Random Friday Thoughts

I’ve been having a hard time writing blog posts this week. I don’t know quite why. I have a lot of mostly-written entries, but nothing completed. I’ll polish them off eventually, but today I think I’ll tell you about some random things going on.

• Monday is my last day working in the library. I wasn’t really feeling much about it, since I’ll still live a hop, skip, and jump away, and I’ll still be there all the time studying. But, I’ve worked there for almost two years, and it has been a sweet job. “Hey, why don’t we pay you to sit here and work on your homework and talk to your friends!” Okay! I think that’s what I’ll miss most. The library is a center of activity for my school, and working there has provided me with so many opportunities to talk to people when I normally would have walked on by with a wave or nothing at all.

• My allergies are killing me. I don’t know why I always think I shouldn’t have allergies here, since I’m practically in the desert, but they’re actually much worse than they ever were in green and growing Washington. Something about a runny nose in the summer just feels wrong.

• There’s no news to report on the job front. I decided to take advantage of the fact that I live just out of L.A. and apply for all kinds of jobs, even some in the entertainment industry. To be honest, though, I’d be happy working retail at someplace decent like a bookstore. My English degree just has to impress one person in my life, and I’ll be happy!

• I’m working on a book review with one of my professors. If/when it’s finished, it will be the first thing ever published with my name on it. And, it will be in the journal most important to my field. It’s not really that big of a deal, but it’s cool anyway.

• I’m embarrassed to admit that last night I turned down plans with friends so that I could go to Borders and read the first chapter of the new Twilight book. These damn books are taking over my life! The first chapter of the new book that hasn’t come out yet was published in a special edition of the last book, so that’s why I didn’t want to buy it. The only empty seat I could find was in the Religion section of the store, which is about the most dangerous place to be when everyone you know in the area studies theology. I could have been caught with a Young Adult book in my hand! To make it worse, Kirk Cameron and Billy Graham were staring at me from the bookshelves the whole time.

• The novel has been going fantastically well and amazingly fast. I’m at almost 50,000 words now. It’s amazing what you learn about writing when you just sit down and, you know, write.

• I need to get some more boxes, so that I can finish packing up my stuff for my move next Tuesday. I thought I had enough, but by the time I packed my books, I was out of boxes. When I was younger, I displayed my books like trophies. Now they seem like a burden. Every semester I spend hundreds of dollars on them, and now I have to find someplace to store them all in an apartment the size of a small car.