10.03.2009
Labels: books, NEIBA, scott westerfeld, soup, work
9.02.2009
So today is the last day at work before I fly out of here to visit Rachelle in Springfield. I can't even capture in words how amazing it will be to see all of my school friends again, and how excited I am about all of the good food! To spice things up and make them even MORE exciting, I will also get to see my cousin Mia and maybe my aunt, uncle and grandfather. The thought of seeing so many people I miss is making me giddy, but the thought of flying is, for some reason, making me nervous. Now, I've never really been a nervous flier, so this is kind of confusing for me, but maybe it's that anticipation of FINALLY getting a nice vacation from work. I haven't had any sort of vacation from work since Christmas, and I think it is high time I take a break. Labels: friends, kiki, springfield, summer, vacation, work
8.20.2009
Could anything be more awesome? A talented quilter dedicates hours, and hours of their time to making ... what? A cherished family heirloom? Absolutely not! An adorably cute Sanrio quilt.
8.19.2009
Well, believe it or not I've been blogging for 8 years now. Since I was fourteen I've repeatedly fled to this exact spot to get out anything and everything that may have been on my chest or on my mind. It has seen me go from silly girl to ... well... kind of silly girl with a little more self respect and a much wider view of the world. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to re-post one of my first posts on my blog. Sometimes I wish I could escape back to that innocence, but mostly when I remember my teenage years I can't help but laugh at the very extent of my ridiculousness. So without further ado:
9.28.2008
I could see the waves crashing below me, so far below. The fall would be long, like an eternity before death finally showed up. Laying awake in bed on Christmas Eve. At least if I missed all of the rocks somehow, I would die of hypothermia before I could escape. Something numb and new. Something less acute than the sting I always felt now. I wondered what I would think of on the way down? I wondered if I'd regret what I was doing, think that I didn't really want to die. I wondered if the whipping wind would burn my face and whether I would belly flop or dive in. I wondered how much a belly flop would hurt. I wondered if it would kill me. I wondered what it would be like to take the sail of a ship and parachute down. I wondered if it would drown me, pulling me under to drown in the frigid cold. I wondered if I would panic. I wiggled my my bare toes in the cold wind, brushed the bottoms of my feet against the cliff face where I sat. I looked down and got vertigo, and so I laid back and closed my eyes. One. Two. Three. When I opened my eyes again the grey clouds in the sky looked like a ship, a ship without sails. I smiled and shivered in the cold, and then I got up, and stared out across the ocean before I headed back to my car.
I thought about it, the way the park was dusky and the fog was creeping in. It was like Carl Sandburg had said… It crept in, on little cat feet. It inched closer and closer but only just so minutely. I could barely tell, really. If the whole park had been in motion I wouldn’t have been able to, but the trees stood dead still and silent as the runners made clatter with their feet that I could hear on my bench. However close the fog was, I couldn’t feel it yet. That sensation of cold mist rushing over every bit of your exposed skin, caressing your face and eyelids and the inside of your nose as you inhaled, that was perfection. That was why I came to the park at dusk every night, waiting. I waited for the nights when the fog came, silently stalking the streets and through the trees, silently slipping around the moving cars, silently coming towards me.
5.08.2008
A reply:
5.05.2008
"I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet. The President of the United States, a gondolier in Venice, just fill in the names. I find it A) extremely comforting that we're so close, and B) like Chinese water torture that we're so close because you have to find the right six people to make the right connection... I am bound to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people"
Today was the last day of the NEIBA (New England Independent Bookseller's Association) trade show in Hartford, CT. I got to take a work trip down and see a lot of publisher representatives and meet an author or two. That was a lot of fun and definitely very interesting. The world of book buying and selling is really something else. Sometimes it is a little bit sad because, while we sell many of the books these publishers are marketing, a lot of what we sell is either a "remainder" (aka the publisher ordered too many made and they got sold off to wholesalers) or used. Of course we sell our fair share of new books but most of the ordering I do is from Amazon or Baker & Taylor. Thus we have no real direct relationship with the publisher. Sometimes this can make for awkward meetings.
Brittany: *Looking at interesting book*
Publishing rep: "Yes that is a good book blah blah, you should order some. Do you have an account with us?"
Brittany: "Um no actually we mostly sell used books I just want your free swag. Kthxbai."
Ok, Ok, so it doesn't go exactly like that but that's the gist of it. 
At this book show, though, I managed to have a very small amount of awkward encounters. Mostly everyone was there for the free swag and ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies - get on the Acronym train, already!) so I wasn't exactly a minority. Most people were more interested in if they could have that particular copy of that book on that table that MAY be the only one at the whole show, than actually ordering the book for their store.
I got a lot of books that I've been wanting to read but haven't felt right taking the new copies I've ordered from the store just for myself...I got the new Terry Goodkind book, the new Scott Westerfeld book (my ultimate find. That book isn't out for another 3 days and I definitely intend to read and finish it before you even get to look at it in stores. Peon.), along with a lto of other wonderful things you can see in that picture.
Some things I am totally thrilled about and some things I totally snagged to make someone else happy on Paperbackswap.com. And I had a few friends in mind while I "shopped." They also had copies of "This is Not a Book" - which is a type of journal that I JUST BOUGHT TWO COPIES OF.... (one for me and one for Aj, I'm not some weirdo who has to have one copy unread... geeze. How little you think of me!) Well I should have known to follow my lifelong "Patience is a Virtue" motto... but how was I supposed to know I would come home with THAT MUCH SWAG? I mean sure, I definitely thought I'd come home with some books but not that many. Soon my fabric and my books are going to get into an epic battle and the results might be messy. Stay tuned.
In other news though the drive to CT was absolutely horrible and the drive back was worse. Rain rain rain!!!!! I could barely see through parts of it! I kept thinking "don't speed and don't wreck your car!" --- Made it home without any dents or disasters or close calls, so I'd call that a victory over weather.
Now, though, it's time for me to raid my pantry in search of soup and popcorn and settle down with So Yesterday so I can finish it and jump into Leviathan.
Brittany flutters @ 6:15 PM
I am hoping the weather in Springfield is nice during the day, and I am secretly hoping to sneak in a few hours reading at the pool, but Hurricane Bill is messing up the seasons! It is always 50 here in the morning now, and the chilly breeze sticks around all day and makes the new Cardigans I got from Delia's very handy. It feels like the days of summer are gone and seeing the dogs fly off of the dock into the lake water has happened for the last time this year. Rather tragic. Nevertheless I am very excited about going to the Missouri State campus and raiding the book store for some new Bears Pride! sweatpants and other paraphernalia (what an oddly spelled word).
Believe me when I say I will be taking a plethora of photos and enjoying myself immensely! Tomorrow night I will be in a little bit of Springfield heaven. Until then, though, I am suffering through this day of work filled with irresponsible kids whose classes start tonight and they don't have their books. Lots of people wondering why we buy textbooks but don't have a huge store full of current edition texts. No one thinking of the practicality of the matter, only their own interests. Naturally, this is very frustrating. That and the phone ringing off the hook... But cest la vie, yes?
Vacation, here I come!
Brittany flutters @ 2:17 PM
Speaking of Sanrio, have I mentioned how very *excited* I am that a new Sanrio has opened up in our local mall? And that one is opening in the mall next to my work? I have to wonder... does Sanrio just love NH, or are they experiencing some kind of huge boom - people needing cute things in times of economic distress. I'm going to go check the stocks.
Brittany flutters @ 4:00 PM 4.23.2001
Hmm....thank god for kyle, THANK YOU KYLE! THANK YOU FOR SAVING MY ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a project due tomorrow and i like, COMPLETELY forgot about it, threw it off the agenda, chose to ignore it,all that good stuff(the phrase i've been saying TOO MUCH recently) so anyways, my project was on porcupines, yes PORCUPINES, cower in their glory! So uh.. did you know that porcupines eat bark, nuts, flowers, pine needles, leaves, grasses, and berries? i never knew ANYTHING ate pine needles, i never knew any thing ate flowers o.O and especially porcupines, but i think thats pretty kewl *goes away to eat bark and berries* (kinky, LOL nikoly & zechs)... < ! start random thought >you know, its weird but i like blue hair on guys < / end random thought > Anyways ... Everyone go download "good charlotte - motivation proclimation" :D On Napster ^_^ bwhahaha, anyways, have a nice day or something... night. whatever... i need to go talk to someone now...
CjCornflakeGirl: "so this is just a wake up brush your hair and leave style, right?"
Nick: I want a wake up and brush your hair and go style
Nick: mine is "still looks completly and totally fucked no matter what power over time and space you possess"
Nick is great :) all hail cool people. :) Anyways. Goodbye and fairwell!
Brittany flutters @ 9:25 PM
Brittany flutters @ 9:23 PM
He must have been something special, to take my eyes off the fog, the way it swayed under the feet of runners. He was at least beautiful, with pale skin the color of mist and curly brown hair, but that wasn’t what caught my attention. The way he walked seemed like he wasn’t really moving at all. He came out of the fog seeming like a part of it, and maybe that’s what drew me in. For a second my eyes stared at his feet, and then they flickered up his legs and to his face. It was all a little mystical for me, like something out of a science fiction novel, or an eerie movie, the way my eyes honed in on him and my brain ignored the rest of what I was seeing.
Even though I could hear the steady pit-pat-pit-pat of the runner’s feet as they ran past him, I couldn’t hear the faintest sound of his feet on the ground. If they touched the ground at all. I wondered. My face must have been twisted up into a confused expression as he eclipsed the fog I watched so studiously, because for whatever reason he looked my way, and smiled a laughing smile. He didn’t know, I’m sure, that that brief moment was the closing point, the thing that sealed the deal. He didn’t know about my weakness for a crooked smile. He didn’t know me. Yet.
Brittany flutters @ 1:21 AM
Dear Brittany,
We’re glad to hear about your successful experience with your service project. While the project obviously helps our goals in promoting the program and study abroad to Asia, it is also intended to help award recipients reflect on their experiences by sharing them in a more formal way (than just through friends and family). Best wishes in your future endeavors.
Best regards,
Alyssa Yeng
Program Officer
Brittany flutters @ 12:43 AM
- John Guare
Do you think I'm connected to the emperor of Japan through six people? Are they people I met in Japan, or in America, or both?
Brittany flutters @ 9:18 PM
// Blogger
