. The style is so different. The story so different. It is kind of fun. You can feel the gears in your brain being jolted and shifted to take in the new style of writing.

In other news, I am doing some serious purging and cleaning around the house. It has been slow at work so I have been working 8 hour shifts instead of 12 and this past Wednesday they asked if I would be willing to stay home and just take a vacation day. I guess people aren't that sick during the summer. So, I went through all my binders and stuff I had used for school the past few years and purged a ton. I filled our paper recycling bin (it is an huge bin, by the way) to about 1/2 to 2/3 full. Then, I felt compelled to clean the inside, outside and underneath-side of the fridge which blossomed into mopping the floors. I mowed the backyard, trimmed the trees and did some sweeping. I did laundry, and other chores. During all this and more manual labor around the house, I starting scheming about how I could afford to have a housekeeper come to my house 2 times a month to do the hard core cleaning. I'll keep you posted on those plans.

I want to go to 1/2 priced books this week and not just to try and sell some books. I want that 5th and 6th Hamilton book. I almost think I should be banned from those books for awhile. ;)

Enjoying the summer

I've had two camping trips in the last 3 weeks. One up to the redwoods for hiking and enjoying the trees and one near a hot lake where we swam, kayaked and canoed. It was such a contrast in camping and makes me appreciate where we live even more. The redwoods were only about an hour drive away and the hot lake was almost 2 hours away. Such diversity, so close to home.

In other outdoor news, the daughter and I were trying to explore a lake park near us (maybe 2 miles away) and we brought Howie, the dog. The walk started off great, but then the trail didn't exacly continue around the lake and we explored around and found an entrance to other side of the park. However, we were stopped by a park ranger. He says no dogs allowed. It is the same lake we were walking on from the other side, but no dogs allowed on this side of the lake. We were very disappointed and I am not sure I want to go back to that park. Of course, it started a discussion with the daughter about why dogs are not allowed. The school that is about 1 block from our house has a playground so we used to walk over there a lot to play and would often bring Howie. Recently signs went up saying no dogs are allowed there. So, the daughter started talking about it as well. Basically, because people can't be trusted to clean up after their dogs or to keep them on leash, they have to ban them from certain parks. I guess it is good for her to learn about responsibility and accountability at a younger and younger age.

Still disappointing. Poor Howie.