9 is my Favorite Number

I am rapidly approaching SPRING BREAK and that means LOTS of waiting tables and LOTS MORE reading!!! Right now I have nine books on my "Read" list for 2010, and I have FIVE books waiting for me at the library!!! Let me say again how much I LOVE THE LIBARARY and how library funding is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! You HEAR ME BEV PURDUE??? Sorry...SO back to the reading list. So far I have read...
1. People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
2. and 3. Maus I and II, Art Spiegelman
4. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
5. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
6. A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin
7. 1000 NIghts of Snowfall, Bill Willingham
8. The Host, Stephanie Meyer
9. The Shack, William P. Young

I'm currently reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (last month's book club selection), and need to start on The Road, since that is this month's selection. Now I have an excuse to read that book! Both M and my dad told me NOT to read The Road, since I am very sensitive and have a propensity for keeping images in my head a long time. However, I talked to S, and she thinks that since I read Blindness by Jose Saramago, I should be ok. (Blindness has an extremely graphic scene in it that still haunts both of us...) And I have the following waiting for me at the library:
1. The Abstinenece Teacher, Tom Perrotta
2. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
3. Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris
4. Traveling with Pomegranates, Sue Monk Kidd
5. The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon

With three more requested but not available yet. =) I know it's a sickness - but at least I'm addicted to reading, and not crack! Hopefully I can plow through some of these during Spring Break - and can recommend one of them to my mom for her (very) fledgling book club!

I should be studying...

But instead, I've been sucked into the DIY zone - a place where you envision making your house homier on a super-budget. And I'm in love with this website - The DIY Show Off - where peeps come to... umm... show off thier WONDERFUL projects. That site, along with Martha Stewart's web site, is the reason why I probably won't do well on my test tomorrow. Oh well. At least I have plans for the house...you know, for all my spare time. (insert eye roll here)

Soooo, I'm going to make this for Deacon's poopy bags! (aka plastic grocery bags...) Isn't it pretty?
And this post at Decorating Obsessed gave me hope for finding a cheap buffet that we can fix up on the cheap:

Everybody now: OOOOOOHHHH AHHHHHHH. I am totally headed to Goodwill ReStore this week...

Lastly - this project is PERFECT FOR MY FIREPLACE. Which currently looks like this:
But following the blogger at Storybook Ranch, I COULD get it to look like THIS:
I COULD go on about how I want to spray paint the toilet-paper and soap cubbyholes in the bathroom to make them look oil-rubbed bronze, or how I'm going to paint the tile in there so it doesn't look like 1965 exploded... but that's for another day. I REALLY need to get back to studying...congestive heart failure isn't as glam at DIY, but I am in nursing school. Sigh.

Notes from the Waitress Twilight Zone

Sometimes I don't mind waiting tables - the fast pace, the human interaction, the nonchalant attitude that everyone has, the cold, hard cash that I bring home at the end of the shift - it's all very nice. However, some things are REALLY ANNOYING ABOUT WAITING TABLES.

For example, WHY is the men's room mirror ALWAYS spotty? Why can't men wash their hands like adults instead of chimpanzees? The ladies' room is never like that - maybe a few water spots - but in the men's room it's like they had a water fight EVERY NIGHT. Sigh.

ALSO, I'd like to make a general public service announcement. If any of you EVER are lucky and wealthy enough to own a BLACK American Express card - PLEASE TIP AT LEAST 20%!!! Sheesh. You can call a Lear jet to pick you up after dinner, but you can't add a few more bucks onto the tip? Maybe you got that card by being a cheap-ass, but now that you have it, there are expectations to be met!!! Grumblegrumblegrumble.

Lastly, if you are part of a large party and the wait staff has to add 18% gratuity...don't forget that they added 18%, and it's common courtesy to leave 20%. Sooo, ummmm, do the math.

I just had to get that off my chest. =)

Cold and Rainy

I am pretty grumpy at the moment. I am exhausted from last weekend (we went to a birthday party), I'm still dealing with the fact that my grandfather just died, I have to return money to work when I go to work tonight (apparently they gave me too much tip-out last Friday), paying back school loans, and it's cold and gross outside.

To help with this funk, I'm making a list of things for which I'm thankful:
- friends and family
- our cat
- space heaters
- understanding professors
- LUSH products
- our new alarm system
- bagel bites

That is a very tiny list - but they are the first things that come to mind. So there.